TransFormers Collectors' Club BotCon 2007 (Timelines) Alpha Trion

Galaxy Force Vector Prime was one of those TransFormers toys that, even for its era, had a simplistic transformation, but which transcended this shortcoming through the sheer detail and the extravagant intricacy of its sculpting. The fact that he was an 'ancient Cybertronian' meant that he was effectively an alternate universe Alpha Trion analogue from the outset, so it seemed inevitable that, sooner or later, he would be repainted as G1 Alpha Trion.

What is perhaps a little strange is that BotCon got there first, releasing Alpha Trion as an accompanying figure to their Games of Deception boxed set from BotCon 2007, despite the character not actually featuring in the included comic...

...Because the whole thing was part of the Collectors' Club's own game of deception: the reveal of Alpha Trion was held over for their ongoing multiversal Timelines story in the bimonthly magazine... and was (spoiler warning!) one of the first Shattered Glass characters introduced! Of course, since then, Hasbro has release Alpha Trion toys with almost monotonous regularity, and in a variety of forms.

So, let's take a look at this primary repaint, and see how well it works as this deceptively familiar character...

Vehicle Mode:

Well, they certainly worked to the 'purple as the primary colour' brief... and that alone makes for a far more striking toy than the pale, pearly grey original from Galaxy Force. Given that the starship design was already pretty great - in spite of the robot's arms and legs remaining perfectly conspicuous - that's quite an achievement.

The dashes of red and white paint bring out the details, but the white plastic, particularly the chunks that make up the vehicles thrusters, is a little too stark and clean to work, especially given that Alpha Trion is supposed to be ancient. It's at this point I realised that, while this was a fairly expensive, limited edition collectable from BotCon, it has less paintwork than the original Galaxy Force toy. In fact, it potentially has even less paint than the Hasbro Cybertron version, which also omitted the paint on the thrusters, but covered the entire chest cavity, where Takara Tomy's version just highlighted the sculpted details within.

Something that may not be apparent in the photos is that the sword design on the nose of the craft - surrounded by white paint - is actually a different colour of paint, closer to purple than red... which seems like a waste, considering the nose effectively ends up as part of Alpha Trion's cape in robot mode. I get that it's a significant bit of detailing on this mold... but it's not significant to this character, is it?

This figure also includes the original's sword - which slots into one side of the nose - and the spring-loaded missile gimmick in the tip of the nose, with both accessories molded in translucent pink, albeit in more rigid plastic for the missile than for the sword.

The main downside to this figure is that the translucent parts of the wings, like those of Hasbro's Vector Prime, are molded in a soft, rubbery plastic (one of those changes "for safety reasons", supposedly). I found that one of the joints on mine had been misaligned on its pin, such that trying to fully open it led to the white mounting cracking, and eventually breaking off. Also like Hasbro's, this wings aren't painted... though I think Alpha Trion almost gets away with this due to the darker colour of the translucent plastic, which gives it a sort of 'Energon glow' appearance.

Other than that, the most noticeable thing is that the new head sculpt - being designed after the animation model - doesn't occupy its slot in vehicle mode quite so fully as the original Vector Prime head sculpt. Adding his Mini-Con partner - drolly named 'Beta Maxx' - disguises this somewhat without physically covering it.

Robot Mode:

Despite bearing little resemblance to the G1 animation model for Alpha Trion, this figure is instantly recognisable as that character due to his colourscheme and the general vibe of his appearance. The distribution of colour isn't quite ideal, since this figure seems to use much the same paint templates as Hasbro's Vector Prime. White and red paint substitute for the original's brown and gold, while the smaller details painted red on the Vector Prime are largely left unpainted here. Overall, though, the colourscheme fits the figure remarkably well, considering the sculpt was created for a character with a far more sober paint job.

Based on the artwork I've seen on the character, I'm reasonably sure that the lower legs are meant to be blue - making his colourscheme more of an Optimus Prime reference - though it's honestly difficult to be sure based on the animation model. The colours in the TV show were so vague and muddy, purple and blue were often interchangeable, the animated version of Rumble being another case in point. It seems a though there were only three main colour sprues available to this mold, so they did a decent job, and I think the addition of blue would have looked out of place on this figure.

