Phil's Minicon Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Prowl

The last two original Minicon teams released in Armada - Emergency and Air Military - are both triplechangers - each member has a vehicle, robot and weapon mode.

Prowl is a police car - as was his G1 namesake. The majority of the car is moulded in clear blue plastic with the tail and sides white plastic. The front bumper, wheels & robot legs are black.

His one Minicon socket is on his roof. I'm afraid mounting him by this just makes him look like an upside down car !

TF (to weapon mode) Turn the car upside down and point the front to your right. Pull the side of the car the faces down away from the body so it projects downward. Pull the bottom half of the body down and to the left. Fold the rear of the car back so the wheel at the top if against the body and the wheel at the front faces out. Fold down the bottom half of the bumper to form a handle.

Prowl's now in gun mode - and it's a hefty weapon. The bumper folded out gives him a peg that can be held by any TF with a 5mm peg hole fist. The Minicon socket - now on the side of the gun - will allow it to be mounted on larger toys.

TF (car to robot): Fold both halves of the bumper out to the sides. Fold the bonnet of the car forward to form the legs. Stand & look at the underside. Pulls the sides of the car out to form the arms.

Prowl's robot mode isn't bad but is dominated by the huge head. The head itself ain't so bad but what surrounds it really bulks it out. He has moveable knees & hips (he can kneel down) and ball jointed shoulders.

Good toy in all three modes.

In Japan Prowl retains his name and is sold in the Emergency Team set numbered MM-20. The Emergency team do not feature in a Micron Legend giftset.

Original Emergency team review " The Emergency team are great, 3 nice vehicles, 3 good robots - though Firebot does look like he was a combiner limb in a previous life ! He transforms into a missile box - similar to Overload's shoulders, with minicon holes each side. If you turn him upside down you can flip his chest piece up in this mode as a sight.

Makeshift may appear to have long fingers at first glance but to me it looks more like he's clutching a pair of Rhinox machine guns ala his weapon mode. I've turned the guns round from in the instructions and mounted him on the peg behind Overload's head.

Prowl's headpiece look like it should fold back behind the head - but doesn't. His weapon is the only hand held one of the 3 - very strange slide bits sideways TF to this mode but good looking gun.

As I intimated above Overload has these at the moment - the white and transparent blue on Makeshift and Prowl match him well, and while Firebot (Firebolt ?) is a different shade of red (more cherry) then Overload the shape works well with him.

Good set, recommended. "

Unicron Battles Prowl

The Emergency team were one of the last pair of Minicon repaints issued in Unicron Battles. This is the first time that Hasbro's love for smokescreen was seen later to be shown on Cybertron Crosswise, Movie Jazz and Universe Classics Prowl repaints. White becomes blue, clear blue becomes opaque red and black stays black. He acquires the number 38 on his bonnet and gains some gold paint operations.

This repaint has consequences for the Makeshift in the same set ....

Dimension-X Prowl

During Micron Legend limited edition repaints of the Minicon teams were released under the Dimension-X label but within the Micron Legend numbering system. The Dimension-X Emergency team were numbered MM-21 and were the last Micron Legend Micron team release.

Here white become orange and clear blue become black. Nice race colours I suppose.

DVD Kingbolt

The Emergency Team become the Hazard team which were released with the Micron Legend DVDs numbered 11-13. Kingbolt came with volume 11. For this released white again becomes orange, clear blue becomes opaque white and black becomes a burgundy brown.

This toy automatically makes me think of G1 Chromedome.

Micron Booster Groove

The Emergency team all sell in Micron Booster V2. White becomes bright white, clear blue becomes clear green and black becomes green.

Why ? I can see little reason for this set. The green makes me think they were aiming for a military set but it just doesn't give that feel. They just feel like odd random repaints.

From the original Micron Booster V2 review: "I don't know of anywhere that has Green emergency vehicles but there we go." says it all !

Transformers Universe Prowl

The Emergency team along with the Air Military team each have a repaint in Armada that's distributed through three toys sold in the Transformers Universe repaint line. Prowl comes with Magna Stampede (repaint of BM Battle Unicorn), Stockade (repaint of BM Tank Drone) and a repainted Military Terradive. This release swaps white for one of the Universe favourite colours Burgundy, and the clear blue for off white, while black remains the same.

Once again I can't see any reason for the colours chosen for this set !

Galaxy Force Hellflame Quasar

The Hellflame Microns were released to promote the release of Galaxy Force Beast Convoy

Each of the Hellflame Microns is exclusive to different stores - Quasar (Prowl) was an Ito Yokado exclusive, Graviton (Firebot) was a Justco exclusive and Bulge (Makeshift) was a TF Station exclusive.

Here white becomes black and the off white becomes grey along with the black remaining the same giving a monochrome appearance to these toys

Galaxy Force White Hellflame Quasar

The white Hellflame Microns are as the name suggests and all white version of the Emergency team exclusive to the Justco store.

Cybertron Checkpoint

Prowl becomes Checkpoint in this Cybertron minicon 2 pack where he's paired with Sunstorm - a repaint of Energon Wreckage who's a remould of Armada Runway.

At last the Emergency team acquire a theme to their repaints and are renamed (and labelled) the SWAT team. Prowl is SWAT team member A2. White becomes blue and clear blue become black with black remaining black. The colours work with the name & theme for the team and breathe a life into this set of repaints that the others just haven't had.

Checkpoint is a clever play with the name. He was originally Prowl, and of course Prowl and Checkpoint were an Energon exclusive combiner set. I now associate Checkpoint with a white police vehicle - indeed I think it's an ideal name for the Sunstreaker police car is it ever gets made as an E-Hobby exclusive. Here however he's black with blue sides and back - it makes him look a bit like MM Seawatch, but with wheels ! His robot mode looks a bit flat - all black bar the blue arms and head, with no new paint details apart from a stripe of red over his visor. Gun mode looks functional enough in these colours though.

[Philip Ayres]

I'm not encouraged. That took an hour and a half to write and I ended up slagging off most of them. 9 versions !!!!!

Could I find any decent pics of the White Hellflame Microns ? No.

And then to compound matters while researching them I discovered the Calibre Micron team existed which I needed to write down while I remembered it.

[The Doctor]

How many minicons are there in total anyway?

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

I dunno. I might make a stab at adding it up when I'm done. But it's easily 200+ Possibly even 400.

[Philip Ayres]

I've just pulled down the Minicons spreadsheet. I've only got the minicon teams to hand so no toy packins and no Claasics minicons. Counting Japanese versions as the same as the US ones except for the Sea and Air Assault teams..... 85 released teams of three and 5 unreleased teams.... making 255 released minicons and 15 unreleased ones.

More to come

[Deleted]

Jan 12, 2009 22:00:08 GMT Philip Ayres said:

I feel there may be life recolouring these yet !

Sadly there isn't. The moulds for the Space team and most (if not all) of the other Armada Minicon teams have been worn out. That's why Club Astrotrain came with repaints of the Giant Planet team rather than the Space Team repaints Spacewarp would have been packed with. They had a good run though the poor little things conked out from overuse like the car brother moulds before them.

