Friday, 20 July 2018

TFCon 2018 Roundup Part 2: The Show floor

And now onto Part 2 of TFCon before all of this becomes completely outdated! For Part 1, you can find it here: https://mediaholicstoybox.blogspot.com/2018/07/tfcon-2018-roundup-part-1-slideshow.html as I won't be repeating things that I've already covered. I will admit that there will be a mix of already released, about to be released, and work in progress figures not ready for release here. I don't know which is which, I'm just looking at the figures themselves. Anyway, shall we get started?



From Fans Hobby, we have another Not Transmetal 2 Megatron. While this one has a price tag, we don't see the dragon mode. In terms of the Robot, it looks fine, just rather flat, like its missing some detail. It's still perfectly fitting for a Transmetal 2 Megatron though so it could just be me imagining things. One thing I do hope that one of these third-party companies do with a Transmetal 2 Megs is to make a Leader Class sized figure to go with the Power of the Primes Optimal Optimus. I don't care if you can make a T Rex turn into a dragon or not (though it would be very impressive if you did).

From Maketoys, there were examples of their Not G1 Starscream repaints into a Not Thundercracker and a Not Skywarp. Along with this were a Not G2 Jazz that was a convention exclusive and the grey scale prototype for their Not Jetfire that I covered in Part 1. While the Jazz is very on the nose and I'm honestly surprised they got away with it as I do think there are details on it calling it Jazz, the Skywarp and Thundercracker, while repaints of a great looking mould, are the usual suspects for repaints, their seekers after all. Every time I see a new Starscream, be it an official or third party, my gut reaction is "Oh hello Skywarp and Thundercracker repaints. Are you going to do the Something Storms too? What about the Coneheads? Slipstream?" Seriously, look on tfwiki at how many uses the old Classics mould got, and that was closer to a time when I was originally into Transformers then it is now. The only reason I didn't think that originally with their Cybertron Starscream was because, in the English dub of Galaxy Force (Cybertron for everywhere else in the world), Thundercracker was a different toy, an Earth jet whereas Screamer was a Cybertronian one. Unfortunately, I think they are just doing a straight-up repaint rather than making an original design with its stupidly long cannon for a hand.

From DX9's War in Pocket line, there was a Legends-sized Not Optimus, Not Snapdragon, Not Apeface and Not Highbrow. Unfortunately, the pictures on this site aren't the best at looking at the Optimus or Highbrow, but we do get a good look at Snapdragon and Apeface, and they do look like really good Legends class interpretations of those characters. I am kind of surprised that the Optimus has a Matrix compartment, that is impressive! I do think all of these figures are out already, so if you like what you see, you can easily get them... maybe... hopefully...

From Iron Factory, there was a display that had their Not Bruticus, Not Jetfire, Not Warpath, Not Windblade, and many of the figures talked about in their presentation (and by the looks of it, a Cerebros). They and the DX9 War in Pocket got lumped together in the pictures, so it's hard to see the details on the Jetfire and Windblade. From what I can see though, they look fine, I just think the price is a bit much for what you're getting. It could just be that I'm a cheapskate though and get the $10 official Legends class figures off the shelf at stores.

On a shelf further down were some statues for G1 Ultra Magnus, Last Knight Sqeeks, and first three bayformers films Optimus Prime (These are licenced, so the "Not" prefix isn't needed"). These look great for statues though, and seeing a review of the Optimus Prime, they could all be extremely poseable. Do they transform? No, not at all. They're just highly detailed statues. If that's your thing though, great, hope you either enjoy them or plan to enjoy them.

There was a greyscale prototype of Zeta's Not Arielbots they talked about in their presentation on display, my thoughts on those are in Part 1. Odd colours aside (still being worked on), their Not Onslaught does look cool, and I do like the cannon designs they've gone for in it. Its similar enough to G1 for it to fit, while being original enough to keep things interesting for me. It looks fine, and I'm curious to see how their Not Bruticus looks.

