Phil's Armada Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

In the course of writing about the Minicons I've spotted I've never reviewed at least two of the Armada moulds.

In addition some of the other toy reviews are so brief that I'm going to need to redo them from scratch.

So to start with, because I had to get him out today to review Rollbar we have....

[Philip Ayres]

Scavenger

Scavenger is a toy that exhibits the one of the guiding principles behind Armada more than most: To put a fun and playability element into the Transformer toys. If it's a success or not .... well judge for yourself.

Scavenger is a bright pale green tracked digger. Any Transformer worth their slat seeing bright pale green and construction vehicle (especially on like this with purple trim) is immediately thinking Constructicon. But no ! He's an Autobot and I don't think that helps the toy to start with. Everything you see is telling you Decepticon. If they'd done a yellow version first as an Autobot and then a Decepticon repaint maybe that would of worked. Then there's the name. Scavenger *is* the name of a G1 Constructicon further reinforcing what your eyes are telling you, but it's the wrong Constructicon: the tracked digger in that team is called Bonecrusher. Other plastic used on the toy includes grey for the sides of the treads and burgundy for the shovel arms & exhaust pipe.

Scavenger features rubber tracks on each side instead of the traditional method of solid moulding the tracks and setting little wheels in the underside. Although not a first for Transformer toys by any means - Star Convoy and other motorised Japanese late G1 toys have rubber tracks - this is the first time we've seen them in the west. As you push the vehicle along the tracks move powering a little off centre cog (on the left track as you look at the front) which makes the shovel rise up & down. To the rear of the vehicle is a studded roller that moves at the same time and tells the electronics in the toy to make a noise. Sadly my Scavenger has no batteries at the moment so I've had to look elsewhere for the information - Dave Van Domelen's TF review page says that it makes an engine running sound. Scavenger comes with a dune buggy Minicon Rollbar. Rollbar in robot mode is designed to interact with the larger toy: he can drive Scavenger ! Open up the roll cage around Scavenger's passenger compartment, push Rollbar's head into the cage and fold the cage back down pushing Rollbar into the body of the vehicle and sounding a engine starting noise.

Scavenger has two usable Minicon posts in this more - one on each track side at the front. I'd have had more - the painted red siren on the cab roof and the exhaust pipe are obvious mounting points as are the sides of the bar over the back, but these have screw holes in.

TF: Pull the shovel in two down the middle and fold back. Pull out the panels on the side of the shovel arms to let them change length. Pull the treads away from the middle of the vehicle. Rotate the front third of the vehicle through 180 degrees. Point the treads down. Pull them forward and then push down raising Scavenger's head - in black, like his chest panel - out of the front of the toy. They'll be a click when everything locks in place. Fold the chest panel up. Fold the purple piece that locks the treads to the vehicle and the cover on the outside of the treads forward to form hands. Stand on the roller at the back of the toy with the bottom of the vehicle facing you. Pull the shovel halves round to the front and position so the back of the shovel faces you. The purple plastic at the top should lie against the rest of the toy pointing up, the purple piece at the bottom is folded out to form a foot and the piece at the side folds out to lock onto a peg on the side of the roller.

Scavenger's robot mode is dominated by his main gimmick: he walks ! Push the toy forward and each leg (the shovel halves) moves up & down in an effective stomping action. This gimmick means he effectively has no articulation bellow the waist and that really got up the noses of Transformers fans who had been used to Takara & Hasbro pursuing a policy of increased articulation. The rest of the toy is pretty good in that respect with a turning waist, turning shoulders that also bend out and in to the sides and (incredibly) bending elbows in the middle of the tracks. The claw like hands open and close but these really aren't what's needed in Armada where several of the Minicon toys are or combine to form weapons that can be held if your toy has a 5mm peg hole in it's fist.

Scavenger has one extra Minicon post in this mode - on his right hip. Place a Minicon on it and push the post forward for it to launch a missile (same burgundy colour as before) out of his hip. The two ports on the tracks have ended up on the shoulders which is always a good thing. However I feel - especially in light of the comments about the hands above - that he could use a pair of ports on each wrist which could be hidden behind (or in a hole in the middle of ) the four fingers that cover it in vehicle mode.

Overall he's got a great vehicle mode that works well with his Minicon. Your enjoyment of the robot (and the toy) hinges on if you like the walking gimmick or not. Personally I do though I can see how it's not to some people's tastes.

In Japan Scavenger & Rollbar were sold as Devastar (surely a transliteration of Devastator ?) and Dart as Armada toy numbered MC-07.

In the UK Scavenger & Rollbar were the entirety of the Voyager case they shipped in. No carryovers from the previous wave. No other new toy. The wave shelf warmed like nothing has ever done before it ! When the first Energon Voyager wave shipped there were still Armada Scavengers and Rollbars to be bought. Which was a problem because ....

Treadbolt

... in the UK Wave 1 Energon Voyager's were Treadbolt and Rollbar, repaints of Scavenger and Rollbar. In the US these were sold as a limited edition and quickly replaced by Jetfire. Not so in the UK, they were in every Wave 1 case with Jetfire having to wait till Wave 2 with Mirage. At least we think so. Because Wave 1 sold sooooo poorly in the UK Wave 2 was skipped so the UK went straight to Wave 3 with Cliffjumper & Shockblast. The reasons for this may 100% be laid at Treadbolt & Rollbar's door: A repaint of a toy that sells so badly it's still available in quantity nearly a year later taking up the space of a toy that is paired with the other toy in the case (Energon Ironhide) and would have encouraged sales of Ironhide - what was the point of buying him if there was no toy to combine him with ? So Treadbolt & Rollbar sat unsold apart from those that were bought and traded with the US fans who wanted him and couldn't get him (presumably in return for Energon Jetfires !) Treadbolt swaps most of Scavenger's green for yellow. It's one of the better attempts at construction vehicle yellow I've seen on a TF but isn't quite there. All the burgundy pieces plus the green of the roll cage and the battery hatch underneath the vehicle/robot's waist are now a pale blue/grey. Purple becomes a dark grey and black becomes brown - both these colours are carried over onto Rollbar's recolour too.