Oh, and in the interests of pedantry the Japanese names for Blurr and Hoist are "Silverbolt" and "Grap Super Mode" not "Grapple" and "Silverstreak."

[Philip Ayres]

Makeshift

The last two original Minicon teams released in Armada - Emergency and Air Military - are both triplechangers - each member has a vehicle, robot and weapon mode.

Makeshift is a dual rotor helicopter - like G1 Highbrow and BM Obsidian. The rotors are mounted at the end of small wings projecting from the body of the plane. Makeshift shares exactly the same colours of plastic as Prowl. As we'll see later if you change one on one toy the other changes too. Since Prowl is the toy that the toymakers had ideas of what to do with Makeshift is the one who has to suffer as a consequence. (Firebot uses the same plastic too, but in much smaller quantities and his major colour is independent of the other two toys) Makeshift's body and supports for the propellers are the same white as Prowl's back & sides. His wings and rotor blades are the same clear blue as Prowl's body. The central part of the rotor, robot legs and some small connecting parts are the same colour as Prowl's wheels. The rotor blades spin - they're loose enough that you can low on them and they'll turn and the supports for the rotors turn so the rotors can be pivoted forward or back - when forward they make the toy almost look like a twin propeller plane.

He has one Minicon socket under the cockpit. When used as a Minicon add on in this mode it appears as if he's a dual spinning blade weapon.

TF (to weapon mode) Fold the tail up over the helicopter. Fold the rotor blades in and up. Tilt the rotors backwards. Attach to a larger toy with the back of the helicopter pointing forward.

Makeshift forms a twin gattling gun unit. The Gattlings formed from the rotors still spin. Unlike Prowl he can't be hand held - but see the Hellflame versions bellow.

TF (from helicopter to robot mode) Actually the first steps are to form the gattling mode: Fold the tail up over the helicopter. Fold the rotor blades in and up. Tilt the rotors backwards. Fold the underside of the helicopter out and back to form the legs. Fold the nosecone down to form the chest. Flip the head up from the top of the cockpit.Fold the wings onto the side of the chest. Fold the rotor supports back to form the arms.

Similar to his twin blade helicopter descendant Incinerator Makeshift has large hands made up of the rotor blades forming the three fingers. Each finger bends out and back, the wrists turn as do the shoulder. That's it for meaningful articulation although the legs bend out to the sides at the hips and in at the knees - neither of which is very helpful.

Good toy in all three modes.

In Japan Makeshift becomes Twist and is sold in the Emergency Team set numbered MM-20. The Emergency team do not feature in a Micron Legend giftset.

Original Emergency team review " The Emergency team are great, 3 nice vehicles, 3 good robots - though Firebot does look like he was a combiner limb in a previous life ! He transforms into a missile box - similar to Overload's shoulders, with minicon holes each side. If you turn him upside down you can flip his chest piece up in this mode as a sight.

Makeshift may appear to have long fingers at first glance but to me it looks more like he's clutching a pair of Rhinox machine guns ala his weapon mode. I've turned the guns round from in the instructions and mounted him on the peg behind Overload's head.

Prowl's headpiece look like it should fold back behind the head - but doesn't. His weapon is the only hand held one of the 3 - very strange slide bits sideways TF to this mode but good looking gun.

As I intimated above Overload has these at the moment - the white and transparent blue on Makeshift and Prowl match him well, and while Firebot (Firebolt ?) is a different shade of red (more cherry) then Overload the shape works well with him.

Good set, recommended. "

Unicron Battles Makeshift

The Emergency team were one of the last pair of Minicon repaints issued in Unicron Battles. Because Prowl has become Smokescreen the other two toys have to adopt these colours. White becomes blue, clear blue becomes opaque red and black stays black.

The blue and the red don't work on this toy. Better options for the red would be clear blue, the same blue as the rest of the toy or black. Best of all would be grey - then we'd have a Minicon Highbrow. Makeshift feels short-changed in this set. It won't be the last time.

Dimension-X Twist

During Micron Legend limited edition repaints of the Minicon teams were released under the Dimension-X label but within the Micron Legend numbering system. The Dimension-X Emergency team were numbered MM-21 and were the last Micron Legend Micron team release.

Here white become orange and clear blue become black. I think they're intended to match Powerlinx Red Alert and provide him with a team of similarly coloured Minicons.

DVD Impulsor

The Emergency Team become the Hazard team which were released with the Micron Legend DVDs numbered 11-13. Impulsor came with volume 13. For this released white again becomes orange, clear blue becomes opaque white and black becomes a burgundy brown.

It's bright ....

Micron Booster Rotor

The Emergency team all sell in Micron Booster V3. White becomes bright white, clear blue becomes clear green and black becomes green.

Why ? I can see little reason for this set. The green makes me think they were aiming for a military set but it just doesn't give that feel. They just feel like odd random repaints.

Transformers Universe Makeshift

The Emergency team along with the Air Military team each have a repaint in Armada that's distributed through three toys sold in the Transformers Universe repaint line. Makeshift comes with Whirl (a repaint of the European Transformer Rotorstorm) and a repainted Gunbarrel from the Air Military team. I can see the desire to bundle both helicopters together but I think this release might have been better with Prowl since of all the larger Universe toys these Minicons are packed with Whirl can actually hold him !

This release swaps white for one of the Universe favourite colours Burgundy, and the clear blue for off white, while black remains the same.

Once again I can't see any reason for the colours chosen for this set, but Makeshift does look quite cool in his new dark colours.

Galaxy Force Hellfame Bulge

The Hellflame Microns were released to promote the release of Galaxy Force Beast Convoy. See Remy Act 387 for a gallery of all three ! Each of the Hellflame Microns is exclusive to different stores - Quasar (Prowl) was an Ito Yokado exclusive, Graviton (Firebot) was a Justco exclusive and Bulge (Makeshift) was a TF Station exclusive.

Unlike Quasar (Prowl), both Graviton (Firebot) and Bulge (Makeshift) get a remould for this release. Bulge acquires a 5mm peg under his tail which allows toys with a standard size fist hole to carry him.

Here white becomes black and the off white becomes grey along with the black remaining the same giving a monochrome appearance to these toys. Makeshift looks great in these colours making him appear more like a military helicopter painted for night operations.

Galaxy Force White Hellflame Bulge

The white Hellflame Microns are as the name suggests and all white version of the Emergency team exclusive to the Justco store. White Bulge was available if you bought Leobreaker

Cybertron Scythe

Makeshift becomes Scythe in this Cybertron minicon 2 pack where he's paired with Ramjet - a repaint of Energon Skyboom who's a remould of Armada Sonar.

At last the Emergency team acquire a theme to their repaints and are renamed (and labelled) the SWAT team. Scythe is SWAT team member A01. White becomes blue and clear blue become black with black remaining black. The colours work with the name & theme for the team and breathe a life into this set of repaints that the others just haven't had.

Sadly Scythe is the original version of the mould and not the adapted Hellflame version. However the SWAT colours continue to work well on Scythe in both his modes, with the blue being dominant throughout. Works well.

