Phil's Energon Combiner Team reviews

[Philip Ayres]

you've no idea how long I've been trying to write these !

[Philip Ayres]

Sledge

Sledge is numbered C1 in the Constructicon team.

If Sledge had an original Constructicon's name then he'd be Scrapper. Exactly the same vehicle mode - a 4 wheeled digger moulded in light green (for most of the vehicle's body), dark green (for the cab & shovel) and clear blue for the cab windows. The shovel at the front raises where it's connected to the body of the toy and pivots at the end of the shovel arms. He comes with an Energon claw thing to attach to the back of the vehicle. Whar it's meant to be in this mode I'm not sure but a little more work could have made the claw like an excavator arm !

Sledge has a complex tf involving much folding, it's the only Energon combiner limb to hide the connector anywhere other than on the top with the head folded over it! The back of the vehicle folds back to become the legs, with quite a bit of folding producing the waist. The front wheel fold upwards allowing the front of the vehicle to be folded out to the sides to become the arms.

Sledge is a little loose in robot mode but better than Duststorm's floppiness. Articulation consists of ball joints at knees, hips, shoulder & elbows plus a turning wasit & lightpiped head. He looks like a missing RID Build Team member which is a big compliment. The claw can be folded out (as can a handle hidden within) into a spear type weapon ...... sadly this also can still attach to where it would in digger mode.... which has ended up on his waist..... where the handle can point out. Oh dear.

In my opinion Sledge is the best of Energon combiner limbs:

Arm mode: the Digger with Claw opened out on the end - good and solid
Leg mode: Digger with flattened claw on the end - again good and solid.

Might need some more of the this one. Going to try them on Barricade tonight.

I did end up with 3 more Sledges. And boy does Devastator look good with just green diggers for limbs !

Sledge was sold in the Galaxy Force Line in Japan as Scrapper which was part of the Toys R Us exclusive EX-01 Buildron set.

Bonecrusher

Bonecrusher is numbered C4 in the Constructicon team.

As a name Bonecrusher works pretty well for this toy - the original Constructicon Bonecrusher was a tracked bulldozer and there's similarities between that and the digger, a front mounted shovel for a start! Bonecrusher is a repaint of Sledge, with a sandy colour used instead of the pale green and a browny burgundy plastic for the darker green. The toy has a lot of yellow painted highlights. Although these aren't the traditional Constructicon green, they work as construction vehicle colours .

As limbs Bonecrusher and his co-sell Wideload alter the overall colour balance for Constructicon Maximus (Devestator) The yellow on Bonecrusher does rather draw the eyes towards him which maybe isn't too good.... and the overall colour effect of pieces sort of but not quite matching detracts somewhat from the overall toy.

Bonecrusher was sold in the Galaxy Force Line in Japan as part of the Toys R Us exclusive EX-01 Buildron set.

In the year after Sledge & Bonecrusher were released, the Cybertron toyline carried Hardtop and it's repaint Swindle who have a transformation nearly identical to that used by Sledge !

Scrapper

The Sledge mould next crops up in the Wal*Mart exclusive Classic Devastator set finally getting the correct Scarpper name that the mould implies. Pale green becomes grey while dark green becomes a bright green to produce a toy slightly closer to the original Constructicon colours.

Bonecrusher

The second Sledge repaint in the Classics Devastator set is once again called Bonecrusher swapping the dark green for grey and and the pale green for black with lots of bright green paint applied.

Both toys in this set use lovely clear purple Energon which helps the final combined toy no end.

[Philip Ayres]

Duststorm

Duststorm is toy C2 in the Constructicon team.

Duststorm is a crane coloured (for a Constructicon) in a non-traditional dark blue. The name is new too, previous Constructicon cranes have been called Hook. The crane arm rotates & elevates at it's base (which includes a control cab) with the arm extending but the moulded hook at the end doesn't move. The arm can be extended further by pegging a clear blue energon claw - which opens & closes - into the 5mm hole on the side of the hook's base - there's a Minicon post on the other side. When not deployed the crane arm attaches to a support on the vehicles body which helps to strengthen then entire toy.

Duststorm had a rotate the crane mount transformation (ala the guns on the combaticon tanks) with the crane control becoming one arm and the crane a hugely oversized other arm. The cab then splits down the middle to form lower legs, and then splits again fore and aft to form feet and heel spurs.

Duststomr's articulation is slightly different to most of the other Energon combiner limbs: the elbows bend then the upper arm turns with a bicep joint. The shoulders are ball jointed and the lightpiped head turns as does the waist. Hips are also ball jointed but the knees merely bend - those who own one of the many Machine Wars Mirage variants will find the upper legs and it's joints a familiar design from that toy ! He's got *very* loose hips, in fact the crane mode flops about at the robot's hips without the crane arm locked in place on it's support. His right had - formed from the crane arm's control cab - has a 5mm peg socket while the crane arm has on either side of it the 5mm socket and Minicon post that were mentioned previously.

