Phil's Cybertron Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Yeah I know I've not nearly finished the Energon ones but inspired by Generations 2009: Volume 2's great Movie section I've finished off the released Sector 7 repaints so we start the Cybertron reviews off with these:

[Philip Ayres]

Clocker

Clocker was originally available as the Galaxy Force toy GC-12: Skids, and it was this version I initially reviewed.

He's a basic sized sports car with a Speedia chip. Insert the chip in the back and up from the sides pop 2 fins. You can fold gun barrels out from these to form a car mounted weapon. He's got a nice clear windscreen and silvered exhaust pipes running down the side which resemble G1 Hotrod's. In fact if you thought of Hotrod with an open roof that wouldn't be too far away from what you've got here.

To transform open the underside of the back to fold the legs out - think Predator Stalker. Completely unnecessary on a toy this size. Pull the front of the car back over the top, flip the arms out from the side. Fold the head down and peg into the chest.

Simple basic with knee, ball jointed hips, WAIST - a rarity this year !, ball jointed shoulders, elbow and neck. The weapon from the rear of the car can be held in the hand ala Nitro Convoy. The exhaust pipes from the sides of the car can be held as weapons. Sadly the colour scheme lets it down again - the pale blue, orange and pearl clashes, and the huge unadorned area of pearl chest doesn't help.

OK, but really nothing special.

Swerve

Clocker's had a new paint job and boy does it make a difference, the toy has gone from being a train wreck of a colour scheme to something that looks like it works !The toy has basically swapped grey plastic for pale blue, a lovely red for the orange and a sunglasses tint for the clear blue. Spray Ops are similar - aside from his new Silver Autobot symbol on the bonnet and the silver paint applied to his exhausts. So you're looking at something that is vaguely Sideswipeish/vaguely Hot Rod without the flames - in fact change the bonnet detail, paint the robot chest right & make the weapons pack yellow and you'd be nearly there. Red Sportscars work well for TFs and this is no exception. If you get one of the Cybertron versions of this mould get this one. The only mild nag is the eyes have lost the lightpipe.

Clocker

Clocker is a wave 3 Sector 7 Movie basic repaint exclusive to Target in the USA and released through Woolworths in the UK.

The first version - Clocker/GF Skids - is a truly horrendous colour scheme disguising what is quite a nice toy - I mention the fold out panels to pass the legs through is obscene detail on a basic toy.

Waves 2 & 3 came back in stock at my local Woolworths after their initial release so I picked a Clocker up as the paint scheme had been bugging me since I first saw it and I couldn't work out why..... The dark blue and black of the car mode made for a very dark repaint but there was just something about them that reminded me of something. Then it hit me - Clocker has G1 Skid's colour scheme ! See www.tfu.info/1985/Autobot/Skids/skids.htm Since Clocker was originally Skids in Japan this makes a very nice little in joke by the designers. TFing the car adds a little grey into the mix - maybe keeping that blue as well would be nice - and sadly the lightpipe eyes are painted over. The Speed Planet key - like the windows is cast in a rather fetching almost clear black.

Nice repaint. Like it.

Cheetor

Clocker returns at Botcon 2006. The theme that year was Cybertron vehicle versions of Beast Wars characters so he repainted in the colours used by Beast Wars Cheetor and given a new head resembling Cheetor. It's not the worst repaint on the planet - almost entirely moulded in yellow with blue paint and a clear blue windscreen. The sports car mode suits the character's personality too.

It won't take a genius to figure out what happened next ....

Tigatron

.... as the mould is instantly repainted in white with green paint and a grey windscreen as Tigatron. While I can see the theory - Tigatron = repaint of Cheetor therefore* pre BW Tigatron = repaint of pre BW Cheetor - I'm not sure it's worked so well in practice.

* anyone know how to do a therefore symbol in html ?

Though I am surprised they didn't go the whole hog and do an all black version as a pre BW Shadow Panther !

[Philip Ayres]

Armorhide

Armorhide is I think the third toy to bear the name following it's use on the Combaticon Tank during RID and as a Blue Minicon Snowplough with Armada Rhinox.

The vehicle mode is a truck cab. I can't remember the last time there was a small vehicle truck - one of the MM ? Or do we have to go as far back as Pipes ? He's mainly Blue - like pipes and his previous Minicon namesake - with a grey truck latch at the back which includes some white & lighter grey where in joins the cab. He comes with a crane arm ending in a tow hook that attaches to the back which looks a little odd - I'm used to seeing trailers on the back. The crane arm is at a fixed angle, and has a square peg so you can't turn it. There's a round peg on the arm - for use later - which doesn't quite fit into the hole - it forces the back halves of the truck apart - so you have to settle for using one of the fist holes which are to either side of the very back of the truck. The crane arm has a slot in the side for storing his force key in. To use the gimmick remove the crane arm and insert the key along the truck's back into the base of the cab - not the easiest key slot to engage. Down pops his radiator grill revealing an array of eight embedded missiles.

To transform separate the halves of the rear of the truck and then fold them to the sides of the cab - there's a ball joint half way back along each piece which needs to swivel 180 degrees so the arms are the right way round. Pull up on the top of the cab - and this bit is reasonably novel with TF trucks - to form the legs, and straighten out what comes out with them to form the waist. The back of the cab flips round to form feet, and the cab halves separate and slide to the side of the upper legs. Flip the entire toy over and pop the head up from what was under the cab.

Robot mode is short but looks powerfully built. Key slot is now in his back and still works the gimmick - the chest plate grill flipping up to reveal the missiles. He's reasonably posable - knees, hips, shoulders and elbows + his neck. Crane arm becomes his gun.

Not too bad at all while being nothing special, a bit of fun. I predict an orange Huffer repaint.

Huffer

Which actually took longer than I thought - for quite some while Armorhide was a one shot toy in the Cybertron line. Then in late 2006 came the Classics line with it's three Decepticon jets. When Botcon 2007 snagged the remaining three (see the Classics Starscream review for more on this) they bulked the rest of the set out with other Classics & Cybertron toys repainted as Generation One characters. Armorhide was an obvious choice to be reused as Huffer. Armorhide's blue becomes a yellowy orange with the white becoming light blue, the grey dark blue and the dark grey black. This is one too many colours of blue used - probably the lighter one should have been dark blue too - but overall it's about as good as you could have wished for from an Armorhide to Huffer repaint.

Armorhide

Armorhide is a Wave 2 Sector 7 Movie basic repaint exclusive to Target in the USA and released through Woolworths in the UK.

This toy's cab is black, with the truck bed in shades of grey. Highlights on the vehicle are provided by yellow paint, especially (and very effectively) on the missiles. The yellow helps both modes avoid being an obvious Nemesis Prime/Scourge black repaint but it ain't far off.

I should like it more but somehow it's not as good as the other Sector Seven repaints in the wave, possibly due to the quite monchrome colouring on the toy.

[Philip Ayres]

Overhaul

What we've got here is an Energon Ironhide lookie likey shrunk down 2 size classes to a basic with the bulk of the vehicle painted in green, just like the Energon Ironhide repaint. He has no usable gimmick in vehicle mode.

TF is broadly similar to Ironhide's too - as is the end result in robot mode - with the bonnet becoming the lower legs. However we now get onto the odd arms..... instead of the doors folding up like Ironhide's the fold back at an angle. The shoulders are ball jointed to the doors - which looks a bit odd - and then the forearms (orange, like the waist and upper legs) are attached by a small metal bolt to the elbow. However the forearms are themselves angled inwards. The result is some arms that can move but you can't get an awful lot of useful poses out of them. Not great. The hands are tipped with Wolverine style claws prefiguring his subsequent transformation into Leobreaker. The head contains a clear red lightpipe for the eyes.