[Philip Ayres]

Firebot

The last two original Minicon teams released in Armada - Emergency and Air Military - are both triplechangers - each member has a vehicle, robot and weapon mode.

Firebot is a fire engine with a cab mounted water cannon. He's got six wheel, two at the front and four at the rear. There's no ladder on this sort of fire engine. Firebot uses the same plastic as Prowl & Makeshift but in much smaller quantities to the other two toys and his major colour - red in this case - is independent of the other two toys. Firebot's lower rear is the same white as Prowl's back & sides. His water cannon and scope in weapons mode are the same clear blue as Prowl's body. His wheels and robot legs are the same colour as Prowl's wheels.

The name of the toy has always intrigued me. It seems a bit simplistic for a transformer. Is it intentional or did someone make a spelling error when they wanted Firebolt ?

He has a pair of Minicon sockets on his roof. This exposes his underside when mounted which consists of two white panels and a clear blue strip down the middle that might be a piece of complex machinery the larger robot is using. There's some moulding at the end of the fire engine that you could conceivably think was gun barrels.

TF (to weapon mode) Fold the top of the back of the vehicle out to the sides and then rotate 180 degrees so the orange panels are pointing forward and the silver ones back. Fold the water cannon out to the side. Fold the front of the vehicle onto the back of the vehicle. Place so the underside of the back of the vehicle points up/ Fold up the clear blue central chest piece as a scope.

What you get is a missile array - 12 missiles divided equally between two chambers. The missiles are moulded in and painted. Unlike Prowl he can't be hand held - you need to attach him to a minicon post or leave freestanding - but see the Hellflame versions bellow.

TF (from fire engine to robot mode) Fold the top of the back of the vehicle out to the sides and then rotate 180 degrees so the orange panels are pointing forward and the silver ones back. Fold the front of the vehicle down to form the robot legs. Fold the clear blue central panel down onto the chest to expose his head.

Firebot is moulded with his head wearing a fireman's helmet. How good is that ? The white and the blue are much more exposed here. His shoulders turn & fold back and his hips & knees move independently.

Good toy in all three modes again.

In Japan Firebot becomes Draft and is sold in the Emergency Team set numbered MM-20. The Emergency team do not feature in a Micron Legend giftset.

Original Emergency team review " The Emergency team are great, 3 nice vehicles, 3 good robots - though Firebot does look like he was a combiner limb in a previous life ! He transforms into a missile box - similar to Overload's shoulders, with minicon holes each side. If you turn him upside down you can flip his chest piece up in this mode as a sight.

Makeshift may appear to have long fingers at first glance but to me it looks more like he's clutching a pair of Rhinox machine guns ala his weapon mode. I've turned the guns round from in the instructions and mounted him on the peg behind Overload's head.

Prowl's headpiece look like it should fold back behind the head - but doesn't. His weapon is the only hand held one of the 3 - very strange slide bits sideways TF to this mode but good looking gun.

As I intimated above Overload has these at the moment - the white and transparent blue on Makeshift and Prowl match him well, and while Firebot (Firebolt ?) is a different shade of red (more cherry) then Overload the shape works well with him.

Good set, recommended. "

Unicron Battles Firebot

The Emergency team were one of the last pair of Minicon repaints issued in Unicron Battles. Because Prowl has become Smokescreen the other two toys have to adopt these colours. White becomes blue, clear blue becomes opaque red and black stays black.

Firebot has more independence from Prowl because of his body colour so Hasbro also went for a G1 homage in this toy - they chose pale blue for the fire engine making him a Minicon Hotspot. I don't go for the whole blue fire engine thing but it's a G1 homage so I'm OK with that. Far worse is to come. The missiles within the toy are now red.

Dimension-X Draft

During Micron Legend limited edition repaints of the Minicon teams were released under the Dimension-X label but within the Micron Legend numbering system. The Dimension-X Emergency team were numbered MM-21 and were the last Micron Legend Micron team release.

Here white become orange and clear blue become black. I think they're intended to match Powerlinx Red Alert and provide him with a team of similarly coloured Minicons. However Draft's main colour goes from being red to dark blue ? What A dark blue fire engine At least if they'd made it orange it would have blended in with the rest of the team ! The missiles in the toy are red on this release.

DVD Quench

The Emergency Team become the Hazard team which were released with the Micron Legend DVDs numbered 11-13. Quench came with volume 12. For this released white again becomes orange, clear blue becomes opaque white and black becomes a burgundy brown.

Quench's main body becomes yellow on this release, which is a reasonable choice as I can remember seeing airport fire engines painted this colour. Quench's missiles are painted shocking pink !

Micron Booster Cluster

The Emergency team all sell in Micron Booster V3. White becomes bright white, clear blue becomes clear green and black becomes green.

Why ? I can see little reason for this set. The green makes me think they were aiming for a military set - the name of this toy implies a Military theme too as does the green they've used on the fire engine (in the UK the Army have green fire engines nicknamed Green Goddesses) but it just doesn't give that feel on the rest of the set. They just feel like odd random repaints.

Original Micron booster v2 review :"I don't know of anywhere that has Green emergency vehicles but there we go.

Prowl = Groove
Firebot = Cluster
Makeshift = Rotor

Clear blue become dark clear green - shame, the light green on the box gave Rotor a HM Brainstorm feel
Grey becomes White - good
Black becomes Dark Green - Why ?? it's mainly used for the wheels ??
Red becomes Olive Green.

Actually this last one is quite cool as we get Cluster as a Green Goddess Fire Engine :-)

OK, but nothing special, and for both these sets I can't see the reason for the colour schemes."

Transformers Universe Firebot

The Emergency team along with the Air Military team each have a repaint in Armada that's distributed through three toys sold in the Transformers Universe repaint line. Firebot comes with Fireflight (a repaint of the Beast Machine Spy Streak) and a repainted Thunderwing from the Air Military team.

This release swaps white for one of the Universe favourite colours Burgundy, and the clear blue for off white, while black remains the same. Firebot's red again becomes airport fire engine yellow (and his missiles become red) which is appropriate given he's packed with two planes.

Galaxy Force Graviton

The Hellflame Microns were released to promote the release of Galaxy Force Beast Convoy. See Remy Act 387 for a gallery of all three !

Each of the Hellflame Microns is exclusive to different stores - Quasar (Prowl) was an Ito Yokado exclusive, Graviton (Firebot) was a Justco exclusive and Bulge (Makeshift) was a TF Station exclusive.

Unlike Quasar (Prowl), both Graviton (Firebot) and Bulge (Makeshift) get a remould for this release. Graviton acquires a 5mm in place of the Minicon socket on the right as you're looking at his front. This allows toys with a standard size fist hole to carry him.

Here white becomes black and the off white becomes grey along with the black remaining the same giving a monochrome appearance to these toys. The red becomes a very dark blue continuing the night attack theme of the other toys and the missiles are now painted yellow.

Nice repaint and a good mould modification.

