In 1997, in the middle of a years-long focus on Beasts who War, Machine Wars was an oasis of vehicles.  It wouldn't be until 2000 that Hasbro would give us vehicles again, and so this strange KB Toys-exclusive line of  redecoed European toys and unused G2 stuff was all the game there was to be had, if you were into stuff with wheels or thrusters.  It was also the only place you could find Autobot or Decepticon symbols or the names "Optimus Prime," "Soundwave," and "Starscream."  And as the one of the first real departures for these characters from what they're "supposed" to look like, it was an exotic thing.  It became less exotic as time went by, and doing weird things with older characters wasn't terribly special.  Optimus Prime's been both a shoe and a baseball cap by now, so an Optimus who transforms into a truck with some slightly different colors isn't as eyebrow-raising as it used to be.  And oh no, he had an exposed mouth!  ... and so has nearly every Optimus since 2004.

However, despite all this, Machine Wars still had some unique things going for it, which called out to everyone that "this is Machine Wars."  For example, it had two new characters!   The first was Hubcap, who shared a name with an older character, but was written to be nothing like him.  The second was Megaplex, who was a decoy for Megatron.  Like, he was literally an exact copy of Megatron's body so as to confuse the Autobots.   His entire existence was based around him being target practice for someone more important.  Another interesting thing about Machine Wars is that Starscream was the tallest toy in the line.  He was massive, while Megatron (and his decoy) were pretty small.  How did that work?  How did Tiny Megatron keep Giant Treacherous Starscream in check?  There must be a story there.

Well, I guess, too bad.  BotCon 2013's toy set went off in a completely different direction entirely.  Megaplex is no longer a decoy, he's a clone, and so he doesn't look anything like Megatron anymore.  In fact, everyone's clones.  Skywarp and Thundercracker and Starscream are also all clones.  The entirety of last year's magazine comics were also about repurposing toys from the Nineties as clones of the guys they have the names of, rather than being the real guys themselves.  It was annoying last year and it's annoying now.  And Starscream's now shorter than his Megatron, aka Megaplex, the clone of Megatron.  There's not much here that resembles Machine Wars to me any more, at least not the parts I found memorable.

And my love for Machine Wars is pretty nil enough already to have what slivers of stuff I found remarkable about it be ignored.  Excitement level... pretty low.

So, uh, hey, here's your normal-sized Starscream who's not really Starscream, or whatevs.

*half-hearted thumbs up, forced smile*

If there's one thing I didn't like about the various Voyager Class Animated Starscreams I'd accumulated, it's that they all had the same face!  (If there were two things I didn't like about them, the second would be that they take up so much shelf space.)  All these Starscream clones had different personalities, some whose facial expression really shouldn't be the Classic Starscream smirk.

So it was about damn time Reprolabels gave us a sheet of stickers to remedy that.  It's not perfect, since all of the faces on the sheet are colored in Starscream gray, rather than in the colors of the clones' faces, but weighed against them all having the same smirk I'd say it was a fair trade.

There were a few other stickers for the nominal Starscream as well, such as the colored logos.

If you're attending the Second Annual Webcomics Rampage in Austin, TX, be sure to RSVP!  It's required for getting in to see the panel with myself, Jeph Jacques, Danielle Corsetto, Randy Milholland, Joel Watson, Josh Lesnick, and Bill Williams. The panel has limited seats, so RSVP so you don't miss it!  Plus, it's helpful to know how many folks are gonna be around for the signing that happens afterwards.

Joining Rodimus in the "Challenge at Cybertron" set is Cyclonus!  Like Rodimus, he's supposed to be in colors that closely approximate his appearance in the television show, regardless of taste.  As a result, he doesn't actually look all that bad.  He's a bit too much of the same value, meaning he's gonna look like he's almost all the same color to some colorblind people, but he's not an assault on the retinas like Takara's attempt at the same thing.

The original American Universe Cyclonus (in the back of the photos) tried to spice things up by using a darker purple, a medium red, and some light gray.  It better-balanced these colors across the body by breaking up the torso into light gray and dark purple instead of keeping the torso entirely purple.  This bothered some people.  Those people are in luck 'cuz the "Challenge at Cybertron" version keeps the torso all purple.  And it decorates the drab purple with some more saturated purple that you kind of have to squint to see in nonoptimum lighting.  Again, most of his colors are all the same value.

And he comes with Nightstick again, who looks more like Nightstick since he now has silver legs.

I think I'm going to keep boy my Cyclonuses.  This new one can be Cyclonus proper, and the old Universe one can be Cyclonus's Armada.  Why him and not the original?  He looks more like he's in Skywarp's colors, particularly with the gray stripes running down his torso.  And, y'know, Skywarp became Cyclonus's Armada. So that works out!

Of course, old-Nightstick is becoming Krunix. Hell, that Nightstick was always Krunix to me.  Basically, it's nice to now have a Nightstick.

Geez, Cyclonus, you sure are a whole lotta purple.