Duststorm can form any limb for an Energon combiner robot:

Arm mode is the crane mode with the connector bend down from the back of the toy and the claw on the end of the arm. You can get a reasonable claw by opening the robot's feet up too, and by disconnecting the crane arm from it's support you can also get an elbow & bicep joint for your toy.
Leg mode is the crane mode with the cab feel and heel spurs opened (but still with the cab halves together) and the crane arm cleverly pinned to the crane arm support using the claw. A surprisingly solid leg (given the problems documented earlier) if one that looks a little thin !

It's not too bad a toy but it looses points for the problems with the robot hips and being so thin as a limb mode.

Duststorm was sold in the Galaxy Force Line in Japan as Longhaul which was part of the Toys R Us exclusive EX-01 Buildron set.

Wideload

Wideload is toy C3 in the Constructicon team.

Wideload is a mainly green repaint of Duststorm with creamy coloured crane arm and robot chest plate. I much prefer this toy with this in something aproaching the proper Constructicon colours !

Wideload was sold in the Galaxy Force Line in Japan as Gren which was part of the Toys R Us exclusive EX-01 Buildron set.

Longhaul

The Duststorm mould next crops up twice in the Wal*Mart exclusive Classic Devastator set. Instead of becoming Hook, the first repaint in this set is called Longhaul, previous the name of the truck in the Constructcion team. Almost completely moulded in bright green plastic this version is even closer to the Constructicon colours than Wideload (also a G1 truck name) Both toys in this set come with lovely purple Energon which greatly help the combined form.

Hightower

The second Duststorm mould in the Wal*Mart exclusive Classic Devastator set is called Hightower, after the crane in the Robots in Disguise Build Team. Hightower was the name used for the Crane in both the Universe Constructicon Build Team & Micromaster SixBuild team repaints. This time he's moulded in black plastic with purple being used for the upper robot legs and the crane arm. A different colour scheme, which does stick out slightly in combined mode, but works for the robot due to the traditional Decepticon use of the purple.

[Philip Ayres]

Steamhammer

Steamhammer is toy D5 in the Constructicon team.

Steamhammer is an excavator..... but with problems. The engine back of the excavator is waaaaaay oversized for the rest of the toy and even when TF'd right looks at an odd angle. And the shovel is the wrong way round - surely an excavator shovels pull in towards the rest of the vehicle? A rotational joint near the end of the shovel arm could have fixed this easily. The shovel arm bends at it's base, 1/3 of the way along and where it meets the shovel. One of the arm connectors for Devastator is on the shovel arm, and his spark crystal along with 2 inaccessible minicon ports on the shovel with another two one the rear of the vehicle.

Transformation to robot involves the oversized engine forming the legs, the digger arm his left arm and the right coming from within the toy (with the other arm connector) - though exactly where it goes when you TF it back isn't clear. The treads lock into the body and out pops the head.

The robot mode looks reasonable if you forgive the left arm formed from the shovel arm. Three members of the construction team - Steamhammer and Duststorm/Wideload - have odd left arms ! Like Barricade he's ended up with Minicon ports on each knee. The articulation is mostly ok - knees bend, there's a swivel joint above them, universal hips, the waist & neck turn as do the shoulders which also bend to the side. Both arms have a bicep joint with the left having an elbow on the bend in the shovel arm. The right arm has a double bending elbow with a Minicon port on the outside of the elbow and a 5mm peg hole on the hand.

Steamhammer's combined robot body mode is significantly more solid than Stormjet's and nearly at a par with Onslaught - from robot the treads come out of the body, the arms fold in and peg in place, the treads peg in the back and the head flips out of the cabin on the shoulder. A tiny bit of fiddling with the legs reveals the lower connectors.

Steamhammer's got some flaws as detailed above but I feel that an excavator isn't the ideal vehicle mode to be forming a combiner's core. A truck might have been better but they'd already done a construction vehicle truck in Energon earlier the year in the form of Demolishor.

Steamhammer's Japanese name was Scavenger and he was only available in the EX-01 Buildtron giftset exclusive to Toys R Us in Japan.

Scavenger

Steamhammer's only reappearance to date is in the Wal*Mart exclusive Classics Devastator set where he obtains the Scavenger name. The toy is very similar to the original Steamhammer with just some green changed to grey on the right arm & shovel and some altered paint applications the difference between the two.

