Dave's Transformers Rant: Third Wave Supercons Blurr with Incinerator Optimus Prime with Over-run Lucked out...Target was stripped nearly bare, but Prime had fallen back behind some Gundam models. Snag! CAPSULES Blurr with Incinerator: Decent futuristic car mode with a few flaws, okay transformation, kibbly robot mode (but looks good). Good gimmicks, good Mini-Con. Recommended. $9.76 at Wal-Mart. Optimus Prime with Over-run: Pretty solid in both modes (with a few wobbly bits), looks very good. Over-run is a bit of a disappointment, but Prime is well worth getting anyway. Strongly recommended. $9.99 at Target. RANTS AUTOBOT: BLURR Mini-Con: Incinerator Function: Aerial Attack Quote: "Stand up, keep fighting!" BLURR is a no-nonsense powerhouse of decisive action. His all-work-no-play attitude often places him in friendly but heated competition with HOTSHOT. Equipped with ultra speed, precision attack capabilities and a special flight attack mode, something of which few AUTOBOTS have, BLURR'S cool defiance in the face of apparent defeat make him one of the most awe-inspiring AUTOBOTS in battle...but are skill, discipline, and bravery enough to fend off the deadliest DECEPTICON attacks? STR 6 INT 8 SPD 9 END 7 RNK 7 COUR 9 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 7.5 Blurr is packaged in flying car mode, with a bunch of twist-ties. He's also partly mistransformed in this mode, the armor skirt on his pelvis needs to be flipped up so that the robot legs can more fully retract into the car body. He's packaged with issue two of the pack-in comic. For my parody take on that issue, go to http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/comic.html Vehicle Mode: 5.5" (14cm) long futuristic sportscar, mostly silvery gray with light and dark blue accents, clear amber windows/headlights and yellow-orange missiles. There's some black scorching effects on the rear fenders. The back is a bit too heavily built-up for my tastes, it looks like two cars of different scales were merged and the border smoothed over. At least on mine, only three wheels touch ground at the same time, and the clearance is REALLY small (like, a millimeter or less). Also, the center of the hood is not fixed in place by pegs, so it'll drift out of place easily, becoming something of a plow. The canopy lifts up on a spring joint, which is a nice touch (if probably there to make transformation easier). Kibble levels are generally low except in the back, where the folded up feet kinda poke out a bit. Oh, and a slider tab on each side of the front fenders counts as a little kibble. There are dead hardpoints atop the rear spoiler, one on each side. Pushing Incinerator into a slot under the spoiler (or just pushing on orange tabs on either side, a difficult trick when the missiles are loaded) causes the sides to flip down for Flying Car Mode. Nestled into the corners of the spoiler rig are a pair of missile launchers with live hardpoints. The missiles cannot be launched in ground car configuration (unless you mount them on the dead hardpoints), they become accessible in flying car mode. The launchers come loose pretty easily, and you almost have to pop the wings down to put them back on their pegs, which is a bit annoying. Square pegs would have helped keep them from working loose. It takes a fair amount of force to get the missiles to fire, even though they're spring launchers and not pressure launchers like those Sideways has. They fire pretty far, but never ever fire accidentally, which is nice. The launchers sit on shortened dead hardpoints on the "wings" (these hardpoints are too short for most anything else to connect, though). Flying mode has a "wingspan" of 4.25" (11cm) and molded hoverfans above the rear wheels. There's no nosestrut to keep it level in this mode, but as a side effect of the floppy front, you can point the middle of the hood down to act as a de facto nose skid. Anyway, it's actually a fairly passable shuttle style flyer in this configuration. And it has four hardpoints available for placing Air Defense Team members (which color-match pretty well). Transformation: Pull out the legs and unfold the feet. That's the simple part. The rest mostly involves a torso fold trick that brings the shell of the car away from the body, and you have to flip things in the right order or it gets ugly. Robot Mode: 5" (13cm) tall at the head, add a bit more for kibble. It's almost like a chunkier version of RiD Prowl in terms of general layout (big shoulderpads, cape, etc). The color scheme picks up a lot more bright blue and some more dark blue, plus red paint in a number of places (Autobot symbol, shins, abdominal cogs and missile launchers in the shoulderpads). The upper arms and hips are yellow-orange, which is a bit incongruous: blue would have worked a lot better. The torso's a bit skinny, with gray panels hanging in the armpits. The head is made of clear amber plastic with blue paint (front half...back half is blue plastic with silver paint), and because of the way it's made there's really no glowing eyes. Even shining a laser in through the top slits doesn't light up the eyes. Blurr has open hands with blue fingers, but since his launchers attach to holes in his forearms, the shape of the hands isn't as relevant. A big