The gimmick in robot mode involves placing a clear red missile in his chest and firing it using his force chip - a Jungle planet key - which is inserted into his back.

Overall: Not the greatest basic which is a shame as recent Energon efforts have been excellent.

Overhaul was available in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-05 Jackshot. My notes say Jackshot had a Cybertron key with an Autobot symbol, identical to Dreadrock (Jetfire) which is different to the US version which is confirmed when I check HLJ's product listing at www.hlj.com/product/TAK57656

Brushguard

Brushguard is the first US exclusive repaint in the Cybertron line - more would follow as would original moulds not seen in Galaxy Force in Japan. He swaps the green for pale blue/grey, the orange for black and the clear red for a pale clear purple. He also switches sides becoming a Decepticon and gains an Earth planet chip. The bonnet of the vehicle includes the mountain symbol which appears on several other toys - Energon Landquake springs to mind.

Not the world's greatest repaint.

Warpath

Warpath is a Wave 4 Movie Sector 7 Basic Repaint exclusive to Target. I don't believe these were imported by Woolworths into the UK as I've not seen them personally and not heard of any reports that they showed up here.

For a long while Warpath was one of those toys that was a mystery to me. The vehicle form just doesn't match, one of the defining characteristics of Warpath is he's a tank. The colours are right - with the orange and most of the green becoming red while the rear of the vehicle is black - but the vehicle just doesn't fit.

It's only whjen you convert to robot mode that you might see why the name and mould were married together: The robot (as outlined above) fires a missile from it's chest (this time in dark blue, the same colour as his Speed planet key) The missile launcher is in the same place as the cannon is on the original Warpath (and is recessed like the barrel on the Legends Warpath). The head is also cast in the same clear blue plastic as the missile with the lightpipe powering the central crest and panels to the side rather than the eyes.

It's an odd toy. I get why it's been used now, but Warpath is still a tank to me.

[Philip Ayres]

Hardtop

Hartop's a dark green dune buggy style jeep with a purple gun mounted on the back of the toy - inserting the blue Earth planet key in the back of it flips an extra length to the gun barrel out.

What's startling about this toy is it's almost exactly Energon Sledge in all but moulding - the TF is identical - albeit with less room for manoeuvre ! Unpeg the feet from the back of the cab and fold the legs backwards. Fold the front wheels back, then the sides of the cab forward to form the arms. Pivot the legs under the cab - in the process forming the chest with the pivot. Fold the waist under the front of the vehicle and click into place. Swivel at the waist to face the legs forward. It's astonishing, I don't think I have ever seen 2 non identical TF toys that transform so similarly ! (Later note: G2 Smokescreen & Energon Starscream) And yet there's not a single piece of plastic shared between the moulds ! The gun mount even becomes a standard shaped hole in his leg like Sledge. The only real difference is that Swerve has a Seat that fold up to cover the chest.

Robot has some interesting colour choices - more of the purple inthe legs and an agonisingly bad light blue on the chest and head. It is a very posable toy - knees, hips, waist, shoulders, elbows and neck.

But.....

It's a small but. But it needs saying.

Hasbro could have scored HUGE extra bonus points with this toy. Not by changing the TF to make it less like Sledge's. Oh no. They could have made him more like Sledge by adding an Energon combiner connector. Hide the joint inside the bonnet, a bit of blue plastic mounted on the back moulded as maybe a canteen and spare tire the spread out to form a foot/hand and that would have turned a very good toy into a truly exceptional one.

Swindle

I never got Hardtop, but this is virtually a default repaint of him. As a Deception jeep the obvious route to go is to colour him yellow and call him Swindle - another reason to name this recolour so is the gun mounted on the rear similar to the G1 version. He retains the blue Earth planet key of his anticendant.

For the robot In addition to the jeep's yellow we now have some burgundy on the chest and the head. The colour scheme is putting me in mind of the BW Buzzsaw repaint of Waspinator - The head is similar and though it looks like a lightpipe eye might have been possible it's been painted on both sides.

Overall - classy again. Nice toy, and my favourite of the 2 Cybertron colour schemes for this mould. Needless to say he'll be keeping E Bruticus company from now on ! [/size][/b]

Hardtop

Hardtop is a Wave 1 Movie Sector 7 Basic Repaint exclusive to Target. These *may* have been imported by Woolworths into the UK but I've not seen them personally.

Movie Hardtop has a more subdued colour scheme than his predecessors - drab grey, black and olive green very similar to the Movie deluxe toy Landmine. as such he looks quite militaristic. His planet key now is the same mould as Cybertron Sideway's key but moulded in black with some olive paint and the sector seven logo.

It doesn't set my world on fire and I think that Cybertron Swindle is definitely the way to go with this mould.

[Philip Ayres]

Shortround

Shortround is a Basic sized Decepticon Hovercraft. His air cushion is a dark grey, body an off white, and turbines a cyan blue engines at the back. Inserting the key into his rear causes the turbines to flip forward revealing molded in missiles. He has a gun mounted in the centre of his body just forward of the turbines. A nice little Hovercraft model.

To TF, fold both halves of the air cushion out and up to the sides of the body. Fold the front down so it's pointing down until it clicks into place. Fold out the legs - the knees are very stiff, and fold the very front of the hovercraft up to form the feet. Remove the gun and fold the head up. Fold the air cushion down to form the arms, bend at the elbow and slide back the pale blue section to form a claw. Place the gun into a slot on the hands.

The resulting robot has very stiff knees that bend back, restricted ball joint hips and shoulders, a bicep joint just above the elbow and a folding elbow joint. The key gimmick works still flipping the missiles onto his shoulders. And most of the toy looks just fine. I just have a problem with the arms. To start with they are a little long. Not too long, I think the toy could have coped...... if they hadn't made such a mess of the elbows ! When a TF bends it's elbows I want it's gun to still be on top of the hand - if you bend the elbow on this toy the gun is on the inside of the body or the arm is hanging out to the side. It's a very odd configuration and would have easily been solved by making the elbow a ball joint with the ball extending into the lower arm. And that just makes it more frustrating !

Storm Surge

Storm Surge is a Wave 4 Sector 7 Movie basic repaint exclusive to Target, which it is believed Woolworths didn't carry in the UK.

Storm Surge swaps the light blue for grey and the purple for dark blue with the white becoming a purer white, yet topped with blue paint in many places. It's a much less garish colour scheme then the original and the better of the two.

storm Surge is pictured next to the G1 version of Crankcase in Generations 2009 v2. This brings home how close the head/gimmick activated cannon arrangement is to Crankcase almost making Crankcase a missing Triggercon.

Future Repaints

I've always felt that a Seaspray version is inevitable but it's yet to emerge.

[Philip Ayres]

Lugnutz

The wonder of not religiously importing is that you can occasionally walk into a UK toy shop and buy something new !

Lugnutz is a motorbike, like a big American one. He's orange on his mud guards and fuel tank, black on the saddle boxes and grey everywhere else. One of his exhaust pipes - on the right as you're looking towards him - comes separately and will need mounting via a clip on the saddle box and a slot on the body work. This will fall off. So too on mine does the saddle which was loose in the package and nearly got lost as I took out the package while waiting for Liz to pick me up. The right saddle box has a Planet Key slot - Earth with this toy number s3y6 - which causes part of the left exhaust to pop up as a missile launcher. There's a stand of sorts that can be extended from under the bodywork - I say of sorts because it's part of the TF and not specifically designed. He does need it though. Apart from the bits falling off the bike isn't bad, if a bit elongated.

