Dave's Transformers Universe Rant K-Mart Mini-Con Class 10 Pack Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/MiniConK2 I'm going to continue with keeping these Universe Mini-Con redecos in the Armada page because, well, it amuses me to do so. This set of ten more redecos brings in the remaining two sets (Dinobots and Predator Attack Team) plus additional redecos of Divebomb (Night Rescue), Steel Wind (Clear Skies), Broadside (Demolition) and Strongarm (Night Rescue) to bring the numbers up a bit. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Basic1 - Demolition, Night Rescue, Dinobots http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Classic/Basic2 - Predator Attack, Clear Skies [Later note: Meijer has these too. They often get other stores' exclusives, being a regional rather than national chain may help in this.] CAPSULE Mini-Con Class 10 Pack: Original sets were mostly Recommended, although Clear Skies was only mildly recommended and Predator Attack very mildly recommended. There's some decent redecos here, and homages both obvious and obscure, but at 10 for the price rather the original 12 it's not as good a deal as the previous K-Mart pack. Also, to be honest, there's a higher percentage of weak molds in this one. Mildly recommended. $24.99 at K-Mart ($21.24 on sale during the week of release of the Revenge of the Fallen DVD) RANT Rather than the traditional three-teams, they've broken this bunch into two five-member teams, one Autobot and one Decepticon. Autobots get the Battle Support Mini-Con Team, Decepticons the Ground Surveillance Mini-Con Team. Battle Support: Windrazor (Swoop), Ransack (Terrorsaur), Stockade (Knockdown), Overcharge (Strongarm) and Sky Shadow (Steel Rain) Ground Surveillance: Scavenger (Overbite), Longview (Dreadwing), Snow Cat (Snarl), Treadshot (Broadside), Crosshairs (Divebomb) Packaging: The same basic packaging as the 12-pack (http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/MiniConK1) but with two rows of five columns each. The Autobots are the top row with red boxes, the Decepticons are the bottom row with purple boxes. The whole thing is 14.5" (37cm) wide, 7.5" (19cm) tall and 3" (7.5cm) deep. Unlike the 12-pack, the clear plastic isn't a sleeve, it's just a front panel held on by tabs and tape. Each figure has one or two twist-ties holding it to a clear plastic tray, the ties being twisted together inside the structure of the shadowbox, so you either have to cut the ties or dismantle the box entirely. As before, there's just one bio for all of them, so I'm writing my own individual ones. The group bio is identical to the one used on the 12-pack. You have to open up the back or side of the box to get at the instructions sheet. The instructions are all grayscale, the Autobots on one side and Decepticons on the other. AUTOBOT: WINDRAZOR Altmode: Pteradon Team: Battle Support Previous Name Use: G2, BW, Energon Previous Mold Use: Classics Swoop Homage: Universe Silverbolt Function: Tactical Coordinator Motto: "From up here, I can see your defeat." MINI-CONS are rarely much use in a fight against DECEPTICONS on their own, being most useful as power sources. Most MINI-CONS resent this role, but a few decided to find ways to be more than just batteries, and they rallied around the tactical genius of WINDRAZOR. Each has developed a specialty that makes them better partners to AUTOBOTS, while also training as a unit to be nearly the equal of a single DECEPTICON when they're all present. WINDRAZOR himself tends to remain above the fray, but this shouldn't be mistaken for cowardice or lack of strength. His wings can extrude a monofilament edge capable of slicing through the strongest armor, either as a solo combatant or as a weapon in the hands of an AUTOBOT. Some AUTOBOTS can also benefit from his ability to fly, although he can generally only carry the smallest of them. STR 4 INT 9 SPD 6 END 5 RNK 7 COUR 6 FRB 3 SKL 8 Avg 6 Packaging: 2 twist-ties. Easiest to cut by lifting up the plastic tray and snipping underneath. Check carefully, one of the sets I got had the top half of the head missing. Color Swaps: Dark gray becomes bluish purple, dark red becomes magenta. Paint Apps: Most of the paint here is a more reddish purple airbrushed onto the head and wings to blend the two plastic colors together. The beast eyes and the entire robot face are gloss white. A black Mini-Con symbol is printed on the top of the robot chest (behind the crest of the beast head in beast mode). Other Notes: While I might be making too much of the similarity, I think this is intended to be a visual homage to the purple redeco of Beast Wars Silverbolt that appeared in the first wave of Universe. