In hindsight, was it worth buying expensive Botcon toys?

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by Bass X0, Aug 13, 2016.

  1. Bass X0

    Bass X0 Captain Commando

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    Most of the characters that we got at Botcon were made as new molds a few years later. You would have to wait without knowing when they would come but you would saved a lot of money. Of course, some characters and color schemes will never be released at retail.
     
  2. WheelWave140

    WheelWave140 Hate's not cool, dudes!

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    Machine Wars 2013 still best box set 10/10
     
  3. SG Roadbuster

    SG Roadbuster SG Wrecker

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    2005-Fallback, Deathsaurus, Buzzclaw, Dirge, Virulent Clones, Chromia (to be repurposed as Moonracer)
    2006-Optimus, Megatron, Dinobot, Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor, Waspinator
    2007-Bugbite, Dreadwind, Stealth Mirage, Alpha Trion (for SG)
    2008 Pretty much everything
    2009-Flak, Thunderclash, Leozack, Skyquake
    2010-Pyro, Clench, Streetwise, Rapido, Cindersaur, Double Punch, Scorch, Slice (as sg wheeljack)
    2011-pretty much everything because, animated.
    2012- pretty much everything except Overlord
    2013- pretty much everything, because Machine Wars
    2014- pretty much everything
    2015- pretty much everything
    2016- pretty much everything.
     
  4. lordcryotek

    lordcryotek M'Hael

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    The only ones I regret selling are Clench and Banzai-Tron. Every good Botcon toy has been a toy that should have seen release at retail, and for that I can say Botcon worked against itself. Exclusivity is fine when it's something only a limited number of people are going to want, but exclusives like Botcon Thundercracker only managed to piss off the majority of transformers fans, spurning Hasbro to eventually release the figure in Generations. I feel like Hasbro understands this now, as most of their SDCC exclusives have been premium versions of figure already at retail or something very unique. I imagine future Hasbro conventions will have online stock of exclusives (like in SDCC) to avoid alienating those who don't want to travel.
     
  5. amd098

    amd098 En taro Artanis!

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    botcon was nice but when 3p makes unique molds for the same or less, i stopped with botcon figures. i cant bring myself to pay for blunder mayhem when we have so many nicer combiners.
     
  6. Windsweeper II

    Windsweeper II Banned

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    A couple are still good.
    I dont really see Hasbro top Runamuck and Runabout.
    And some are just great figures like the movie Machine Wars guys, or Dreadwind who will always be a georgeous toy.
    Some like Botcon Thunderclash however :( 
    And i agree with Lord Cryotek: making toys that should see retail release exclusives makes no economic sense.
     
  7. Fenrir Zero

    Fenrir Zero Permanently Retired (1984-2020)

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    The ONLY TWO I regret not buying when I had the chance are 2008's Seacons and 2012's Ultra Mammoth.
     
  8. omegafix

    omegafix Mechanically Insane

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    the only Botcon toys I have left after my "collection purge" are

    Tigatron Botcon 2001 (Pre-Funpub)

    Bugbite Botcon 2007
    Dirge Botcon 2007
    Dreadwind Botcon 2007
    Thundercracker Botcon 2007
    Thrust Botcon 2007
    Stealth Mirage Botcon 2007

    the rest are irrelevant
     
  9. T-Hybrid

    T-Hybrid Gnodab Kidult (He/Him)

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    If you regret it I'll gladly take your Predacus. ;) 
     
  10. Starscream 91

    Starscream 91 Mech With A Mouth

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    Now now we need to here an offer first. :D 

    Anyway, I have one souvenir set from 2010, the whole set of 2011 & 2013, and the box sets of 2012 & 2014. I do NOT regret getting these sets. I love my Animated Box Set to help expand my VERY small Animated shelf. For the most part the figures from these sets are there for me to fill in gaps to my CHUG collection like a Pretender Metalhawk, Devcon, or the cameo Seekers from the very first episode. Of course I'll gladly replace Overlord from 2012 with the rumored upcoming Overlord but thats just because the ROTF Bludgeon mold is just terrible.

    Heck looking at my other Fun Pubs in between 2010 and 2016 I can say that only Breakdown from FSS 1.0 & Rewind from FSS 2.0 can be replaced with far superior molds. But that doesn't mean I will sell the figures, I payed good money for them. I will say though it is nice to see Hasbro eventually get around to some of these guys, I missed out on Krok so I'm happy to see how Hasbro tackles him in Titans Return. I have to praise Fun Pub though, they certainly filled that obscured niche I love so much and need to complete my CHUG collection.
     
  11. Windsweeper II

    Windsweeper II Banned

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    The Funpub Actionmasters !
    You remind me, those too i dont see Hasbro top any time soon.
    But thats mostly because of the inclusion of the arms microns because i am not particularly fond of the Dreadwing mold.
     
