Thread by @Joe_Toyark

Here's a portfolio thread for #Transformers fans. It's a peak at some of my contributions to Fun Pub era of Botcon. I'd mock up my own ideas, collabs with @PlayWithThisToo & others there. Some got made, some didn't. Let's start with stuff that got made. Long thread incoming...

First up is the Botcon 2006 Dawn of Future's Past set. I did concepts for the set & came up with the ideas for a few including Megatron & Primal. I've sadly lost the mock ups of Waspinator, Buzzsaw & Laserbeak. After mock ups, they went to Fub Pub to finalize colors and design.

Here's a closer look at the Optimus Primal photoshopped concept, alongside with the final version. This one stayed really close all the way through to production. Cybertron was my only real choice for obvious reasons. I have a test shot of this figure to..

Megatron was a tough one. We couldn't find the right mold. Couple of days before concepts were due, Takara showed off Cybertron Red Alert & instantly became my choice. Before that, the only choice was Energon Shockwave, but he was never right. See both concepts & final figure.

Cheetor and Tiagtron were easy picks, though Wolfang was originally proposed before they opted for Tigatron. An abandoned idea was for Tigatron to come in Stasis Pod packaging. See those and the final products below.

For Dinobot, they wanted a figure that felt like a dinosaur in both modes. Armada Hoist was a fairly easy pick. This one is probably the most dramatic change from concept to final, where they wanted a much darker look. Concept and final.

There were a few different ones we went through for Rattrap, but ultimately went with Cybertron Ransack due to his smaller size. This is another one that stayed really close to the initial concept.

Rhinox, I think, was the first one I was asked to mock up. This was another really easy choice. Cybertron Landmine had the right bulk and alt-mode. The final figure underwent some changes due to molding, and getting more original toy colors into it.

After the show, Airazor was offered as a club exclusive. That was one I proposed, but the original concept photoshop has been lost to time. I was really happy with how well Energon Slugslinger worked here. Here's the production figure.

You may know Bugbite from Transformers Earthrise. I had worked with @PlayWithThisToo closely on this one, as we went back & forth on colors, and ultimately came up with a white Classics Bumblebee repaint. The final figure ditched the metallic blue/gray in the end.

Skybyte was actually one of the first two things I ever proposed to the Club, I believe in 2005 right around the con time before I was asked to help out. It took 5 years, but he eventually got made. There were some changes between concept and release.

The other of my first 2 proposals was Nightbeat from Energon Hot Shot. This one went through bigger changes when they went with it, as they wanted it for the Shattered Glass line. But it's fun to compare the concept to final here.

That's it for tonight. I'll pop in with more later.

For Botcon 2007, I worked with @PlayWithThisToo on a full proposal for that con set. While our idea wasn't picked, most of those concepts saw release at some point. I'll be sharing those concepts, but blurring out the bios since they won't make sense without the script.

Alpha Trion was one of the core figures of that set. Cybertron Vector Prime was the obvious choice. We though having his minicon be Vector Sigma, and cast in gold vac metal, would be fun. When released, they went with a simpler color scheme, and changed the Minicon to Beta Maxx.

Another core of that proposal was a G2 style Drench using the Armada Wheeljack mold. The initial idea was that he was masquerading as G1 Sideswipe (see next post) to infiltrate the Autobots. This idea gave way to Shattered Glass Sideswipe for 2008.

To maximize a mold usage, we wanted to do a pack of G2 Drench and G1 Sideswipe using Armada Wheeljack's mold, with the story being he was Drench in disguise. This one never got made.

Another one that made it to release was Huffer. Cybertron Armorhide was such a spot on pick for this exclusive. The colors were tweaked a bit before release. My colors were more a mix of the toon and comic, while they wanted something akin to the G1 toy.

The core troop builders for this proposal were Scourge & the Sweeps. Cybertron Sideways felt like an odd choice at first. But once I mocked up the portrait and colors, it worked pretty well. I was happy how close the final looked to the concept. Here's the concept & final figure.

For the Sweeps, we wanted to adjust the color a bit, to separate them from Scourge, and to make good troop builders. Again, the final Sweeps set was surprisingly close to the concept mock up.