Another unfortunate omission is the electronic features of the original toy. Unlike some other Club figures, the battery compartment isn't glued or pinned closed. It retains the screw, but the battery contacts (and all the other electronics) are not present inside the figure. I was fairly disappointed by this at the time but, since I believe I bought this not long after acquiring Timelines Astrotrain, which not only retained the electronics from the original Armada Jetfire toy, but featured some unique effects. Then again, the effects on Vector Prime amounted to a transformation sound activated by inserting his key into his abdomen, and a shooting sound effect triggered by raising the right arm to about the 90° point... Which is odd, considering Vector Prime was most often depicted with his Mini-Con/Target Master, Roots, on his left arm.

Designed by Dan Khanna, an artist with a long and highly-regarded association with TransFormers, through Dreamwave, two iterations of the licensed TransFormers Collectors' Club, and IDW, the new head sculpt for Timelines Alpha Trion was one of the big draws of this figure. Even though I ordered this figure direct from the Collectors' Club after BotCon 2007, the new head turned out to be incomplete - the central crest was missing. I contacted the Club to enquire about spares or a replacement straight away, but they'd already sold out of Alpha Trion, so I was basically stuck with him in this state. It's not a terrible loss, since the head only really looks incomplete from the back, where the crest should plug in, and the new sculpt is probably one of the Club's better custom designs. The only real disadvantage is that it doesn't fill the space it slots into in vehicle mode.

Mini-Con Beta Maxx & Cyber Key:

Naturally, Alpha Trion is accompanied by a similarly-recoloured version of Vector Prime's Mini-Con, Roots (Safeguard for the Hasbro version). This results in a largely purple Mini-Con with the pinned joints molded in white plastic, and a few touches of gold paint on the chest and wings. The odd thing is that the paint applications on the main wings are only on one side - making them visible only in robot mode. Bafflingly, the horizontal stabilisers, at the back, are painted on both faces, even though the same face is facing forward in both modes. The only other paint applications are some red on the brow plate and purple on the face. As good as robot mode looks, vehicle mode has been left pretty plain.

And, since this figure uses the same components for its Cyber Key as Vector Prime, the whole front face is painted gold, except for the bit. The rear face, molded in white plastic, still features the tech detailing and raised Autobot insignia. This is a real shame, as the chromed planet icons showed through the translucent domes on the original toy. While they're not entirely appropriate to Alpha Trion, they were part of the key's backing plate, which could have been redesigned here, or simply omitted, so that the domes could show through to parts of the concave portion of Alpha Trion's torso. This gold-painted Cyber Key is supposedly intended to reference the Key to Vector Sigma... but, given the shape is entirely different, that strikes me as a bit tenuous.

Alpha Trion was one of my first loose BotCon figure purchases, along with Weirdwolf, as an extension to that year's Games of Deception set. Naturally, having the figure arrive incomplete was a disappointment, compounded by the unavailability of any replacement, either in part or as a whole... And that was compounded further by the more recent breakage of one of his white wing hinges due to the misassembly of the translucent parts. I had been ambivalent toward Weirdwolf but, to be honest, that's now my preferred figure out of this two-pack.

This was, technically, the first toy of Alpha Trion, though the earlier incarnation of the Club had planned to release a version of the character based on a Beast Machines toy for BotCon 2001, and Takara Tomy had him lined up as a repaint of Generations Scourge more recently. Since this BotCon figure, he's been released as an accessory to Takara Tomy's TF Legends Ultra Magnus (a curious choice, to repaint of Hasbro's Minimus Ambus mini-figure, based on the IDW character), a triple-changing homage to the cancelled BotCon 2001 figure in the Titans Return line, a Prime Master in Power of the Primes (albeit in a very different colourscheme) and, most recently, as a retool of Studio Series '86 Scourge, alongside a retool of SS86 Kup as Orion Pax, for a Legacy two-pack. Given the ridiculous original character model, it seems unlikely that Alpha Trion will ever have a unique mold of his own, but I think this BotCon version is easily the best of the repaints.