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Universe/Deluxe1 Overall: Sure, it's not a "realistic" color scheme, even allowing for the fact we don't know what color pteradons were in the first place, but it looks very nice, very eyecatching. AUTOBOT: RANSACK Altmode: T.rex Team: Battle Support Previous Name Use: G1, G2, Universe, Cybertron, Movie2 Previous Mold Use: Classics Terrorsaur Homage: T-Wrecks Function: Berserker Motto: "You really wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Outside of combat, RANSACK is a fairly calm individual, the fierceness of his beastmode seeming at stark contrast to his personality. But once a fight starts, it's like a switch is flipped and he becomes as savage and unstoppable as the legendary GRIMLOCK, albeit at a smaller scale. He can "infect" an AUTOBOT partner with this fighting spirit, turning even the most cowardly scientist or artist into a mighty warrior...for a little while, at least. His carbonadium-coated teeth and triple-reinforced jaw hydraulics give his beastmode a bite that few can shake loose, and he can use it while attached to the arm of an AUTOBOT. STR 8 INT 5 SPD 3 END 7 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRB 2 SKL 5 Avg 5.5 Packaging: Two ties. Color Swaps: Green becomes dark red, dark gray becomes a slightly warmer dark gray. Paint Apps: The shins are dark silver, as are the bits on his flanks that were red on the original. If you open his mouth, the gun in there is a darker gunmetal metallic. The eyes are bright yellow-green. A dark gunmetal Mini-Con symbol is printed on his back, a bit marred by a molded detail in there. The robot face is painted silver. Other Notes: T-Wrecks was a red redeco of the original "Barneysaur" Beast Wars Megatron. If you're really careful, you can almost get his body horizontal without it tipping over forward, but it's still mainly designed to be rearing up in an old-school interpretation of the T.rex stance (although the head is molded for the new version). Overall: It's a decent homage, but I wish they'd tweaked the mold to improve balance in beast mode. AUTOBOT: STOCKADE Altmode: Triceratops Team: Battle Support Previous Name Use: Universe, Movie1 Previous Mold Use: Classics Knockdown Homage: Function: Fortification Specialist Motto: "No one gets in or out without my say-so." Before the wars began, STOCKADE made his name as a jailer of unruly Mini-Cons, building prisons that none escaped from on their own...but which fell in the opening days of the war when the DECEPTICONS decided that criminal MINI-CONS might make good partners. STOCKADE has resented the DECEPTICONS ever since, and while he has no particular loyalty to the AUTOBOT cause, they're his best way of getting back at his enemies. Ponderous and powerful, he knows exactly where to knock things down in order to channel the flow of a battlefield, often disguising his actions as clumsy charges that miss their apparent targets. But soon his enemies find that their avenues of escape have all been either cut off or seriously hampered. STR 8 INT 6 SPD 2 END 7 RNK 5 COUR 7 FRB 3 SKL 7 Avg 5.625 Packaging: 1 tie. Color Swaps: Light brown becomes medium-to-dark gray, the pale lavender becomes dutch blue (a slightly grayish medium blue). The gray takes on a brownish cast in sunlight or under LED lights. Paint Apps: A puke yellow paint is used on the horns and various beast face details, including the "eyes" below the rear horns (the proper eyes are molded, but not painted), plus the entire robot face. The front hips in beast mode (feet in robot mode) have a well-matched dutch blue. A gold-ish Mini-Con symbol is printed on the left side of the beast back (left shoulderpad in robot mode). Other Notes: While it's similar in broad strokes to the colors used for Ironlunge (the Micron Booster redeco), but swapping the blue and gray parts, plus Ironlunge has a very cool gray rather than the almost brown gray Stockade uses. Overall: I like the colors better than those on Knockdown, but it's not as nifty as Windrazor. AUTOBOT: OVERCHARGE Altmode: Taxi Team: Battle Support Previous Name Use: None (in the U.S.) Previous Mold Use: Classics Strongarm Homage: None (or maybe Taxi-Bot of the Go-Bots) Function: Urban Combat Motto: "It's two bucks for the first gigajoule, a quarter per ninth of a gigajoule after that." While he jokes about the relation between his name