... and Listening to the Lamentations of the Botcon fans.

This weekend was the New York Toyfair, where the different companies show off their wares to the companies like Wal-mart and Target and to a lesser extent the Press.

I've just been browsing the photos of the new Transformers Offerings, including the new " Generations Line " which is sort of a Hall of Fame series with some new toys thrown in.. One of these is " Generations Thrust " .. a domestic release of the Gentai! Gentai! Thrust released previously in Japan as a Store Exclusive.

What makes this so exciting is that a " Classics Thrust " was released as part of the Botcon 2007 Games of Deception Box Set. The reason given for the inclusion of Thrust and Dirge and Thundercracker in this set instead of them being released at retail was that " They wouldn't sell, so if you want them this is the only way you are going to get them " .. a Point harped on and repeated adnausem. See the thing is these three characters are part of a subset of Transformer character referred to as " The Seekers ", six characters who all share the same basic body type but were repainted and given different personalities. Three of these six were released as part of the first " Classics " series in 2006. But the line was ended before the first Micheal Bay movie came out, and three of the Seekers remained unreleased. Instead of waiting to release them during the already planned " Classics 2.0" series in 2008.. Hasbro allowed Fun Publications to produce extremely limited numbers of them for its convention exclusive.

Needless to say, all of us who didn't get to attend, or who have better things to spend 400$ on than a bunch of repainted toys.. were not in the least bit amused. The period after the release of this convention in my opinion fully fragmented the Transformers Fandom for me.. It made it into something which wasn't fun. Even the damage which Micheal Bay inflicted dosen't really measure up to what this convention did. It showed just how petty and self absorbed the Transformers fans were, who would rather have something exclusive and rare than have their fellow fan be happy.

Well, now that Thrust and presumably Dirge (one of the other of the 3 released in that set) will be getting released in what is essentially " Classics 3.0 " .. all I can say to the Botcon attendees who have lorded it over the rest of us for 3 years ..

Eat it.

The Lamenting of fallen after market values and general butt-hurt of those who feel they've been screwed out of some rarity.. only makes the 3 year wait all the more worth it. Now I'm off to enjoy my schadenfreude.