Galaxy Force White Hellflame Graviton

The white Hellflame Microns are as the name suggests and all white version of the Emergency team exclusive to the Justco store. White Graviton was available if you bought Leobreaker

Cybertron Anti-Blaze

Firebot becomes Anti-Blaze in this Cybertron minicon 2 pack where he's paired with Thrust - a repaint of Energon Scattor who's a remould of Armada Jetstorm.

At last the Emergency team acquire a theme to their repaints and are renamed (and labelled) the SWAT team. Anti-Blaze is SWAT team member A03. White becomes blue and clear blue become black with black remaining black. Anti-Blaze's red becomes grey. The colours work with the name & theme for the team and breathe a life into this set of repaints that the others just haven't had.

Sadly Anti-Blaze is the original version of the mould and not the adapted Hellflame version. However Anti-Blaze is a revelation. Original - obviously a fire engine and that image has stuck in my head repaint after repaint. US Repaint = Hotspot colours, must still be a fire engine.... although I've never seen a light blue one. Dimension-X Draft - Dark Blue, not sure what they were getting at there. Hazard team (DVD) Quench - Yellow, Airport Fire Engine. Micron Booster V2 Cluster - Olive Drab, Military fire engine. I come unstuck again with the black Hellflame Team Graviton, but nothing has shifted the basic Fire Engine ness of this toy. Till now. Paint it grey, put SWAT on the side of it and it's suddenly an armoured vehicle with a water cannon on the front. Well done Hasbro for finally breaking my mindset ! Robot mode looks good in grey with blue upper body highlights, and the missiles in the weapon mode here are the same grey as the body.

Then of course they give it the name Anti Blaze which immediately makes me think fire engine again !

[legios]

Ah, the Emergency Team minicons. These are pretty much my favourite of the lot. I love the fact that they managed to engineer three viable modes on a toy this small, and that they did it so well on Prowl and Firebot. The choice of Alt-modes has always struck me as odd though - Prowl and Firebot, a police car and a fire engine made sense, but then you had Makeshift - a tilt-rotor, as at the time under development as a military transport and helicopter substitute. He stuck out a bit as being the one of the three who would have had problems blending in to a present day street scene. I quite like him as a toy though, even his weapon mode worked quite well as an add-on to armada toys - especially for those that had forearm or wrist hardpoints, where he was one of those minicons who actually looked the part of "attaches to larger robot to increase its combat ability".

My favourite mold from the team I would have to say is Firebot - he just seems to have a certain something in terms of character. Seeming the sort of stolid reliable chap who always has the other minicons back.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

Terradive

Original Air Military Review: "Air Military: Nice jets, nice robots, some interesting TFs and a third weapons mode. Can't go wrong really. " The last two original Minicon teams released in Armada - Emergency and Air Military - are both triplechangers - each member has a vehicle, robot and weapon mode.

Terradive is a Lockheed Blackbird SR-71 Stealth Jet. It's one of the few planes I can identify by name, maker and model number as the X-Men used one for many years. This is pretty much the same shape as the actual plane with perhaps a slightly longer nose and the addition of two fins beside the cockpit. The shape is distinctive and evocative and yet this is the only Transformer that's been made of it to date. Terradive - wonderful name - has got a fold down landing gear under the nose. The plane is mainly moulded in black as befits him, but the nosecone is moulded blue (some is then painted silver) and there are grey robot parts underneath.

There are two minicon sockets under this toy towards the back allowing him to be mounted blade like on an arm. All he really needs is a fold out handle at the back and you could use him as a sword

His weapon mode is formed thus: Separate the blue sides of the nosecone from the silver core. Fold both wings and engines up & in raising the nosecone sides. The resulting weapon is a three bladed claw of the kind used by Ninjas - many GI Joe Stormshadow figures have one starting with the 1988 Urban Camouflage version. Buy two & wrist mount them and you can continue the X-Men theme by making your transformer look like Wolverine !

TF (from jet to robot) separate the nose cone and fold the sides back so they point over the back of the jet. Link them back together at the tip. Pull the undercarriage away from the back of the jet. Fold the silver middle of the nose up bringing the undercarriage with it to form the legs. The nose middle then folds up the back. Fold back the heel spurs. Pull the wings and engines away from the side of the body to form the arms.

Terradive's robot mode has real character. Beautifully sculpted face, Minicon symbol on the chest surrounded by the blue panels from the back of the claw.... Just looks superb. His knees bend and his hips & shoulder are ball jointed. I've said in the past about how if a larger toy can be downsized without loosing any of it's features that makes it a bad toy. I look at Terradive and want it upsized to a deluxe with a bit more articulation thrown in and the ability to remove the nose as a sword blade. Seriously the quality of the design is wasted on a Minicon.

I like it. Lots.

In Japan Terradive is appropriately named Recon and appears in Micron Legend Micron pack MM-11. They also appears in giftset MS-06 with Strato (Thrust) which won't have done Thrust any favours !

Dimension-X Recon

The Dimension-X Air Military team are one of the true greats of the range. All black stealth versions are the theme with Recon keeping his black but trading his blue for black and his grey for white. Superb paired with Armada Skywarp.

DVD Falcia

The Air Military team were packed with Micron Legend DVDs 5-6 and renamed the Sonic Assault team. All of this team are given female personalities and have their colours altered to match. Black becomes white, blue becomes clear pink and the white becomes very pale blue. Terradive is renamed Falcia. It's a completely left field choice for a somewhat macho team but somehow it works !

Micron Booster Blitz

The Air Military team are packaged in Micron Booster V2. Recon becomes Blitz and (again) swaps black for white, this time with orange painted trim. Blue becomes orange and grey becomes black. The white is nice again but the orange lets it down.

Universe Spring Value Terradive

The Air Military team packed in the TRU Exclusive Spring Value Pack Universe Ramjet didn't end up as pictured on the packaging. Terradive should have been white with some blue. Instead we get a toy identical to the general release version except that the blue is darker and the cockpit is now painted orange.

Universe Terradive

Terradive's second Universe appearance is as a recoloured pack-in toy. The Emergency team along with the Air Military team each have a repaint in Armada that's distributed through three toys sold in the Transformers Universe repaint line. Terradive comes with Magna Stampede (repaint of BM Battle Unicorn), Stockade (repaint of BM Tank Drone) and a repainted Emergency team Prowl. (The other two members of the team can be found with Whirl & Fireflight.)

Once again we go down the white for black route with grey becoming black. This time the blue is also white giving us an all white Stealth Jet apart from some gold & silver painted details. It looks superb, well worth getting.

Galaxy Force Calibre Mugen

Mugen is a member of the Calibre Micron team released to go with Galaxy Force Sonic Bomber (Cybertron Wing Sabre). A great gallery of all three Calibre Microns can be found at Remy Act 388. For this release black and blue become grey - although the nose halves are then painted - and the grey becomes red.

The most important feature of this release is that they are remoulded - Transformers Wiki's Mugen page clearly shows the remoulded heel spurs which now form 5mm pegs that can be used as handles. The entire jet can now be held as a sword or the claw used as a hand weapon. The amusing aspect to this is that Sonic Bomber does not possess fists with 5mm holes in so cannot hold Mugen. (see also Overload for a similar problem, but do especially see the Thunderwing review for what happens to Calibre Micron Ichibi).