[Philip Ayres]

Constructicon Maximus

Constructicon maximus is formed from the following Energon toys:

C1 Sledge
C2 Duststorm
C3 Wideload
C4 Bonecrusher
C5 Steamhammer

To make Sledge or Bonecrusher form an Arm take the Digger with Claw on the end. The leg is the Digger with flattened claw on the end - both modes are good and solid.

Duststorm and Wideload's arm mode is the crane mode with the pivot exposed and the claw on the end of the arm. Their leg mode is the crane mode with the cab feel and heel spurs opened (but still with cab halves together) and the crane arm cleverly pinned to the crane arm support using the claw. Surprisingly solid, but looks rather peg legged compared to a Sledge leg.

Steamhammer's body mode is significantly more solid than Stormjet's and nearly at a par with Onslaught - from robot the treads come out of the body, the arms fold in and peg in place, the treads peg in the back and the head flips out of the cabin on the shoulder. A tiny bit of fiddling with the legs reveals the lower connectors.

Devastator itself looks great - though the shovel sticking out of his left shoulder looks a little odd and makes it hard to put Sledge or Bonecrusher on as a left arm - though it can be done, which is a relief as I've got more Sledges on the way to make an all sledge Devestator. I'm liking this, possibly the best of the 3, kneels well with Sledge as a leg ! The Energon pieces for the hands both look like pieces of industrial machinery fitting the overall theme of the team.

As limbs Bonecrusher and Duststorm alter the overall colour balance for Constructicon Maximus (Devestator) The yellow on Bonecrusher does rather draw the eyes towards him which maybe isn't too good while Duststorm's blue emphasises the thinness of his limb mode. The colour effect of pieces sort of but not quite matching detracts somewhat from the overall toy.

I did end up with 3 more Sledges. And boy does Devastator look good with just green diggers for limbs !

Constructicon Devastator

Constructicon Devastator was a boxset, exclusive to Wal*Mart in the USA, as part of the Classics line. The boxset contained the following parts which form Constructicon Devastator:

Bonecrusher & Scrapper (repaints of C1 Sledge & C4 Bonecrusher)
Longhaul & Hightower (repaints of C2 Duststorm & Wideload)
Scavenger (repaint of C5 Steamhammer)

Both Constructicon Maximus and Devastator have very similar colour schemes mainly using green. For my money the Classics version is the better of the two with a green closer to the original Constructicons.

As I frequently do I've had a look on eBay to see how much these are going for. How much The cheapest boxed one I could find was £100 !

[Philip Ayres]

Treadshot

Treadshot is numbered A1 in the Aerialbot team.

Treadshot is some sort of black Triangular fighter jet..... According to sources I've read he's based on an F-22 Raptor. His colouring would insinuate he's meant to be the original Aerialbot Air Raid, which his Japanese name (see bellow) sort of confirms.

And now I'm coming to review them I'm struggling to remember how their weapons mount in jet mode ! Oh well. (one unclips from the bar, then they each attach under a wing using the 5mm peg hole in the wing) The jet has landing gear - woo ! The cockpit canopy and the gun barrels of the weapons are moulded as clear blue Energon.

Transformation involves folding the sides of the wings down to form the legs, and a little body origami for the rest.

The robot is great - mainly black still with some pale blue being revealed on the robot limbs. He's very poseable with ball joints at elbow, shoulder, hip & knee plus a turning head which is light piped. The ariculation for the combiner limbs is some of the best Energon basics.

The point the toy starts to fall down is in limb mode which involves the jet mode with the legs of the robot unhitched from the sides and fixed in place with the arms. The weapons lock into a plastic bar to form the arms, and can be stretched out for feet or bunched up for hands. Neither limb configuration looks that good - both are very wide with the leg looking unbalanced next to the thin leg formed from Sky Shadow/Terradive while the arm mode has a hand with hugely spaced out fingers.

Great as an individual toy though.

Treadshot was released in Japan as part of the SC-26 Superion giftset where he was called Air Rider.

Windrazor

Windrazor is numbered A4 in the Aerialbot team.

Windrazor swaps most of the plane mode black for red and the robot mode blue for grey, but also makes the lower arms & legs - which were red - grey as well. Given the plane is mainly red you'd be thinking he's most likely meant to be the Aerialbot Fireflight and his Japanese name sort of insinuates this.

Windrazor was released in Japan as part of the SC-26 Superion giftset where he was called Firebolt.

Breakaway

Breakaway is the third toy in the TFCC combiner series released in 2007. The original black and becomes clear red, the light blue becomes a darker blue while the clear Energon ecomes a sort of clear smoked grey.

Another horribly clashing failure from the fan club.