It's not the worst repaint in the world but the UK was not in a position to be wanting more of this toy.

I'm of the opinion that despite the easy of obtaining Scavenger/Treadbolt and Rollbar that someday both toys will sell at a premium due to the perishable rubber used for Scavenger/Treadbolt.....

[blueshift]

Well do remember that the colours kinda make sense, because in Armada Scavenger was an Autobot undercover in the Decepticons

[Philip Ayres]

There is that ... but this is just the toy I'm reviewing. Likely as the whole storyline in the cartoon was dreamt up to expolain the odd colour choices.

And as we see elsewhere - shock/tidalwave, Sea team (used prototype colours), Thundercracker (decided it was Starscream) and the whole Powerlinx Demolishor/Thrust fiasco - the cartoon and toyline in Armada have avery odd relationship.

[Philip Ayres]

The first 2 waves of Armada deluxe reviews have been uploaded plus a couple of Voyagers - see

Hotshot
Cyclonus
Demolishor
Sideways
Smokescreen
Starscream
Overload

All these basically compile what I've written previously with no new material so I won't subject you to them full length here.

All the rest of the dlx toys need work at some stage so you'll be seeing them !

[Philip Ayres]

Optimus Prime

The Supercon Optimus Prime is another attempt by Hasbro at doing the same characters at multiple price points. The toy itself is effectively just a smaller Armada Optimus Prime cab with no trailer. As ever the cab is cast in red while the flatbed is blue. His exhaust pipes on the sides of the cab are cast in silver plastic which we'll see more of in robot mode. He's got two Minicon sockets one on the cab, which becomes the powering socket for the gimmick in robot mode, the other right behind it. The trailer hitch at the back could easily have been a Minicon socket too, it's the right size. To one side of this is a hole for mounting his Minicon, Over-run, in gun mode.

Transform is very similar to the larger version - with a bit more bending round the shoulders. Fold the feet down from the back of the truck. Unclip the radiator grill and fold down under the cab - it folds on top of another panel that's under the front of the cab but folds back with the grill- to form the robot's chest. Fold the exhausts and their supports down so they're pointing backwards. Push them back to reveal the hands. Fold the sides of the cab forwards and to the sides. Fold the front of the cab out to the sides, then fold it back up by a joint further out. Fold the arms back down and push the wrist guards up to reveal the hands. Split the legs and stand.

This transformation results in the shoulders lying slightly lower on the small version making the head look better and more protruding from the body. The head is a perfect Prime head, mounted on a ball joint which is connected to the back of the base of his neck - not a great deal of side to side movement but lots of up and down. Arms have a rotational joint at each shoulder, a ball joint above the elbow which is effectively a bicep joint but a bit low, and another rotational joint at the elbow. His fist holes are a tad too wide, weapons placed in it - and I've tried Over-run, Starsabre and Skyboom - slip about a bit. There's a turning waist joint, nice expanding skirt section (the shoulders in Super mode on the bigger one) which flexes to the back & sides to allow the ball joints at the hip to work, though they're restricted by the moulding at the front of the legs which means you can't raise them too far, joint above the knee allowing the knees to swivel to the sides as well as their own rotational movement and ankles on a universal joint. Great posability, get some nice action stances out of him, and the first Armada toy feel action figurey in robot mode.

He has an action feature in this mode: put a Minicon on the port on his back and move it up & down which causes Optimus to punch each arm in turn. The front panel of his two part chest folds down to reveal a moulded matrix inside. Both parts of the chest and the upper robot legs are moulded in the same silver plastic as the exhausts. The exhausts sadly don't combine to form a weapon on this version, but they do form effective wrist blasters in this mode. If I were designing the toy I think I would, as well as making them into a combined gun, have mounted them on Minicon pegs which would allow Optimus more visible interaction with Minicons in this mode. The feet look like they're moulded in silver plastic but are in fact the same blue as the legs just with an effective lick of paint applied.

Best of the deluxe toys to this point all round I think.

Optimus Prime & Over-Run were available in Japan as MC-06 Standard Convoy and Surge.

There are several variants to this toy involving shades of paint and the placement of Autobot symbols.

Nemesis Prime

*FINALLY* nearly 2 years after his release I have an Armada Nemesis Prime. Only appearing in the last produced US deluxe case - he should have been back in the next one that would have had the blue striped Wheeljack and proper Red Thrust in, this toy was always going to be popular being

a) a good repaint of a good toy
b) black
c) having a memorable TV appearance.

And as such he's been like gold dust ever since.

There's 2 other versions of this colour scheme of this toy:

There's a surprise straight out the box here - he's not Black but a Midnight Blue colour used for the parts that were red and blue on Op. Op's silver is a mucky grey here. Red, metalic Teal and Silver highlights are used extensively. Windows are done in Red, and there's a con symbol on the bonnet.

I don't need to comment much further on the robot I feel apart to confirm that like all the other Nemesis Primes mine's head does indeed lean slightly to his left.

Worth getting - yes. Worth what's being asked for him - maybe not. Surely a prime (haha) candidate for a special production run on a TF toy if ever there was one. And it completes my set of this toy so I'm happy.

Remy has a gallery of what may be a prototype or abandoned alteration to the paint scheme of the toy under the name Nemesis Prime-Z.

Scourge

Scourge is the Japanese version of Nemesis Prime - available as a mail-away item from Tele-V Magazine and limited to 5000 pieces.

Compared to the US edition there are some changes - the blue is more black and the mucky grey is now plain grey.

Crystal Convoy

Crystal Convoy was a mail-away offer from the Japanese Tele-V Magazine limited to 5000 pieces. Remy has two galleries for this toy: Remy Act 153 and Remy Act 154. All parts are cast in a clear plastic version of their original colour, including the wheels which are now a clear black, the excpetion being the silver which becomes completely clear.

A lovely dynamic recolour I would gladly have one of these in my collection if I could A) find one and B) afford it !