Mugen was available from Joshin Denki stores in Japan. Then name (again appropriately for a Stealth Jet) means Illusion.

Cybertron Shockwave

In the Cybertron Minicon VS packs the Air Military team becomes the Sky Attack Team set against the Military Team repainted and renamed as the Air Military team.

Terradive becomes Shockwave - the first time Shockwave has been a jet. Black turns a more matt black than before, blue becomes a dark teal blue and grey gets a darker shade too. My original review says "He isn't vastly different to the original version, but you expect a stealth jet to be black or close to it - the only other version that might work would be an all white one I think....." which is true - most of the above repaints are variants on either the black or white theme

Disappointingly this release uses the original version and not the one modified so that it can be hand held.

[Philip Ayres]

Thunderwing

Original Air Military Review: "Air Military: Nice jets, nice robots, some interesting TFs and a third weapons mode. Can't go wrong really. "

The last two original Minicon teams released in Armada - Emergency and Air Military - are both triplechangers - each member has a vehicle, robot and weapon mode.

Thunderwing pairs nicely with Terradive - the Stealth Jet - in that he's a Stealth Bomber, a Minicon sized version of the ATB that was successful in G2 (and BWII, RID and Robotmasters) Thunderwing is mainly composed of a light grey/brown plastic with gold highlight painted on it - this colour also forms the majority of Gunbarrel. He has some of the dark blue seen on the rest of the team on his robot arms and legs. His head is the same black as Terradive and he does not use the paler grey of the other two Minicons in this set.

Pinned to a larger toy Thunderwing looks like a bow or an arrow mounted on arm. If there was a larger toy with a chest peg dead centre and high up he could be attached as a piece of body armour. Unfortunately because the only Minicon socket on him turns (located in the centre of the jet underneath) he has a tendency to end up back downwards which negates any attempt to do anything interesting with him.

His weapon mode is formed thus: Fold the robot arms - on the outside of the tail fins - up and unfold them so they lie on top of the wings. Fold the back and points of both wings back to form an additional point out of the back of the jet. Together with his nose and wing tips this now form a four pointed shuriken/throwing star which can be attached to a larger toy and spins round the aforementioned Minicon socket. I said the vehicle mode tied in nicely to Terradive: this strengthens the pairing by making them both Ninja weapons.

TF (from jet to robot) Put the underside of the jet towards you. Fold the undercarriage out the front of the nose to form the robot legs. Fold the arms out from under to behind the jet and then fold the trailing edge of the jet towards the Minicon socket to expose the head, form the chest and bring the arms into place.

Thunderwing's robot mode is dominated by the Minicon socket in the centre of his chest - I suppose you could think of it as some giant cannon. His articulation is excellent - his knees & elbows bend and his hips & shoulders turn. Great for a toy of this size.

Decent toy in all three modes, but the Minicon socket hampers it a little

In Japan Thunderwing is named Flame and appears in Micron Legend Micron pack MM-11. They also appears in giftset MS-06 with Strato (Thrust).

Dimension-X Flame

The Dimension-X Air Military team are one of the true greats of the range. All black stealth versions are the theme with Flame swapping all his colours for black. Superb paired with Armada Skywarp.

DVD Twirl

The Air Military team were packed with Micron Legend DVDs 5-6 and renamed the Sonic Assault team. All of this team are given female personalities and have their colours altered to match. The grey becomes lilac/purple, blue becomes clear pink and the white becomes very pale blue. Flame is renamed Twirl - probably due to the rotating Minicon socket.

It's a completely left field choice of colours for a somewhat macho team but somehow it works !

Micron Seeker

The Air Military team are packaged in Micron Booster V2. Flame becomes Seeker and swaps grey for blue, with blue becoming orange and light grey becoming black.

My eyes ! My eyes ! It's nearly that cyan blue again that's ruined every toy it's touched. This time the team up with bright orange is too much !

A promotional image at Transformers Wiki shows Flame with either a blue or black body and yellow limbs !

Universe Spring Value Thunderwing

The Air Military team packed in the TRU Exclusive Spring Value Pack Universe Ramjet didn't end up as pictured on the packaging. Instead we get a toy similar to the general release version except that the grey is now nearer black and the blue is darker.

Universe Thunderwing

Thunderwing's second Universe appearance is as a recoloured pack-in toy. The Emergency team along with the Air Military team each have a repaint in Armada that's distributed through three toys sold in the Transformers Universe repaint line. Thunderwing comes with Fireflight (a repaint of the Beast Machine Spy Streak) and a repaint of Firebot from the Emergency team. (The other two members of the team can be found with Magna Stampede & Stockade and Whirl.)

Thunderwing's grey/brown now becomes a light brass like beige. The blue becomes white as does the black used to make the head, although in this case it's painted black.

The lighter colours suit this toy less well.

Galaxy Force Calibre Ichibi

Ichibi is a member of the Calibre Micron team released to go with Galaxy Force Sonic Bomber (Cybertron Wing Sabre). A great gallery of all three Calibre Microns can be found at Remy Act 388. For this release black & blue become grey and the grey/brown used on the body becomes white with small amounts of red a yellow paint highlighting.

Like Mugen(Terradive) this toy looks great repainted in white. The colours here are a pretty close match for Sonic Bomber

The most important feature of this release is that they are remoulded - Transformers Wiki's Ichibi page clearly shows the remoulded Minicon socket which now form 5mm pegs that can be used as handles. The entire jet can now be held as a throwing star. The first amusing aspect to this is that Sonic Bomber does not possess fists with 5mm holes in so cannot hold Ichibi. (see also Overload for a similar problem) but as a bonus they've eliminated the toy's one Minicon socket meaning he can't be mounted on the larger toy either. D'OH ! This makes Ichibi the only Minicon with no Minicon socket

Ichibi was available from Ito Yokaido or Hello Mac stores in Japan.

Cybertron Razorclaw

In the Cybertron Minicon VS packs the Air Military team becomes the Sky Attack Team set against the Military Team repainted and renamed as the Air Military team. Thunderwing becomes Razorclaw and is paired with Steamhammer (KnockOut from Land Military). Grey turns into black , blue becomes a dark teal blue and what was black becomes a more matt black.

My original review says "Razorclaw's the Stealth Bomber that turns into a spinning shield/sheriken. Hmmm, maybe Razorclaw might have been better used on the plane that turned into a claw ! The main body of the plane is now a gloss black and the overall effect is very close to X-Dimension Flame - surely the definitive version of these toys." What I didn't spot at the time is that he Minicon socket "cannon" on the chest and the slanted nature of the tail over it make this toy a much better match for the Shockwave name.

Disappointingly (perhaps ?) this release uses the original version and not the Hellflame one modified so that it can be hand held (that version of the mould has never appeared in the west) On the other hand it does mean that Razorclaw can still be attached to larger toys..

