Two Auctions have appeared on Chinese site Taobao for what appears to be BotCon 2013 Machine Wars Sandstorm.  The toy is a recoloured version of Transformers Dark of the Moon Sandstorm

 Taobao auction 1 andi Taobao auction 2

Remember BotCon takes place next week

Following on from yesterday's production image of BotCon 2013 Machine Wars Skywarp comes Obsidian and Strika

Fun Publications have updated botcon.com with some final production images of the BotCon 2013 Exclusive Machine Wars Skywarp figure

BotCon have updated their website with an image of the BotCon set box.  This time around the packaging is designed to look like a traditional Machine Wars box, with the window on the front.

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.