Botcon have tweeted a panel of art from this year’s comic. In this panel we see a squad of Autobots under the leadership of Metalhawk ready for battle – including such classic characters as Wheeljack, Tracks, Jazz, Warpath and Scoop (a 1988 Targetmaster!), all in the style of their Generation 1 toys / models. Check it out here.
CrockAlley
It's not new characters that I find strange. The New World, that was like an old issue of Marvel: a story to introduce a bunch of current toys (Classics Mini-Cons).
What the Classics BotCon stories do is introduce a bunch of old characters that were never part of Marvel G1 (USA). The club did do a bunch of Marvel-related stories, like Cheap Shots and At Fight's End. But BotCon 2012 is the opposite of that. A story set in Marvel G1, staring Metalhawk and Overlord? Weird!
G.B. Blackrock
I don't want to get into this too much more (most of what I've needed to say I said years ago), but I don't think the proportion of "introduced characters" to "5 year period" accurately represents the criticism (if criticism is the right word) here. It's more like "7 or 8 characters introduced in 2 or 3 issues," because it's not like we're getting tons of new Classicverse stories that whole time….
Even there, one might (rightly) suggest that whole waves of characters were sometimes introduced in a single issue. But if someone finds it jarring when such happens, I can hardly blame them for saying something about it.
Pete Sync
How is that any more weird than Kroc showing up in Issue 76? Or Carnivac and Snarler in Issue 51? And so on and so on… New characters were introduced in probably more than half the issues through the original 80 issue run… If we introduce 7 or 8 over a 5 year period I think that is ok
CrockAlley
I'm still baffled that they chose to set the Classics stories in the Marvel G1 universe, but both Botcon stories have major characters that didn't appear in Marvel G1. Ultra Magnus. Elita One. Metalhawk. Overlord. I think that's weird.
Thundershot
Too bad the chance of us getting a new Scoop toy is between slim and none. We were told no AEC toys…
Chris McFeely
For Christ's sake. Do you REALLY think that out of eight years' worth of G1 characters they could have put in this panel who HAVEN'T been done up in new RTS/Generation bodies that they DELIBERATELY chose four guys who HAVE and then actively decided not to draw them in those bodies? I'll eat this HAT if the story isn't about how they get reformatted somehow. There's a fucking vat of Rarefied Energon, the magic god juice that Transformer bodies are BUILT OUT OF, sitting in their base!
Oracle_Aesir
So this story is partially set in the Classics universe, yet none of these guys use their Generations/Universe/Classics toys? Really?
[Wing_Saber-X]
Wreckers Ver. 2?!! nice art, as usual. makes me wanna put all the Classics verse Jazz/ Tracks / Warpath and WJ when my Botcon Metalhawk arrives!
Autovolt 127
Cool.
Pete Sync
Yes, the ref that was provided was all Marvel ref. Carried over pretty well…
scubaboy31
actually that's wheeljacks marvel colour scheme as opposed to the cartoon.
Yobuster
Looks like Targetmaster Scoop is going to be one of the exclusives this time around.
I wonder how they are going to get the target master action going?
G.B. Blackrock
Were the Marvel comics models markedly different?
Gryph
Why are they using the cartoon models for Wheeljack, Tracks, Jazz, and Warpath? This is supposed to be Classicsverse.
payton34
Knowing my luck, the one figure I would possibly be interested in getting (Scoop) would end up being the freebie, meaning it'll go for crazy aftermarket prices.
Girl Pants
Using Landmine for Scoop would be a bit lazy as they re-purposed Grindcore, a Landmine redeco as SG Scoop.
I'm hoping that if we do get one Double Targetmaster that maybe those rumors of a Spinister are true too, and we'd get one for each faction.