[Philip Ayres]

Gunbarrel

Original Air Military Review: "Air Military: Nice jets, nice robots, some interesting TFs and a third weapons mode. Can't go wrong really. "

The last two original Minicon teams released in Armada - Emergency and Air Military - are both triplechangers - each member has a vehicle, robot and weapon mode.

Gunbarrel is a four engined transport plane - similar to a C-130. He departs a little from the stealth theme established by Terradive & Thunderwing which is a little sad. His main colour is the same darker grey/brown used for Thunderwing, but the underside of the tail is the lighter grey used on Terradive and his robot arms & head are the black common to all three toys.

He has one Minicon socket underneath him which enables him to be arm mounted. He looks like a plane in this mode or perhaps some robotic bird of prey about to be launched at the enemy.

His weapon mode is formed thus: Fold the nosecone and cockpit up onto the back of the jet. Fold the wings up round it. This forms a six barrelled gattling like cannon which can be pegged onto any larger toy. Extra firepower is always welcome but once again he breaks the theme established by the other two - in this case ninja weapons.

TF (from jet to robot) Fold the nosecone and cockpit up onto the back of the jet. Look at the underside of the plane and rotate the piece containing the Minicon socket 180 degrees to expose the face. Pull the tail away from the piece it's slotted into to form the legs. Fold the arms down from the wings.

The robot you get is one with a wide wingspan. The arms fold to the side, the hips are ball joined and the knees bend. I think the arms work better with the shoulders folded back so they turn forward and back at the shoulder but this means the moulding on the fist is then positioned wrong with the back of the hand pointing down (a moulding mistake on the toy ?)

Every version of this toy I have *ever* owned (I've had seven over the years - Armada, Micron Legend, Dimension-X, both Universe, Micron Booster and Cybertron) has had the same fault. The socket on his right leg is a little loose and is liable to pop off.

Good toy, though a bit different to the other two and nowhere near as decent as Terradive.

In Japan Gunbarrel is named Glide and appears in Micron Legend Micron pack MM-11. They also appears in giftset MS-06 with Strato (Thrust) which won't have done Thrust any favours !

Dimension-X Glide

The Dimension-X Air Military team are one of the true greats of the range. All black stealth versions are the theme with Glide keeping his black but trading his dark grey for black and his light grey for white. Superb paired with Armada Skywarp.

DVD Combusta

The Air Military team were packed with Micron Legend DVDs 5-6 and renamed the Sonic Assault team. All of this team are given female personalities and have their colours altered to match. Black becomes white, grey/brown becomes lilac/purple and the white becomes very pale blue. Gunbarrel is renamed Combusta. It's a completely left field choice for a somewhat macho team but somehow it works !

Micron Booster Effect

The Air Military team are packaged in Micron Booster V2. Glide becomes Effect and swaps grey/brown for blue, black for white, grey becomes black. This works a lot better than his counterpart Seeker as the blue isn't clashing with the orange on any of the other toys.

A promotional image at Transformers Wiki shows Effect with a red body !

Universe Spring Value Gunbarrel

The Air Military team packed in the TRU Exclusive Spring Value Pack Universe Ramjet didn't end up as pictured on the packaging. Instead we get a toy identical to the general release version except that the colours are a little darker.

Universe Gunbarrel

Gunbarrel's second Universe appearance is as a recoloured pack-in toy. The Emergency team along with the Air Military team each have a repaint in Armada that's distributed through three toys sold in the Transformers Universe repaint line. Gunbarrel comes with Whirl (a repaint of the European Transformer Rotorstorm) and a repainted Makeshift from the Emergency team. (The other two members of the teams can be found with Magna Stampede & Stockade and Fireflight.)

Once again we go down the white for black route with light grey becoming black and dark grey becoming a brassy beige.

OK looking jet, not my favourite colours for this toy.

Galaxy Force Calibre Hyakurai

Hyakurai is a member of the Calibre Micron team released to go with Galaxy Force Sonic Bomber (Cybertron Wing Sabre). A great gallery of all three Calibre Microns can be found at Remy Act 388. For this release dark grey becomes white, black becomes grey and the light grey becomes red.

The most important feature of this release is that they are remoulded - Transformers Wiki's Hyakurai page clearly shows the remoulded head which now includes a 5mm peg that can be used as a handle. The plane can now be held as a hand gun. The amusing aspect to this is that Sonic Bomber does not possess fists with 5mm holes in so cannot hold Hyakurai. (see also Overload for a similar problem, but do especially see the Thunderwing review for what happens to Calibre Micron Ichibi).

Hyakurai was available from either Ito Yokaido or TF Station stores in Japan. The name apparently means "Gun of 100 thunders"

Cybertron Sky Lynx

In the Cybertron Minicon VS packs the Air Military team becomes the Sky Attack Team set against the Military Team repainted and renamed as the Air Military team. Terradive becomes Sky Lynx and is paired with Thunderblast - a repaint of Bonecrusher from the Military team. Dark grey becomes pale green (which is odd because Razorclaw/Thunderwing's grey becomes black suggesting that there's a slightly different mould used to make these where these parts are not linked). Black turns a more matt black than before and grey gets a darker shade too.

My original review says "Sky Lynx - the one that turns in the cannon thing - uggh, horrible lime green. No thank you. You get a completely independent choice of colours and you go for that on a plane ? Even Effect (Blue) and Combusta(Lilac) look better than this. Ban the colour from the TF paint box. Not keen. And as usual one of the legs was loose and fell off ! " which just about sums it up. In fact Effect's blue would have rather suited the Sky Lynx name due to the colour of the G1 toy !

Disappointingly this release uses the original version and not the Hellflame one modified so that it can be hand held.

[Philip Ayres]

Major milestone achieved ! I've reviewed all the Armada minicon three pack moulds.

There's one all new Energon three pack to do, and two in Cybertron. After that the Classics one will get reorganised (but may not appear here as it's just adding in repaints to existing reviews).

I'm in London next week so probably won't have my Minicons boxes with me so the intention is to consolidate all the Armada reviews adding in TFU llinks and all the repaints. Again I suspect most of them won't appear here as it's just a copy and paste job. However some do look on the thin side so might get expanded and posted here. At some point (after I get back) I need to actually write reviews of Scavenger and Unicron !

When I'm back I'll polish off the remaining 3 pack Minicons then graduate to the pack ins that need doing. (Hotshot, Crumplezone, Blackout, Liftor, Rook & Crosswise, Incinerator, Inferno, Nightbeat, Windsheer, Longarm, Rollbar, Rollout, Leader-1 Comettor, Ramjet, Sparkplug & Deadend) several of which have led lives independant of their larger toys

In case you're inerested I reckon the Armada pack in Minicons have been used 74 times between them !

[The Doctor]

74 times? That's mind shattering.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

That makes 329 now I think....

[grahamthomson]

Jan 15, 2009 18:45:04 GMT Philip Ayres said:

That makes 329 now I think....

See. This is what really put me off Transformers 2002-2004. I couldn't keep up with it all and Hasbro made me feel left out.

[Philip Ayres]

Much of that number is Takara's work...