and his Terran vehicle mode, OVERCHARGE got his name long before the trip to Earth. While all Mini-Cons act as power batteries for "bulks", OVERCHARGE can go far beyond most of his brethren, to the point where the AUTOBOT he teams with might end up in the repair bay from internal overloads. OVERCHARGE specializes in lurking in potential urban trouble spots, using his appearance to explain his occasional spurts of insane driving as he streaks to the latest emergency. STR 4 INT 7 SPD 7 END 5 RNK 10 COUR 5 FRB 3 SKL 5 Avg 5.75 Packaging: 1 twist-tie. Color Swaps: The head, arms, waist and wheels stay black, the rest becomes yellow. Unfortunately, like Flatfoot, the requirement that the wheels stay black means obvious black sections in vehicle mode, something they didn't worry about with the all-black Strongarm. Paint Apps: The lightbar is painted white, but they didn't attempt to print anything on it. A black and white checker strip (two squares high, 22 squares long) is printed along the top of each side from over the wheel back to where the black plastic chunk sits. The windows are black and there's a black Mini-Con symbol in the hood ornament position. The headlights, brushguard and robot face are silver. Other Notes: Y'know, this is one of those molds that gets worse every time I get a new version of it. It was a clever transformation for Strongarm, but I could never get Flatfoot to transform properly to robot mode, and now Overcharge not only has Flatfoot's problem (the right side won't rotate all the way), but pieces fly off at high speed when I try to force it to get past the blockage. And I can't even write it off as quality control, there's a deliberately designed little tab that covers a gap in the car roof but prevents the right side from rotating all the way. Well, sorta prevents. It's so thin that it can snap off if you apply excessive force. You may ask, why not just move the right side as far as it'll go and then move the left side to be symmetric? Well, the left side doesn't want to stay at the same angle, being blocked in the OTHER direction. And attempts to get them to be symmetric all too often end with the chest flying off. Overall: We need more taxis, and other than the unavoidable black plastic chunks it looks decent as one. But, frankly, I'm tired of this mold. AUTOBOT: SKY SHADOW Altmode: A-10 Thunderbolt Team: Battle Support Previous Name Use: BW, Energon, Cybertron Previous Mold Use: Classics Steel Rain Homage: Function: Ground Support Motto: "Death from above!" While WINDRAZOR tends to stay as high as he can without losing sight of the battlefield, SKY SHADOW flies nap-of-the-earth so frequently that his teammates joke that he must be afraid of heights. He isn't afraid of heights, he just doesn't see any reason to stay away from potential targets. The spray of depleted uranium rounds from his rotary cannon can shred just about any armor made by humans, and enough time on target can fell a DECEPTICON. Unfortunately, his preference for mixing it up close and personal means he rarely gets that time before someone swats him out of the air. SKY SHADOW spends more time in the repair bay than all the other members of the Battle Support Team combined. STR 3 INT 5 SPD 8 END 6 RNK 4 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 5 Avg 5.625 Packaging: 2 ties, one of which is way at the back and hard to cut. A rubber band is wrapped around the nose. Color Swaps: It turns out that Steel Wind has two different kinds of gray plastic that are about the same color, as I found out when I tried dyeing a fleamarker-found copy red to be Powerglide. Here's the dyed version: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/redwind.JPG Now, all of the plastic on Sky Shadow is olive green, but the parts that didn't take the red dye on Redwind are a slightly brownish olive green. Paint Apps: The cockpit, nose and hands are gloss black. The leading edge of the wings, the robot face, and the details that become the robot's chest are painted silver. A silver Mini-Con symbol is printed on the left side just under the cockpit. Other Notes: I had some trouble getting the nose end to snap together properly, but that may just be normal quality control variation. Overall: I like this mold, but of the three versions I have this is probably the least interesting color scheme. At least the first K-Mart one looked kinda like a Cobra Rattler. DECEPTICON: SCAVENGER Altmode: Wolf (Hyena?) Team: Ground Surveillance Previous Name Use: G1, G2, BW, BMac, RiD, Armada, Universe Previous