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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 28, 2024 6:30:10 GMT
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 28, 2024 6:34:46 GMT
Armada included 6 released redeco teams - here they are with their originals Air Defense Team (MM-02 Air Defense Micron) | | | | | | | Air Assault Mini-Con team | | | | | | | Land Military Team (MM-03 Land Military Micron) | | | | | | | Night Attack Mini-Con Team | | | | | | | Destruction Team (MM-04 Destruction Micron) | | | | | | | Road Assault Mini-Con Team | | | | | | | Race Team (MM-05 Race Micron) | | | | | | | Road Wrecker Mini-Con Team | | | | | | | Sea Team (MM-15 Sea Micron) | | | | | | | Unicron Battles Sea Mini-Con Team (redeco) | | | | | | | Emergency Team (MM-20 Emergency Micron) | | | | | | | Unicron Battles Emergency Mini-Con Team | | | | | | |
5 Teams did not have a released repaint team in Armada Street Action Team (MM-01 Street Action Micron) | | | | | | | Street Speed Team (MM-06 Street Speed Micron) | | | | | | | Space Team (MM-13 Space Micron) | | | | | | | Adventure Team (MM-16 Adventure Micron) | | | | | | | Air Military Team (MM-11 Air Military Micron) | | | | | | |
3 more were planned and carded versions exist:    Of these we have loose pictures of just the Unreleased Street Speed Team Street Speed Team (MM-06 Street Speed Micron) | | | | | | | Unreleased Unicron Battles Street Speed Team | | | | | | |
Were these three sets pulled so the moulds could be used on The Armada Beasts & Energon Ultra Magnus? Armada Beasts | | | | | | | Armada Beasts | | | | | | | Energon Ultra Magnus' Space Mini-Con Team | | | | | | |
What of Street Speed & Air Military? Was their use on Universe Sunstorm and Ramjet planned this early to give a complete set of repaints? Universe Sunstorm's Street Action Team | | | | | | | Unused Deco Universe Ramjet Pack Ins | | | | | | |
Of the released redco Minicon teams only the Air Assault Team was released in the main Micron Legend Line in Japan as MM-17 Air Assault Micron. Air Defense Team (MM-02 Air Defense Micron) | | | | | | | Air Assault Mini-Con team | | | | | | | MM-17 Air Assault Micron | | | | | | |
The US Versions of the Night Attack and Road Assault teams do appear in Japan but as promotional items. |
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 28, 2024 7:55:33 GMT
Explain why Mirage is not an Autobot race car.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 28, 2024 8:12:29 GMT
That pains me. But far worse abuses of the name will follow Still at least he's still a race car. And although he's not in his G1 colours - Dimension-X got in there first even if they don't use the Mirage name - the colours he is in reference the unused Diaclone colours. While the first two teams start off as recolours without any intentional odds, there is a creeping influence to older toys, notably G1, with the released Minicon teams. Mirage gets his alternate Diaclone colours. The Road Wreckers are a swing and miss attempt to do Constructicons but the shade of green is wrong Sea Team continues it's 85 Minibot homage we discussed previously by making Waterlog into a rough aproximation of Seaspray and the entire team pretty close to Beachcomber. Then we have the Emergency team with Firebot and Prowl going the full Hotspot and Smokescreen - Makeshift is a compromise based on the demands of the other two moulds. It does pain me though to see the Smokescreen colours and number on a toy called Prowl. If only they'd have given the naming of the w2 Supercon crane a bit more thought.... |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jun 28, 2024 8:25:35 GMT
Are these homages in the room with us right now?
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Post by Benn on Jun 28, 2024 8:28:00 GMT
Homages are fine, it's claiming that a certain name can only be on a certain toy that is crazy.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 28, 2024 8:37:48 GMT
Are these homages in the room with us right now? Yes. My Minicons live in drawers beneath my computer desk |
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Post by The Doctor on Jun 28, 2024 9:02:07 GMT
I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren't there.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 28, 2024 9:35:10 GMT
The G1 homages in the later stages of Armada were acknowledged by the production team as very intentional, especially most of the intended Supercon repaints
The first two waves of Minicon repaints - and possibly the unreleased wave? - predate this proclamation though.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 28, 2024 9:41:18 GMT
Air Assault - holds together better than my Star Saber but it always annoyed me it was solid plastic not clear. Make this clear purple/red for Nemesis Prime.
Night Attack - nice repaint
Road Wrecker - a bit plain
Road Assault - one of the better race decos but doesn't set my world on fire.
Sea - nice colour choice. Not my favourite Sea repaint but it's probably second best after their X-Dimension version
Emergency - Like the G1 homages. Shame Makeshift is compromised by the red but he's *nearly* Highbrow to make it a trio.
