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Post by Philip Ayres on May 3, 2024 8:04:46 GMT
If the order in which poll options appear could match the image order it would be greatly appreciated. Especially on super large weeks like this week. The poll options are always alphabetical to make sure you're thinking and clicking the right one The alphabetical option also apes the format of the UK Ballot Paper. When the post body doesn't need to show any other information, and frequently it shows release order as it does here, I'll try to have them Alphabetically
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Post by The Doctor on May 3, 2024 8:30:41 GMT
STREET ACTION.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 3, 2024 9:30:06 GMT
Ah F***! I tried to do something clever in the week and Hyperlink the names as well as the pictures. My data set of names and links had the combined modes before the members and I must have copied the wrong info across. Will fix. I *THINK* it's just the combined sets that are wrong? Yes, Seemed to be just the groups with a combined mode. Didn't wantvto be picky, but might confuse people who don't quite know their Minicons as well as their Mini Autobots. (I am one of them...) *SHOULD* now be completely sorted
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 3, 2024 9:50:36 GMT
This.... this is hard. It's like asking which of your babies you like best. And I've had months to think about it. Everybody is bringing something different to the party and even the team that doesn't fire missiles or combine or turn into weapons or has a gear gimmick has an advantage over the others by having better articulation.
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Jim
Thunderjet
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Post by Jim on May 3, 2024 12:54:13 GMT
Land Military team.
Bonecrusher in particular is amazing - nice design, wonderful transformation, firing missile - but the others are neat, too. I made it a personal quest to own one of each colour scheme on this set.
(There are lots of other very good sets here though.)
I have a big attachment to this line. I came back into collecting late-RID, but I remember the excitement around Armada and it was nice to be in on the ground floor. My first purchase was Cyclonus, and the Land Military team my second (I'm pretty sure from Hasbro's old online shop), and it coincided with me being off work for three months after narrowly surviving a pulmonary embolism. I was a bit existential and had time on my hands, and Armada was definitely a comfort, possibly because they felt a bit like a shift back towards toys that prioritised play and were squarely aimed at kids.
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Post by Pinwig on May 4, 2024 10:03:14 GMT
I think I have an attachment to Armada for personal reasons too. At the time the line started I was having to live away from home during the week for work, which meant I could only see Mrs P at weekends. I was pretty miserable, so a weekly lunchtime trip to Woolworths to pick up a new Armada toy kept me going. I slowly grew most of the line in a display in the room I rented in a shared house. I had terrible back pains at the time so I slept on the floor in that room, the Transformers I had were about the only thing that got me through the week.
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 4, 2024 16:59:54 GMT
Fab story Rich!
Bits of Armada ping some personal memories for me but they're later on in the range
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Post by that_bluestreak on May 4, 2024 19:02:41 GMT
Yeah, Land Military, Bonecrusher, the weird split, ace.
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Post by Benn on May 4, 2024 19:52:54 GMT
The only Armada toy I have any real memory of is Skywarp, and it's not a particularly good one, so... I'll save it for that week if everyone's being too happy!
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 7:08:48 GMT
Finishes tomorrow.... which means I need to make a decision TODAY!
This coming week is one of those occasions where it's necessary to make a compromise for the overall picture
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 11:42:20 GMT
So...
Never liked any of the Street Action Team in either mode. Combiner doesn't do it for me. I can live with the straight arms but on mine the forearms fold backwards at the elbow. Grindor picks up some points for the team due to being able to be used as a double barrelled handgun
Air Defence team are nice but the combined mode connection between Sonar & Jetstorm is tenuous, it's improved on later versions but why wasn't this a 5mm peg into a 5mm hole from the word go? The sword is also very poor at transmitting light up it which is what it was designed to do.
Land Military are good and the missile launchers add something to any robot they're attached to.
Destruction team: Good in both modes, all form decent weapons power ups for larger toys and the cog gimmick is the icing on the cake. Shame there's only one toy that works with and the cogs were stripped from the second deluxe intended to have them (and possibly a Voyager too?)
Race team is odd: none of them grab me, I like the shield but their colours are very similar to the Destruction team in the same wave. Colour is a recurring problem for this team....
Love the Space team. Their's is probably the best of the combined modes.
Aventure team are good, But the gear gimmick doesn't work so well here. Ransack in particular can only be used for brief periods as he runs out of rope plus he has a Minicon port in an odd location that effectively means just one toy can link with him sensibly!
Street Speed team get increased articulation cos hey've not got anything else. Unfortunately the ball joints here don't hold on terribly well.
Sea Team: Points for the missiles and the 1985 Minibot homages but they don't look as good attached to larger toys as the Land Military. The only one of this lot with a major variant for their main Japanese release
Air Military: decent in both main modes but the weapons are a bit meh and Terradive has some fragility issues
Emergency: Not as interest main modes as the Air Military but more solid and better weapons
Destruction it is!
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 12:08:22 GMT
That was difficult this week.
Thankfully this coming week is MUCH easier as one of my all time favourite toys is in the running.
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Post by The Doctor on May 9, 2024 12:54:33 GMT
"Sea Team: Points for the missiles and the 1985 Minibot homages."
Please explain this.
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on May 9, 2024 13:16:33 GMT
I thought Grindor changed into a skateboard.
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Post by Bogatan on May 9, 2024 14:00:43 GMT
Dont want to bring down to positive mood so I'll just say I found too many Minicons to just be substandard Micromasters. The odd part is that I disliked the larger Armada toys for reduced articulation, but a major gripe about the minicons was the increased articulation. Most didnt benefit from it and wound up with limbs that wouldnt stay on.