Mold Use: Classics Overbite Homage: Wolfang Function: Extortionist Motto: "You'd be amazed at the sort of incriminating evidence people just throw away." The only way to keep SCAVENGER from learning from your trash is to disintegrate it. He laughs at document shredders or magneto-optical randomizers. If you leave a footprint of any kind, he'll figure out your shoe size. In an AUTOBOT, these skills would make him a great detective. But SCAVENGER would rather blackmail others into keeping the truth hidden. It's how he got command of the Ground Surveillaince Team, after all. None of his fellow Mini-Cons feels any real loyalty to him, but most have come to have a grudging respect for his abilities. In a fight, he's nearly useless, and if discovered his primary tactic is to distract his enemies and run away, unless he has some piece of blackmail he can hold over one or more foes immediately. STR 3 INT 9 SPD 6 END 3 RNK 8 COUR 2 FRB 2 SKL 10 Avg 5.375 Packaging: 1 tie, plus a rubber band around his legs to keep them firmly in the plastic shell. Color Swaps: Dark gray becomes light gray. Paint Apps: The beast eyes are tennis ball yellow-green. There's white paint on the front flanks and the leading edges of the rear thighs. The metallic "fur" crest along the spine is painted black. Much of the front of the robot torso and pelvis, plus the entire helmet, is painted turquoise, with a silver visor. A white Mini-Con symbol is printed on the left side of the beast ribcage. Other Notes: The use of the black paint on the back along with the name suggest that they might want this to be a hyena rather than a wolf. On the other hand, the turquoise and gray is almost definitely meant to homage Wolfang, who's a wolf. http://www.tfu.info/1996/Maximal/Wolfang/wolfang.htm Overall: The flip-out heel spurs pointed out to me after my original Overbite review do improve things a little, but twice "incredibly tiny" still leaves you with pretty tiny feet. DECEPTICON: LONGVIEW Altmode: Bald Eagle Team: Ground Surveillance Previous Name Use: Movie1 Previous Mold Use: Classics Dreadwing Homage: BW Magnaboss Silverbolt Function: Tracker Motto: "If I do my job right, you'll never know I did it." Gliding silently on wings modeled after some of the most accomplished long-distance fliers Earth has to offer, Longview rarely sees a need to touch ground. His advanced array of both active and passive sensors let him track his target from far enough away that the curvature of the planet can become an issue for him. The only way to escape his eye once he's onto you is to either go deep underground or use a Space Bridge to leave the planet and then leave the next planet before he can reach a Bridge himself. And even then your odds aren't great. Little threat on his own in a fight, his true weapon is his ability to send a seemingly unending stream of DECEPTICONS homing in on your position. STR 4 INT 6 SPD 8 END 9 RNK 4 COUR 4 FRB 1 SKL 9 Avg 5.625 Packaging: 2 ties. Color Swaps: The "UV glow" brown plastic becomes a yellowish tan, the rest a glossy chocolate brown. Paint Apps: The beast head is dipped in white paint, plus there's white paint on the insides of the beast thighs (tops of the upper arms in robot mode) and on the robot face. A white Mini-Con symbol is printed on the left wing near the shoulder. Yellow-tan paint is on the trailing feathers of the wingtips in a pretty good match to the plastic color, and a sort of halfway between tan is on the third and fourth feathers of the wingtips and the rear half of the main wing front pieces (top side only in all cases) in an attempt to blend the colors together. It doesn't work quite as well as on Windrazor. Other Notes: Okay, this may not be an intentional homage, bald eagles all look about the same. But it does amuse me that there may be ties to both of the Silverbolts of Beast Wars in this set. You know, the fact that his bird head is on his crotch in robot mode is really emphasized by painting it white. Overall: Face it, bald eagles are striking. Hard to go wrong copying their color scheme, really. And it's a good mold to start with. DECEPTICON: SNOW CAT Altmode: Siberian Tiger Team: Ground Surveillance Previous Name Use: Energon, Universe Previous Mold Use: Classics Snarl Homage: Tigatron Function: Arctic Infiltration Motto: "I'm up on top of the world, lookin' down on creation." The polar regions of most habitable planets are desolate places, making them ideal for hiding installations that the locals would rather keep secret. Of course, the Ground Surveillance