Despite my gripe about the clear plastic I think the Air Assault edge it for me.
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Jun 28, 2024 14:32:41 GMT
Minicons are so fucking cool. Micromasters but they combine with/unlock features of the bigger toys? Yes fucking please.
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Post by that_bluestreak on Jun 28, 2024 18:46:08 GMT
i voted for the Road Wrecker team because they are the ones I liked enough to buy at the time, at a time when I was pretending to myself that I didn't buy 'new' Transformers. Actually I still don't buy 'new' Transformers. No pretence necessary. *whistles innocently*
Actually I wonder if I liked them enough or if they were the only ones in the shop. It was a long time ago. I may have just been suffering some sort of plastic-related withdrawal madness and grabbed the nearest thing that might alleviate the feelings.
*looks over the options again*
Actually the Air Assault Team look better in their new paintjob. None of the others are that inspiring, so I will stick with my first choice and reasons.
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Post by Llama God on Jun 30, 2024 8:38:49 GMT
Help. I'm going blind. Or mad. Or both. It's Spychangers all over again...
Er. I'll go with... the planes. Yes. Because I can focus on them. No other reason.
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Post by Pinwig on Jun 30, 2024 9:08:45 GMT
Road Wrecker or Sea Team here I think. Those are the ones that improve on the originals.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 30, 2024 13:05:14 GMT
Help. I'm going blind. Or mad. Or both. It's Spychangers all over again... I have some kind and comforting words for Llama then: This Is Only The Start. Micron Legend is coming Er. I'll go with... the planes. Yes. Because I can focus on them. No other reason. They are nice. In fact none of these are terrible, they're all decent. This may not always be the case and sometime it's quite difficult to tell what they were thinking and why |
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Post by Bogatan on Jun 30, 2024 16:47:03 GMT
Night attack for me. Nice colours and my favourite individual minions in there.
The sea team look great, but still not a huge fan of any of them.
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Post by Shockprowl on Jun 30, 2024 17:03:39 GMT
THE TEAM WITH PROWL ON IT!!!
But that triple-changing Targetmaster Prowl was (and is- still got him) really really cool.
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Post by Llama God on Jul 1, 2024 7:05:53 GMT
Help. I'm going blind. Or mad. Or both. It's Spychangers all over again... I have some kind and comforting words for Llama then: This Is Only The Start. Micron Legend is coming *rocks back and forwards hugging his knees* The legend is coming the legend is coming the legend is coming is coming the end is coming the end is coming the end is coming the end is coming the end is coming is coming is coming is coming for you for you for you for us for us for us for us THE END IS COMING FOR US ALL!!!! |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 2, 2024 8:28:38 GMT
As I said on the extra thread I've spent the last few days gathering stuff for forthcoming main polls I'd something planned for after Armada that neatly bridged the gap between Armada and Energon but needed some picture research as certain bits are poorly represented on the Wiki. Got it to a stage late last night where I was really quite happy with what I had. Then Got thinky as I got into bed than had to get up and get thoughts out of head. So there was an item I knew we had do but couldn't figure out how to. Got thinky about that and had inspiration, found the perfect thing to put it up against - this'll be week 350 too and it's a very appropriate one for a big number. But that got me thinking about some related stuff, both to those items and what will bridge Armada and Energon. Plus I remembered a promise I made back in March. As a result the Spreadsheet has EIGHT rows now added to it post Armada and Botcon 2003 and, if we do Universe before Energon, then we won't get to the latter till August next year.... There's 22 weeks between Armada and Universe, 19 for Universe but just 8 between Energon/Superlink and Galaxy Force/Cybertron We may need to bump Universe to post Energon |
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Jim
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Post by Jim on Jul 3, 2024 15:35:52 GMT
It's taken me a while to figure out my voting on this one between two main contenders.
The Night Attack team is certainly my favourite set of moulds, and it's a nice unified colour scheme..
I'm giving it to the Air Assault team though. It's a really nice colour scheme, very classy, an improvement on the original, and I also prefer it to the Takara equivalent; the solid white instead of clear plastic sets off the other colours really well.
Honourable mentions to the Emergency team redeco, especially the Hot Spot homage, and the Road Wrecker team, especially Buzzsaw.
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Post by legios on Jul 3, 2024 17:36:10 GMT
So, only three of these six actually look like they have a unified team colour scheme - which I really like on these packs. So the Air Assault, Emergency and Road Wrecker teams fall behind very quickly. The Destruction Team have quite a nice scheme, but have always felt really oddly assorted to me - a mini-machine, a snowmobile with a drill those make sense in terms of the same theme...but then the third as a tracked Anti-Aircraft system... huh?