Air Raid

Treadshot returns twice in the Universe/Target Revenge of the Fallen boxset of Superion. The first toy is actually named Air Raid, makes the plane body black & grey a dark grey with the black lower limbs changed to grey and nice green/blue Energon.

Airazor

The Fireflight name swaps mould for this boxset and while the Slingshot name evades Hasbro they have to use Airazor (as in the female Beast Wars Hawk) for this member of the team. The toy here is mainly off white with pale grey lower robot limbs - looks quite nice. His(her ?) Energon is an almost purple colour.

[legios]

Dec 19, 2009 21:09:26 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Treadshot

Treadshot is some sort of black Triangular fighter jet..... According to sources I've read he's based on an F-22 Raptor.

Hmm. Not entirely convinced bu that personally. The wings, such as they are, are mounted a heck of a long way back for a -22. They give his fighter mode an almost tail-less delta-wing look to it.

I always felt that they made him look like a twin V-stabbed cousin to the F-16XL

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-16XL

The general shape of the V-stabs and cockpit canopy are not entirely un-Raptorish though so I guess it could have been a starting point, but if so they moved a long way away from it during the design process.

The robot is great - mainly black still with some pale blue being revealed on the robot limbs. He's very poseable with ball joints at elbow, shoulder, hip & knee plus a turning head which is light piped. The ariculation for the combiner limbs is some of the best Energon basics.

I reckon that this mold is probably the best of the Energon Combiner limbs in humanoid mode. The proportions are fantastic and as you say, it is blessed with absolutely wonderful articulation.

The point the toy starts to fall down is in limb mode which involves the jet mode with the legs of the robot unhitched from the sides and fixed in place with the arms. The weapons lock into a plastic bar to form the arms, and can be stretched out for feet or bunched up for hands. Neither limb configuration looks that good - both are very wide with the leg looking unbalanced next to the thin leg formed from Sky Shadow/Terradive while the arm mode has a hand with hugely spaced out fingers.

Indeed, the combiner mode on this is definitely lacking. The.. claw things look especially ridiculous once the completed combiner is assembled. I also found that they didn't work too well as legs either - tending to slide on any of the surfaces in my house other than the carbboard, with the result that the combined mode ended up doing the splits a lot.

(The third-party combiner parts that are out there go along way to rectify that though - giving all of the limb-bots a bit of what they are missing. (Namely decent hands and feet for the assembled mode)).

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

Sky Shadow

Sky Shadow was numbered A2 in the Aerialbot team.

Sky Shadow is an A-10 Thunderbolt - the same plane type as the ancient Cobra Rattler jet that used to be available. He's a mixture of red, black and silver in this mode which to me would be steering me towards the Aerialbot Skydive but his Japanese name insinuates that he's meant to be Slingshot. As a nice touch there's a sort of gunner station under the jet..... A gun up the front can be used as an attachment for the big cannon weapon with the toy.

Transformation: Fold the wings back, split the cockpit to form the legs, rear turbines become arms. Easy.

Like the other Energon combiner limbs we have fantastic little robots here - the aforementioned gunner station becomes the head with lightpiped eyes complete with fold down goggles - such a nice touch. Ball joints at elbow, shoulder, knee, & hip plus a turning head make for a decent set of articulation.

His Limb mode is basically the jet mode with the wings folded in. Separate the cockpit to form the robot's feet and attach to the folded out cannon for a leg or plug in the folded up cannon into the gun for an arm. Better of the two Aerialbot limbs this, you almost wish there were 4 of them. Well until you see the other 4 combiner limb types !

Sky Shadow was released in Japan as part of the SC-26 Superion giftset where he was called Sling.

Terradive

Terradive was numbered A3 in the Aerialbot team.

This time round the plane gets a blue body and white wings, which is unlike any of the original Aerialbots but the Japanese are sure he's meant to be Skydive. The nicer of the two original sets of colours I think.

Terradive was released in Japan as part of the SC-26 Superion giftset where he was called Skydive.

Skyfall

Skyfall is the first of the TFCC toys released in 2005. The mainly clear blue jet looks really nice, but is spoilt by the solid red used for the robot's head, upper arms, waist, upper legs and gun/foot. The Energon is now a clear red.

A little more thought used to swap the reds for (say) sahdes of blue/black and this would have looked OK.

Skydive

Sky Shadow becomes Skydive in the first of his two appearances in the Universe/Revenge of the Fallen Superion boxset. A lilac/grey is used for the main body of the jet and the engines, with a darker grey used for the rest of the plane and a clear mint green/blue used for the Energon. Not colours that bring the original owner of the name to mind !

