Bot a Day: Daily Drawings

Obsidian is a 2002 release in the Robots in Disguise line, a redeco of the same figure originally released in 2000 as part of Beast Machines. What was once a Vehicon general is now a Decepticon. He turns into a rather alien looking Cybertronian helicopter, though in this case he has Earth desert camo.   

 Packed with Dreadwind is the smaller jet and robot, Smokejumper. His alt mode is a sleek, dart-shaped jet of invented design that can fit into the larger B2 stealth bomber that Dreadwind turns into. Smokejumper's design, like Dreadwind, was released as several other characters in other lines, including Smokescreen from Generation Two and Starscream from Beast Wars II in Japan. 

Dreadwind (and his pack-in partner Smokejumper) were some of the last toys released in the Robots in Disguise, coming exclusively to Target store shelves in 2004 when the next toyline, Armada, had already started rolling out. Dreadwind is a redeco of a Generation Two design, a 1994 Decepticon named Dreadwing (note the G), which is so closely named that it no doubt causes confusion (need a mnemonic? DreadwinG with the G for G2, DreadwinD with the D for Robots in Disguise). This design was also the basis for BB in the Japanese line in 1998 . Dreadwind turns into a B2 stealth bomber, and has a secondary tank mode as well.    

Today's drawing is the mighty Cryotek, a Predacon gangster who is a redeco of Transmetal 2 Megatron , He transforms into a massive biomechanical dragon, and has a secondary -- if unconvincing -- drag racer mode that's basically a dragon body on wheels. Cryotek was released in 2002 as a Target exclusive. 

Axer is a Decepticon motorcycle - he turns into a Harley Davidson Electra Glide - who was available in a two-pack with Sideways exclusively at Walmart in 2002. His body design was previously used for Road Pig in the Generation Two "Laser Cycles" subset. He has built-in LED effects that illuminate his translucent arm cannon. 

It's Scourge again - released again in 2002 but in a Spychanger incarnation. One of the few new molds rolled out for the Spychanger line, this Scourge is a simplified version of his larger design , without the tanker trailer. Since this mold originated as Scourge, it has the distinction of not being an Optimus Prime redeco. But in a bit of turnabout-is-fairplay, this design would be redecoed as Optimus Prime in a few years time.

Scourge is a redeco of the L aser Rod incarnation of Optimus Prime from Generation Two . Whereas other redecos were quickly forgotten as quick methods to expand a set of products, Scourge had narrative sticking power because, hey, an evil twin of Optimus Prime is kind of irresistible. In Japan, he was known as Black Convoy. Within a few years of his release, other incarnations followed, most often taking existing Optimus Prime designs and painting them black. This Scourge made it to the US in 2002 as a Toys R Us exclusive.