Anything I could say about TFC Toys, SND, and Toyworld I've said in Part 1.

Magic Square showed a prototype of their Not Masterpiece Optimus Prime (again, getting kinda sick of the design now because it's been done to death). It looks fine at least, passable, might even have a Shattered Glass repaint based on the cab windows. A lot of love for their Legends class figures though. Not Sideswipe and Not Red Alert I talked about already, but their Not Beachcomber, Not Huffer, Not Ultra Magnus, Not Bumblebee, Not Seaspray, Not Cyclonus and Not Grapple do look quite good. I'm definitely interested in that Cyclonus, but that's because G1 Cyclonus is a favourite of mine. Can't beat a sleek and s*** space plane. Huffer's another one I like the look of along with Ultra Magnus, but I couldn't care less about Beachcomber and Seaspray thanks to their recent official releases.

X-Transbots is another that I talked about in part 1, though I find it concerning that the prototype Dead End is being held together with rubber bands...

Fans Toys' Not Cyclonus does look great (again, Cyclonus fan), and the mix of G1 and IDW accessories is a nice touch. It's nice to see not only their Not Hot Rod (talked about in Part 1) but also their Not Sixshot finally, as those two felt like they had been stuck in development limbo for a while. Based on the state of them, they could also be coming out relatively soon as they look almost done. Still though, Fans Toys, that Hot Rod needs a fishing pole!

Planet X showed off their Not Fall of Cybertron Insecticons, which do look very impressive. Like FoC Grimlock, Hasbro only did the one Insecticon to my knowledge in the official line, and it was Kickback. These look to be better filling that abandoned hole in collections. Do 3P collectors army build? I hope not because that would cost a fortune. We also saw the prototype for their Not IDW Deathsaurus, that was in Part 1.

While I have no idea which company the Transmetal 2 Megatron is in picture 83, I get the feeling I've talked about it already in Part 1 so I'll pass for now. What I will say though is that this was the kind of detail I was expecting, and why I thought the previous one looked a bit flat.

Mass Toys had their Not Pipes, Not G2 Rapido (where the hell did that one come from?) and Not Seekers (see part 1) on the floor Pipes and Rapido look fine, but don't catch my interest. I'm going to assume that picture 137 is the Perfect Effect Not Transmetal 2 Megs, which again looks impressive, but sadly it does rule out a Leader class figure to match the new Primal. "But hey, at least they have their own Not Optimal Optimus, and it's getting a repaint into Not Primal Prime"... Great face sculpt though. Yesssss, it's perfectly fitting for such a deliciously evil Predacon.

The Action Toys' Machine Robo line is an updated take on an old Transformers competetor, the Go-Bots. I never grew up with Go-Bots, so I don't have a lot to say on them. Will admit though they are quite impressive, and the reviews I've seen on the currently released ones do look like a lot of fun.

Fansproject had a collectors set for their G1 inspired Glacialord, a completely original combiner that came out a while ago, along with a Not Mostructor repaint of their Japanese Dino combiner. Not a huge fan of their Grimlock colours Steel Core figure, but that's because that line of theirs never really caught my interest.

I'm skipping past a fair bit that I've either already covered in part 1, or I can't easily identify cause I can't spot an identity card. However, this does lead me to (at least to me) the three standouts of the show. Mastermind Creation's Not Sky Linx, and Not Nickel (Skylinx counts as two). Holy scrap this Sky Linx looks amazing! Absolutely gigantic, but amazing! I have no idea how people will find the room to display him, but for his first Third Party toy, Mr Modesty is putting on one hell of a show. I'm also liking the look of Nickel, as out of all the members of the DJD, she's genuinely a favourite of mine and I'm glad she's getting a toy.

Did I miss things? Probably. If so, I apologize and will do a follow up if I missed anything major. if I did miss something minor, check my twitter account. For now, I must work on my coverage for San Diego Comic Con. Hope you enjoyed this two-parter.

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