To TF: separate both halves of the grey bodywork under the bike and swing to the sides. Turn each leg 180 degrees at the ball joint and fold back together so they're sticking up and towards the back of the bike. Fold the feet down - these may need some pressure to fold all the way. Pull the engine down to form the arms and swing out to the sides as much as possible swinging the shoulders out too. Pop the top of the fuel tank up to form the head. Rotate the rear wheel and saddle box section 180 degrees round a ball joint and fold up to lock into place in the interior of the body - it will lock there are dimples on the sides of the back of the saddle and corresponding notches in the back. If it doesn't lock, it is aligned right. Then fold origami the arms so that the fists are facing forward/up and the bike halves are extended out to the sides. The exhaust pipe which will almost certainly have fallen off earlier forms his gun and you'll be replacing the front of the saddle at the same time.

Lugnutz then becomes a small slight grey & black robot with an orange chest plate ...... and a Motorbike on his back ! He looks ridiculous like this, you need to see it. Liz laughed. Road Rocket may have had the wheel positioned similarly but the handlebars weren't there too and his wheels make it look like some sort of sci fi energy weapon back pack. Here it literally look like he's got a bike on or rather through his back ! What's worse is it impinges on his articulation ! Because the bike wheels are attached to each shoulder and go round the outside of the back of the bike the shoulders have no movement other the round in a circle - impressive though the engineering is to get the bike halves to miss the backpack when they turn. However the shoulders are ball joints so won't move to the sides. Since the elbows are straight up and down (and backwards !) you can't get an deviation to the sides. In addition he has ball jointed hips, and knees that bend in the correct manner. At least the feet balance OK - even with the planet key slotted into his back and the missile launcher popped out onto the shoulder - which is about the only thing about the robot mode which looks good.

Not my favourite Cybertron Toy or TF Bike. Not even my favourite Cybertron Motorbike.

Lugnutz was sold in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GD-12 Road Storm.

Hightail

So having established I didn't like the original what do I think of the repaint as an Autobot ? Well not a lot to be honest. The grey becomes a sort of dirty grey which looks bad and the rest of the toy is a straight colour swap from orange to red. It's a lazy, minor repaint.

His Earth Key number is s7n5.

Backtrack

Lugnutz has an unreleased version that would have appeared in the fifth wave of Target Sector 7 basics. And as is the way of things it looks nicer than the repaint we did get. The grey becomes more silvery and the bodywork becomes blue which is more of a contrast to the red/orange used on the released versions. He would have come with a clear light blue Cybertron chip matching the clear blue Energon weapons of the other two toys in this wave.

[Philip Ayres]

Scattorshot

scattorshot is the western release of Galaxy Force toy GC-06 Backpack. It was the Backpack version I encountered first and is reviewed here.

A word of warning - cut your missile out the packaging (I struggled with Jackshot's as well) cos I broke one of Backpack's removing it.

Missile tank - looks nice, turret turns, ball missile launched by pressing at the back. His Earth force chip - numbered s67k on the Cybertron release - causes a molded missile array to pop open.

To transform lift the turret at the back, pull the rear treads out to the sides and downwards, then fold the treads to become the front of the legs, the arms then fold out,and the front of the vehicle folds down to become the chest. This doesn't lock in place which may cause you problems later.

Robot looks a little odd - very high forehead with goggles molded in, and no poseability in the legs, except to the sides which is a bit useless. The arms are fine here, and the wheels mounted on the shoulders reverse to reveal little 4 barrelled machine guns. The gun off the front of the vehicle can be used as a hand gun, and the turret - which normally sits on his back - can be lifted so the missiles can fire over the shoulders.

With the exception of the dodgy legs and head sculpt not too bad at all.

Future Repaints

The repainters have chosen to ignore Scattorshot - as they did with his Cybertron Defence/Vanguard Squadron remake till recently. There are several colour schemes used for that toy which could be employed here including the yellow and brown of Dropshot, the greens of Overload and the grey urban camo of Flak

[Philip Ayres]

Ransack

Ransack is another toy which I originally encountered in it's Galaxy Force formet - GD-05 Gasket.

Didn't get off till 2 this morning, and woke again at 5:45. After getting back to sleep for a 2nd time I was a little disgruntled when the front door bell went at 7:50.

Gasket is a red and black bike. There's not a terribly big history of bike Transformers: I can think of Groove, the micromaster combiner one, the G2 cycles (and all their subsequent incarnations), BM Thrust & Cycle Drone, Sideways and Energon Arcee. Gasket immediately calls to mind the original incarnation of Road Rocket - one of the G2 ones - being mainly Red and Black. The bike is a bit more stretched out than a real bike, has thicker wheels and is lacking any handlebars. But far more realistic than the BM incarnations. He has a slot for a Force Chip (a red Speedia chip ala Excillion and Land Bullet which in Cybertron is numbered sc92) which causes 2 exhaust pipes/guns to flip out the back of him. This will become more useful later.

To TF remove the bit to the rear of the saddle the exhaust pipes are attached to - this will eventually form, his weapon. The rear wheel splits into 2 halves - both small wheels - which then fold to the side of the bike. heel spurs come down from the wheel arch, and the rear of the bike folds underneath him to form the legs. Fuel tank and saddle split in 2 and fold to each side to form the arms - a tiny bit of folding to pose them. The windscreen folds down to form the chest plate exposing the head. Mount weapon in standard fist hole and use force chip to flip up barrels.

Oodles of articulation in this little guy - ball jointed knees, hips and elbows, shoulders that move up and down, but also forward a bit and to the sides, a neck joint and - glory be - a waist ! Like Thundercracker the head looks a little friendly for a Decepticon. He's got a port in the back of his head for a light pipe - which I've failed to mention most of the other Galaxy Force toys as having - but the eyes are painted over, which is a shame as it's one of my favourite TF gimmicks and a very simple one. The gun looks HUGE in his hand, and the elbow joint when bent isn't strong enough to support it. However the shoulder joint will, and with the heel spurs offering support some quite dynamic poses can be achieved.

Overall: Fantastic for the size, well worth having.

Gasket Police Type

I love the police type repaints. Lapped up the SWAT Team in Energon and would happily pay for an E-Hobby Diaclone Sunstreaker Police Car if it's ever done with a Sunstreaker re-release. Here the red becomes a slightly off white giving him a great monochrome appearance which would happily sit with any of the other police type vehicles. [/size][/b]

Ransack

The Red of Gasket is now black, the black is mint white, and the clear red is clear green. There's gold and metallic blue highlights. Some idiot's painted in the eyes on the lightpipe though - an unpardonable offence in my book. The key remains a speed planet one numbered s2w5.

The repaint's nice - probably nicer than the original and is a good addition to the Decepticon ranks.

Now can we have the police type version in Cybertron please?

Rattrap

Ransack returned in the succesful Botcon 2006 set showing the Cybertron forms of several Beast Wars characters. Ransack became Rattrap, casting most of the red in grey and the black in a bronzey brown. He swaps his key for a modified version of the Sideways key. It's a pretty good marriage of mould and name in this case.

[Philip Ayres]

Backstop

Backstop was first released in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-15 Saidos

Saidos is a grey and red technoorganic Rhino. If there was any sense in the world he would be called Rhinox in the Cybertron toyline but apparently he's Backstop. Doubly unfortunate as he carries Rhinox's Fok Kids colour scheme.

