Brian Savage has sent out the following email regarding Botcon 2013

Hello!

A little over one week in to BotCon 2013 registration and we are now over 60% sold out of all packages. Additionally, we only have a handful of non-attending Iacon packages left, so if you have been holding off on picking up a set don't delay! They will be gone soon!

Stay tuned as we will have some more exciting announcements and reveals in the next couple of weeks! Don't miss out on the Transformer event of the year. Make sure to register for BotCon 2013 today!

See you in San Diego!

Brian

Fun Publications have now announced that registration for this years Botcon is now available.  To register for this event simply visit http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2013/registernow.cfm.

The official Botcon Twitter account brings us some more Botcon 2013 news - they have posted an image of the Botcon 2013 baseball cap. The Botcon 2013 Baseball cap features the Megaplex version of the Decepticon symbol with Fun Publication's take on Machine Wars Thundercracker in front of it. Like in the original line, their illustration of Machine Wars Thundercracker is a redeco of Skywarp - in other words, it is based upon the Revenge of the Fallen Dirge mold.

An illustration does not a toy make, however you might be interested in an exchange of tweets between one Twitter user and Botcon:


- From Twitter user Emerald Beacon - so you're basically confirming MW Thundercracker with this hat, right?

-Response from Botcon - Basically...

The BotCon 2013 website has now been updated with a photo of Megaplex' jet mode.

Botcon.com was updated yesterday with the first image of Machine Wars Megaplex. The toy is a straight recolour of Transformers Prime Dreadwing in the colour scheme of the original Megaplex figure.  This means that a Megatron recolour is likey to also be a straight recolour without a new head which will be a shame and if that toy does have a new head then it will destroy the purpose of Megaplex in the first place.  You can view the image below with all of the Botcon 2013 images being available after the jump.

Fun Publications have updated the BotCon website with not only the vehicle mode of Obsidian but also the annoucement of two guests, James Horan (Transformers: Prime WHEELJACK) and David Sobolov (Transformers: Prime SHOCKWAVE and Transformers: Beast Wars DEPTHCHARGE), as well as the official BotCon Brouchure.

This is the official story for the show

Botcon.com have updated their website with the fourth figure from this years Machine Wars themed set.  Continuing on from the Beast Machines character inclusions of Strika's, this week the reveal is of her partner Obsidian with the figure being based on the original Beast Machines Obsidian toy.  You can view the images of all of the announced figures by following the jump.

BotCon.com have updated the page for their 2013 Machine Wars Skywarp figure with an image of his jet mode. The toy plays homage to the Generation One Skywarp by transitioning to translucent purple plastic wings tips to mimic his teleportation abilities.

The Botcon website has been updated with the first image of Botcon 2013 Machine Wars Skywarp. You can view the image below,

You can compare this updated version to the original figure by checking out our gallery of Machine Wars Skywarp.  On their Twitter page Pete Sinclair tweeted out that this years set will be both a homage and an upgrade for the figures after there were some questions raised regarding the figures

Yesterday TFCC tweeted that they would release the first image of Botcon 2013 Hoist in vehicle mode, you may have noticed us report this across various social network channels, well they did and the images, along with the original robot mode form, can be seen below.  You can compare them to the original toy by checking out our image gallery of Machine Wars Hoist.

Pete Sinclair of the Transformers Collectors Club has dropped by The Allspark to talk about the possibility of recolouring the just-announced Botcon 2013 Machine Wars Hoist figure into Hubcap as well as a G2 inspired Electro.  Pete posted "Friday tidbit for the Allsparkers... We are NOT doing Hubcap AND Electro at BotCon. Nobody gets more than one repaint at the show. IF we offer a repaint of Hoist it will clearly be THAT character."

You can find his original post, as well as the comments from the Allspark forum members here.

Hasbro's Facebook page was updated yesterday with an image of the first Botcon 2013 Machine Wars figure in the guise of Hoist who is a recolour of Transformers Generations Sgt Kup with a new head sculpt.

Seibertron.com have posted a interview they have held with Botcon Organiser Pete Sinclair regarding the choice for next years convention to have a Machine Wars Theme.

What was the inspiration for a Machine Wars theme?
Pete Sinclair wrote:The inspiration here is a basically a "Machine Wars: Series 2." The 2013 BotCon offerings will work both as a stand alone AND as a continuation of the Machine Wars line. Once people read the fiction fans will see each toy from both series 1 and series 2 work as their own individual character.

Also, even if you did not grow up collecting Machine Wars, this set is going to be very appealing for many reasons and we anticipate that a wide range of collectors' will want to add these toys to their collections. They look really sharp!

You can read the interview in full here.

The Transformers Collectors Clud Subscription Service is now open

Remember, there is no need to rush to get your order in as these are made to order. If you get your order in by the cut-off date, midnight on 10 September 2012, you will receive the set of six toys.

A VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE TRANSFORMERS COLLECTORS' CLUB. Re: FSS

The launch of the Transformers Collectors’ Club Figure Subscription Service is imminent; we will notify you the link when we make the service active. While we are loading the final details, here are some things to remember:

1. You must be a member of the Transformers Collectors’ Club to take advantage of the Figure Sub
scription Service.

2. There is NO reason to rush the site or be in a hurry as this is a build to order system. We will build as many as you order, so we cannot run out. YOU CAN ORDER AS MANY AS YOU WANT, there is no limit.

3. What you do need to be concerned about is the closing date of the subscription service, which ENDS on September 10th at midnight.

4. You can either pay In Full or by Installment. There will be 3 installments. When you subscribe and choose pay by Installment, you will be billed for the first two months’ shipments. Then sometime during the second month, you will be billed for the 3rd and 4th months’ shipments and sometime during the 4th month you will be billed for the final 2 months’ shipments.

5. The figures will be shipped in random order. All members receive the same figures each month. The figure pairings will not be preannounced. So if you don’t mind, when you get your shipment each month, PLEASE do not go online and tell what you received. We want each shipment to be a surprise for as many members as possible.

6. The cost is $282 if Paid In Full (plus shipping) or three Installments of $94 (plus shipping). Please note that there is a $3 online processing fee for each billing. We take Visa, Discover or MasterCard. Unfortunately we cannot accept Money Orders or Checks for this offer.

7. If you pick a shipping service that does not include insurance or if you don’t pick the insurance, we do not have any responsibility for replacement of lost or damaged or misdirected orders.

8. If you move or need to change your credit card during the program, you can log into your account and change it there. This will change all of your future FSS billings and shipments. We will also be sending you reminders to check your address and cc before each billing/shipment goes out. We are not responsible for shipments that are lost due to incorrect shipping information on file.

9. We are waiting on the final schedule from China so we don’t know exactly when the first figures will ship, we “think” it will be sometime in January. We will announce this as soon as we get the final schedule.

10. Some of the figures (single figures) MAY be available in the Club Store after the subscriber’s figures ship. These will be at a much higher price per figure. There is no guarantee of availability of any of the figures in the club store. If you want to ensure getting these limited edition figures, you need to subscribe to the service.

The six figures are Prime Slipstream, Classics Circuit, Beast Wars Ultra Mammoth, Animated Jackpot, Universe Classics Breakdown and Generations Robots in Disguise Scourge.

The Planet Iacon have shared an image from weibo.com/botcon which shows some new re-colours of the third party Targetdoids of Optimus Prime and Rodimus in their Shattered Glass colour schemes from Botcon.  You can view the image below and can compare them to the original Botcon figures using our Transformers Toy Gallery section.