percentage of the car body hangs off the back as a sort of cape, the rest forms the shoulderpads and forearms. Very much a shellmaster. Now, poseability. Kinda halfway, really. The elbows are double- jointed, so they can bend 180 degrees (in either direction, woo). The shoulders only move out to the sides, although the transformation joints let you shrug them together some. The head turns. The hips also only move out to the sides about 50 degrees each way, although you have to move the huge backpack out of the way first. There's a ball joint right below the hip, and it can actually be forced to bend as a really high knee, but is mainly intended as a swivel so you can point the feet out. There's no joint at the regular knee point. The toes and heels can fold in, but this isn't too useful for posing. Anyway, it's not a brick, but it's less than I'd like. Incinerator's connector is positioned so that it can sit on one of the missile launchers while it is held in Blurr's hand. Also, because the launchers can fit on hardpoints, you can create a doublegun (like a double Targetmaster gun), although this is a bit too long and can't be raised up to level. Overall: Looks good from the front in robot mode, and looks pretty good in vehicle mode. The gimmicks work reasonably well, and there's a Mini-Con storage area that almost looks integrated. A fitting update of the Blurr character. Incinerator: A bright blue and yellow-orange dragster with dark blue canopy and wheels. Mini-Con symbol is on the underside (robot chest), with the connector right behind it (robot abdomen). Vehicle mode is 2.75" (7cm) long, very built up at the back with the robot legs forming powerful rocket engines. As a nice touch, the bit of leg exposed inside the knee joint in this mode has a nozzle tip molded onto it. The orange bit on the vehicle is a big spoiler wing plus exposed engine cylinders. Like with Blurr, the orange bits would have looked better in gray. Very little robot kibble visible in this mode, pretty much just the left fist. The molding of the boots makes them look a lot more like part of the vehicle than they might otherwise. Transformation involves folding down the legs and pulling the arms apart. That's all. Oh, you'll have to move the front half of the vehicle to the side. Robot mode stands 2" (5cm) tall with a gray torso, metallic red eyeslit and bright blue limbs. The spoiler becomes an orangey jetpack, and the front half of the vehicle becomes a sort of blade/shield thing attached to his right forearm. This shield can be positioned in front to protect almost the entire body. A single bar runs through both shoulders, so while they can be independingly posed, moving one arm moves the other. This gives it a sort of undocumented feature of chopping action with the shield. Shoulders, hips and knees have hinge joints. The right elbow is a ball joint for transformation purposes. Robot mode can ride in the gap between Blurr's back and his cape kibble, although it's not very stable. Other Mini-Cons with smaller legs would be a better fit. Overall: Okay, having half the vehicle mode hanging off the arm is points off. But otherwise this is a good, solid Mini-Con. AUTOBOT: OPTIMUS PRIME Mini-Con: Over-run Function: Autobot Commander My guess is that they won't do a new bio note for this version. The existing note is vague enough that it could really apply to either. The bubble for this one is a bit different from previous SuperCons. The card front is also different, with the "Transformers.com" bubble on the left rather than the right top corner (the bubble is green on newer toys, a quick way to scan for them among the blue-bubbled older ones on the rack). The co-sell on the back shows Blurr, Smokescreen and Hot Shot. The included sticker has all-new art, not just art of the cab part of Base Prime. Oh, amusing bit of French translation. "Double punch attack!" translates on the cardback as "Deux coups de poing!" Yes, I'm told that's a literal translation, but the use of "poing" is amusing nonetheless. [Later note: Literally "Two fist blows," with poing meaning fist. Heh.] Vehicle Mode: At 5.5" (14cm) long, this is significantly smaller than the 8" long cab portion of Base Prime, and the colors are a bit more subdued but otherwise the same basic scheme. It's clear this is supposed to be the same character (as opposed to an upgrade), as many details (such as the tread pattern on the wheels) are the same between versions. One notable difference is that there is no faction symbol on this toy, anywhere. Also, while the smokestacks detach from the toy, they do not combine into anything. Some have reported trouble with them falling off and suggested gluing them on, but I haven't had this problem with mine. The stacks are a cheesy silvery gray plastic rather than clear. Most of the toy is either this color, a darkish red or a darkish blue, plus black wheels and a little bit of gold accenting. All six wheels are free-rolling, but there's enough instability in this mode that you'll have a hard time getting all six wheels on the surface at once. There are two hardpoints in vehicle mode, one atop the cab and one on the "legs" section between the cab and the trailer hitch. The first is nominally live, but can't be moved in vehicle mode. The