Rhino is jointed at hips, knees and shoulders. A little movement is capable in the head. His green Animatros force chip (numbered stw7 in the Cybertron toy line) activates a spring loaded gimmick on the rhino horn which shoots it out on an arm via a spring.

To TF pull the legs out to the sides a little and then yank the entire undersction. The front and back legs lock into their counterparts on either side to form the robot legs. A hand folds out from under the robot head, the rump becomes the other arm, and the side of the body folds up to reveal the head...... ..... Oh dear. I'm afraid Saidos is going to be winning any beauty contests. Or any other sort of contest come to think of it. Squat and wide, with a low head virtually in his chest and articulation at hips shoulder and just about the elbows. Left arm has a finger formed from the tail and I suppose it's a good thing there isn't a swivel joint on the arm or Saidos could show us what he thinks of us. The gimmick horn launcher now projects straight out of the side of his shoulder. This isn't a great toy but there's oddly something about him that makes you feel compassion for such a thing. Either that or I'm going soft. No not the best basic this year.

[Philip Ayres]

Wreckloose

Now Wreckloose is rather interesting. He's a Lizard thing in beast mode with an opening jaw, limbs jointed at the hip and knee (and ankle on the front legs) plus a jointed tail. It's all making sense so far, and is a good toy. The problem comes with the additional pack bundled with him - it's a bit of green armour to cover the back of his neck with spikes sticking out the side and a key slot at the back. The key (Beast planet, numbered su39) causes the spikes to jump out to the sides. Both versions look ridiculous when attached to the lizard. To me it looks like an extra thrown in to update a previous toy to this year's gimmick, which makes me think is Wreckloose a lost BM or TM2 basic ?

To transform remove the armour and split the head in 2 to form his shoulders - the front legs become the arms. Separate the tail in 2 from top to bottom, rotate 90 degrees at his base, rotate each leg 90 degrees in below the knee and fold the end of the tail down to form the feet.

You've got the lizard head in 2 halves as the shoulder, and the lizard legs both hanging off the right thigh. But apart from that this is a good robot - nice head, reminiscent of Cruellock last year with a huge horn on the forehead. Swivel joint below the knee, knees, hips, waist, shoulder, elbow and wrists + neck. Annoying armour can attach to his back or into slots under each elbow.

Overall: Loose the armour and key slot attachment and you've got a great basic.

Future Repaints

Wreckloose is a Cybertron original mould and I find incredible he's not had a repaint to recoup costs. Something in maybe black or red would be nice.

[Philip Ayres]

Two to go. Most of these are just the original reviews, with a little embellishment and some comments on repaints.

[Philip Ayres]

Undermine

I believe this sort of dinosaur is called a spinosaurus. We've got some posability on the legs and the tail, and the Beast planet force chip (#s48a on the Cybertron version) pops out a blade at the front of the spine. The neck, body & tail are cast in a dark green plastic while the spine, upper limbs and feet are a brighter green plastic. Some grey also features on thebody, tail tip and spine blade.

To TF pull the head apart at each side, and fold the halves of the neck down to the sides. Pull on the hips and they'll fold downwards under the body. Tail unclips, and then clips into the robot's hand as a morning star.

Articulation is mainly fore and aft joints, but he's still quite a nice little toy. You could easily imagine there being an army of these....

Undermine was released in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GD-08 Dino Shout with the bright green plastic a much brighter day glo shade and the darker green more an olive colour.

Repugnus

Someone at Hasbro loves G1 Repugnus. As well as this he's had a Universe version using the BW Fuzor Buzzclaw mould. Up till this points several important G1 characters hadn't had this much love !

He comes with a beast planet key numbered s48r. Colourwise his body swaps dark green for black, the lighter green for yellow and the grey for red. It's a decent looking repaint bringing the original Repugnus to mind with the chosen colours.

[Philip Ayres]

Scrapmetal

This toy was released in three colour versions in Japan as GD-13 - all three shared the same name and number which is supported in the cartoon by there being many Rumbles. It's name might be Ramble ? or Rumble ? Translation is uncertain but due to the multiple colour versions bringing to mind the G1 tapes I'll go with Rumble and we'll start with the Red one which I have - because Rumble is Red and because its the version first released as Scrapmetal in Cybertron.

Rumble is a spider esque vehicle of some description. There are 4 legs, a head shaped like a combat helicopter's cockpit - think E Bulkhead or TM Spinister - and a huge cannon mounted on the back of the vehicle mode. The end of the cannon resembles a minicon port, but isn't sadly - I was looking forward to mounting Skyblast on the end of it. Insert his Cybertron Decepticon planet key (numbered sf2x on the red Cybertron version) into the rear of this weapon and a sword blade springs out. Rear legs can end in either a spike or a wheel - one is folded to the side to reveal the other. Of all the toys that have bee done in the last few years he resembles an earth vehicle the least - wouldn't look out of place in Beast Machines.

To TF pull the rear legs out to the sides, fold up the flap at the rear of the cockpit, pull back on the cannon pulling up the piece the flap is attached to, and rotate it anti clockwise to form the shoulders. Lock the rear legs into this as the arms. Pull the front legs apart and the cockpit folds through it to form the cheat, revealing the head which needs to be rotated. Lock the spider forelegs together and fold down the robot feet. The arms currently end in a spike but can be folded back to reveal the hands which have standard size peg holes. Unfortunately the hands and the peg holes are mounted in such a way that the hole ends up on the side if the arm is mounted to bend up forwards at the elbow. Could have been a bit better there. The elbows themselves are a little stiff to move especially compared to the "pop off if you look at them wrong" shoulder and hip joints. The sword blade is removable and can be used as a hand weapon - very nice.

There are several alternate vehicle modes shown on the pages above. There's also an alternate robot mode possible but that unfortunately ends up with the cannon mounted in an unfortunate place.....

So overall - odd but nice looking vehicle, nice robot with some flaws in the arms. But not a bad basic as such.

Gd13

As I mentioned above there's other versions of this toy.

The second is a Blue version (Frenzy ? - for after all Frenzy is blue) and Of the 3 colours Blue is possibly the most pleasing to the eye. From what I believe Rumble is a drone character with lots of them running around so you can happily splurge out for one of these.

If I were a betting man this would have been the version I'd have put money on being released as the repaint in Cybertron. Funny how these things work out isn't it ?

Scrapmetal

What we got in the end as the Cybertron recolour was the yellow version, which actually is quite nice as it evokes both construction machinery and insects both of which Scrapmetal resembles. The Cybertron version hadn't any extra words bolted onto it's name to distinguish it from the original version and has the key code s1j5.

Buy this, you need more drones. My only slight reservation is that it isn't the blue version to be Frenzy to my Rumble !

You know at some point someone's going to do a yellow version of the Decpeticon tape robot that's the mould for G1 Rumble & Frenzy. When that happens I hope it gets the Scrapmetal name as a tribute to this toy !

Cody's Rumble

Cody's Rumble appeared in the cartoon and was part of the EX02 Sonic Convoy set with a clear Galaxy Convoy and a slightly repainted Sonic Bomber. Cody's Rumble is a basic red Rumble, but with a very pale blue head and cockpit canopy surround. The light blue clashes badly with the red - stick with the basic coloured drones !

[blueshift]

I believe the Cody one had a different head too. Apparently all the molds come with two heads, so one gets chucked away in any release.

The 'Cody' one was the original and deemed to heroic, so the bug-eyed one was added and the one used for mass release.