Ultra Magnus

Ultra Magnus appeared in a Battle in a Box vs pack with Treadshot. This was an exclusive to several stores in the US, and a quantity were imported to England by the Entertainer which Is where I got mine.

Ultra Magnus. I'll let you into a secret - this is why I bought the Battle in a Box packs. When this first came out there hadn't been a white Prime as Magnus repaint since G1 then (following white Magnus' appearance in the DW comics we got this, the Statue and the MP repaint. I balk at the idea of paying 50-quid plus shipping plus customs for a Ultra Magnus repaint of MP Convoy. But a fiver for the Armada version ? Oh yeah. All the red & blue is now cast in white, except he's got yellow eyes and what was silver on the original Supercon Op which is now grey. And it really works. Magnus in the UK comic was portrayed as a soldier and this version brings out that element in him. To criticise *slightly* there's maybe too much bright red and blue paint aps on the toy - the blue is a bright dark one, and not the pale version seen on the packaging. As far as I can see the paint operationss essentially are in the same places as the scheme used on Nemesis Prime. But it was a good toy, this is a good repaint and helps to make this one of the 2 vs sets the better of the 2.

A note about Ultra Magnus' arms. As widely noted they are assembled wrong - the cuff section is the wrong way round on the wrong arm, impeding the elbow movement. The fix is relatively simple - pop the arms off at the ball joints and remove the metal bar in the elbow - I used a braddle to do mine. The remainder of the upper arm can then be removed and the cuffs slid back over the elbows and the parts reassembled - a pair of pliers to guide the metal bar back in is useful.

But yeah, Magnus is cool. Be tempted by a RM Ultra Magnus now !

Cybertron Optimus Prime

Supercon Optimus Prime unexpectedly returned as a toy in Cybertron. The red and grey are maintained from the previous versions but the blue becomes black similar to the Galaxy Force Prime repaint of Cybertron Leader Optimus Prime.

The most important feature of this toy is that he doesn't come with an Over-run ! The Minicon is removed and replaced by a clear Cybertron Planet key, with red paint round the outside and an Autobot symbol on it. The key has been slightly remoulded on the reverse to include a Minicon socket that will let you operate the gimmick in Optimus Prime's back. This then means that this version of Optimus Prinme has no gun - the non combining exhausts come back to haunt us. I really can't explain why they took Over-Run out, but the same fate also befell the Demolishor released in Cybertron and the remould of Cyclonus, Sideswipe, Runamuck & Hoist.

Universe Optimus Prime

The Cybertron Supercon Optimus Prime was re-released in a Five pack entitled "Battle for the Planet Keys" with the four Armada remoulds featured in Galaxy Force & Cybertron: Blurr (Blurr), Buzzsaw (Cyclonus), Longrack (Hoist) and Runabout (Sideswipe).

The paint scheme on Optimus changes *again* with a paler red being used than has been found on any other version of Optimus Prime. The blue is a lot brighter than found on previous versions and the paint operations have once again been altered.

Once again over-run is absent, with the Planet Key now being cast in clear red with an Autobot symbol printed on it.

[Philip Ayres]

Unicron is saying review me but he needs to wait his turn.

[Philip Ayres]

Blurr

Blurr is a nice sleek silver futuristic looking sports car, a worthy successor to the Blurr vehicle mode. In some ways - the passenger compartment with it's clear orange windows, the long bonnet and the spoiler at the rear - it's more like Hot Rod than Blurr. The colour in this mode is all silver which puts me more in mind of Blue Streak (Silverstreak - I called the Japanese version Silverstreak - as opposed to Silverbolt which he is - when reviewing Incinerator - though you must admit Silverstreak has more of a car link as a name than Silverbolt does !). All 4 wheels roll OK, though there's not a lot of clearance on the vehicle mode.

Incinerator's dragster mode plugs in the back and deploys the side of the car into a sort of jet mode. If you've got a gimmick on a toy with a Minicon surely (where possible) the Minicon should be used to activate it ? A live Minicon socket on the top of the car would have done the job just as well. When the wings are deployed you find there are two missile launchers are on each wing - in this mode the orange missiles can be fired by attaching a minicon. In car mode they sit sticking out from under the spoiler with insufficient clearance to fire which is frustrating because the two (dead) hardpoints on top of the car look like they should cause the missiles to launch. Factor these all together and it fells to me like there's some confusion in the design here.

The canopy at the front folds up but I'm not wonderfully sure why it's spring loaded..... The only point it's used is the first step in the TF, where you fold the legs down from the back of the vehicle, raising the head under the canopy. The lower legs pull down and from the end of them the feet and the heel spurs fold out. The panels at the side of the passenger compartment fold down the sides of the robot, then the back of the car becomes a backpack. The front of the car separates - the outer halves need to be raised up slightly before they are folded back to form HUGE shoulder pads while the insides of the bonnet halves fold down to form arms and hands.

In robot mode a lot more blue is revealed on he robot chest (with a nice red Autobot smbol moulded in the middle of it), shoulders, and legs which is more reminiscent of G1 Blurr. The upper arms are both moulded in orange, while the feet, heel spurs, upper legs and waist plate are dark blue. The huge backpack can either be left as the car or a with the wings deployed as a sort of jet pack. It's a bit difficult to insert Incinerator in this mode as the socket is pointing down - once again would a Minicon post to activate the wings have been a better idea ? You'll need to open the backpack up at some stage to remove each of the missile launchers from the wings. He's got no fist holes in the hands or hard points on the forearms - just 2 indentations maybe 6 1/2 mm across and 1 1/2 mm deep which match a similar pair of non standard shallow pegs on the missile launchers so he can use the missile launchers but can't hold or use any minicon weapons unless you can peg them on top of the existing launchers - a sin I feel on any Armada to and sadly one that's repeated all too often. Not a lot of leg movement - so I suppose in that respect he's once again similar to the original Blurr. The legs swing out to the side of the hips and there's a ball joint bellow the hips that allows the legs to rotate (as the arms would on a bicep joint) but it will also (if sufficient force is applied) allow them to bend back just below the hips too. However he's nice and stable due to some fold out feet and heel spurs. The arms swing out to the sides and have a double bending elbow which I always like to see. Head's quite good, with lots of transparent plastic, looks very like a racing drivers helmet.

