So it's no secret that prototypes can have color and deco differences with the final product. Duh. However, prototypes and samples for the Combiner Wars Aerialbots exist in a variety of combinations where color and deco differences with the final product seem to come and go at random. First of all, we have your standard run-of-the-mill "early hand-painted prototype" stock photos (aka "press photos" or "publicity photos") that are also depicted on the back of the toys' packaging. One photo of Superion omits Air Raid entirely, instead replacing him with a second Firefly. Differences of note in this photo are the rear portions of Alpha Bravo's shoulders, which are painted white instead of the final toy's unpainted black plastic, and the Autobot insignia on the side of Superion's chest, which is red with a white outline, whereas the final toy has an all-white insignia instead. Other photos of Superion include Air Raid... whose upper arms are silver. The rear portions of Alpha Bravo's shoulders are still painted white. Meanwhile, Air Raid's individual photos don't seem to depict any notable differences with the final figure. The upper arms are white, just like on the final product. Alpha Bravo's individual photos feature additional blue paint operations on the front portions of the shoulders that were dropped for the final version in addition to the familiar white rear portions of the shoulders. The hand-painted prototype on display at San Diego Comic-Con 2014 not only brings back some familiar features such as the red Autobot insignia with a white outline on Superion's chest, the blue details on the front portions and the white rear portions of Alpha Bravo's shoulders, and Air Raid's silver upper arms... but also adds several more differences with the final figures that appear to be completely unique to this particular sample: Firefly's upper arms are now also painted silver as compared to the final figure's unpainted white plastic, everything on Alpha Bravo's shoulders that's not painted blue or white is now painted silver as compared to the final toy's unpainted black plastic, the rear half of Superion's combiner head is painted white, the front portions of Superion's hips (which are formed out of the rear portions of Silverbolt's shoulders) are painted red, and the sculpted trapezoid sections in the center are additionally painted silver. At some point Superion's chest was apparently torn open. Lastly, what looks to be near-final samples at first sight... but pay attention to Alpha Bravo's arm-mounted missiles. They're definitely yellow instead of the final figure's bronze color: What's particularly baffling about this one is that the yellow missiles only appear in the photos depicting Superion getting assembled. All the photos of Alpha Bravo in his individual modes from what appears to be the same photoshoot have the correctly-colored missiles! So it would appear that different samples were used for the individual mode and the combined mode. Sources: San Diego Comic-Con 2014 stock photos from TFW2005, Seibertron and TFormers San Diego Comic-Con 2014 "Breakfast Event" photos from TFW2005, Seibertron and TFormers San Diego Comic-Con 2014 "Thursday case" photos from TFW2005 and Seibertron Hasbro product page for Firefly, Hasbro product page for Alpha Bravo Hasbro Combiner team page for Superion Amazon US page for Firefly, Amazon US page for Skydive, Amazon US page for Alpha Bravo Amazon France page for Firefly, Amazon France page for Skydive, Amazon France page for Alpha Bravo Target US page for Air Raid, Target US page for Firefly, Target US page for Skydive, Target US page for Alpha Bravo Very.co.uk page for the Deluxe Class assortment ToyWiz page for Superion