[Philip Ayres]

I had read that it had a different head but couldn't find any close up pictures to check - the link above (to EBI labs) ain't working at the mo)

[Philip Ayres]

Brakedown

Brakedown was available in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-13 Autolander which is where I first encountered it

*FINALLY*

Dispatched HLJ 14/02
With customs 27/02
Delivery attempted 01/03
Sorting office visited 02/04
Sorting office visited again 05/04, and claim made
Card through door 31/03
Item collected 04/04

Autolander is a basic sized dragster with a Speedia force chip (Cybertron number s5f3). The dragster - mainly moulded in black with some grey round the outside edges - is a little reminiscent of Land Bullet with 2 large wheels (clear yellow) at the back and not a lot visible at the front. The key gimmick doesn't really work in this mode - but if you remove the front of the car and insert the speed chip (Cybertron #s5f3) into the back of it then a clear yellow blade pops out. This can then be reattached to the car to leave the blade sticking out the front.

To tf unclip the sides at the back, fold the legs down, back wheels up onto the shoulders, head round and front of car to form the backpack. Remove the front, form the blade weapon and place in the figure's hand.

Robot looks nice, lovely black stylised chest made from the back of the car. The legs and lower arms are both pale grey with the shoulders and feet also being black. He's got similar articulation to Skids/clockerwith ball jointed shoulders, elbows, hips & knees - but his huge upper arms and tiny forearms don't lend itself to posing with the weapon.

Overall: Nice, detailed on the chest but quite simple.

RM LeoConvoy later. And Parcelforce have been as well..... 1

Brakedown GTS

Brakedown GTS has taken the old & mentoring elements from the biography of Brakedown and though "Kup !" then used Kup's colours on the recolour. Black becomes pale blue - apart from the robot chest which dark blue. The grey becomes a dirtier grey and the clear yellow becomes opaque black. The chip is now numbered S9k1.

[Philip Ayres]

Hotshot

The simplest way to describe this toy is G1 Hotrod, but done in a slightly mettalic blue which kind of brings to mind the silver of Energon Hotshot. Like Hotrod you've got the pipes molded into the arms, the fin at the back, the general shape and the transformation. Ok there are differences: there's no flip down head and chest and the shoulders fold round the head. GaoGaiGar's Volfogg transforms identically and several other Brave toys have the "one end of the car folds out to become the shoulders with the arms made from the sides" transform. However the general idea with Hotshot is the same as Hotrod , and the look is common to both modes on both toys.

Hotshot comes with a missile launcher that can be mounted on the roof of the car or held, and his Force chip gimmick (Speed planet, ##d85b on the Cybertron version) involves popping out the fins at the back of the car - these are moulded in clear yellow like the windscreen, missile & launcher.

To TF - pull back on the legs and flip the feet down. Pull out on the doors. Pull the windscreen up and turn the entire windscreen and top rear section through 180 degrees. Pull down on the doors - now the forearms - to separate the bonnet in 2, and turn the head.

Good articulation all over, and plenty of detailing all over the toy. Red is introduced on the upper limbs and a darker blue is visible on the head, chestplate, lower arms and feet - close examination will also show that this is the same colour as the wheels. Some of the limb proportions are a little odd - very long upper arms and small lower arms, but this is still a good toy and some feels a bit of a step up from some of the deluxe toys in recent years.

I'll place money on a Red repaint down the line.

Hot Shot was released in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-02. In addition to the standard Cybertron carded version he was also available boxed with a recoloured Race Team Minicon Mirage and Mirage's Tiny Tin.

Dvd01 Exillion

Sure enough the red repaint turned up. The problem was it turned up as a Japanese DVD exclusive. Which mdae people mad. Some even so mad that they bought it - Japanese DVDs are on the more vertical side of expensive.

Car body blue becomes red, red becomes yellow and the darker blue becomes brown - this really shows up on the wheels. The clear plastic is now blue which is nice on the windscreen but odd on the fins especially when in back pack mode. The toy looks the part however.

So yes, people bought it. Because Japanese exclusives don't come out in the west do they ?

Excellion

Hohohoho. You'll never guess what happened ?

Excellion is the long awaited Cybertron version Hot Rod redeco of Cybertron Hot Shot. This is a similar but non identical version of the DVD toy that was then solicited for Cybertron and actually saw release much to the wailing and gnashing of teeth of everyone who bought the DVD version.

Hot Shot was also redeco'ed for both Armada and Energon, and Armada went down the Hot Rod route too.

A quick guide to repainting the toy - the blue is now red, the red is now orange, the dark blue is black and the orange clear plastic is now clear blue. The red is a bit of a problem - for a start the paint on the doors and the roof is a much brighter red than that of the cast red plastic parts. Said plastic parts are an almost peachy salmon colour in places.... (goes and fetches Energon Rodimus) Right Rodimus' red is darker. There's not much in it but the difference is enough that it just doesn't look right on Excellion. Like the DVD version, the clear blue plastic works fine on the windows and weapon, however same plastic is used for the little pop out wings what emerge when you insert the force chip. Here it falls down as these need to be yellow. A simple paint job would have fixed this, and indeed the plastic in the headlights has been painted silver, and there are gold flame details added on the bonnet next to them.

The robot mode shows a lot more of the orange than was visible before which is good. On the downside the chest is mainly grey - perhaps a red paint application would have helped to reinforce the Hot Rod likeness here. There's some orange - which you can now see is slightly duller than that used for E Rodimus, gold and silver paint apps visible on the chest, and the inner panels on the front of the shoulders are painted silver - when they were red on Hot Shot, though unfortunately the paint doesn't extend over onto the body sections of the shoulders leaving a defined panel over 2 pieces only half painted. Like E Rodimus he has a painted crest on his head, only this time it's gold which contrasts well with the grey of the head and the silver of the face plate. The orange mass of the backpack is a little distracting behind the head, as are the blue fins - something inside you says that both aught to be yellow. As for articulation - obviously the same as Hot Shot - knees that bend backward, ball jointed hips, a neck, shoulders that move back and forth and shrug (due to the TF), and ball jointed elbows. Hands have a standard size hole which can hold the likes of the minicon weapons. His Planet Key is now numbered d7p5.

Overall: Well this is a repaint where we know what it aught to look like. And it just misses that mark in several places. Excellent toy still, and good repaint, but just not quite there in such a small way that it's quite annoying !

The Excellion colour scheme also appears on a Legend version of the toy confusingly labeled Hotshot !

Breakaway

Breakaway was a wave 2 Movie Deluxe exclusive available at Wal*Mart stores in the US and ASDA in the UK.

An Autobot toy, the name previously being used for Decepticons, he has a an all clear red Cybertron key with a silver embossed Autobot symbol. I believe this is the original version of the Cybertron key, not the modified one which came with the recoloured Armada Supercon Optimus Prime. Hotshot's light blue becomes white, the dark blue becomes black, red becomes dark blue and the the clear yellow becomes a sort of smoked clear colour. The car mode aquires blue stripes along the top edges of the sides. The overall effect is similar to the Legends Hotshot repaint as Red Alert both having white as a dominant colour but the blue on this toy seperates the two. There's G1 influences all over this exclusive series but I can't quite work out what this is a tribute to.

Goldbug

Hotshot's final mould use to date is as an evil Goldbug from the Botcon 2008 Shattered Glass set which is quite funny really as his Legends version had already been used to produce Bumblebee. The car mode has the light blue moulded in black and painted with yellow stripes which looks really nice. The windscreen, weapon and wings are all now moulded in dark blue plastic adding to the effect of the car. His speed planet key ia a clear yellow, with a black border.

