To be fair, what Hasbro gave us was infinitely more affordable.
And only that Megatron and Unit-3 (and I did want that Reflector and Airazor!) were really what I'd call worth convention prices. Some of the others were neat ideas or pairings of colors and molds that might have been nice from a different channel, but not at what those prices were turning into.
(To be fair, given the things Botcon has to navigate and negotiate, they tend to lapse into some weaker and stronger years, and this is one of those that's a mixed bag. That 2017 proposal is GORGEOUS and I want all of it.)
Boy, that's certainly something I don't miss. For all the saturation we're dealing with now, I am incredibly grateful to no longer only be able to get certain releases of varying coolness and desirability only after jumping through serious geographical and financial hoops. I look at TFSS Toxitron, or G2 Starscream, or Thrustinator, or Treadshot, or indeed that TM3 Megatron, and I just have to make my peace with simply never being able to afford them. But I can look back at all the stuff we've been spoiled with since 2019ish that's just... At retail, or a store exclusive, or caught up in the pandemic supply weirdness at most, and be glad that whether it's Cordon or Masterdominus or T-Wrecks or Zetar or Antagony or Detritus, the process of anticipating and acquiring them didn't age me threefold (it's the 2020s, so other things did instead).
(This is not the fault of the club.)
Even more than the "damn, I wish that had gotten made!" (thanks to all involved in archiving these btw), that's what I really come away from this thread feeling.