Fireflight

Fireflight, from the same Superion set as Skydive, obtains a brown and grey colour scheme for this release with clear dark blue Energon. Somehow the colours make me think more of the Beast Wars toy Airazor, whose name is used in this set instead of Slingshot. Surely Hasbro wouldn't have put the wrong name on the wrong toy would they

[Philip Ayres]

I couldn't work out quite what Treadshot was meant to be either - my source for the F22 was tfwiki.net/wiki/Treadshot_(Energon)

The picture of the F-22 on Wikipedia resembles Treadshot. A little. Maybe.

And thanks for the comments - they are always appreciated as it's nice to know people are reading. The Destruction team are in the bag and waiting to go, just need to do Storm Jet and Superion Maximus before running them. Why ? All to do with Nexus Maximus and wanting to run his review after all his parts and reckoning that NM is virtually Bruticus Maximus.

[Philip Ayres]

Stormjet

Storm Jet is toy A5 in the Aerialbot team and serves as the leader. Obviously he's meant to be Silverbolt so I wonder why the name wasn't used ?

I'm not a jet expert so can't tell you what this is meant to be ! According to [url=http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Storm_Jet_%28Energon%29>http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Storm_Jet_(Energon)[/url]he's "based vaguely upon an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane". Well I know what a Blackbird is from my years as an X-Men reader and can vaguely see it.... Would help if it were all black I suppose instead of the red & white that the Storn Jet name brings with it from it's previous use in Robots in Disguise. It's very chunky in the wing area at the back, you expect larged thinner wings on a jet. He comes with no add on weapons for either mode unlike the basics he combines with.

TF is a hideous origamiatron - the wings become the arms and the legs fold out from the rear with the nose becoming the chest.

Robot mode isn't anything special I'm afraid. Very blocky limbs with arms that are far too long. Articulation is pretty good - bending knee, rotational joint above the knee, universal hip, turning shoulders with arms raising to the sides, bicep joint, bending elbow and turning lightpiped head.

More origami is required to form the chest mode with the combined robot head folding out of Storm Jet's chest. Unfortunately the stability of the chest mode rather relies on it pegging together ...... and the pegs just don't want hold together in several places. This then affects the stability of the combine form which isn't great cos some of the legs don't lend themselves to stability either.

The let down piece of the five member air team.

Stormjet was available in Japan as Afterburner which was part of the SC-26 Superion Giftset/

Silverbolt

Silverbolt is a repaint of Storm Jet available in the Universe/Revenge of the Fallen Target Exclusive Superion set. This version mainly uses off white plastic with some orangey red highlights.

I'm finding it hard to get excited about this repaint as it doesn't do much for me and I didn't like the original toy.

[Philip Ayres]

Superion Maximus

Superion Maximus is formed from the following Energon toys:

A1 Treadshot
A2 Sky Shadow
A3 Terradive
A4 Windrazor
A5 Storm Jet

Treadshot & Windrazor's limb mode involves the jet mode with the legs of the robot unhitched from the sides and fixed in place with the arms. The weapons lock into the plastic bar to form the hands, and can be stretched out for feet or folded up for hands. Neither limb configuration looks that good - both are very wide with the leg looking unbalanced next to the thin leg formed from Sky Shadow/Terradive while the arm mode has a hand with hugely spaced out fingers.

Sky Shadow & Terradive's Limb mode is basically the jet mode with the wings folded in. Separate the cockpit to form the robot's feet and attach to the folded out cannon for a leg or plug in the folded up cannon into the gun for an arm. Better of the two Aerialbot limbs this, you almost wish there were 4 of them. Well until you see the other 4 combiner limb types !

Origami is required to form the chest mode from Storm Jet with the combined robot head folding out of Storm Jet's chest. Unfortunately the stability of the chest mode rather relies on it pegging together ...... and the pegs just don't want hold together in several places. This then affects the stability of the combine form which isn't great cos the legs don't lend themselves to stability either.

Superion

Superion was sold as a boxset in either Universe 2.0 or as part of the Revenge of the Fallen movie line. The boxset contains:

Airazor & Air Raid (repaints of A1 Treadshot / A4 Windrazor)
Fireflight & Skydive (repaints of A2 Sky Shadow / A3 Terradive)
Silverbolt (Repaint of A5 Storm Jet)

About the best I can say for this repaint is it's a bit grey.

Sorry this combiner just doesn't do it for me.

[Philip Ayres]

Stormcloud

Stormcloud is toy D1 in the Destruction (Combaticon) team

His vehicle mode is a very nice looking helicopter, mainly orange with brown sides and a clear blue canopy. The underside of the helicopter carries a blue Energon gun array. The rotor and tailfins on helicopter both spin, with his spark mounted behind the rotor.