Transforming him reveals a new head modeled after the original Throttlebot Goldbug head and shows that the red has been replaced with yellow.

It's an effective repaint and a nice swapping round of the primary colours associated with Bumblebee/Goldbug so that the black becomes dominant.

Unreleased Legends Versions

I've already mentioned these but where they exist I was to call specific attention to versions of the Legends figure made that weren't released in the larger scale. Bumblebee takes both blues and makes them yellow while all the other colours become black while Red Alert makes the blues white, keeps the red and makes the clear parts red. Both colour schemes work really well and would be worth releasing on the larger toy (though I'd use the clear versions of the colours on the relevant parts)

[Philip Ayres]

Thundercracker

Another box from HLJ today - £12.84 sacrificed to the customs men to get it. In it was my reissue Blitzwing and the remaining Galaxy Force Wave 1 toys.

Nice jet - almost entirely moulded in grey plastic - whose nose doesn't bend nearly as much as the pictures make out. He's got silver tail fins, missiles (moulded under the wings) and small fore wings. The underside of the toy features three sets of fold down landing gear. He comes with an Earth force chip - Sun rising over planet numbered d98d - which causes a missile launcher to spring out the top of the toy - this fires an orange projectile, the same colour as the cockpit canopy.

TF: fold the undercarriage forward under the nose to form the legs & waist. Fold the arms out to the sides passing the missing launcher through the top of the jet to form his left arm. Finally fold back the wings and tail to form the robot's back and reveal the head. So the transformation in Cyberjet Hooligan to a tee..... and then it all goes wrong.

There's a lot of light blue on the toy on the head, shoulders, upper legs and feet. This just doesn't look evil enough, and clashes with the safety orange highlights elsewhere on the toy. The only new clear orange is found on the lightpipe for the eyes. The legs are too long and thin compared to the arms.... well the right arm at least cos the left arm ends just below the elbow with a connector into the entire top of the centre of the plane and the missile launcher. Unlike Hooligan this isn't something replacing the forearm and wrist, this is a huge lump of plane hanging off the arm with a missile launcher in it.

So nothing a recolour, remold of the legs, a proper left hand and turning the missile launcher into a removable weapon wouldn't solve.


Thundercracker was available in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GD-03. In The UK & the US it was sold as part of the first Galaxy Force assortment - a superbly balanced case of toys with 2 Autobots, 2 Decepticons and 2 of each toy. Thundercracker is one of six Cybertron Deluxe toys released boxed as an exclusive for Wal*Mart. He came with a recoloured Minicon Downshift and it's Tiny Tin.

Skywarp

Well we had the last of these 3 on the LOC Version and it was great. Here we try the recolour.

The toy is recoloured and named Skywarp, though this isn't your usual Black w Purple colour scheme. The jet is mainly purple (for the grey) - it reminds me of G1 Cyclonus or the Predator Skydive. The cockpit and the missile are picked out in a rather fetching red. Although the TF exposes a lot more dark grey (on the arms) and light grey almost white (on the shoulders and upper legs) the resultant robot still has a lot of purple to it...... and all the problems I listed with the original. Problem is now he has to stand behind classics Starscream which is a superb jet toy. Key remains an Earth one now numbered d02r.

Worth it to boost your jet army, and the colour scheme works well enoughthat I'd like to see it on the classic Starscream toy, and also on the superior LOC Thundercracker.

Mine came with the Euro Giant Planet Map completing my Maps for Europe as well as the US.

Divebomb

Divebomb was a wave 1 Movie Deluxe exclusive for Wal*Mart in the US and ASDA in the UK.

The grey of Thundercracker's jet mode becomes a desert yellow covered in brown camoflage. The clear plastic becomes clear light blue. On the robot mode the light blue becomes dark grey with the arms a lighter grey.

It's an interesting colour scheme but the toy sdaly maintains all the previous faults.

Unreleased Legends Versions

The Legends version of Thundercrcaker has three repaints which haven't been used on the larger toy: Jetfire casts the jet in white, Starscream looks great in the Starscream colours with the grey becoming a more silver grey and the blue becoming a darker blue while Special Team Leaders Silverbolt This version swaps grey for a creamy white and blue for a very dark brown nearly black with lots of red paint highlights on the jet.

[Philip Ayres]

Red Alert

I first encountered Red Alert in his Galaxy Force form of First Aid: Here's the tale of how long he took to get to me:

*FINALLY*

My huge Galaxy Force order was dispatched from HLJ 14/02
With customs 27/02
Delivery attempted 01/03
Sorting office visited 02/04
Sorting office visited again 05/04, and claim made
Card through door 31/03
Item collected 04/04

First Aid is a Deluxe sized version of Armada Red Alert. Vehicle mode is broadly similar - though a little longer with the hint of the robot head sticking up through the cab. Put his Earth planet key (Cybertron #d26w) into the back of the vehicle and the rear sides pop out flipping up 2 cannons.

Transformation is a truly wondrous thing. Fold the front and the back of the car downwards, fold out feet and heel spurs, fold in the back wheels and then lock the 2 together to form the legs and the feet - the struts connecting to the front form the inner upper leg, and the struts towards the back form the outer leg. VERY clever, and not something I can recall seen being done before. Fold the rear of the car down to form the back pack, the arms up from the front doors and pop the head up.

Robot mode is compact - about 2/3 of the size of Nitro Convoy. Again a pretty faithful version of ratchet down to the welder on his left wrist. The shins hide a hammer head and a claw which can be attached to the end of this. Articulation at ball jointed shoulders and a very high mounted elbow. There are joints at the hip and knee, but it's only fore and back due to the construction of the legs from the TF. The hips can be spread somewhat widening his stance. His eyes are formed from a clear red visor which is lightpiped.

Overall: Quite simple in places, but clever transformation and a good reduced size version of an older toy.

First Aid was available in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-11 - released the same day as Nitro Convoy (Override) who formed his case brother when Red Alert was released in Cybertron's Deluxe Wave 2 in the US. This assortment was not released in the UK. Red Alert was also available boxed as a Wal*Mart exclusive together with a repaint of Minicon Dirt Boss and a Tint Tin container for the Minicon.

Cannonball

Cannonball is one of the more interesting repaints of recent times. The idea is that cannonball is a pirate. White becomes black, blue becomes gold and clear red becomes a clear purple/blue. A little paint over his lightpipe gives him the illusion of an eye patch. Cannonball comes with an Earth Planet Key #d2rz.

It's an interesting and original colour scheme.

Cannonball - like his antecedent - was not released in the UK.

Crankcase

Crankcase is a Wave 2 Wal*Mart Movie deluxe repaint also available through ASDA in the UK

Crankcase is based on the G1 Triggercon - this mould has some common ground with it's general shape and the pop up cannons making the use of the Crankcase name a good choice - G1 Crankcase is pictured on the same page as him in Generations 2009 v2. The main colour of the toy is a mid blue (for the white) which is similar to the blue used on the G1 character. A Haz-Mat operations (Hazardous material) logo is on each door. The clear plastic has this time been moulded in orange. Transforming to robot mode reveals that most of the dark blue on Red Alert is now mid blue too with the exception of the upper legs and panels on the waist which are grey. The hand, arm welder and attachments remain black. The key is now a clear purple version of the Sideways/Unicron key with a silver Decepticon symbol painted on it.

It's not a bad repaint at all.