One that best bucks that trend is wreckage. Looks cool, just enough articulation to be fun and a very good Micromaster vibe. The other two are pretty solid Micromaster style toys with the bonus of firing missiles.
So yeah Land Military
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 14:29:26 GMT
I thought Grindor changed into a skateboard. He does. Hold him by his Minicon peg and put the thrusters at the back facing forwad and he becomes a nice double barrelled gun. See also: Iceberg, except he can't be hand held so needs to be shoulder/forearm mounted
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 14:49:03 GMT
"Sea Team: Points for the missiles and the 1985 Minibot homages." Please explain this. -Ralph At this point there aren't too many Transformers Hovercraft, or indeed Transformers sea vehicles in general, so seeing a Hovercraft automatically makes me think Seaspray Beyond the alt mode there's not a huge physical resemblance there Oceanglide's name is similar to Powerglide's but have you ever seen them next to each other? Oceanglide looks like Powerglide, with his engines grouped round his head. Powerglide also supplies the base for the main colours on the team Stormcloud doesn't have a direct antecendant that I can see.... .... but when the entire team get a western repaint they continue the 85 Minibot theme by nicking Beachcomber's colours: Unicron Battles Sea Mini-Con Team (redeco) | | | | | | |
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 14:54:58 GMT
Dont want to bring down to positive mood so I'll just say I found too many Minicons to just be substandard Micromasters. For the record, AndyK compared Minicons to Micromasters before I bought the subject up! But yes, there's a comparison to be had here: both small Transformers, both sold in Multipacks, similar size. The major difference is the Minicons are more compatible with larger robot toys than the Micromasters were, even more so than the Japanese Zone & Return of Convoy lines. You can forgive the Not We being confused which is which....
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 14:59:28 GMT
"Sea Team: Points for the missiles and the 1985 Minibot homages." Please explain this. -Ralph 4 of the other teams seem to be inspired themeatically by the original 4 Special Teams: Air Defence Team - The Aerialbots
Race Team - The Stunticons
Emergency Team - The Protetorbots
Land Military Team - The Combaticons
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Post by The Doctor on May 9, 2024 15:06:26 GMT
You've been eating a lot of cheese late at night, haven't you?
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 15:12:50 GMT
Nominally many of these teams have a larger character they're linked to, codified by the Japanese release of 7 of them in a multipack with a Deluxe and most of them are really good matches: MS-01 Hot Shot & Air Defense team MS-02 Smokescreen & Race team MS-03 Demolishor & Land Military team MS-04 Cyclonus & Destruction team MS-05 Blurr & Street Speed team MS-06 Thrust & Air Military team MS-07 Hoist & Adventure team
MS-08 Wheeljack & Air Assault team (repaint Air Defence team) As you can see there's an eighth set with the only western repaint team released in the main Japanese line. We'll see these 8 sets later That means there's 4 teams not released in Japan with a deluxe Street Action Team
Space Team
Sea Team
Emergency Team Space and Sea would seem to pair nicely with Leaders Jetfire & Tidalwave/Shockwave respectively. The Street Action Team "kind of" has a link to Optimus Prime with their X-Dimension version being sold in Japan with his Powerlinx Battle toy. That leaves the Emergency Team. Themeatically I'd suggest Red Alert is a good match.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on May 9, 2024 15:19:04 GMT
Stormcloud's shoulders are a complete rip off of Cosmos... right, Phil?
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Post by The Doctor on May 9, 2024 15:20:56 GMT
It just seems so obvious.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 9, 2024 15:21:41 GMT
You might be onto something there....
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Post by legios on May 9, 2024 16:45:49 GMT
I've got to give this one, very narrowly, to the Emergency team. There are a number of teams that are right up in a tight knot contending for the top place, but there are a few things that really push the Emergency team out ahead for me.
Firstly I really like the variety of the alt-modes. A police cruiser that looks like it belongs in a mid-budget 90s Sci-fi series, a normal looking fire-engine, and either the first or second tilt-rotor in Transformers (depending on whether Obsidian was intended to be a tilt-rotor, or whether it is an unintended side-effect of his engines pods being designed to rotate backwards in his humanoid mode or not). Heck, I don't think there have been more than a handful of tilt-rotor aircraft in Transformers since either.
I also love two out of the three weapon modes - Prowl turns into a really nice PDW/Submachine-gun with a wonderfully "design by Apple" aesthetic, and Firebot's missile-pod mode is just exactly the sort of "Itano Circus in a box" kind of thing that the whole Mini-con play-pattern was crying out for. Makeshift's weird turret mode is...fine... but still better than the car-stuck-on-a-robot thing that some of the other teams have going on.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 10, 2024 6:46:35 GMT
Land Military Team wins by a comfortable margin
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Post by Philip Ayres on May 10, 2024 6:50:45 GMT
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Post by Fortmax2020 on May 10, 2024 6:58:21 GMT
It's nice to be in an era where I still have unopened toys from.
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Jim
Thunderjet
Micromaster Backside Monitor
Now in glorious Ultra HD 4K
Posts: 4,669
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Post by Jim on May 10, 2024 7:30:52 GMT
There is so much to love here, but I'm going to go with Hot Shot. I think he's the one I had the most fun with.
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Post by Benn on May 10, 2024 7:34:18 GMT
Voting for Optimus. I've had him and Hot Shot long post-Energon, and Optimus has stayed longer. I also prefer it to the supermode version of the cab, it's just a solid fun chunky toy.
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