Blurr's Japanese name is Silverbolt and was available together with Turbo (Incinerator) as MC-08. They also were in MS-05 with the Street Speed Team.

Universe Swerve

Swerve is a red (for silver and light blue) and black (for orange & dark blue) repaint of Armada Blurr.

Both Swerve and his Minicon Roadhandler look superb in these colours in car modes casting the image of super advanced Ferraris or Lamboghinis. There's a big G1 Sideswipe vibe from them, which can only be a good thing. Flip down wing gimmick is intact and works fine from the box - unlike my Galaxy Force Blurr that needed a little surgery to correct a misaligned spring.

Swerve's robot mode again looks superb in red and black - and the sports racing helmet looks great picke out in black and silver. Some silver and (to a lesser extent) yellow paint ops are revelealed by the tf - the yellow is a bit see through and smudgy which doesn't matter on Swerve, but is a bit more obvious on Roadhandler's chest. Should have stuck to just black there.

Overall ? Best Universe repaint !

Cybertron Blurr

Blurr is a remold of the Armada Blurr in G1 Blurr's colours. He first appeared in Galaxy Force VS pack GS-01 with Buzzsaw - a recolour and remould of Armada Cyclonus, and was later released singularly in the USA. The wave the four Armada recolours were in was never released in the UK. This version is then re-released in a Five pack entitled "Battle for the Planet Keys" with the other three Armada remoulds: Buzzsaw (as above), Longrack (Hoist) and Runabout (Sideswipe) along with a new recolour of the Armada Supercon optimus Prime toy.

As far as I can see Blurr's gained a new top at the rear, lost Incinerator's socket - now replaced with a force chip slot and had his head replaced with something reminiscent of original Blurr's head. His guns have been remoulded too loosing the round tabs that fitted the wrists and gaining a small handle that he can hold. The missiles which these use are remoulded in a dark grey. Lots of Blue in the colour scheme - as well as what was originally light blue all the silver is as well now - whereas the orange on the body has become a pale grey - and some translucent plastic is used in odd places for what was the darker blue.

Looks very nice, but there's a misplaced spring on one side of mine.

Blurr comes with a Speedia/Speed Planet chip.

Botcon 2008 Shattered Glass Blurr

Blurr reappers in the Botcon 2008 Shattered Glass set as an Evil Autobot (it's a mirror universe theme !) using the altered Cybertron form. The car body is a striking black sadly marred by some blue energon streaks. Armada Blurr's light blue is replaced by a dark blue, almost purple, and both silver & dark blue are black. The face is altered to give it a scar. He comes with a clear orange Speed Planet chip with black edging.

Very nice repaint, not pure black in robot mode but a good balance of darker colours,

The Shattered Glass boxset also contained Sideswipe & Whisper (Armada Wheeljack & Windshear) and Rampage (Classics Minicon Snarl)

[Philip Ayres]

Sideswipe

Sideswipe comes with the Minicon Nightbeat. It's a horrid you.

Oh you expect me to take my time over this ? Ah. OK, I come not to praise Armada Nightbeat but to bury it. In a deep, deep hole.

Sideswipe is a blue car with clear orange windows. Now we're in a massive realm of trouble already. Sideswipe as a Transformer is a name I associate with red Lamborghinis. This is just a nondescript car. If any name could be attached to this car then Nightbeat would be better - If the Nightbeat name was available, which it must have been because it's used for the Minicon, why not use it on the car since it looks so similar to the original ? This will cause further problems when a car & robot that look like Sideswipe come to be released..... The robot head can be seen looking out the windows which is a minus point for me. The car has minimal clearance underneath especially where there are two unreachable Minicon ports on just in front of the rear wheels. These are the only Minicon ports on the car, nothing on top, and the gimmick isn't powered by one which is a sin I feel. What we do get is a raised area on the bonnet that when pushed down causes the front & sides of the bonnet to spring out to the sides and then forward. A waste of space to be honest, and one that could easily have been powered by a Minicon port. Slightly better is the small trigger on the rear bumper that when pressed flips the middle of the rear of the car & windscreen over - including the embossed Autobot symbol in the window - revealing a space where Nightbeat can be stored on top of the vehicle using a Minicon port inaccessible to most other toys. The Minicon can be stored inside the car as well if you lock the panel away again and having it placed there won't hinder the gimmick.

TF: Fold the passenger doors back taking the roof with them. Fold the back of the car out to the sides and back to form the legs. Fold the feet down from underneath the car. Fold the front of the car forward and lock into place so the head is looking down. Separate the sides of the front to form the arms and turn out 90 degrees to reveal the hands. If necessary fold the sides of the car back to lock onto the underside of the forearms. Fold the gimmick activating panel down onto the chest which is the same grey as the head.

The robot. Well...... he's got 5mm peg holes which is an advantage over his case brother Thrust (and Cyclonus, Demolishor, Sideways, Blurr & Hoist for that matter !) Horrible kibblicous forearms and legs - and the leg kibble is huge chunks of the transparent orange from the roof and the windows. I suppose you could think of it as oversized holsters because contained within is a clear plastic dagger and gun - which I've lost - which can be combined into a bayoneted gun. He's got horribly thin upper limbs moulded in a nasty clashing bright orange. His elbows are ball jointed but in such a way that the arms will hardly bend at all shoulders that turn and bend to the sides which is useful since the arms won't lie flat against the side of the chest and need to be pointing out to a 45 degree angle. At least the gimmick makes some sense in this mode where you can trigger it using the mechanism on the aside of each arm making the underside of the forearms jump forward like he's punching someone. Going down to the legs we find bending hips that also swing to the sides and nasty sideways bending knees that with a little work and some swivel joints in the right places could have been properly functional. His minicon ports are absurdly placed in this mode too - they are on the knees ! At least they're forward facing. There's an additional port on his back in this mode which powers a new gimmick - pulling down on it causes his right arm to swing up gun slinger style. And you might want to avoid leaving the bike stuck in it's hiding place in robot mode as it ends up between the legs !