Kup

Kup is an odd choice of toys for release as a Botcon exclusive - the standard Kup colours aren't too far away from those used on the above Crankcase exclusive. Light blue replaces Red Alert's white, the dark blue becoming a pale aquamarine blue and the clear red becoming clear blue. He gets a new head modelled on the G1 Kup and acquires a clear Cybertron key with black edging and a red Autobot symbol in the middle.

[Philip Ayres]

Crosswise

Crosswise is a black car. At the time I wrote that "I've no idea if he resembles any real car or not, either way he looks quite stylish - almost Stepper like - though the radiator grill puts me in the mind of the Batmobille for some reason !" Although he's not an exact replica the Crosswise vehicle mode is modelled on the Bugatti Veyron, the most expensive production car ever (see Top Gear: The Challenges on DVD) The majority of the car is moulded in black with pale green front & side windows. Beneath the spoiler at the back there's a socket for a blast of green flame - this acts as a missile launcher. Beneath that is his key socket - he has an Earth Planet key #d9f2 - and that flips 2 banks of 4 missiles up onto the cab. Careful when locking them down - they both need to be locked in at once or you'll find the other popping up again !

The TF is a nightmare - I've seen him described as "the lost car brother" and "the closest thing to a deluxe Alternator". Both are true. It's easy enough to fold the legs down from under the front of the car but then it turns into a nightmare of subtly moving panels at the side so they'll pass through each other to form the arms. Bonnet folds back to become the chest and the head pops up.

The resulting robot is again reminiscent of Stepper - the revealed upper arms and legs are grey in contrast to the black. He's nicely detailed and highly articulated. There's 2 kibblicous black bits of plastic protruding from the back pointing upwards in a stab your eyes out type way ! Key hole is now on his bottom and the missiles flip up over each shoulder. He's got knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and neck. No waist due to the TF. He's got a gun - formed from the spoiler assembly - and the roof has become a shield attached to his left arm.

Overall - nice looking but and irritating TF.

Incidentally while I'm here I'm finding that the Earth vehicles are a high point of the Cybertron range - both Crosswise & his case sister Thunderblast were been very good.

Crosswise was released in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-17 Autovolt. He was not released in the UK.

Smokescreen

Smokescreen was in the last wave of Transformers Cybertron Deluxe toys to be sold and as such was not released in the UK. Someone at Hasbro loves Smokescreen with him getting repaints in Armada, Cybertron, Movie & Universe as well as a new version in Alternators. This takes the black of Crosswise and swaps it for red. Over the sides we get a blue painted panel with a white stripe along the top and Smokescreen's trademark #38 on the doors. Transformation reveals the silver grey has been swapped for white. His Earth Key Code is d4v6. If they'd been thinking clearer they'd have got the number 38 in there too.

It's a little too red for Smokescreen for my tastes but an OK repaint.

Jolt

Jolt is a wave 1 Movie Deluxe toy exclusive to Wal*Mart in the US. He wasn't sold through ASDA in the UK due to them importing the Wave 2 case which he wasn't carried over into. So three appearances for this mould, zero UK appearances.

Jolt swaps the black for purple - as per the 1994 Laser Rod of the same name - with a silver stripe taking up the area occupied by the blue on the Smokescreen repaint. The clear plastic becomes clear purple, while transforming the toy reveals a different shade of grey used for the upper arms & legs. He comes with a clear purple version of the Sideways/Unicron chip with a silver decepticon symbol on it.

Another decent repaint and G1 homage. Hmm - does this mean you could do a repaint of Universe Prowl (repainted as Smokescreen) in purple and call it Jolt ? Or in black and call it Crosswise ?

Jazz

Ricochet was a Botcon 2008 exclusive giving Crosswiwse a new head to resemble G1 Jazz/Richochet. The black becomes white, the grey becomes black and the clear pieces become a smoked colour.

VERY Nice repaint - good marriage of mould, name & coloiurs produces a toy I'd be happy to have in the Universe range. The door bits pushing up behind the back are reminiscent of those on the Universe Legends Jazz.

Ricochet

Ricochet was a Botcon 2008 exclusive using the Jazz head from above.

The black becomes red, the grey becomes white and the clear pieces become a smoked colour. Nice repaint - red robot theory strikes again - but the colours aren't traditional Ricochet ones who's quite similar to the original Crosswise colours.

[Philip Ayres]

I'm guessing someone's reading - hope you're enjoying these. Feedback as ever is encouraged.

Next: Landmine !

[Philip Ayres]

Landmine

Landmine was first released as Galaxy Force toy GC-09 Guardshell which is how I reviewed the toyback in 2005.

There's a longer history of TF diggers. Sadly the last one (Armada Scavenger) was a shelfwarmer supreme in both it's colour schemes.....

Guardshell is a nice chunky mainly yellow and brown digger. Shovel is nicely articulated in a couple of places with some grey on the arms, and his cannon can be mounted on the back of the vehicle but looks odd - sort of like a raised pile driver. He's got a sort of vehicle attack mode - raise both rear wheels to the side of the toy, insert his Earth Planet Key (#dr94) into each and turn the top half of the wheel and out pop little blades. The wheels can be turned from the back of the vehicle.

To TF fold the undercarriage of the digger down and to the front of the digger to form the legs, rotate the wheels down and flip the feet out. If you haven't already folded the rear wheels out then do so and tuck them under the truck to where the legs were - you're best standing him up from this point. There's 2 grey piece on either side above his hips, fold these down to lower his waist piece in the middle. Separate the shovel, and fold each half to the sides to form the arm - the hands are on the same piece as is connected to the shovel so a little folding should reveal them. The smokestacks fold to the side and up.

Nice and chunky robot, pretty stable and quite posable. He's got knee joints, plus a swivel below each knee, ball jointed hips and shoulders, with an extra joint for sideways movement in the shoulder, ball joint elbows and a neck. Blade gimmick can be used in this mode too, and the wheel assembly bent up to behind his head. The folded smokestacks, head, and colour mix scream Energon Landmine at you, and I'm lead to believe that this will be Landmine when it gets released in the US. (as indeed it was - you can see how they got from Snowplough to Digger for Landmine's vehicle mode)

Much better than Thundrecracker, which was the Cybertron deluxe I bought.

Rhinox

In 2006 the Botcon theme was Cybertron modes for Beast Wars characters. Landmine was used as a base for Rhinox swapping the yellow for beige, brown for green and grey for black. It works, the robot mode looks Rhinox like and you could see Rhinox having this vehicle mode ( for one where it doesn't see Armada Hoist used as Dinobot)

Rhinox comes with a solid grey version of the Sideways/Unicron planet key with a gold circuit pattern printed on the face.

Grindcore

Landmine pops up again as Grindcore a Wave 1 Wal*Mart & ASDA Movie deluxe toy.

In many ways the Grindcore colours are similar to Rhinox's: Here yellow and brown become pale green and the grey becomes a darker grey. It's essentially using the G1 Constructicon colours (he'd be Scrapper). I've never got why the Constructicons were green - I'd associate JCB yellow more with construction vehicles - but given the original use of the colour I expect to see it used for a Decepticon rather than an Autobot, which is prevented here by the Autobot symbol on the mould. He comes with a clear red Cybertron planet key with a silver Autobot logo printed on it.

[legios]

No need to guess - I, at the least, am reading along. I just haven't had the time to do much in the way of commenting. Interesting to read thy reviews of Autovolt/Crosswise - one of the Cyb/GF toys I have seen but never owned. It does sound like the sort of thing that would appeal to me.

