Botcon 2012 Linkfest

Botcon 2012 was held this weekend at Dallas, Texas. On hand was Hasbro who displayed and talked about many of their upcoming products including next wave of Transformers: Prime toys, SDCC exclusives including Bruticus, IDW's plans and more. Below are the highlights in new information each panel provided with links to a bunch of galleries showing off upcoming toys. The best look to be Fall of Cybertron Bruticus, stateside release of Masterpiece Prime 2.0, and Fall of Cybertron Soundwave with transformable data discs replacing the classic cassettes. Seibertron's massive gallery of images are here.

Hasbro Panel
The Hasbro panel discussed the next years’ worth of releases including Transformers: Prime, Fall of Cybertron and Generations toys. Details below.
- Transformers: The Ride Evac is based on Movie character design and has legion and deluxe sizes which will be sold at the parks for now.
- TF Prime wave four figures will be Dead-End, Shadow Strike Bumblebee, Airachnid.
- Deluxe Wave 5 will be Deluxe Kup and Runamuck
- Thundertron (from Exiles book) will be a wave 3 Voyager figure with a pirate look.
- Masterpiece Optimus Prime 2.0 is coming stateside as a Toys R Us exclusive. No release date or price (but estimate is $100). Will include his trailer, Spike figure and Roller.
- Generations will start coming out in Spring 2013. Figures will include Fall of Cybertron based Kickback, Starscream, Sideswipe, and Soundwave.
- Soundwave will be Voyager sized with Laserbeak data disc. He can hold up to three data discs that are spring released.
- Other data discs to be released will be Legends classed Rumble, Ravage, Frenzy and Ratbat
- One San Diego Comic-Con exclusive will be Fall of Cybertron Bruticus (five figure box set) in their most complex packaging yet with outside looking like a book.
- Other SDCC exclusive will Rust in Piece TF Prime 1st Edition Cliffjumper repaint. It will include more paint apps of Dark Energon and snap on chest piece of Dark Energon to give that zombie look from the series. Package will be a giant Zombie Cliffjumper head.

Hasbro Transformers Toys
Transformers Generations Fall of Cybertron - Jazz, Prime, etc. | Soundwave, Kickback, Data Discs
SDCC Exclusives - Bruticus Official Images | Bruticus Display | Cliffjumper
Hasbro Display Case - One | Two
Masterpiece Optimus Prime 2.0
Kre-O
Transformers: Prime - Cyberverse | Diorama | Deluxes
Botcon Exclusives
Transformers Collectors Club - New six figure subscription service starting. No prices announced but will be various payment plans available.

Fall of Cybertron Panel
High Moon Studios head cheerleader...er game director Matt Tieger was on hand to show off some more details about Transformers: Fall of Cybertron video game coming out on August 28th. The TF Prime game is aiming for a Holiday 2012 release with voice actors involvement.
- Gregg Berger will reprise his G1 role as the voice of Grimlock for the game.
- The multiplayer aspect of FoC will have "unprecedented ability to craft your own Transformers."
- Will be able to father customize head, arms, legs, chest, and paint on them.
- Panel Gallery

Botcon Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame Ceremony and Casino Night charity event was held on Saturday. G1 Wheeljack won the fan choice for entering the Hall of Fame beating out Beast Wars Megatron, G1 Arcee, G1 Rodimus, and Beast Wars Sky-Byte. He joins new inductees G1 Jazz, G1 Grimlock, and G1 Shockwave. On the human side the inductees were long time Transformers comic writer Simon Furman who was on hand to receive his statue. The daughter of Chris Latta accepted his posthumous award (he died in 1994). Latta voiced G1 Starscream (and he also Cobra Commander).
- During the induction ceremony revealed that Shockwave will appear in upcoming episode of Transformers Prime as part of a flashback sequence with Cliffjumper and Arcee.
- Hall of Fame Award has been renamed "The Hartman Award" in honor Jon and Karl Hartman who started BotCon 18 years ago in 1994 and over the years turned it into the key Transformers con of the year.
Fall of Fame Induction Gallery.
Hall of Fame Display Case - One | Two

IDW Panel
IDW Transformers writers and artists were on hand to discuss the next few months of plans for their Transformers books of ReGeneration, Robots in Disguise and More Than Meets the Eye.
- ReGeneration One kicks off with Free Comic Book Day issue this Saturday.
- Just like in real time, 21 years have passed story wise.
- Characters will die and stay dead. The Wreckers will appear as will Megatron, Ratchet and others.
- For More Than Meets the Eye, issue 6 will focus on Fortress Maximus, issue 7 will introduce the Decepticon Justice Division and Grimlock will appear soon.
- For Robots in Disguise, issue 6 will catch up on Orion Pax and the other Dinobots will appear at some point.
- Primus RID and MTMTE annuals are coming in August and September.
- The Transformers: Autocracy trade will come up before SDCC.
- A new book in the works called Transformers Legacy The Box Art of Transformers will show off the art of US G1 and G2 packages with some for Japanese, Europe and e-Hobby repaints.
- Slideshow Gallery

3rd Party
Hasbro may have banned 3rd party makers from Botcon but that didn't stop a few products from being announced. No release dates or prices on these yet.
not Rollbar - From Toyworld is TW-T01 based on the G1 Throttlebot Rollbar.
Iron Army - From TFC Toys is a Power Core Combiner compatible Iron Army. I think the idea is to re-create a more traditional form of Bruticus using more realistic World War II vehicles which were the alt modes of Bruticus in the G1 cartoons. Unlike PowerCore, these each have their own robot and alt mode so a true combiner.
not Superion - Another combiner from TFC Toys, this one is based on the G1 combiner Superion who was the counter to Bruticus. I don't think this one is Power Core Combiner like but could be wrong. All that was shown was silhouettes of three figures and nothing more. Normally a combiner is five figures but like the G1 original, they are probably going the repaint route for the other two limbs.
Gallery - More looks at announced and upcoming 3rd Party toys including Mastermind's Hearts of Steel Shockwave.