Avoid. Worst Supercon so far.....

In Japan Sideswipe & Nightbeat were sold in Micron Legend as MC-10 Stepper with Char

Oil Slick

Oil Slick and his Minicon (which hasn't even got a decent name just Search & Destroy Drone) appear in an exclusive Battle in a Box pack with Crystal Widow (Beast Machines Blackarachnia) for K-Mart.

Blue becomes purple and here the embossed Autobot symbol is changed to an embossed 'con symbol.

Somehow freed from the name confusion and what he used name represents, together with the purple and the change of faction, this works a little better as a toy !

Treadshot

Ultra Magnus with Over-Run vs Treadshot with Nightbeat

Treadshot is a lighter purple repaint of Armada Smokescreen than Oil Slick is. I didn't like the Armada version but somehow the purple works, and works with the slightly more orangey shade of yellow. There's something of a Stunticon theme to this toy - he's got similar colours and vehicle form to Dead End - and I like it much more than the original.

Runamuck

This version of the toy has had both Battlecharger names attached to it - in Japan it was sold as Runabout in giftset GS-02 with Longrack (Hoist) while in the US he's called Runamuck. Since he's black with orange/red windows and G1 Runabout was black with red windows I'd wager the Japanese version is more correct since G1 Runamuck was a white car with black windows.

He's mainly black plastic (for blue & grey) with orange flame deco, dark blue (instead of Orange) upper limbs. We've got a head remold, we've lost the punching gimmick - though the post is still there. The extending front of the car panel is replaced by a hotrod engine with a slot for his Earth force chip. The flip up bit at the back of the car now contains a souped up engine/exhaust assembly, which pops off to form a gun.

< It's a nice update of the Armada mould, and it is better but somehow I'm slightly underwhelmed compared to the work done on the other three updated Armada moulds.....

[Philip Ayres]

Armada Thrust has basically had all te existing reviews stuck together and rearranged a bit, nothing you've not read before if you've been reading my stuff for a while.

[Philip Ayres]

Wheeljack

At the point Wheeljack came out there had been a couple of duff Supercon toys - Thrust and Sideswipe - which were followed up by some Transmetal Beast Wars deluxe toys with slight remoulds and Minicons. Wheeljack is another name reused from Generation 1 and that conjures up an image of a white sportscar that turns into a robot with large ear panels. The shape of this toy is more reminiscent of one of the G1 Lamborghinis - Sideswipe especially. I think the Sideswipe name could be used OK on a Decepticon toy but at the time the Hasbro team were keen to use Wheeljack as a Decepticon rather than an Autobot due (IIRC) to the similarity between the name Wheeljack and the word Hijack. Where G1 Sideswipe was red this is black - reminiscent of the G2 version - with some yellow stripes on the bonnet, door and spoiler. There's some beautiful detail on the mold *especially* the sliced Autobot logo on the bonnet with a small Decepticon logo underneath.

There are three usable Minicon posts on the toy - two dead posts on the spoiler mounted very close together, and one recessed into the top of the Passenger compartment. The Recess is shaped so that Windshear can fit in it so you may have difficulty using this post with other Minicons. When activated the gimmick causes the gull wing doors to flip up revealing that there's a missile launcher built into each. The triggers for the missiles are under the wings and cause the yellow stripes on the doors to be fired out of the front of the wings. When the wings are raised you can see another Decepticon symbol moulded into the structure uncovered by the wings.

TF: Activate the wing gimmick and turn the car over. Pull the arms up from under the passenger compartment, pull out to the sides and rotate forward. Pull the back of the car out to the sides and fold down till they click with top of the back now facing down. Fold the front of the car down into the space under the passenger compartment. Pull down on the wings and fold the base of them onto the back of the robot.

The robot is a lovely large Supercon that looks - mould wise - a spitting image for G1 Sideswipe - especially on the head, car front as chest and wheels on shoulders making the non use of that name seem like a joke now. In fact I wonder if the toy was designed with one eye on a potential G1 style Powerlinx repaint ? A lot of white is revealed in this mode on the head, arms, upper legs and feet. There's also more of the yellow for the missiles connecting the back pack and forming the upper arms, knees & heel spurs. He's got good articulation for an Armada Supercon, though some bits a little loose - especially the knees when they aren't locked in the straight position. There's also a swivel above the knees, the hips bend, the shoulders turn - these are very stiff turning forward - the arms swing to the sides bellow the shoulders and bend at the elbows. The hands have a 5mm peg hole and can hold any of the Armada minicon weapons - the Takara version also comes in a giftset with the Darksabre. His Minicon posts that were on the back of the car end up on his knees, leaving the live one dead center on the back. The wings end up as his huge back pack - which Windshear can stand on the connecting piece behind the head.

Nice toy. One of the better efforts in the Supercon size. Unfortunately he isn't even the best toy in his case as the other new Supercon released with him is just stunningly good ...

Wheeljack was released in Japan's Micron Legend line as MD-07 Rampage and was also available in giftset MS-08 with the Air Assault Team. Wheeljack is the only Armada Supercon not to be released in the UK.

The Japanese version of Wheeljack features some additional paint work in blue - see HLJ.com for some pictures. Hasbro indicated that this cartoon accurate version would be released in a future Armada wave that would also contain the intended colours for Powerlinx Thrust. The wave never arrived.

Unreleased Universe Drench

A Wheeljack repaint called Drench was intended to form part of a Battle in a Box pack with a Hot Shot repaint as G1 Smokescreen. Drench in this context is the US G2 Aquaspeeder with a black car body and lots of pale green paint on it as opposed to the European G2 Aquaspeeder Drench (it's complicated - the four US moulds (2 for each faction) are the European Autobots who have different names & colours whereas the Euro Decepticon Aquaspeeders were unreleased in the US) The black remains the same on this toy but green paint to match the US G2 toy is added with the yellow becoming the same shade of green and the white becoming grey.

Sadly this pack remains unreleased.