I find myself generally in agreement with your views on these toys, although I think that I am slightly more positive about the western red version of Excellion - that is pretty much my favourite version of the mold. I agree that we could do with the Red Alert scheme showing up on it at some point, given how attractive it looks on the Legends version.

I look forward to seeing you move on to some of the larger toys for the line in due course!

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

The Excellion review was a straight c&p from the original I wrote (one of the few repaints in this section where I'm not writing the review from scratch). I've looked back on it and thought I love this toy, why have I been so rude ? But I think with repaints you do get harsher with the criticism for the colours.

[Philip Ayres]

Downshift

Downshift's back, having been Wheeljack in Energon, but he's got a brand new body. This time he's a US 70's muscle car - the sort of thing you'd see on Starsky & Hutch and other similar shows - long, wide & low and in a foul colour - green with black highlights and clear orange windows. But it sort of works cos it's keeping with the 70s theme. There's a hole on either side of the car at the back for 2 missile launchers to peg into - these have a minicon peg at the top and the bottom but there's a distinct way to fit them in with the detailing and the missile trigger ending up on top. The windscreen at the back folds up to reveal the key socket, which when activated with his Earth Planet Key (#dm8r) causes the capture claw to spring from the front of the car.

To Transform - swing the panelled halves of the doors to the sides, and fold out the fists, and then fold the arms down. Separate the back of the car down the middle and fold the entire back of the car under the front to form the legs. Fold the legs down, fold out the heel spurs and then open the panels on his legs to flip out the feet - quite similar to Energon Downshift IIRC. Fold back the car roof - which causes the head to pop up and the ears to pop out the side of the head. Yes once again Downshift is Wheeljack, especially in the head sculpt. The missiles launchers can then either be hand held or clip onto the shoulders.

The robot exposes two new plastic colours - black on the arms & feet and grey on the hands & upper legs. The robot's knees bend, plus there's a swivel below them, his hips are ball and socket joints, his shoulders move back & forth and (thanks to the TF) up to the sides and his elbow bends forwards. There is a neck joint but this is seriously impaired by the head being slightly recessed into the body - 1mm and there would be full movement. A bicep would have been nice too, as would a waist - lost due to the TF. His door shoulder pads make him as wide as he is tall and his chest is the car - the head sticks over the bonnet like G1 Prowl, with his eyes and Wheeljack ears But despite all this he's a really good robot - the green here isn't out of place making him look very militaristic with the big guns. For something that should look awful it's an excellent toy.

Big Daddy

Big Daddy ia a Wave 1 Wal*Mart & ASDA exclusive Movie deluxe toy.

The original Big Daddy was a black Micromaster muscle car with some orange robot parts. It's use as a rename & recolour on this mould was an obvious with the black replacing the green and the orange replacing the grey (and being painted onto the head) The black & clear orange stay the same.

Great repaint. Worth having, and I'm sure the mould will be back again.

[Philip Ayres]

That concludes the deluxes used as Movie repaints. There's one more Movie repaint to go but that's a Classics toy so you might have a wait for it (but I'm going to try to sneak the modified classics toys in between Cybertron Deluxe and Voyagers)

[Philip Ayres]

Dirt Boss

Dirt Boss is a Purple and Green deluxe sized monster truck. Clip the Speedia (Speed Planet #d3h7) chip in the back and the huge set of wheels underneath spread to the sides.

TF: Unclip the arms from the rear of the car and fold down. Fold the rear of the car back, and then the head & shoulder guns forward .

The robot mode is mainly purple, with the green wheel assembly as the largest piece of backpack kibble you've ever seen. We have joints at the knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and neck.

I'm sorry, I just don't do the monster truck thing, and this one is painted in a monochrome clashing bad colour scheme, no hand held weapons and simplistic detail. Not my favourite of this lot.

Dirt Boss was sold in Japan as Galaxy force toy GD-06 Inch Up. In addition to his carded Cybertron version he was also offered as an exclusive boxed deluxe at Wal*Mart with a recolour of Race Team Minicon Downshift and a Tiny Tin container for the Minicon. If only they'd have included Minicon Dirt Boss with deluxe Dirt Boss !

Dirt Boss has never been repainted.

[Philip Ayres]

Yeah that last one is a little on the slender side but I can't think of anything else to write to add to the original review I wrote.

[Philip Ayres]

Override

*FINALLY*

Override was sold in Japan as Galaxy Force toy GC-10 Nitro Convoy.

The Galaxy Force version comes packaged in robot mode, as are all the Galaxy Force leader & Convoy toys. Each of the four planets has it's own Convoy toy this year which has a gold rimmed version of that planet's planet key. Nitro Convoy/Override is the Speed Planet Leader, Flame Convoy/Scourge for the Beast Planet, Live Convoy/Evac for Earth and Megalo Convoy/Metroplex for the Giant Planet. Nitro Convoy is a large deluxe sized toy. I reckon I've seen comparable toys sold as Megas in the west.... Articulation includes a certain amount at the heels from the TF, simple knee joint, rotate at the thigh, ball jointed hip, simple elbow, bicep rotate, out at the shoulder, up and down at the shoulder, and very loosely back as part of the TF, which doesn't lend itself to stable arm poses. The head can turn but the top of the backpack gets in the way a little. Most of the backpack unpegs and forms his hand weapon - inserting his gold bordered Speedia chip (Speed Planet in Cybertron with chip #dy7p) causes 2 gun barrels to leap forward. As a hand weapon it resembles the disc launchers found on some of the Goldion Brave toys. The head has some angled fins on it to add to the "I'm fast" motif but the white and red together on the car makes me think of the Masterforce medic Minerva.

TF: Split the waist apart and fold to the sides. Bring the red length of plastic behind the backpack forwards and clip the legs in. Bring the back pack over the top of his body folding head and chest forward to lock in, and then fold the arms into the cavity on his back. That's it. Back is even simpler - press on the front of the car and everything should happen bar the unpegging the legs and folding up of the front of the car.

Car is a stylised F1 car in the same white and red as the robot. The windows comes in clear red as do the wheels - a gimmick of the Speed Planet toys. The Planet Key gimmick works still in this mode. Not bad, but very stylised...... and it's still making me think Minerva - the same thing was obviously occuring to the Hasbro team as when the toy was released as Override the bio on the back made it female.

Overall: Adequate, but seen better. Nice size for the price point though.

Override had two Cybertron versions: The first was a carded one - released in the same wave as Red Alert neither toy made it to the UK shelves. The second version took an identical toy and put it in a box with a recolour of Minicon Race Team Dirt Boss and it's Tiny Tin. This package was an exclusive for Wal*Mart in the US and sadly didn't get imported by Asda as some recent wal*Mart exclusives have been.

Dark Nitro Convoy

I groaned when I saw the Dark Nitro Convoy exclusive. Were we going to be treated to black versions of all of the Galaxy Force Convoy toys ? No, as it turned out. This one is a straight colour swap - black for white, grey for red and clear purple for clear red with lots of the paint masks now done in silver and metallic purple. And it's a nice recolour evoking the original Black Convoy (Scourge) from CR/RID that started the whole "black version of Optimus as a bad guy" thing off.

Override GTS

Override GTS is a lazy repaint, essentially swapping the white for grey. That's it apart from some modifications round the edges of the paint deco. It just looks like a washed out version of the original toy. Like the original it comes with a gold edged Speed Planet Key #dj9n. Unlike the original she was sold in the UK, case paired with the Excellion Hotshot recolour (yup, just two toys in a case)