3H BotCon 2002 Universe Glyph

(Femme-Bot Friday #45)

While Hasbro were historically reluctant to properly acknowledge Femme-Bots in the toyline over the earlier years, of the franchise the fans - and the Collectors' Clubs - seem to have been keen to embrace them, with early (pre-FunPub) BotCons offering exclusive Femme-Bots in both 2002 and 2003. While Shadow Striker and Roulette had the dubious benefit of having slender - if not convincingly 'feminine' - robot modes to complement their larger, better-proportioned vehicle modes, BotCon 2002 started things off small and simple with a couple of G1 Mini Autobot repaints and no remolded parts (albeit the keyring version of each, rather than the Hasbro mass release).

I picked up Tap Out a good few years ago as he seemed to be fairly commonly available, even now... Glyph took a little bit more time, but I eventually tracked her down at a decent price... and bought her along with BotCon Europe 2002's Rook... So let's take a look at this Femme-Bot repaint of G1 Bumblebee.

G1 Cliffjumper (My First Autobot!)

I can remember, back in the day, being torn between Bandai's Robo-Machines (aka Go-Bots) and Hasbro/MB's TransFormers line. On balance, Robo-Machines tended to have better looking, more realistic vehicle modes for their size... but their quality control wasn't so great and their robot modes often looked terrible. One fateful day, when I had a small collection of both toylines, I made a decision to give up on Robo-Machines and focus entirely on TransFormers... And the beginnings of that decision can be traced back to my very first TransFormers purchase, Cliffjumper, bought with my own pocket money, around the age of about 10.

3H BotCon 2002 Universe Tap-Out

Ah, the humble beginnings of BotCon... While the current operators, Fun Publications, have taken it to the dizzy heights of several thousand attendees, regular boxed sets of 5 or 6 exclusive repaints - some with remolded parts - and increasing numbers of attendee-only additional figures, the original BotCons started small, with a couple of repainted Generation 1 Mini-Autobots. One of 2002's exclusives was Tap-Out, a dark, minty green remix of Cliffjumper

Choro-Q Robo Convoy (TV Version)

Choro-Q, as a toy range, has been going longer than TransFormers, starting two years earlier even than Diaclone, from which TransFormers Generation 1 was derived. Outside of Japan, it was marketed as Penny Racers - a cutesified (similar to 'Super Deform' or 'Chibi' in anime) form of car which, with the insertion of a small coin into a slot in the back, will perform wheelies by use of a pull-back clockwork motor. Just to make things more weird, a couple of G1 Mini Autobots (Cliffjumper and Bumblebee from the first wave) are quite clearly homages to Choro-Q - their vehicle modes are the same style, and their heads are concealed within what would be the penny slot!

Over the years, Choro-Q seems to have widened its scope, so it's no surprise that there was eventually a series of TransFormers. Only three were released - Convoy, Rodimus Convoy and Megatron - but each came in two versions - TV and Metallic for the Autobots, TV and Black for Megatron.