Botcon 2008 Shattered Glass Sideswipe

However demand for Drench continued amongst Transformer fans so much that when the "Mirror Universe" Shattered Glass set was issued for Botcon in 2008 the colour scheme was used on their evil Sideswipe toy. The black and green - both plastic and paint - remain from the unreleased version but the grey now becomes an off white.

Incredibly this is the only repaint of Armada Wheeljack *ever* released.

Possible Future Repaints

The lack of Wheeljack repaints becomes even more incredible when you consider the number of possibilities that exist for repainting the toy. Most would need some minor remoulding to remove the Decepticon symbols and heal/remove the Autobot symbols but ....

Firstly we have Wheeljack's Autobot cartoon form. This swaps black with white, yellow with dark grey and white with light grey. I find it odd that this never showed up as a Japanese exclusive !

Then we can exploit the G1 lineage of the mould. Sideswipe is an obvious choice - red for the black and black for the yellow with the outside of the head being painted black. Red Alert is easy too, and we've also got G2 Sideswipe, Tigertrack, Deep Cover & Clamp Down using the same G1 mould that could donate their colours to repaints of this toy. Tigertrack is of course very close to Sunstreaker's colours which has a similar car mould if a different robot mode.

[Bogatan]

I loved the Supercon Prime mould and was thrilled to get the Magnus repaint, except I couldnt bring myself to open it because then I would also own and have opened a Sideswipe mould which without ever owning it before I recognised as being horrific even by Armada standards. 4 years on Magnus is still stuck in the box.

I was surprised to find I dont mind the SG Sideswipe, maybe because it does compare favourably with the original Drench/Deluge toy and G1/2 Sideswipe come to think of it.

Andy
Andy

[blueshift]

Armada Sideswpe is amazing

[The Doctor]

Oh no! Is Sideswipe still trapped in his box? I stand ready to assist.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Hoist

Hoist (and Wheeljack) are the last original mould Supercon toys for Armada and come after a bad patch of new toys in this size class. Hoist is in the Cartoon the upgraded form of Smokescreen. This new toy is an excavator - only the second one of this size ever done in Transformers after Grimlock (RID) / Build Hurricane (Car Robots). What we get here is a white cabin which can rotate round 360 degrees on top of brown tracks (moulded with embedded wheels) and an orange arm ending in a brown shovel. When I see construction vehicles I automatically think yellow (not Constructicon green !) but the colours used here are sensible and realistic. The name Hoist I connect with tow trucks but save using the Grimlock name (surely better used for a Dinobot) I can't think of anything more appropriate for this toy.

There's four Minicon ports on the toy, one each side of the cab and one on each side of the back of the cab - these are moulded in the same grey blue plastic as the grill on the front of the cab. The Minicon post behind the shovel arm is meant to power a gimmick that unlocks the shovel arm for use - there's a tiny piece of blue plastic behind & under the shovel arm that prevents you from moving the arm and this is meant to spring back when you place a Minicon on the post. It doesn't and in fact on mine it's now broken and won't even lock in place. This leaves the gimmick permanently active - push in on the post on the back of the cab that the shovel arm is attached to and watch the arm extend & spring forward then automatically pull back on release. Great for knocking other TFs over with ! I remember demonstrating this to John Cullen in the pub the London TMUK mob drank in on Charring Cross road and him loving it - it's a great action feature in keeping with the toy's function.

There is some speculation that Hoist is meant to power the Adventure and Destruction team's gear gimmicks - indeed Hoist's Minicon Refute also has a gear gimmick. I suspect this would have been mounted where the Autobot symbol is on the shovel arm (or possibly on the side where the Minicon port is) It's a shame it's not included as I feel it would have added to the toy.

TF: Rotate the tracks so they're as under the cab as it's possible to be and the little wheel between them is at the front. Unclip the tracks from each other at the back and fold each track out to the side and forward. Fold the connecting pieces out so they're flat against the front of each track and fold the feet up. Pull each track/leg out the side slightly and then fold down under the vehicle. Swing the shovel arm down at the front so that the Autobot symbol faces forward. Swing the shovel out to the side 90 degrees and fold down the claw/thumb in opposition to the shovel. Swing the opposite side of the cab down at the back to form the other arm, folding the claw out at the end, then rotating at the bicep joint so the larger claw is on top. Fold the head up from behind the cab and turn to face forward.

The resulting robot is *VERY* posable almost at the BW deluxe level, with adjustable feet (clever) that can either be flat or slightly bent in at one side making a slightly spread legs pose the default, forward bending knees (as well as a sideways joint from the TF), ball jointed hips, shoulders - that swing out about 20 degrees from the side of the toy as well as turn, left arm has a bicep swivel and a bending elbow, an opening claw as his left hand with the right arm ending in the shovel which looks big at first but works better than you think and there's even the opposable claw/thumb against the shovel. His head - mounted on a ball joint -is moulded in the same brown as the treads and has a resemblance to the Beast Wars toy Dinobot which is quite neat because Dinobot was repainted as Grimlock which was the name of the previous TF deluxe excavator.

He's got four Minicon posts - two on the side of each shoulder, one at the top of the right shoulder, and the other in the left palm. If you flip the right arm round - so the shovel is extending out the back of the shoulder - you end up with 2 otherwise symmetrical arms with minicon posts at the end of either arm..... Time for some fun. Try to reinact a great Death's Head moment by placing Sky Blast on the end of an arm as a missile. Indeed you can connect the entire Requiem Blaster onto the end of the arm using Skyblast or at right angles by exposing the hole on Payload. Or try putting Ransack onto a post to form a grappling line attachment for him - his good interaction with Ransack is another little clue to him perhaps being meant as a gear powering toy. A little further experimentation shows that putting some blu tack on the posts allows the original Ultra Magnus large fists to attach to this..... or plug a Zoids Blox (Z-Builder) Block into the end of the arm which can act as a hand and let him hold most TF (and many Zoid) Weapons. OK he doesn't have 5mm peg holes for hands but makes up for it by having plenty of Minicon ports on his arms allowing him to use most of the combined Minicon weapons.