[Philip Ayres]

Jolt

Jolt's a helicopter with a four bladed rotor. There's holes on the underside of the helicopter so that he can carry Hotshot's engine block accessory as a gun in copter mode. Jolt is all red - the same colour as Hotshot's chest and Minicons ports. As we'll see Jolt's blades are on a different parts tree to the rest of toy being moulded with Hotshot's elbows and upper legs.

His Minicon port is under the helicopter - the best use for an add-on in this mode is to attach him as a spinning blade weapon to a larger toy's forearm or shoulder. When pegged onto the back of Hotshot he can be bent over the back of the car providing Hotshot with a rotor blade behind him !

TF: Fold the cab forward to become the lower legs. Fold the tail under the helicopter to become the chest. The cylinders to the side of the helicopter swing down to become the arms.

In robot mode he's pretty much a Micromaster style TF, although he earns points for the separating legs which are jointed independently at the hip & knee and rotor blades that form the helipack that can be raised above his head.

In Japan Jolt retained his name and was available with Hotrod (Hot Shot) as MC-03 or both also appeared in MS-01 with the Air Defence Team.

Powerlinx Jolt

Powerlinx Jolt changes to match Hot Shot - his red becomes yellow. The blades change as well becoming black which enables us to say with some certainty which Hotshot parts they are moulded with.

In Japan Powerlinx Jolt is called Sparklift and is available with Hotrod supermode in MC-13

Unproduced Battle in a Box Jolt

Jolt was planned as a pack in with a Hot Shot recolour called Smokescreen fighting against a Wheeljack recolour called Drench that came with a recoloured Windsheer. Most of Jolt remains red - his windows do become a nice blue - but his rotor changes to white.

This set looks really nice, I'd have liked one.

[Andy Turnbull]

The Smokescreen recolour looked like it would have been a good set.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Have you seen the Drench that would go with it ?

[Andy Turnbull]

No I haven't.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Crumplezone

A rather squat looking tank. Crumplezone's body and tank turret are dark blue, tank gun barrel & upper legs are bronzy gold. His tank tracks are a pale grey. The turret turns on the tank. By himself he's a great mini vehicle.

Crumplezone has one Minicon socket on him. Plugging him onto a larger toy adds a gun barrel which is always a good thing. However....

His second alt mode is an add on for Cyclonus: Turn the gun barrel round to face back, rotate the treads round on the sides so they're upside down, and turn the toy over revealing a light blue secondary cockpit for Cyclonus. If you raise the Cyclonus' flat front up you can clip Crumplezone in via 2 pegs on the chopper which fit on the insides of the tracks. This give Cyclonus a chin gun which moves along with the rotors when you squeeze the trigger on Cyclonus' tail.

TF to robot mode: Fold the cockpit out to form the legs and rotate at the waist so they are on the same side of the toy as the Minicon socket. Fold the tank treads out to become the arms.

Robot has turning arms at the shoulders, legs at the hip & knee. His waist also turns.

Decent tank and robot, great add on.

Crumplezone's Japanese name is Cannon and he appears in MD-04 with Sandstorm (Cyclonus). They both appear in MS-04 with the Destruction team.

Powerlinx Crumplezone

Sold with Powerlinx Cyclonus, Light blue becomes green, dark blue becomes black, bronze becomes dark burgundy, and pale grey becomes a more mid grey.

Energon Crumplezone

Light blue becomes grey, brassy gold becomes a pale grey, and the dark blue & pale grey become black on the Energon/Superlink release of this toy. A KB exclusive with Cyclonus in the US it was earlier sold in pack SD-03 with Snowstorm (Cyclonus)

Micron Booster Trigger

Buzzsaw does not come with a Minicon, a Crumplezone in his colours was later available as Trigger in Micron Booster V3.

Trigger swaps yellow for the blue, with purple for the brass colour, dark grey for the dark blue and a paler grey virtually white on the sides & tracks for the already pale grey .

Although Buzzsaw is substantially remoulded he can still used Trigger as a replacement cockpit.

[Philip Ayres]

Universe Drench

Wheeljack's really hard done by. One of the better Armada toys - in a solid but not spectacular way. He could have had a white recolour ala Armada Cartoon or been Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Red Alert, G2 Sideswipe, Deepcover or Clampdown. Instead he doesn't get a sausage of repaint love till the Botcon Sideswipe last year

[The Doctor]

Oh I thought that Drench toy had come out! Smokescreen Armada too. Learn something new every day!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

No, fraid not. A shame.

For more toys that should have been done see the forthcoming Demolishor review - I'm merging the existing reviews and then taking bits out to form the basis of the Minicon reviews. So to do Blackout I have to do Demolishor

[Andy Turnbull]

It's amazing what a lick of paint can do for a mould!

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Blackout

Blackout is another of the triple changing minicons - like Crumplezone. Blackout is a 6 wheeled tank - only four of which move - with twin gun barrels down the sides and a radar dish. In many ways Blackout almost resembles a scaled down Demolishor.

All four of Demolishor's colours of plastic are used on his Minicon:

Red is used for the main body of the tank - what will become the body and legs of the robot
Beige is used for the guns - what will become the robot arms - with the ends painted.
Grey is used for the radar dish.
Dark grey is used for the wheels.

If you fold the radar dish back the barrels can fold on top of the tank changing it's shape somewhat. The tank mode can be attached to the front of Demolishor between the tracks and fired Roller stylie by a button on the larger toy.

TF:Fold the barrels to the side and then unfold the wheel section from under him to transform him. His robot is mainly the same colours with a lot more blue on the chest. He's got rotating shoulders that fold back and bending knees & hips.

A chair can be flipped up from the back of Demolishor's the tank for Blackout to sit in. The chair also forms part of the cannon mode Demolishor has and can still be sat in in robot mode reminding me of B'nee and C'cil (SP ?) of the Shiar Imperial guard in the X-Men.

Blackout's Japanese name is Search. He and Ironhide (Demolishor) were sold as MD-03 and as MS-03 with the Military team.

Powerlinx Blackout

Demolishor & Blackout both have Powerlinx versions: Armada's red is a similar but paler grey on the PL Version. Beige is a brick red, grey becomes black and dark grey is a grey brown.

Powerlinx Demolishor & Blackout were sold as Ironhide Super Mode and Sparksearch numbered MD-10 in the Micron Legend range

Energon Blackout

Demolishor & Blackout return in a third colourscheme in the early stages of Energon. Armada's red becomes grey, beige becomes pale green, grey becomes black and dark grey becomes purple.

Energon Demolishor was previously sold with an unnamed version of Blackout as Superlink Ironhide numbered SD-02. KB Toys had US versions as an exclusive which were then briefly carried by the Entertainer in the UK.

Cybertron Blackout

There is no Cybertron Blackout - they sold Demolishor in Cybertron without his Minicon ! Demolishor's changes make it easy to work out what Blackout would have looked like:

Pale olive green would have replaced red for the main body of the tank - what will become the body and legs of the robot
Dark green would have replaced beige on the guns - what will become the robot arms
Dark grey will be used instead of grey for the radar dish.
Brown will replace dark grey on the wheels.

