Phil's PCC Icepick & Chainclaw review

[Philip Ayres]

Power Core Mini-Con Chainclaw

Chainclaw is the Mini-con included with the scout sized commander Icepick. He's mainly clear blue in colour with dark blue upper legs & back and painted silver arms. This last piece of colouring seems to have been a late addition judging by the publicity photos here which show him with clear arms. The lower legs are large and block while the arms are fixed at a 120 degree angle with an open claw at the end, just like you'd expect from and 1950's robot toy. The shoulders are ball jointed as are the hips while the knees bend. He has a Mini-con socket on his chest and a Mini-con post directly opposite it on his back.

Chainclaw supposedly has an armour mode. Fold the arms down so the upper arms are besides the body. Bend both the knees and the hips backwards. Fold the legs out to the sides so they're alongside the arms. Yes it's a block. But it's a block that doesn't quite fit together properly and looks a bit of a mess: if they'd wanted to make a piece of block armour they should have made the arms able to fold away inside it and for the sides to fold against straight.

Fortunately there's an improvement when we get to the vehicle weapons mode. Fold both the knees and hips back. Fold the arms back and clip the hands onto the small pegs at the side of the knee. Place the Mini-con socket underneath onto one on a vehicle. What you get is a dual missile array with 4 moulded missiles in each half of the array. The missile array looks like it's supported by the arms at the side of launcher and will even pivot upwards with them in place. Lovely piece of design.

Icepick & Chainclaw's instructions show Chainclaw with the same weapons mode for use with the robot, presumably due to Icepick's lack of 5mm hands. If we assume that the 5mm peg on Chainclaw's back is meant to be a handle to be held with then there's a couple of options for a hand held gun mode. Straighten the robot out with the arms by the sides for an elongated look. Alternately place the robot in a sitting position by bending the hips forward and the knees back then lock the hands onto the side of the knees for a more compact look. We'll find out which is right when Chainclaw's repaint comes out with a different commander.

Dodgy armour mode. But the rest is very good and I'd like several of the weapons modes to attach to various toys.

[Philip Ayres]

Icepick will follow sometime after a rather busy weekend.........

[Philip Ayres]

Right where was I before I was interupted by conventions and distracted by G1 toys? Ah yes.....

[Philip Ayres]

Power Core Combiner Icepick

Power Core Combiner Icepick is a half track snow plough, a little like Mini-con Iceberg crossed with Energon Snowcat. He's mainly off white in colour with the underside including the wheels and tracks moulded in sea blue. The snow plough blades can be adjusted from pointing straight forward to pointing straight out to the sides/up. The tracks at the rear have a single wheel moulded into the front of them. There's a series of blades hanging down behind the vehicle, which I'm not 100% sure what they're for, and they don't seem to fit alongside each other quite right. He's got a Mini-con plug on the roof with a second one that can be folded up on the top of the windscreen which isn't that much in front of the static one.

Transformation: Unpeg the tracks, folding them down under the front of the vehicle plugging the front into the snow plough so the tracks point up into the air. Separate the tracks and fold them down so they point forwards. Rotate each leg 180 degrees at the thigh. Fold the feet out and fold the blades of the snow plough down round what's now the robot's waist. Stand with the top of the toy facing forward. Separate the back of the vehicle and fold out to the sides revealing the robot's head. Turn each half backwards 90 degrees so that the Decepticon symbol on the sides is facing you. Fold the arms down at the shoulders.

Icepick's robot mode has an odd appearance with very long thin arms each ending in a 3 pronged claw which a) looks odd and b) is useless for holding a 5mm peg weapon which is a crime for any toy that works with Minicons. Indeed his Mini-con, Chainclaw, looks like he's got a hand held gun mode but can't be held by his partner. The arms look even worse if you rotate the bicep joint so the elbows fold upwards! The shoulders look odd with a strut with a Power Core Block sticking out of each side, it's a shame these can't be folded back behind the shoulder pads. Apart from that he's pretty solid with bending knees, thigh swivel, universal joints at his hips, no waist, shoulders turn & fold upwards at the body and are then ball jointed at the outside of the shoulder pads, a bicep joint, a bending elbow a ball jointed wrist that's inexplicably angled inwards and a rotating head. He's got a Mini-con post that folds up on the chest that allows you to mount Mini-con chest armour on him, but sadly his partner's armour mode is a bit rubbish. There's also another Mini-con peg mounted on his right shoulder which is ideal for Chainclaw's vehicle weapons mode.

Like the rest of the Scout with Mini-commanders, Icepick can form the torso for a combined robot mode. Rotate the bicep joint so the elbow would point outwards and the arms would fold in towards the body. Fold the arms up so they're under the Power Core Block struts and point out to each side. Angle the hands so they point downwards with the palm facing backwards. Fold down the chest down, fold the smaller robot head back exposing the combined mode robot head and fold the chest back up. Fold the arms down at the elbows bringing the hands up over the chest. Turn each leg in 90 degrees at the thigh swivel. Fold the feet up. Raise the side snow plough blades up so they point out the sides. Fold the legs out to the sides at the hips and then down at the knees. Fold the Power Core Blocks out of what is now the back of the legs.

Icepick forms a pretty solid Torso for a Power Core Combiner, especially in the legs which you wouldn't expect as nothing is secured there. I reckon the Combaticons match him the best. There's issues in the shoulders though, turn an arm and the smaller robot's shoulder joints and thus the shoulder pads and chest sides are more likely to turn than blocks connecting the arms at the end of the shoulders. He's got a nice clear plastic head with spikes coming out of it making him look like some form of ice creature which appropriate given his name and the vehicle mode. He can still use both the Minicon posts in this mode giving him both a shoulder weapon and chest armour in torso mode. My pain problem with this mode is a design one though: the hands of the small robot have ended up over his chest - it looks like the small robot is trying to scratch his breasts!

Not the most successful of the vehicle and robot modes of the Wave 2 PCC for me, but he was proving popular with those who saw him at Auto Assembly. Torso stands up ok so is good as long as you don't try to move the legs.

No recolour has been announced yet but I'm sure there will be one. A decent GI Joe homage could be created Using either the Tiger Cat or Universe Snowcat (itself a Nightforce Homage).