Wow. For what is possibly to be the last original Armada Supercon - only repaints known of at this time - this is the best. It's a fantastic toy - and that's even including a minicon that's no good - best of this size for Armada and an absolute must have in my opinion. If I was forced to choose just one Armada toy then this would be it, and I rather suspect he'd be floating in my all time top ten Transformers list. He's that good and towers over the rest of the Armada Supercon line.

Hoist was available in Japan as Micron Legend toy MC-11 Grappe Super Mode (Grapple) and also in giftset MS-07 with the adventure team strengthening the thought that he may originally have been meant to be powering their gear gimmick. The Japanese version swaps a silver/grey for the brown.

Ransack

Ransack is a complete train wreck of a repaint ! He's Armada Hoist - which was a favourite of mine in the line - the white is now purple, with pale blue replacing the blue grey on the shoulders and bumper on the front. The Autobot symbol has been flattened and replaced with a Decepticon symbol painted on. The legs/tracks are virtually unchanged in their brown and orangeness. Now the orange sort of works ok with the arm, but I'm afraid the brown just makes it look like the new body has been stuck on the old legs - and then the old head was stuck on top. No offence but this really is a half arsed repaint. The legs/tracks needed to be a different colour, and to be honest this was possibly crying out to be done with a green body and purple legs as a constructicon Scavenger homage. Horrible. And as for the green Refute that just clashes badly with the rest of him.......

I've long maintained that Ransack and his Minicon Refute (repainted in Green) rank amongst the worst repaints I've ever seen. But I've been thinking. What if the colours ended up on the wrong bits ? Move the green to where all the purple is on Ransack. Move Ransack's purple to his legs and Refute's wheels. Get rid of the brown or move it to Refute. You then get an eminently sensible Constructicon Scavenger with colours close but not exactly like the G1 original (scavenge and ransack aren't that far removed in meaning so you can see where they plucked the name from) packed with a Minicon you could have easily named Shrapnel for a second G1 homage.

Hopefully the Galaxy Force Longrack repaint will ease the pain of what's happened here !

Longrack

Longrack is a remould of Armada Hoist in the colours of BW Neo Longrack.

An odd choice perhaps ? Well both of these have very mismatched arms, with the larger arm on the right. Hoist has gained a beautifully moulded and coloured mini version of Longrack's head. Hoist's "rear of shovel mechanism" has been remoulded to vaguely, and I mean *VERY* vaguely resemble a Giraffe head. His right shoulder has a remould and that's where the force Chip goes. Without the chip the shovel can't move, which was some of the original intention of Hoist's Gimmick.

Colourwise all the white is now yellow with brown stripes applied on the cab, and the legs - whether brown or orange are now grey. Red replaces the blue/grey for the hands and shovel while the cab bumper and robot shoulders are a very dark blue

It's a Very nice colour scheme that works as both animal and construction vehicle. He has a Cybertron Autobot Chip.

Overall - lovely job, favourite of the 4, makes up for the horror that is Battle in a Box Ransack.

Dinobot

Dinobot is part of a boxset of Beast Wars characters in their pre Beast Wars vehicle forms that was for Botcon 2006. As well as Dinobot it included the other four Beast Wars Maximals from the start of the first series: Optimus Primal (a Cybertron Crumplezone repaint), Cheetor (Cybertron Clocker), Rhinox (Cybertron Landmine) and Rattrap (Cybertron Ransack)

Dinobot uses the Longrack version of the Hoist toy but with one modification - it has the original Dinobot like head. All the white is now brown with gold stripes, the orange is gold, the grey/blue is a very bright blue and the legs are all beige. The shoulder panel has a purple Predacon symbol painted on it.

It's a decent enough repaint, but I suspect the only reason for choosing it as Dinobot is the head.... Though the Dinobot = Grimlock thing and Grimlock being the name for the Cybertron Excavator may also have come into play.

Possible Future Repaints

You know what I'm going to say. Constructicon Scavenger ! It has to be done. Along with Armada Wheeljack as Sideswipe and Night Slash Cheetor as Cheetor this is one of the most obvious repaints that's never been done. Make it happen Hasbro !

[Philip Ayres]

Got a bit stuck thinking of anything to say for the larger toys so will come back to them later

[Philip Ayres]

There's a few of these left to redo too ! Red Alert, Tidal Wave, Megatron ..... and Unicron !

[Philip Ayres]

Megatron

A parcel from BBTS came this morning.

Was it my reissue Prowl and Jazz ?

No.

Hmmm. Maybe it's my Mega PVC Hot Rod, but that's pdq as it was only dispatched Monday.....

No.

Weird nothing else ordered individually.....

Hmmmm....

Mother opens Parcel over phone.

Armada Megatron !!!!

Wire snippers in hand, it's off to work we go. Review to follow.

I'll start by saying if an Ultra Tankor had ever been done this might be the result, think like that and you're nearly there apart from some nice gimmicks.

The Tank mode is an H shape, with the Turret mounted on the cross bar of the H, about 22cm x 15cm x 8cm and is cast mainly in a dark green plastic with the treads - fixed but containing wheels to provide mobility - being cast in black plastic. The Turret rotates through a full 360 degrees, occasionally setting off a sound gimmick - he says "Decepticons Attack!" as well as making a gunfire sound. One of his three bright orange missiles - the one with a Cyberjet style ball on it - fits in the main gun barrel (a sort of metallic blue) and is launched by pulling back on the barrel (Rather unfortunately considering what I discovered later.... ) Megatron has two active Minicon ports in this mode, both of which are on the turret. The purple port to the left of the gun barrel can be pulled back and locked to the side - one gunshot noise as you do this - raising the missile launcher on rear of the other side of the turret to point forward. This launcher takes the other two more traditional missiles which are each fired by a button on the top of the missile launcher. The port on the hatch at the back when rotated either way sets off more gunfire sounds, and this port does need the minicon attached for the gimmick to work. Other notable gimmicks in this mode include the capture chamber on one side at the back, the extendable ramp with a grabbing claw on the other side at the back, a series of pop up plates all with Minicon ports at the front on the right and a ramp with a sliding Minicon port on the left at the front. There's a further Minicon port on each side of the tank at the front and another on the top of the tank sides at the rear plus another on one side at the rear. I make that eight Minicon ports available at all times with a further three on opening action features (four if you use both sides of the one on the fold out ramp). My only real complaint about the tank mode concerns two of the gimmicks: the pop out plates are button activated and the gun (as we've seen) is a pull back one. Why aren't these features powered by a Minicon port as well ?

