Since the start of CHURGs, Seekers and/or Coneheads will always released (at least once) in the line, nothing new about that. Classics - Starscream, Skywarp, Ramjet, Henkei - Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Ramjet, Thrust, Dirge, Ghost Starscream, Universe 2.0 - Starscream, Acid Storm, Generations - Thundercracker, Thrust, Dirge and United - The Aces and The Elite Sets. They even had Botcon releases which are 2007's Games of Deception for Thundercracker, Dirge and Thrust then 2011's Shattered Glass Thundercracker while from TFCC, 2011's G2 Ramjet.
Up to that point, there's been 26 variants of the Seekers/Coneheads mold (I thought of them as the same, using the same base) released and with the start of Generations 3.0, I thought to myself, "Yeap, they are coming" and they did. They release an official version of The Rainmakers....as Botcon 2013's figures...and I wept.
The Rainmakers (mentioned by Bluestreak) are Megatron secret forced on Cybertron which have a special ability of creating an Acid Rain that can damage the circuitry of the Autobots but no...not human... (see G1's Divide and Counquer )
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| Pic Credit : Web |
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| The Rainmakers |
The most popular of The Rainmakers, Sunstorm bio pretty much depict him as he was in Dreamwave's continuity.
My initial thought was, Acid Storm name has been taken hence, Bitstream. But it is actually a character potrayed in Transformers : Exodus, the history of War For Cybertron
The name in my head would be Hailstorm! But, he's Hotlink, the previously unnamed Rainmakers, taken from Transformers : Exodus
Alt Mode
Now let's go one by one. However, I won't be reviewing in depth of the set since...like I said, 26th times, I bet the fans more or less had had the chance to own any variant of this.
Sunstorm
Instead of striking orange color as his eHobby G1 version, Botcon Sunstorm opt for the lighter color of MP11-S Sunstorm that was released in 2012 with roughly the same scheme but lesser detail
The red-white stripes are a bit thin so need to be careful with it. The black part (thruster, missiles, etc) has a really nice color of glossy black
Bitstream
Instead of Green, Bitstream had a nice cyan color with stripes resembling Sunstorm.
Hotlink
The previously-unnamed Rainmakers, Hotlink. Just like his team, Hotlink has simple paint scheme with red/white stripes.
Seeing all 3, you'll notice The Rainmakers are literally the same aside from their base color of yellow, cyan or purple).
I kind of like the similarities, given that they are a trio but on the other hand, made them look too generic.
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| With Universe 2.0 Starscream |
Robot Mode
Sunstorm
Simple and plain, that's how I would describe him
The paint job is nicely done with no visible smudge etc.
I've forgotten how obsolete this mold is in terms of the articulations.But still, it captured Seekers better in terms of persona than Masterpiece version, in robot mode. I haven't had any problem with them yet but a few things I notice though. One would be the connecting part of the wings are a bit weaker than the previous releases.
Bitstream
This base color worked better than Sunstorm's.
Like Sunstorm, the detailing of the figure especially on the face is well-done.
The other problem would be to me the plastics seems a bit 'rough'. The parting lines are too visible (example, the leg) that might be because of the mold used OR weak QC. But I'm not familiar with the field so I'm just speculating
Hotlink
The last of the Rainmakers, named after my local telco service (lol!)
My favourite out of the 3, with more subtle scheme than the other 2
I've thought about the fact that the mold is consider obsolete in terms of the articulation...will it be better if they re-do them? A fully poseble Starscream and his armada is never a bad thing. BUT, I'm not going to go through the process of buying all the variants for the new mold again though.
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| Bring the rain! |
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