TF: Turbines unclip from the side of the copter and fold back to become legs, arms fold up from underneath and cockpit - copying Rotorstorm - folds down revealing the head.

Like his case & team brother Kickback he's superbly articulated with ball joints at the elbows, shoulders, knees & hips. The head truns at the neck and is lightpiped in the same clear blue as the Energon. The gun array can be hand held with the side barrels being removable to form individual guns.

Stormcloud's limb mode involves some origami and you end up with this sort of extended thing with the vehicle mode cockpit and the legs at one end. The gun assembly fits into the ends of the feet either as a hand or folded out as a foot. Limb looks odd but functions OK in either mode.

Stormcloud was sold in the Galaxy Force Toyline in Japan as part of the SD-21 Bruticus set where he was called Vorter (Vortex)

Blackout

Blackout is toy D3 in the Destruction (Combaticon) team.

Blackout swaps both orange & brown for a purpley blue colour to give a helicopter in much more Decepticon like colours.

Blackout was sold in the Galaxy Force Toyline in Japan as part of the SD-21 Bruticus set where he was called Blast Off.

Decepticon Reverb

Reverb was in the cancelled fifth wave of Traget Movie Basics along with Gunbarrel(Kickback/Blight) and Backtrack(Lugnutz)

Reverb's main colour is a military looking green which suits the mould very well. The upper limbs in robot mode and the rotor blades are now black with the Energon a blue green colour.

Looks very nice - almost Waspinator as a helicopter. A real loss I think.

Topspin

Topspin is the 2008 TFCC exclusive toy - the fourth in their set of Energon combiner repaints. The orange stays the same, but the brown becomes clear purple and the energon/lightpipe clear orange.

Awful. Avoid !

Vortex

Vortex is the first of two Stormcloud repaints in the Bruticus set - first sold as an Universe boxset in Australia and then as a Revenge of the Fallen exclusive for Target in the USA. At time of writing this boxset has not reached the UK, although it's companion piece Superion has.

Orange is swapped for grey and brown for a slate grey/blue to give a colour scheme close to the original Combaticon Vortex. Cockpit canopy, lightpipe and Energon are now clear orange when maybe purple would have been better.

Swindle

Bruticus' second helicopter part is called Swindle with the vehicle being coloured to match: Orange becomes a sandy colour and brown a more sandy brown - together with orange clear parts - gives the toy a lovely coherent and plausable desert colour scheme - if he had an Autobot logo on him you'd call him Sandstorm !

Best colours on this mould. Oh for this as one limb and Reverb as another !

[Philip Ayres]

Kickback

Kickback is toy D-4 in the Destruction (Combaticon) team. Although he's got a higher team number than his mould brother Blight he was released first.

Kickback's a tank - mainly green - so if he was a proper Combaticon he'd be called Brawl. The tank mode has a slightly odd turret on it - mainly grey, tall and with guns either side. Reminds me of tanks in a Godzilla film somehow ..... The front of the turret is a spark crystal for mounting his Energon star on framed on either side by a 3 barreled missile array moulded in dark green plastic, while his Energon parts become an additional dual barreled cannon that mounts on top of the turret.

TF: The treads unpeg to form wings and everything folds out from there, with the spark crystal becoming the chest while the rest of the turret splits in two becoming the arms.

The robot mode is again poseable - ball joints at elbow, shoilder, knee & hip with a turning head and bending ankle but the design aesthetic is slightly hampered by the wings, formed by the tank treads, hanging off the back. Some new plastic is revealed on the upper limbs - using the darker green again. The guns from the turret end up on each wrist giving him a well some firepower and he can hold the Energon Dual Cannon as a hand weapon using the 5mm peg holes in his hands. Head is lightpiped, always a plus.

His limb mode is the tank with the weapon attached straight (as a foot) or folded up (as a hand)

Kickback was sold in the Galaxy Force Toyline in Japan as part of the SD-21 Bruticus set where he was called Brawl.

Blight

Blight is toy D2 in the Destruction (Combaticon) team.

Blight swaps both of Kickback's greens for yellow and grey for black - it's pretty obvious which Combaticon they're intending him to be - Swindle. Interestingly there's a Dune Buggy Swindle the next year in Cybertron using the Hardtop mode which is very similar to the Energon Sledge combiner limb. I wonder how close we came to getting a proper Swindle for Cybertron.

Blight was sold in the Galaxy Force Toyline in Japan as part of the SD-21 Bruticus set where he was called (surprise, surprise) Swindle.

Landquake

Landquake is the second TFCC exclusive toy released in 2006. Lighter green and the blue Energon become a nasty clear red/orange, the darker green becomes purple while the grey stays a similar shade.

Horrible ugly toy, no incentive to join the club at all.

