Dave's Built To Rant BTR Demolishor BTR Jetfire BTR Optimus Prime Built To Rule is a new line from Hasbro designed to compete with Legos while leveraging their existing properties. There's Transformers BTR, GI Joe BTR and "Search and Rescue" BTR. I picked up a GIJoe set over the weekend to check out the line (the Cobra Moccasin), and it was okay, but didn't hold together too well, probably because I need to wash the pieces off to remove mold release oil. This problem did not occur in the Armada BTRs I got, however. Target also had stickers up for Red Alert BTR and Hot Shot BTR, but not for Galvatron/Cyclonus, Smokescreen or Starscream. I suppose those three will constitute a second wave. Red Alert was a $9.99 size, and Hot Shot was $12.99. [Correction: both were $12.99.] CAPSULES Overall Line: The toys do not transform, you have to strip off all the parts from the "skeleton" and rebuild for the new mode. Each has a Mini-Con that's kinda cute, and poseable within the limits of Lego-style pieces. Kinda disappointing given what Blok Bots has done. Demolishor: Decent vehicle mode, dippy-looking robot mode. Holds together well. Has a mysterious extra piece. Mildly recommended. $7.99 at Target. Jetfire: Likewise except for the extra piece. Comettor looks funky. Mildly recommended. $7.99 at Target. Optimus Prime: Much bigger and more poseable, doesn't look as weird or misproportioned as the Basics. Top-heavy, however, and it's hard to get it to stand up in robot mode, plus it doesn't hold together as solidly. Robot mode leaves a LOT of pieces left over, enough to build a weird little trailer for Sparkplug. :) Mildly recommended. $19.99 at Target. RANTS No techspecs or anything. The boxes show the vehicle mode and the original trading card art for the character on the front, with a window showing a few of the pieces on a plastic bubble (the head, a limb bit, a couple other pieces). The back of the box shows both robot and vehicle mode, plus the box art for the original toy and its Mini-Con (in some cases, this is the only off-line source for that art) and some closeups. The top and left side have the same pictures as the front. The front of the box also claims "Compatible with other leading building systems," meaning Lego, basically. Although Mega Bloks and Best Lock will also, of course, work. The background on the box is a mix of the standard Armada background with a blue Lego-like sheet replacing the central area. The instructions are pretty good, but are often unclear regarding the exact positioning of a piece, and have a few outright errors (i.e. on Prime, there's one bit where the instructions call for red pieces, but the only pieces that can do the job are blue). It's worth noting that the catalog doesn't show robot modes except for Prime's, suggesting they know the robot modes suck, and are trying to hide it. Each set has a sort of bed/chassis that forms the core of either mode. The Basics have a bed 4.5" (11cm) by 2.5" (6cm), into which you plug two single leg pieces (with feet plugged into them) and two single arm pieces (with hands plugged in). The positioning does not allow for much arm posing, and it keeps the legs right next to each other, which looks bad. Prime's bed is 6.25' (16cm) by 4" (10cm), and he has arms and legs two pieces long, so he has elbows and knees in addition to shoulders, hips, wrists and ankles. This bed does unfold and "transform", but every other aspect of transformation requires taking the rest of the toy apart and rebuilding from the bed up. All joints are ratcheting (but not Ratchet-ing), so if you got together enough pieces you could probably mix with Lego and avoid the whole bed construction nonsense. The joints are not compatible with the similar joints found in Blok Bots. In general, the vehicle modes hold all the pieces (Demolishor being a minor exception), but the robot modes have leftovers (Prime being the prime example). The Mini-Cons drop one of their two big shell pieces in robot mode. All toys have missiles that fire when you turn a peg-covered dial on the launcher. A little arrow is on the dial to tell you which way to turn. It looks like Red Alert might use this for a gatling missile launcher. DECEPTICON: DEMOLISHOR MINI-CON: BLACKOUT Vehicle mode: This is actually pretty cool. Just over 5" (13cm) long and 4.5" (11.5cm) wide, it's colored pretty close to show-accurate in tan, red and gray. There's a pale violet Decepticon symbol on the front armor. Blackout sits on a peg on the back of the vehicle rather than between the front treads. His robot mode face is just stuck behind the turret, not covered up or anything. The treads roll and the guns elevate, but the turret doesn't turn. Unlike the original toy, both missiles fire. There's two flat 2x4 gray pieces that do not seem to have a place in this mode (and only one has a place in the robot mode), but I put 'em on the trigger dials to make for