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[Sabrblade]

It does help that he was originally released as an anniversary figure.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

It does help that he was originally released as an anniversary figure.

Maybe we'll get this one at the next anniversary...

[Sabrblade]

Night Shining, Inc. has posted to Facebook a whole slew of prototype designs for the Beast Wars toyline's second-year packaging.

Some of these designs are pretty close to what we got back in 1997, while others are wholly different from anything we've ever seen before.

Many feature the name "Dragonfire", which was a preliminary name for the Predacon Jetstorm. The use of both Maximal and Predacon labels for him were likely just to demonstrate the differences between Maximal and Predacon packaging variants. The cross sells on the back even show that certain figures didn't even have proper names yet at all.

Another fun little "never before seen" update. Concepts for Beast Wars series 2? Series 3? Packaging from way back in the day. Some of these are pretty wild. These are scans of the concept proof cards we use to have, but have all been long since sold minus a couple. What is your favorite design?

[Emerje]

These are fascinating! Some of them look way more modern than anything we were getting back then. I do think the subtle difference between series 1 and series 2 was the right move in the end, but I do like what they were working on. Some of these I think would have been good choices for things like the Fox Kids repaints to make them stand out a bit more.

I will say that I find the tech stuff in the eyes terribly unsettling. The shutter eyes look strange being perfectly round compared to the more natural looking slit pupils while the ones with the readouts look odd without pupils.

Did whoever did the ghostly "transformation" art also work on Visionaries packaging? I wonder how much alt mode art is out there, we never/rarely see it.

Emerje

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Those are some really cool concepts!

[Sabrblade]

Some more concepts, this time from the BotCon Facebook.

In 2021, one year before BotCon would return in its current iteration, it was originally planned for it to return that year instead of 2022, but the continuing pandemic pushed those plans back a year. But because it was supposed to return in 2021, the first BotCon exclusive toy since 2016 was produced and released online during that year: Wasp Raider.

Produced by Valaverse as part of their Action Force line, Wasp Raider was a direct homage to Waspinator from Beast Wars, and was supposed to be the first of three such figures, but was the only one to see release.

Now, we have pics of two more Beast Wars-homage concepts for Valaverse's Action Force, Aracknid (Blackarachnia homage) and Scale Face (Dinobot homage).

As you may have heard, our partner Night Shining is closing up shop at the end of the year. With only 10 days left in 2023, we thought we’d take a look at some of the other TF inspired exclusives they had planned/proposed.

First up. The Action Force BotCon exclusive Wasp Raider. This was the FIRST new BotCon exclusive in nearly 5 years when BC Productions acquired the BotCon trademark. Produced by Night Shining, the thought was to actually do THREE BW homages.

Wasp Raider (Inspired by Waspinator)

Aracknid (working name) - a Blackarachnia inspired toy

Scale Face (working name) - a Dinobot inspired toy.

Despite Wasp Raider being one of Action Forces most popular releases, and doing extremely well for Night Shining having sold out completely, for whatever reason Valaverse decided just to keep all their releases in house. A shame for sure. But it’s always good to see the BotCon brand expanded out in to other fandoms, at retail, and in homages such a Gridman. So for that, we can say we are happy that this item got released and is out there for BotCon fans to enjoy!

[AllNewSuperRobot]

The Waspinator and Dinobot are really good. I had to squint a lot to "see" Blackarachnia though.

[Overcracker]

Pretty cool.

Interesting that Inferno, did not yet have a named, Instead labeled as Fire Ant.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

Pretty cool.

Interesting that Inferno, did not yet have a named, Instead labeled as Fire Ant.

A formidable foe against Shark, Falcon or Tiger, I'm sure!

I love how the initial toyline offered up such a different roster to the show.

[Overcracker]

Pretty cool.

Interesting that Inferno, did not yet have a named, Instead labeled as Fire Ant.

A formidable foe against Shark, Falcon or Tiger, I'm sure!

I love how the initial toyline offered up such a different roster to the show.

The heroic gorilla, battles the evil Donosaur.

See the evil flying dinosaur attack the heroic rat from the sky…

Such powerful battles to be had.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

First figure of 2024, right out of left field, I finally have an Apelinq!

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Apelinq got to go to work, I wish this mold had wrist swivels, but I like him, he looks good.

[AllNewSuperRobot]

^I'd love to see that deco as the fourth variant to MP Primal.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I got some new beasties over the last month, including a CatSCAN for $48! It was an awesome find, and my daughter loves him, she kept playing with him in package the whole way through the Collector's store we found him in.





I also got TMII Blackarachnia! To complete all the BW cast in all their bodies, i now only need TM Optimus and Megatron, and TMII Cheetor



I also got Fox Kids TM Cheetor, so now Antagony has Cataclysm as a fellow Herald. Now we need a new Rampage so we can get a new Shockaract





The Heralds are on my Unicron/Quintesson shelf, and they look good with some of the other guys there too

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I also reset the shelves over the past couple weeks, so the Beasts got a little facelift! They overlap with Animated, mainly because of the presence of animated Predacons




Also, my little girl enjoyed messing with Stampy on Easter

[Sabrblade]

I just found an eBay auction for an unpainted test shot of the original orange version of the 1996 Beast Wars Tarantulas figure.


Painted version for comparison:



The unpainted test shot: