Transformers Tribute Evolution Pack Optimus Prime (2017)

One of the reasons that the current War for Cybertron trilogy caused some confusion (especially when it was first announced a couple of years ago) was that the name had already been used back in 2010. At that time, Transformers: War for Cybertron, was a video game (or, given the differences between versions of the game created for different gaming systems, perhaps it should be considered a set of games) published by Activision setting the action on Cybertron in an era before the Transformers came to Earth. This provided the opportunity for several toys to be created, depicting characters as they appeared in the game(s).

TFCon 2013 Exclusive Roswell

Although TFCon is an unofficial convention, and thus (unlike BotCon up through 2016) could not feature official Hasbro molds, TFCon nonetheless routinely features exclusive toys that homage Transformers characters and concepts. A toy from third-party manufacturer iGear named Roswell, one of the several exclusives from the 2013 convention in Mississauga (a city neighboring Toronto), is a multi-layered homage.

Transformers Collectors' Club Lio Convoy (2015) and Galva Convoy (kind of...)

For quite a few years now, I've made it a practice to post Transformers articles with artwork featuring the character, typically artwork that was used on the packaging the figure came with. While this isn't the case for this week's feature on Lio Convoy (this artwork comes instead from a club story that introduced the character), it was the case for last week's feature on Nova Prime. Nova Prime's artwork was fairly distinctive, and I'm sure fans not already familiar with it wondered what was going on with it. By now, at least part of the answer should be obvious, since both Nova Prime and Lio Convoy use the same base mold, rendered in different colors.

Transformers Collectors' Club Nova Prime (2015)

It has long been understood that Optimus Prime is not the only character in Transformers history to have the name "Prime," but in most continuities, he is the only character to currently possess that name. There are a number of reasons for this, both real-world and in the world of Transformers fiction. In the fiction, the name "Prime" is usually^* used to designate that a character is someone special, either the leader of the Autobots or one of the original Transformers from the dawn of creation (if not somehow both). In the real world, the folks has Hasbro have similarly determined that "Prime" is a name of importance, and that its usage should be monitored carefully (leading to occasional fiascoes like that which accompanied the name of the first club combiner). Given this reality, it's perhaps something of a surprise that the club was allowed to use the name "Nova Prime" on one of their toys.

BotCon 2005 Ricochet

Despite adding new entries for over 15 years now (if one goes back all the way to my first blog, Transforming Seminarian), I try not to repeat work that I've already done very often, making exceptions only when I feel that my original feature was so far off of what I would do now that an update is worthwhile. In the case of BotCon 2005 Ricochet, I really didn't even do a feature, but rather only my second (and final) attempt at a Marvel Transformers Universe-style bio, and my original entry no longer even links to a legible bio, so I'd need to do an update just to provide a more current bio link. If you're interested, here is that bio, which simply reformats the text from the card provided with the original toy. 

Generations Red Alert (2010)

It is acknowledged that disproportionate attention has long been given to characters created within just the first few years of the Transformers franchise. Arguably, this is because, having been featured in the Transformers cartoon of the 1980s, these are the characters with the most significant nostalgic appeal. Even taking this comparatively small cross-section of the franchise, we're talking about several dozen characters, and most of those got minimal time on-screen during the cartoon's run. Red Alert was a particular victim of this scarcity.

Platinum Edition Blitzwing and Astrotrain (2015)

Although the technology to produce toys has evolved in incredible ways over the 35-plus years of the Transformers franchise (so far!), there's still a demand for the occasional reissue of the original molds from the 1980s. Usually, I've treated such reissues more or less the same as I would have treated the original toys, but this set is a special case.