Team learned long ago that these secret bases are exactly the sort of place they want keep an eye on, so SNOW CAT has specialized in finding his way around in icy conditions and surviving for long periods in the cold. He can mask his infrared signature for brief periods, letting him sneak up under the cover of simple "white on white" camoflage. This stored heat can be released in a single blast, surprising opponents who don't expect a fire-breathing tiger. STR 5 INT 6 SPD 4 END 8 RNK 4 COUR 6 FRB 7 SKL 8 Avg 6 Packaging: 1 tie, and a rubber band around the head and torso to keep the head from flopping up in-package. Color Swaps: It's all white plastic now. Paint Apps: The tiger stripes and beast eggs are black, the robot face is medium blue. A black Mini-Con symbol is printed on the what ends up being the right forearm in robot mode. This one got shortchanged on the paint in favor of others, I suppose. :) Other Notes: The homages don't get more obvious than this one, folks. Overall: Eh. Didn't much care for the mold originally, and this is neither better nor worse. DECEPTICON: TREADSHOT Altmode: Tank Team: Ground Surveillance Previous Name Use: G1, Universe, Energon Previous Mold Use: Classics Broadside Homage: G1 Blitzwing Function: Military Infiltration Motto: "I can feel them crawling around inside me, ewwwww." TREADSHOT's job is to insinuate himself into human military bases for extended missions, using advanced internal disguise systems to appear to be no more than a normal armored vehicle even during maintenance cycles. As a result, not only is he only rarely able to act of his own free will, he's also forced to endure the disgusting presence of humans, their squishy bodies leaving foul stench inside him, and their ignorant hands poking around at his innards. He hates his job, and relishes the rare times when he gets to blow his cover in an explosive manner and leave a military base in smoking ruins. STR 7 INT 5 SPD 4 END 9 RNK 4 COUR 6 FRB 7 SKL 4 Avg 5.75 Packaging: 2 ties. Color Swaps: The stuff that became black on Heavytread (gun barrel, wheels, forearms, hip and shoulder joints) is now medium-dark gray with the same sort of brownish tinge as on Stockade, the rest is desert tan perhaps a shade or two lighter than G1 Blitzwing's. Paint Apps: The treads and face are painted brownish gunmetal. There's a blue-purple strip along each side in tank mode, plus on the middle parts of the arms in robot mode. There's a brownish gunmetal Mini-Con symbol on the back end of the turret. Other Notes: Okay, he can't turn into a jet like Blitzwing, but there's a sort of walker mode you can get him into, shown on Heavy Tread here: http://www.dvandom.com/images/heavytreadwalker.JPG Overall: Another mold that's more "interesting" than "playable". DECEPTICON: CROSSHAIRS Altmode: AH-64 Apache Helicopter (more or less) Team: Ground Surveillance Previous Name Use: G1, Movie1 Previous Mold Use: Classics Divebomb Homage: Springer? Function: Sniper Motto: "My gun doesn't start fights, it prevents fights." Sometimes watching isn't quite enough, and a single well-placed shot from even a Mini-Con's weapon can do more than a full assault group of DECEPTICONS. CROSSHAIRS is as well-trained in surveillance as the rest of his team, but his specialty focuses on those elements of watching that let him know how to set up the perfect assassination. If the target is weak enough, he carries out the kill himself. Otherwise, he partners with a DECEPTICON whose Mini-Con-charged weapons are more than enough to sanction the target. STR 2 INT 7 SPD 7 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 6 FRB 6 SKL 9 Avg 6 Packaging: 2 ties, one at the tail end and hard to get at. Color Swaps: Light gray becomes a sort of translucent light tan-yellow sort of thing that reminds me of stalactite material. The blue becomes a very dark brown-gray. Paint Apps: The cockpit windows are silver. Gold paint is on the robot face and the missile tips, plus a gold Mini-Con symbol is printed on the top behind the rotor center. Meant to be visible only in robot mode is neon green paint on the undersides of the wing stubs and on the torso sides (the sort of pecs molded into the tail roots). Other Notes: Really stretching on the homage guessing here. The only helicopter with a mix of gray and green that even comes close to this is Springer, and they could've gotten closer pretty easily. Overall: Unlike the Strongarm mold, this one hasn't gotten more annoying with repetition. Dave Van Domelen, has more Mini-Cons than Starscream.