easier turning. The recommended position for Blackout tends to get in the way of elevating the left launcher, but moving it to a more central location is unstable, since the center of the armor slab has few pegs. Robot Mode: About 8" (20cm) tall, skinny legs sitting right together, stubby arms waving around helplessly. Really pretty sad, and it doesn't use one of the big armor chunks. Mini-Con: Blackout is missing the radar dish, but otherwise looks the closest to correct in vehicle mode. In fact, it looks better than the real thing. The face piece is pretty accurate, if totally unpainted. Like all the Mini-Cons, it's 2" (5cm) long in vehicle mode and a little under 3" (7.5cm) tall in robot mode. The legs swing back at the hips, the arms flap up and down at the shoulders, that's about it for any of these guys. Overall: Well, for an $8 set, it's not TOO bad. The robot mode is a writeoff, but you get a decent vehicle and specialty pieces useful for making you own Lego TFs. AUTOBOT: JETFIRE MINI-CON: COMETTOR Vehicle Mode: 7" (18cm) long with a 6.25" (16cm) wingspan, it's not bad as a slightly lumpy space shuttle in light gray, medium gray and black with some red accents. Twin red laser cannons sit in spare ratchet joints on the bed, and the top engine is the missile launcher as it is in the original toy. However, it does still shoot backwards, so it's best to leave it unloaded in vehicle mode. Comettor has a snug little slot on top of the shuttle, covering up a hole and giving him a better storage method than the other Mini-Cons. Jetfire's face is reasonably well-hidden under the top engine. There's Autobot symbols on side panels over each wing. Robot Mode: Okay, this one looked so bad in the instructions that I didn't even build it, I'm happier with this jaunty little shuttle. I guess it's about as tall as Demolishor. Mini-Con: Comettor is pretty chunky and looks more like a tank, especially since the gun-and-solar-panels unit is centered rather than connected at the back. His face piece looks somewhat different from the original, and it's light blue instead of the red shown in the instructions. Overall: As with Demolishor, I quite like the vehicle but not the robot, same overall recommendation. AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME MINI-CON: SPARKPLUG Vehicle Mode: Very beefy, 11" (33cm) long and 6" (15cm) wide in pretty show-accurate colors and with big black tires 2.25" (6cm) in diameter. There are a few design choices I would have made differently for greater stability, but it holds together reasonably well for a non-Lego block toy of this size. It's pretty beefy, weighing 1 lb 4 oz (566g). The six wheels roll freely and are big enough to let it roll over obstacles, although the rear section tends to pop apart (the two wheels are on separate arms, only lightly connected). The smokestacks are missile launchers molded like double-barrelled machineguns but firing only a single missile each. Prime's face is hidden inside the cab. The instructions have a few significant errors. One, mentioned earlier, is coloring a piece red when it's really blue (and it's blue in photos of the toy on the package, unlike the next error). Also, there's two pairs of pieces where one is supposed to have paint applications and the other is supposed to be blank, but the one I got had both members of each pair painted (so mine has two Autobot symbols, one on the hood and one on the roof). There's a few pieces in this set that were clearly designed for a different figure. For instance, a pair of pieces that are molded as suspension/axle parts, but that are just used as plain blocks in both modes. Or a pair of pieces that look like they're supposed to be feet, but which are not used at the ends of limbs. Robot Mode: 13" (33cm) tall, he's in the same league as Unicron or Hauler-Bot in this mode...but skinnier. Built up areas on the legs help keep him from being as lame-looking as the Basic BTRs, but the ratchet joints aren't strong enough to keep half a pound of toy upright. I managed to get it to stay standing in a slight crouch, but with legs straight it sways enough to fall over, despite the big feet. And while the arms have two pieces to them compared to the one on the Basics, they're still proportionately short. Robot mode had so many pieces left over that I was able to build a decent looking two-wheeled cart that Sparkplug could haul as an oversized trailer. It was definitely bad planning. Mini-Con: Sparkplug's car mode looks pretty lame. Granted, the medium limits things, but this was nowhere near the limits. Overall: A better effort in robot mode, but still not very good for a $20 toy with so many pieces. The huge truck mode is fairly nice, but MegaBloks have comparable sets for $10. Interesting, but don't lose sleep over not getting it. Dave Van Domelen, got Speed-Bot Dragster and Hauler-Bot today, so Unicron review is pushed back again.