[Philip Ayres]

Liftor

Liftor is meant to be a forklift truck - hence the name. He's the oddest looking forklift I've ever seen, nothing like what I've ever seen. He looks more like a race car with a snow plough mounted on it with forks sticking out the front ! (incidentally has there been to date a proper Transformer forklift ?)

Here are the colours used on the toy:

Orange is used on the main body of the forklift
Grey is the back of the forklift
Black is used on the wheels
Blue is used for the sides and the forklift blades.

He has a Minicon port on his underside that allows him to be mounted as a blade weapon.

TF: Fold the back of the vehicle back to form the legs. Stand. Fold the "snow plough" in two out to the sides from the middle and fold back & down so the "plough" parts are behind his hips. Fold the arms out from the sides and fold back the cover over the head.

Liftor's robot mode is decent looking - the black in the middle helps - with bending joints at knee, hip, shoulder & elbow.

Odd vehicle mode but decent add on and robot. Original review: "Liftor is a very strange elongated forklift - makes a nice hand weapon for Smokescreen - which transforms in a surprisingly bulky minion with elbows on each arm. Nice again, another fun toy. "

Smokescreen & Liftor were available in Japan as MC-04 Grap (surely a bad translation of Grapple ?) and Lift. They were also in the MS-02 giftset with the race team.

Universe Liftor

Liftor's Universe form is just a straight paint swap:

Orange becomes dark blue
Grey & Black remain the same
Blue becomes yellow.

Liftor is packed with a repainted Smokescreen with both set against Ransack - a badly repainted Hoist - and a repainted Refute. Liftor is somewhat improved by the new paint job.

[Philip Ayres]

Crosswise[/size][/b]

,

Rook[/size][/b]

and

"Mirror"[/size][/b]

Crosswise & Rook are the two Minicons that come with Sideways (in Japan Crosswise is called Shadow and Rook is called Bright). They combine to form a rider which doesn't have a western name but in Japan is called Mirror.

Crosswise's body, legs & head and Rook's head use the pale grey of Sideways' hands and windshield chest panels.
Crosswise's & Rook's knees, arms and hips are the dark grey of Sideways' upper legs & handlebars.
Rook's legs & body and Crosswise's upper legs are the black used for Sideways wheels and upper arms. They're articulation and function is identical. Crosswise is the grey one that should have purple striped on it's legs. Rook is the black one that should have red. Early versions of Crosswise had red stripes which is confusing as the colour indicates which faction they align with - Crosswise to Decepticon and Rook to Autobot.

Both have ball jointed and bending knees, ball jointed hips and arms that turn at the shoulders. This enables either one to ride the bike pinion with the other - a small tab on their bottom fits into slots on Sideways.

Both have a Minicon port on their rear. Apparently there's some sort of weapon mode for them which I guess involves opposing the legs scissor style.

They can combine to form a third rider for Sideways: Fold Crosswise's arms back and Rook's forward. Spread rook's legs apart. Turn rook upside down and with him facing forward and Crosswise facing the rear put the toys together head to head which will cause the combined head to rise out of Rook's bottom. Fold Crosswise's face up so it locks into Rook's back to stabilise the toy. The combined form has Crosswise's leg articulation, ball jointed shoulders and a bending then ball jointed elbow.

When Sideways is in robot mode each Minicon can combine with him: Point their arms straight up, spread the legs out to the sides and fold the lower legs down. Turn the Minicon upside down, place their head into the top of Sideway's head and push down lowering Sideway's original head and their arms into Sideway's body and raising a panel within the wind shield on Sideways chest revealing the allegiance associated with the head. In theory. Several early versions of the toy had the wrong Minicon activating the wrong symbol. Confusing ! Even now I look at these and reckon Crosswise looks a better Autobot and Rook a better Decepticon.

Overall: Two *very* odd Minicons, but ones that serve a specific purpose.

Nightcruz[/size][/b]

,

Nightscream[/size][/b]

and

Nightcreeper[/size][/b]

Sideways returns in Energon as Rapid Run with Crosswise becoming Nightcruz, Rook becoming Nightscream and the combined mode becoming Nightcreepr (according to Transformers Wiki) which I presume is a homage to the GI Joe figures of the same name.

As per Sideways these change colour: pale grey becomes much darker grey (nearly black), dark grey becomes purple and black stays the same.

Rapid Run and his Minicons had a very limited release in the US being quickly replaced by Energon Starscream (Treadbolt and Ultra Magnus were likewise limited release repaints of Armada toys). In the UK however Rapid Run & co were available for all of Energon wave 1 alongside Inferno and Hotshot with Starscream being a wave two toy. See various Energon reviews for discussions about UK Energon cases !

[Philip Ayres]

Incinerator

Incinerator's a neat race car Minicon. His vehicle mode is light blue - the colour used for Blurr's robot shoulder fronts, with a spoiler in orange the same colour as Blurr's missiles.

As an add on via the Minicon socket underneath the front of the car makes a pretty goof blade weapon when arm mounted.

The TF involves folding the rear of the car back to form the legs. Swing the nose cone out to the side and upside down, stand and swing the sides of the car down as arms.

He's a pretty standard robot slightly hampered by his car's nose dangling off one arm ! It's not a huge leap of the imagination to think it's a blade weapon or gun of some sort for the Minicon in this mode. Revealed in this mode is his chest which is in a grey similar to that used for Blurr's body (see Wrench bellow) He can balance behind Blurr's head (in robot mode) and in front of the canopy which is quite cool - Blurr's handling the heavy weaponry while employing Incinerator as a sniper.

Incinerator bends independently at both knees & hip, his shoulders turn and his right (race car front) arm has a ball jointed elbow.

Nice fun toy.

Blurr's Japanese name is Silverbolt (not Silverstreak as I said in a previous Minicon review - though you must admit Silverstreak has more of a car link as a name than Silverbolt does !) and was available together with Turbo (Incinerator) as MC-08. They also were in MS-05 with the Street Speed Team.

Universe Roadhandler

Roadhandler is a red (for both blue and grey) and black (for orange) repaint of Armada Incinerator. He looks superb in these new colours casting the image of super advanced Ferraris or Lamboghinis. There's a big G1 Sideswipe vibe from him as well as Blurr which can only be a good thing. Some yellow paint ops are revealed 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 ? I think the Swerve & Roadhandler set is one of the best Universe repaints ! (see Big Red Robot theory)

Micron Booster Wrench

Wrench is a repaint of Incinerator who appears in Micron Booster v3. Wrench is sort of the companion to the remoulded Galaxy Force version. Wrench and Incinerator are very similar - Wrench had lost the bright orange for white, is perhaps a slightly different shade of blue on his limbs and has a grey blue chest instead of the grey he did have. Neither the grey nor the white appear on the Galaxy Force Blurr suggesting new parts were made. A nice little Minicon still.

Botcon 2008 Shattered Glass Incinerator

If we follow the patterns above then there *should* be a Minicon for the Shattered Glass Blurr. If I interpret which parts are which right (and bear in mind the comments on Wrench above) then he's have purple limbs & car mode, blue spoiler and black robot chest.

I'd buy that !