second is dead. The trailer hitch sticks out a bit, but it's there so that Supercon Prime can pull the Container trailer in this mode, sort of like a yard mule truck. To the right of the hitch is a peg hole designed for attaching Over-run in gun mode (which I'll discuss later). There are no working gimmicks in this mode, unless you count being able to pull the Container to be a gimmick. (For those who don't watch the cartoon, Prime's trailer was referred to as the Container in at least one episode. Goofy, but it's caught on.) Transformation: Much like that of Scourge/Laser Optimus, although without having to fold up the head, and with the addition of the folding grille structure trick from Base Prime's cab. Not too complicated, but satisfying. Also, in the process of transformation you can see that this version of Prime does NOT have the Matrix molded into his chest. Perhaps he loses the Matrix and shrinks down? }-> Robot Mode: Only 5" (13cm) tall at the head and a bit darker than Base Prime's cab in robot mode (the grille on the chest is blackened over the silver plastic). As with vehicle mode, while there's certainly minor differences, it looks very much like the Base version (or like the cartoon model sheet). This thing is very poseable. In fact, it's so poseable that the few joints that don't quite work (the elbows are a bit wonky and there's no upper arm swivel) stand out. There's some things that get in the way, especially between the elbow and the forearm armor, but the armor skirt is actually hinged so that the legs are free to move. However, the design of the hips keeps the legs from swinging forward. To fix this, pop the legs off and loosen the screws on the boots (don't remove them, just turn em a few times). Pull the boot halves apart and pull the upper legs pieces out, then swap, being sure to not put the knees backwards. This fix does not affect transformation, and greatly improves poseability. Also, the ankles have a clever Gundam-like joint that lets the feet move quite a bit. You can get feet flat on the table in a great many poses, and the joints are nicely stiff. The dead hardpoint, now on the back of the armor skirt, is listed in the instructions as a place to store Over-run in it's weapon mode. The cab hardpoint, however, now goes live. Placing a Mini-Con on it and pulling down causes the shoulders to reciprocate in what is claimed to be a double punch attack. Thing is, the movement is so fast, and the distance moved so small, that's it's more of a "I am Cornholio!" shudder. Placing Over-run on that peg in jet mode pointed down gives Prime a sort of God Ginrai (Apex Armor Prime) wing thing, if tiny. Prime's fist is supposed to be the right size for holding hardpoints or the various Mini-Con combiner weapons, but the holes are too big by a fraction of a millimeter. As a result, since Over-run's gun mode has a hardpoint-sized peg, Prime can't even hold his own gun properly. I've put a bit of poster-tack in the right fist to correct for this, and I'll probably line the insides with nailpolish topcoat to resize them more permanently. Overall: There's a few flaws in this toy, most of which can be fixed. And what remains is a very good toy. Get it if you can find it, then fix the legs. }-> Over-run: A silver jet or space fighter with blue and black bits. Mini-Con symbol on the nose, PowerLinx connector on the top of the fuselage a few millimeters back of the cockpit. Vehicle mode is a spindly T shape with the wings at the back. 2.75" (7cm) long, 2.5" (6cm) wingspan. The fuselage is a bit stretched and makes it look like this was an air-type jet retrofitted for space flight. If you fold the wings down one notch, it looks kinda like a stretch version of a Viper from Battlestar Galactica. There's wheels at the rear, but the front landing gear that folds down is solid plastic, so it doesn't really roll. There is a big gun barrel molded into the underside of the nose, although the barrel tip is smooth rather than having a depression molded into it (something else I can fix, muahaha!). Transformation is fairly simple, with the nose folding down 90 degrees, the wings folding back and the tail rotating out of the way. The interesting bit is that the underside of the fuselage is two arms that fold back on their shoulder chunks. The legs can separate, but don't have to. Robot mode is 2.25" (6cm) tall with a bit of a conehead and a huge "shelf" chest that looks pretty dumb jutting straight out. The arms can move at the shoulders and the legs can spread apart, that's it. Gun mode is the jet mode with the wings folded down and the tail rotated enough to bring the handle peg out. It's a standard Armada peg, so any figure that can hold the Star Saber can also hold Over-run. The peg can rotate a little more so that it can plug into the rear hole on Prime's vehicle mode and fire over the cab (it's too long to fit if it points straight ahead). It's not too bad, but the color scheme doesn't bring out the gun barrel and makes it hard to tell it's a gun rather than an upside down jet. I suppose I'll repaint the barrel blue after I drill it out. Overall, it's a pretty ehhhn Mini-Con. Decent looking jet except for the colors, but weak poseability. Dave Van Domelen, off to make mods to Prime and Over-run....