Gunbarrel

Gunbarrel was in the cancelled fifth wave of Traget Movie Basics along with Reverb(Stormcloud/Blackout) and Backtrack(Lugnutz).

Gunbarrel swaps the paler green for sky blue while the darker green and the grey become black. The general colour scheme is similar to that used on Robots in Disguise Armorhide a repaint of the original Combaticon Brawl.

Decepticon Brawl

Brawl is the first of two repaints of this mould that appear in the Bruticus set - first sold as an Universe boxset in Australia and then as a Revenge of the Fallen exclusive for Target in the USA. At time of writing this boxset has not reached the UK, although it's companion piece Superion has.

Brawl swaps lighter green for olive green, darker green for grey, grey for a pale olive green and gets clear yellow Energon for this release.

A subdued colour scheme this time which clashes ever so slightly with his Energon.

Blast-off

The second tank in the set *isn't* Swindle this time, it's Blast Off. He swaps lighter green for brown, darker green for black, grey for a darker grey but this time his Energon is more an orange colour which again looks a little out of place with the rest of the toy.

[Philip Ayres]

Barricade

Barricade is toy D5 in the Destruction Team (Combaticons). We know he's really Onslaught.

Barricade is a sort of wheeled missile launcher - a cab with a big rotating missile array (sadly moulded) mounted on top. The Godzilla theme to the Energon toys continues..... (See Signal Flare & Energon Kickback) The missile array features a Minicon port on either side. The vehicle mode is a mix of grey and sea blue/green (mainly on the missile array) The missile array can be folded out the back to extend the vehicle mode and in turn give a reasonable impersonation of the original version of Onslaught.

The missile array folds backwards & separates to form the legs, the sides of the cab become the arms and the cab folds back to become a large backpack.

Onslaught's Barricades's robot mode is nice & solid. Like the robot modes for the other Energon combiner leaders it's a bit blocky but it doesn't seem to matter so much here. The grey confines itself to the body & backpack leaving the limbs as mainly the sea blue/green colour and additional robot parts mainly as black. Articulation is top draw - turning head & shoulder, arms that raise to the sides & have bicep & elbow joints, a waist, universal hips & bending knees. The head's got a great sculpt based round a moulded winch mechanism, which can just about be seen behind the cab in robot mode, and comes lightpiped. The hands have the familiar 5mm peg hole but Barricade, again like the other Energon combiner leaders, doesn't have a hand held weapon, or an Energon star like all the limbs. His Minicon ports have ended up on the front of each knee plus an extra one on his left shoulder.

Barricade forms the core of the Bruticus Maximus combined robot: the arms peg - solidly - into the body and the legs retract exposing the connecter pins. The backpack (the cab upside down) is the chest, and the large robot head folds up from it. He forms a good solid chest piece - the best of the 3 combiners - lends itself to a much better combiner. It works well with Destruction team limbs, but I found it was even better with FOUR Sledges attached (my favorite of the Energon Limbs)

Barricade was released in the US as an Energon toy and was later available in the US on a Universe card. Barricade didn't make it to the UK which made buying the Destruction team basics that serve as limbs a bit pointless.

Barricade was released in Japan as Onslaught which was part of SD-21 Bruticus Giftset.

Heatwave

Heatwave is the 2009 Transformers Collectors Club toy, and the fifth and final release in the series that combines to form Nexus Maximus. Operating in robot & vehicle modes it appears to be a straight plastic swap: bright orange for the sea blue/green and clear purple for the grey. The lightpiped eyes now become clear orange.

What you don't see until you get to combined mode is that there's been some remoulding on the toy - he has a new combined mode head.

Onslaught

Barricade returns as Onslaught in the Universe (if you live in Australia) or Target Exclusive Revenge of the Fallen (if you live in the USA) Bruticus giftset. Reverting to the original moulding the grey becomes a greeny brown with the sea blue/green becoming a grey brown with the black also becoming a similar shade and the lightpipe becoming orange. The resulting toy has a nice subdued military colour scheme.

At the time of writing the (17/12/2009) the Bruticus set is yet to appear in the UK even though it's companion repaint of Energon Superion is widely available.

[Philip Ayres]

Bruticus Maximus

Bruticus Maximus is formed from the following Energon toys:

D1 Stormcloud
D2 Blight
D3 Blackout
D4 Kickback
D5 Barricade

Stormcloud or Blackout's Limb mode involves some origami and you end up with this sort of extended thing with the vehicle mode cockpit ad the legs at one end. The gun assembly fits into the ends of the feet either as a hand or folded out as a foot. Limb looks odd but functions OK in either mode

The limb mode for Kickback & Blight is the tank with the weapon attached straight (as a foot) or folded up (as a hand)

Barricade forms the chest of Bruticus Maximus: The arms peg - solidly - into the body and the legs retract exposing the connecter pins. The backpack is the chest, and the large robot head folds up from it.