That leaves the Sea Team and the Night Attack Team... Both really nice colour schemes in their own right, both quite nicely unified in the way they are used on the toys... I honestly thought I would go with the one I'd actually owned, but in the end I've actually got to hand it to the Sea Team. Not the best colour scheme on those molds (that'd be the Micron Legend versions that are colour-matched to go with Shockwave), but it is the second best colour scheme. And it is based on blue, so it is in my colours (seriously, almost all my fleece's and sweaters are blue), and the accent colours just go so well on it...
Sea Team take it on a turn of the tide.
Karl
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 4, 2024 7:21:42 GMT
Finishes tomorrow...
This coming week: 6 toys, 5 characters one of whom we've not seen yet in Armada
I'm suspecting this week will be a runover for a toy most of us have never owned
Miscounted!
This week 4 old friends show up unexpectedly with new chums.
Shame the week number is only half what it should be!
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 5, 2024 6:31:25 GMT
The Labour Party Air Assault Team wins  And nobody mentioned the week number for the poll! |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 5, 2024 6:32:10 GMT
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 5, 2024 7:27:42 GMT
These 4 toys are reputed to be a late in the day addition to the toyline to boost it when it ws a runaway success. I am not 100% sure I buy that story as various toys intended for Armada drop off the end of the line. I have a suspicion that at the point they needed them none of the existing Armada Supercon moulds were available (Because Takara was using them?) so they turned to Beast Wars and boosted them up with Minicons from two of the 3 packs. We've got all of the Adventure team and on of the Street Speed team here: the other two members of the Street Speed team are used to boost Mega Transmetal Megatron to Maxcon/Voyager size. ALL FOUR of these deluxe toys are repaints of their Transmetal namesakes with some remoulding to add a Minicon peg Rhinox also has a "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING ?? ??" Fox Kids repaint. Terrorsuar skips Fox Kids instead becoming the Beast Machines Dinobot Terranotron. tfwiki.net/wiki/Terranotron_(BM)#Toys It's an odd toy, in someways a step closer to the original Terrorsaur colours until you look at the legs and realise they're unchanged from the BW TM He also has an unreleased repaint as Transmetal Fractyl Airazor gets a muted version of her original colours in Fox Kids Her Armada release adds Minicon posts, as do all the other Armada releases, but Airazor has some additional remoulding adding a Decepticon symbol concealed within her! Was she intended to be renamed as Decepticon Nightbird to even up the faction distribution within the repurposed de.luxes? Cheetor also gets a repaint in Fox Kids before his Armada remould. He has a much more major repaint & remould as the rare as **** Metals Ravage (name your price) and it's Botcon repaint Transmetal Tigatron As we've said Airazor has a dark Armada repaint that as well as giving her Powerlinx ports adds an unexplained Decepticon symbol to the inside of her body. Intended as a Decepticon Armada Nightbird but released under the original name? Were the other three Armada deluxe beasts also meant to be given new names & identities? |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 5, 2024 7:37:15 GMT
UK Distribution: For the first time in Armada this gets "fun"
Armada Rhinox & Terrorsaur were packed in a wave with Hoist. For Unknown Reasons Wheeljack, who was packed with them in the USA, was omitted. This was the last generally distributed UK Armada Supercon wave
Some considerable time later The Entertainer received stock of another deluxe wave on European cards: Powerlinx Hotshot & Cyclonus, the previously made of unobtanium Red Thrust and Armada Beast Airazor
Armada Cheetor has not been sold in the UK to the best of my knowledge and neither have his US Final Wave casemates Powerlinx Demolishor and Nemesis Prime
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The Huff
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Post by The Huff on Jul 5, 2024 7:46:07 GMT
Rhinox, but only really because he actually appears in the cartoon.
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Post by Benn on Jul 5, 2024 8:47:48 GMT
Rhinox or Cheetor here. Need to think about this.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 5, 2024 9:42:21 GMT
Odd mix of colour choices here:
Rhinox is great, appropriate colours for the animal and best colours for the mould.
I can see what they're going for with the green on Terrorsaur but the two shades don't work great with the orange at all and the overall effect is he's on some watered down G2 juice.
Airazor is fabulous, great stealth/evil repaint
Cheetor is just radio rental. Pics don't do it justice. But it's a wasted opportunity to do the TM mould in yellow and I wouldn't have minded seeing all 4 in appropriate beast colours
Obviously Airazor wins it for me cos it's Airazor and that's a great toy. But that Rhinox is very good and nearly makes up for the Fox Kids monstrosity!
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jul 5, 2024 9:43:12 GMT
Rhinox, but only really because he actually appears in the cartoon. VERY Briefly, and not in those colours |
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