Transformation: Turn him over onto his turret, pull the rear of the sides down at the back to form legs, adjust the heel spurs & feet then spin the waist 180 degrees. Unfold the panels on the sides of the tank treads and fold the arms down. Adjust gun turret for stability. Simple really.

Megatron is 26cm high in robot mode - though 6cm of that is made up by the height of his shoulders projecting above the level of the top of the body - and 12 cm wide. A lot of the green from tank mode is still visible on his lower legs and back but we get some new colours as well. His lower body, upper limbs and hands are Decepticon purple, while his feet, forearms, waist and upper body are grey. His head is cast in the same slightly metallic colour as the gun barrel. He's got very little articulation in the legs but that means that he's a rock solid standing toy (Car Robots God Fire Convoy, I'm looking at you). What he has got are side ways joints at the knee & hip which are used in the Transformation. His waist & neck turn, as do his shoulders which also swing out to the sides. His elbows bend, both arms rotate below the elbow while his right wrist can rotate and the left hand has spring loaded opposable fingers to use with that arm's gimmick.

We'll start on his left hand for our robot mode gimmicks because pulling on the Minicon port on his left arm flips up a blade from inside the arm, through the middle of the fingers to be held in his hand. If you look on the chest there's a purple slider with the smallest embossed Decepticon symbol I have ever seen which raises a shield over his face. All the sound gimmicks on the turret still work and he can hold Leader One in gun mode (or any other 5mm peg weapon) in his right hand. In addition to the tank turret's Minicon ports - now on his back - we get a port on each shoulder and each of the forearms, a port on the front of each leg and one on the side. There's the ramp port on the back of one shoulder and the other shoulder has the opening flaps with the ports underneath. The shoulder & arm ports are ideal for mounting weapons Minicons on, you could happily use up two sets of Military team here equipping Megatron with extra missiles.

Megatron has 2 extra variants on robot mode. The first involves swinging the cannon down so it's under the right arm a bit like the recommended transformation for the original Megatron (I always folded Megatron's gun barrel up his back so it points up over the top of the shoulder). The second use of the gun barrel involves some transformation: pull up on his upper body extending his waist, then rotate the entire turret round to the front and have the cannon pointing upwards from his upper chest. Unfortunately you can also rotate the turret so the cannon is pointing down and I'm not going to comment about the positioning of the barrel then. Or that the missile firing gimmick still works. But you're going to hear about it, trust me. They'll be photos....

Overall: Great toy, love it to bits.

Megatron was sold in Japan with his Minicon Barrel as toy numbered MD-01.

As a (first) postscript fast forward to Transforce 2002. Phil has one of the few Armada Megatrons in the country and takes it with him. Phil is demonstrating it's "special feature" to a substantial crowd including someone taking photos and someone asking questions. Said people later turn out to be photographer and journalist from the Guardian ! Phil is later quoted in the Guardian Guide Magazine.....

Galvatron

Armada Galvatron is the second Galvatron to be a straight repaint of Megatron (preceded by the RID versions and to be followed by the Energon, Superlink & Cybertron - both full size & Legends - versions. These are the colour swaps used for this toy:

Green becomes off white which has some battle damage painted on
Purple becomes lilac
Grey becomes black
Orange becomes gold Metallic blue becomes purpley red
Black stays the same

Generally it's a nice repaint ..... however the purpley red is a mistake. A fine colour for a Decepticon I'm sure but remember where the cannon can end up in robot mode! The only way that could have been worse was if Megatron's orange missiles had been recast here in pearly white. As it is I'm still slightly concerned by the missiles and other parts in the same colour. Gold plastic is frequently prone to breaking and while there's no reports (YET!) of this toy being affected by Gold Plastic Syndrome but I look at the internal joint on the elbows and worry that GPS will strike when the toy gets to about 10 years old!

Galvatron & Clench were sold in Japan as MD-08 Megatron Supermode and Spark Barrel.

Black Megatron

Black Megatron & his Minicon Black Barrel were promotional "lucky draw" toys issued with the Micron Legend toyline in Japan. These are the colour swaps used for this toy:

Green becomes off white which has some battle damage painted on
Purple becomes black
Grey becomes dark grey
Orange becomes pale green Metallic blue becomes olive green
Black stays the same

Nice promotional toy, but just look at the gallery and forget ever owning one.

Megazarak

Megazarak & his Minicon Calliburn were exclusives issued for the 2004 OFTCC convention (Botcon). Megazarak is a homage to the Japanese toy Masterforce Black Zarak (a well known sufferer of GPS - see above) who's a remould of Headmasters Scorponok. These are the colour swaps used for this toy:

Green becomes black
Purple becomes red
Grey becomes grey/blue
Orange becomes pale blue Metallic blue becomes a darker version of the same colour
Black becomes metallic grey.

Decent enough repaint, but both the red and blue stick out somewhat against the black. One colour maybe, but not both.

Future Repaints

When Megatron was first made a green tank in his Generation 2 version a smaller version of the toy was made in purple as Combat Hero Megatron/Archforce. The purple colours used there would make for a great Armada Megatron repaint.

[blueshift]

Megazarak looks a lot nicer in person, the colours actually work well together. Though I am a sucker for nice colours.

As he is a Botcon figure, the electronics have all been removed however.

[The Doctor]

Megatron is quite a fun toy.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Feb 27, 2009 14:46:52 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Hoist

Ransack

Curse you Burns! This weekend he pointed out to me the resemblance between Ransack and Impactor. Now I must own one again.

I believe Mr Burns may have some thoughts to share on this mould .....