The Weakest Link

[primenova]

In each team [toyline only not comic or cartoon] of characters which is the one that is the weakest character in toy terms.

Protectobots - Groove

How can a bike be the same size with the others being larger. At least Technobots Afterburner was a car size bike but Groove doesn't work at all. You just put Groove out of the way & make out he is inside Firstaid if you are playing with the whole team who are going on a rescue mission.

Most of the Micromaster combiners also suffer with being the backend of trucks with no front end.

[Toph]

It tickles me that THIS is the one that people can't accept.

In terms of scale issues in combiners, Groove is not that unreasonable.

All five of the Constructicons could fit in Long Haul's bed.
And Blast Off would be as large as Bruticus, if not larger.
Motormaster makes my head hurt, and Superion should dwarf everyone ever.

[Philip Ayres]

The scale bit doesn't bother me. We all know certain TFs can size shift (Soundwave, tapes) so shifting size from vehicle to robot to combined limb shouldn't be a problem.

Now if the fictional representation shows the vehicle at the wrong size then we might have a problem, but that's a comic/cartoon problem not a toy one.

[primenova]

But the toy is the same size. (I just used the example of playing with the toys & trying to make Groove bike sized so when you are moving your toys across the room you can throw Groove in the box with the weapons & you only have 4 characters to move across the floor).

EDIT : Add Swindle to my list for Combaticons anyway. All the others seem to be more solid while a jeep looks light weight.
(Just avoiding a few comments re Combaticons - could make a few re Swindle being the small one from the team.)

Seacons - Overbite. Why the hands & legs. This was the only Seacon toy I had but in toy ads we always had Overbite in gun mode. I know the legs are there for the robot hands but the arms don't work. (just trying to rememeber if other seacons had not needed hands too) Was he reading comics at Clubcon on the beach?

Stunticons - Dragstrip. I liked all the others with being street cars then you got Dragstrip F1 car, which is something you see driving on the streets all the time. I don't think F1 cars work for alt modes when there are supposed to be in disguise.

[Toph]

The seacons are seamonsters. Why single overbite out for having arms and legs in beast mode when everyone but snaptrap and nautilator did, too?
Coelacanths, manta rays, and squid aren't known for their legs and arms, either.

[Philip Ayres]

Why leave Snaptrap out: turtles don't have limbs either, they have flippers!

[Shockprowl]

The Lesser-spotted Japanese Rock Turtle has limbs.









Not really. I made that up.



I think you've got to give a lot of scope to G1 scales, but Groove does stand out to me as well. And as much as I love Motormaster, he too just looks a bit toooooo out of 'scale' even for G1. But the phrase 'Weakest Link' is interesting, maybe we can look at this differently... who is the weakest character out of each team (if any)? Groove again, I'm sorry to say, has never done much for me character-wise, where the other Protectobots are very interesting to me. Groove is just a non-geologist Beachcomber. He does present an interesting opposit to the more warrior minded Blades and perhaps Hotspot, but Firstaid fills that role too. Out of the other teams, well they're all pretty solid character-wise IMO. I especially love the different characterisations of the Stunticons! Vain yet fatalistic, ultra competative, paranoid, bonkers, and Optimus-obsessed nasty bastard. Brilliant!