Good solid chest piece - the best of the 3 combiners - lends itself to a much better combiner. The Tanks are great legs, and the Helicopters good arms.

Nexus Maximus

When planning a new toy always check the name out. Hasbro obviously didn't do enough homework here because within minutes of the name for the combined form for the club exclusives being announced fan research came up with a Vibrator of the same name ! Oops !

Nexus Maximus is formed from the following fan club exclusive toys:

2005 Skyfall (repaint of A2 Sky Shadow / A3 Terradive)
2006 Landquake (repaint of D2 Blight /D4 Kickback)
2007 Breakaway (repaint of A1 Treadshot / A4 Windrazor)
2008 Topspin (repaint of D1 Stormcloud / D3 Blackout)
2009 Heatwave (repaint of C5 Barricade)

3 out of 5 parts of the toy are Energon Destruction Team repaints - including the central core piece - which is why we're talking about here with Bruticus Maximus. The planes fit the general combat theme of the Destruction team members, but they don't function as well as limbs. I find it hard to fathom the mixed allegiances of this toy as well - the planes are still Autobots while the rest is Decepticon.

And then we get to the colours. Good lord, no ! Purple, red, blue & orange all in both solid and clear shades. This is a real mess. The only saving feature is the new Prime like combined robot helmet and even that's in bright orange plastic.

Avoid for the sake of your eyes !

Bruticus

Bruticus was sold as a boxset in either Universe 2.0 or as part of the Revenge of the Fallen movie line. The boxset contains:

Vortex & Swindle (repaints of D1 Stormcloud / D3 Blackout)
Brawl & Blast Off (repaints of D2 Blight /D4 Kickback)
Onslaught (repaint of D5 Barricade)

Bruticus is an odd beast when combined. Overall the look is one of slight drabness, a subdued set of colours. Yet you have the bright orange Energon pieces that stand out from the rest of the toy drawing your eye - the orange only really worked with Swindle, a clear purple might have worked better both with the individual units and the combined form.

Bruticus was a Target exclusivein the USA and at time of writing hasn't been released in the UK unlike his opposite number, Superion.

[legios]

Dec 19, 2009 22:04:05 GMT Philip Ayres said:

I couldn't work out quite what Treadshot was meant to be either - my source for the F22 was tfwiki.net/wiki/Treadshot_(Energon)

Yeah, the Treadshot mold is one of those that I look at and think that it is probably meant to be something, but I'm not sure if all its component parts agree on what that something is.....

The picture of the F-22 on Wikipedia resembles Treadshot. A little. Maybe.

From that angle I can see what you mean. The nose section and the cant on the V-stabs especially is very Raptor-esque.

And thanks for the comments - they are always appreciated as it's nice to know people are reading.

No worries. I've been reading quite a few of these but haven't quite found time to comment on them unfortunately.

I do agree with your view on Stormjet - he is very much the weak link of the team. I've owned two now and although I like the general idea of what they were going for with the design I think the execution lets it down badly.

(I actually think he looks more like the X-Men's 90's Jet, the "non-Blackbird" blackbird that they got sometime around the period of the second title launch than anything else)

Dec 21, 2009 12:01:02 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Kickback

Kickback is toy D-4 in the Destruction (Combaticon) team. Although he's got a higher team number than his mould brother Blight he was released first.

Kickback's a tank - mainly green - so if he was a proper Combaticon he'd be called Brawl. The tank mode has a slightly odd turret on it - mainly grey, tall and with guns either side. Reminds me of tanks in a Godzilla film somehow .....

Which would put him in good company with Signal Flare, who is rather obviously kin to the JSDF's anti-Kaiju Maser Tanks...

It has been suggested to me by a chap on another board that Kickback and Blight are meant to be Anti-Aircraft vehicles rather than tanks - specifically he suggested that the German Army's Gepard

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gepard_1a2_overview.jpg

I do tend to agree with his line of thinking on that

I'm in two minds about this mold. I don't think it is terrible, but I think it suffers by comparison with the Stormcloud/Blackout molds, which I think have better humanoid modes.

The only thing I can say about Nexus Maximus is that someone really did drop the ball on their preemptive checks when they were coming up with the names, and that the colour schemes of the various components actually acted as an additional disincentive to joining the club.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

It's only recently that I've realised that ROTF Air Raid is loosely based on Energon Starscream - the grey body, red markings and green Energon.

Given that ROTF Fireflight is based on BW Airazor (see above) I wonder who the rest are based on ?