The next few will be figures that never got made from the Botcon 2007 proposal. 1st up is Hoist from Cybertron Red Alert. The robot mode worked ok, but the vehicle mode never gelled correctly, so I don't think it ever had a real shot.

The core hero of the proposal was a new Sentinel Prime, loosely based on the colors from his brief Marvel Comics appearance. I was always bummed this didn't make it, as I think the yellow and crimson worked well on the mold.

The final figure in this proposal & one I think that would have been real fun to see was a Jhiaxus using the Cybertron Soundwave mold. His cassette was going to be Ratbat. I think the way Soundwave was molded made it hard to achieve colors like this. But it was fun to try.

Whoops, one more from that set was a proposed second repaint of the Armorhide in loosely based G1 Swerve colors. Never made it past this concept.

Two figures that were proposed a few years before being made were Dirge and Thrust, which saw a release at Botcon 2007. A Ramjet was proposed as well, but never used.

Everything from here on out will be proposals and brainstorming concepts that never got made. Here were mock ups using Energon Mirage. One is an homage to the GI Joe Moray, the other was a concept as Night Racer.

At one point I was trying to brainstorm idea using the Classics Galvaron tank. But, these never really went anywhere. Here we have Armada Demolisher, G1 style Megatron, and G2 Archforce concepts.

Both @PlayWithThisToo and I tried to get the Cybertron Scourge mold used, as we both liked the figure. Here's multiple designs as we bounced ideas back and forth. G1 Megatron, BW Megs, Cryotek (Hasbro released their own so not used), and a Transmetal 2 Megs concept.

Here's one more of the Cybertron Scourge in traditional dragon colors, as well as some Legends scale versions. Never really went anywhere, as it was just spitballing ideas.

Here's concepts for using Cybertron Menasor as G1 Omega Supreme and G1 Twin Twist. I thought they looked good in those colors, but ultimately the mold didn't make a lot of sense for either character.

I tried a few times to propose Alternators, but I think the vehicle licensing prevented them from being used. Night Racer was a real early proposal, and X-Brawn was another attempt a few years later. With X-Brawn, I wanted to lead to a series of RID Car Brothers Alternators.

When an Alternators X-Brawn didn't work out, I tried again with the Universe Ironhide mold. Then also did that up as Trailbreaker and Skids. The Trailbreaker didn't work too well, but the Skids and X-Brawn seemed like decent picks. These just weren't meant to be.

Some seeker ideas that were kicked around using the Cybertron Starscream mold. The club didn't use them, and I was always surprised that Hasbro didn't do more classic Seeker colors with this mold.

Additional Seeker ideas that were kicked around used the Energon Starscream mold, and one of the G2 Seeker molds.

These were never really going to work. I think the Universe Cheetor mold had few fans. But we tested out some color schemes including MOTU Battle Cat, G1 Ravage, and G1 Pretender Catilla. Fun (especially Battle Cat), but easy to see why these didn't go anywhere.

Continuing my thread of Botcon concepts I worked on. Here's four more that were never used. All 4 used the Transformers Universe Hot Shot mold. In order you have Camshaft, Chromedome, Freeway, and Windcharger.

I also did vehicle mode mock ups as well. If I remember correctly, this is when we were brainstorming possible TFCC exclusives more than actual Botcon items.

Here were a couple of one offs for Botcon and TFCC exclusives. First we have Transformers Universe Galvatron as Bludgeon, Cybertron MEtroplex in G1 Devastator colors, Cybertron Crosswise as Jazz, and Brakedown as Kup.

At one point, I was asked to mock up Transformers Armada Tidal Wave as Broadside. I did 2 different colors. This was another one that was being proposed as a TFCC Exclusive. Tidal Wave was 1 of my favorite Armada figures. Was disappointed it never went anywhere.

Looking for some G1 ties for various exclusives, I did concepts of a few different cars as G1 characters. Universe Prowl as Minerva, Cybertron Crosswise as Action Master Rad, Cybertron Hot shot as Riccochet, and Cybertron Red Alert as Trailbreaker.

And here's the last batch I have for the Bocton/TFCC concepts. I did lose a lot in an old HD crash. But we have Classics Inferno as Grapple, Cybertron Unicron as Beast Wars Inferno, and Animated Megatron as Shockwave. I think Inferno was the only 1 really considered at one point.