Transformers Collectors’ Club Concepts and Lost Combiner Wars Technobot Revealed

Recently, on the Social Media Once Known As Twitter (or “SMOKAT,” if you prefer, which is still a better name for it than “X”), Jesse Wittenrich — once a man of many creative trades for the Official Transformers Collectors’ Club — posted a bevy of digibashes created for potential toys and characters to be featured throughout the Club’s content.

It all began when the BotCon SMOKAT account posted @Blitzwing_Bop‘s concept, which combined Beast Wars II‘s Galvatron with Transformers Legacy Evolution‘s Trashmaster, leading to Wittenrich digging up the original concept for a Beast Wars Uprising version:

In seeking it out, other unused concepts were rediscovered, and subsequently shared. First, here are a few personal highlights:

CRIKEY!! What a (pair of) crocs! Well, one gator and one crocodile, even though “Megator” (is that pronounced like “meh-gator” or “mega-tore”? I kind of like the second one) and “Croctimus” share the same mold. In any case, forget what the fashion critics have to say — who wouldn’t want to sport a pair of crocs like this?

You know, given his name and its origins, it’s funny he’s never once seen wielding an axe.

Just think: Once upon a time, this was the best we could have hoped for in a comic-accurate Jhiaxus toy. Now, after only six years from Titans Return Scourge’s release, we have the simply stunning, wholly-original Legacy toy. It just goes to show how far we’ve come in so little time. Nevertheless, all things considered, this could have been an impressive repaint/remold.

Senator Ratbat from Titans Return Mindwipe. There’s just something neat, almost elegant about the idea of going from his lofty position in Cybertronian standing to Soundwave servitude, just by ripping his head off.

A Verity Carlo action figure? Maybe it’ll happen someday, but we were very nearly there with this use of G.I. Joe tooling.

Oh yeah, now we’re talkin’!

These two might look familiar to some of you, particularly if you spent any time trawling around Facebook, and specifically the “Renegade Rhetoric” (Cy-Kill’s spin-off of the “Ask Vector Prime” feature) page therein, then you might remember a pair of posters which homage a pair of similar Japanese Transformers posters, but featuring Guardians and Renegades in the places of Autobots and Decepticons, and sporting bodies derived from the more contemporary Combiner Wars and other molds of the time:

Cy-Kill’s body differs from the art, seemingly going from Reveal the Shield Wreck-Gar to Combiner Wars Groove/Afterburner. This would make him a more suitable match for the Combiner Wars Leader-1, which was drawn from that version of Air Raid (and the head of Quickslinger).

Is it too late to get an Official GoBots Collectors’ Club going?

Oh, well. On to the last bit, which is actually not OTFCC-related, exactly…

“Hmm I also found this,” said Wittenrich.

It’s… uh… NOT my creation. Should I show it?

Okay… well… Remember how I name-dropped “Ironclad” in the one TCC prose story, because Hasbro had given us early mock-ups for the Technobots? Well… uh… if you wanted to see…

Seibertron goes into further detail, noting that back when Hasbro was replacing every fifth member of every Scramble City-styled Combiner team (save for the Combaticons… you can never mess with the Combaticons), the Technobots were slated to be on that same chopping block. Naturally, Afterburner was the one going to be the one cut, or at least downsized into the smaller Protectobot Groove mold. Then, but for the grace of Takara-Tomy, Afterburner was spared… thanks to Afterburner, no less! When they decided to do their own new Techbot set for Unite Warriors, there was time enough for Hasbro to pivot on their Afterburner like Akira skidding down the street on his motorcycle, and change course to match. Why couldn’t they do it for the rest? Who knows? Sunk cost?

So, with Afterburner spared, what of his replacement? Well, much as Groove was replaced by the mold we would come to know as Rook, Afterburner would have taken after his bike bro and been replaced by that same mold, under the name of “Ironclad.” Wittenrich goes on to explain that Ironclad was inspired by Ironfist — specifically, the Generation One/Wings universe versions of the character, whereas Fisitron was inspired by IDW’s version of the character.

Just imagine, what might have been…

Anyway, here’s the rest of the reveals, from top to bottom, left to right:

Beast Wars Uprising Bonecrusher, Beast Wars Uprising Claw Jaw, K-Class Warriors, Dion with Cop-Tur Titan Master, “UnAnimated” Sari (ahead of the Legacy M.O., no less), “the extremely early BotCon 2017 box set proposal that was sent in October 2015,” Action Master Megatron, Beast Machines Diagnostic Drone, Beast Machines Jetstorm, Beast Machines Tankor, “Dealer with faction-swapping heads that turn into Knok and Skar (Skar would have been a repaint of downgrade Ratbat),” Beast Machines Thrust, two attempts at Destructon Bruton, Flywheels, Gutcruncher, Override, Rosanna, and Skyfall.

How many of the original molds can you name? Take a guess in The Repaint Concept Thread over on our forums!

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