  12. mrcreativename

    mrcreativename Well-Known Member

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    I only have a few, and I definitely regret buying them now.
     
  13. supervir2

    supervir2 Feels like the kid in Big everyday.

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    My interest dropped as my interest in CHUG evaporated. The only Botcon I went to was 2005, so that set had some personal meaning but sold it off without any regrets. As a big BW fan, I had that set along with Megatron and Waspinator but decided I'd rather have the 2k from selling them than the figures on my shelf. Had 2 more sets along the way as well as apelinq and onyx primal, but they've all been sold. I think the jump from 1-2 per year to however many there have been lately cheapened the idea for me as well. More isn't always bad, but it felt diluted in this instance.
     
  14. Ikkstakk

    Ikkstakk Well-Known Member

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    I don't think I understand the question. Why would I suddenly regret buying FunPub toys? Because they lose the license at the end of the year? What does that have to do with anything?
     
  15. PredaconElder

    PredaconElder Well-Known Member

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    So where was the mainline Hasbro release of Dreadwing? Dreadwind (G1 - Transformers Wiki)

    Or Deathsaurus (and don't give me that Sky-Lynx retool that has an non-existent robot mold and nothing close to a bipedal winged dragon mode)?

    Or Flareup/Firestar? Flareup (G1 - Transformers Wiki)

    Or Devcon?

    Or a vehicular alt-mode Krok?

    Or Pyro?

    Or Ironfist?

    Or Metalhawk?

    Or Needlenose?

    FP with all its problems at least made more of an effort to do these obscure characters that Hasbro never bothered with. And Hasbro would rather invent brand new characters rather than touch the Euro-ones like the Predators/Turbomasters.
     
  16. Motor_Master

    Motor_Master Lets the balls touch

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    Which is why the OP never brought that up, it has no relevance to the conversation.

    What the OP is ASKING is for those who bought the botcon toys and then years later Hasbro released a similar or updated version, do you regret buying said toy. For example those who bought Botcon 05 Ironhide and Ratchet for their generations shelves. Or Botcon 07 Thundercracker, Thrust and Dirge.

    For me the answer is no. Had I not gone to the Botcon's where those toys were released, perhaps. In those cases, I was far more discriminating on which figures I purchased.


    Agreed. Once the third party scene exploded, it really highlighted the limitations that Fun Pub had to work with.
     
  17. Ikkstakk

    Ikkstakk Well-Known Member

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    Oh. Well, in that case the answer is no for me as well. Most cases, I find the FunPub toys superior, particularly the 05 Ironhide and Ratchet.

    May as well ask if I regret buying Henkei Megatron, or RTS Windcharger, or FOC Kickback, or anyone else I've bought on the secondary market over the years.
     
  18. allew

    allew Well-Known Member

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    The toys were pretty good overall for the most part and you can't deny the paint apps on all of them were top notch. Some of their new headsculpts were quite terrible due to factory screw ups, but fixable with new 3rd party heads. To me, they were another avenue to get figures of characters to fill my classics collection, along with 3rd party, customs and ko's.
     
  19. Bob Schoonover

    Bob Schoonover Poorly-Known Member

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    I don't think I regret any of my purchases . . . I tend to only get ones that I think have a low likelihood of getting a retail release. Nightbeat and Huffer might be the only ones that don't fit that category, and I absolutely prefer Botcon Huffer to any other legends release of that character. The Diaclone homages are probably going to remain untouched by Hasbro at CHUG scale (I mean, there are like 3 CW Diaclone sets waiting to be made w/existing molds if Hasbro wanted to) and most of the Action Masters (Krok and Banzaitron not withstanding) will probably never get updated. As others have said, Machine Wars, Animated, and pre-BW BW characters will never get attention from Hasbro, either. Sure, you take a risk that Hasbro might come back to one of these characters, but it's never felt to me like a waste

    Plus, those Pirate Clones are by far the most economical way to get a hold of the Jet Vehicon mold right now.
     
  20. Thundershot

    Thundershot Ratchet Fanatic

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    I regret nothing! My TFCC/Botcon figures are among my favorite figures in my collection. Are some redundant now? Sure. But others have much nicer decos than the Hasbro replacement versions. In fact, if there's anything I could complain about, is that they didn't FINISH the sets. Sure they made Runamuck to go with Runabout, but not Quake to go with Spinister and Needlenose. Or Stranglehold to go with Octopunch (sorta) and Bludgeon. Not to mention not finishing the Machine Wars set, which I still consider one of the top 2-3 Botcon sets even though it seems unpopular with others. Maybe if they had made it complete, it would have resonated better with people...