Dave's Transformers Cybertron Rant: Wave 2 Scouts Mini-Con Recon Team: Jolt, Reverb, Six-Speed Clocker Hardtop http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/GFMicron1 has reviews of the Kabaya versions of the Recon Team. I'll be focusing on differences. CAPSULES Recon Team: A bit sloppier paint jobs than the Kabaya versions, and some mold differences that aren't improvements, but still a very good set. Strongly recommended. $6.94 at Wal-Mart. Clocker: It's...okay. Decent in both mods, if not great. Some clever bits to the transformations. Key gimmick is bad, but the toy is fine without it. Recommended. $6.94 at Wal-Mart. Hardtop: Good toy. Okay vehicle, good robot, nice transformation, kinda garish colors. Unambitious Key gimmick, but at least it works without being stupid. Recommended (and better than Clocker). $6.94 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Packaging: Same as Wave 1 Scouts. However, the Recon Team does not have a Planet Key. The Recon Team's bio is all together, but each Mini-Con has its own techspecs. MINICONS: RECON TEAM Planet: Universal/Giant Planet Key Code: sh26 (found on the AllSpark) AUTOBOT: JOLT Altmode: Helicopter JOLT - the leader of the team, and the only one able to speak a human language - is a great lover of human culture, addicted to television, music and the Internet. On more than one occasion he has caused difficulty for the AUTOBOTS by forgetting he's not a human being. SIX-SPEED and REVERB, though sometimes frustrated by their leader's tendency to become distracted by cartoons and web-comics, love the excitement of missions with their human partners, working as a fast response strike and rescue team on away missions on the Lost Planets. STR 6 INT 8 SPD 9 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 6 FRB 6.5 SKL 8 Avg 7.06 (But does he follow Shortpacked or Sabrina?) AUTOBOT: REVERB Altmode: Pickup Truck STR 9 INT 5 SPD 6 END 8 RNK 4.5 COUR 7 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 6.69 AUTOBOT: SIX-SPEED Altmode: Race Car STR 5 INT 7 SPD 9 END 6 RNK 4.5 COUR 6 FRB 6 SKL 7 Avg 6.31 Key code info: Jolt is a TV junkie! That's how he learned to speak English! He would work at home on the Giant Planet to try and pick up Earth TV signals on his computer and he would watch everything from cartoons, to sitcoms to dramas and movies. Don't tell Bud, Coby or Lori, but he really loves to watch soap operas! When Six-Speed first met Bud, Lori and Coby he was confused about their clothing. Why did they need to wear outer shells? Autobots didn't need to wear protective shells - why did humans? One day, Coby came to the hidden Autobot base and found that Six-Speed had snuck into his closet and "borrowed" some of his clothes to try and fit in! Six-Speed was wearing swim shorts, a clip-on tie; sweat pants on his head and socks on his hands! Reverb is the youngest of the three Mini-Cons that travel with Vector Prime through time and space -- so he is also the most impatient when Vector Prime tries to teach them to use time travel powers. Once, Reverb ended up stuck in the year 1955 and he had to hide as a hot rod car for 3 weeks before Vector Prime was able to rescue him! (Also shows a screencap of the three human kids with the three Mini-Cons. Cute Back to the Future ref on Reverb.) 1 twist-tie on Jolt, two each on the other two. A packaging note: it's starting to look like those who have all four symbols (and I've been calling Universal) are actually from the Giant Planet. Also, while the Recon Team has red packaging and stand on an Autobot symbol in the catalog and on the cardback, their own packaging has the Mini-Con symbol and their instructions are blue. Mixed allegiances. Note: Some of the paint jobs on the Kabaya versions were so good that I thought they weren't paint at all. Hop (Jolt) has no red plastic and Bullet (Six-Speed) has no white plastic, they're both green plastic painted over. Consider this a correction on the Kabaya review. Jolt Differences: This version has a vastly inferior red paint application on the body (many chips, easy to see the original bright green plastic that dominates Six-Speed), and the feet are left puke-green with no paint. The bright green pelvis paint is not present. The bottom of the clear cockpit section has been remolded to be flat (looks like they just poured metal into the mold to erase the details) and then left sloppily unpainted so that Jolt's face can see out the bottom of the vehicle mode. Obviously, it comes assembled, unlike the Kabaya version. The face is molded differently...there's still a mouth, but the nose is almost gone and the mouth is a small slit, unlike the wide grin of the Kabaya version. Overall, not as nice-looking as Hop, but still a good Mini-Con. Reverb Differences: Still has the ugly green wheels, sadly. No changes in plastic overall, and no mold differences that I can see. There's more silver paint on the robot head, although it's a bit sloppy. The robot chest has much more orange plastic, making him look like a robot version of Nightwing or something. The orange paint is a little duller, but that may just be a batch variation. The vehicle mode holds together much better, and the robot mode is still in the "tiny god" category. Oh, and the shoulders won't raise as high, but I think that's just a consequence of all the connections beign tighter. Six-Speed Differences: The part that's white on Bullet is unpainted blah green plastic on Six-Speed, which really reduces the impact of the clear blue bits. Instead, there's a bronze double-chevron atop the driver's compartment. No other changes, and the molds are the same, although Bullet has stiffer joints. Bullet's white chest looks a lot better. Overall: Each is slightly inferior to its Japanese cousin, mostly in the realm of paint applications. But it's still a great set, just a little less great now. AUTOBOT: CLOCKER Planet: Speed Altmode: Sportscar (possibly an 80s concept car) Key Code: s129 (and it's a clear 1, not an L) A young speedster with nerves of steel and technique to spare. Quick-thinking, clever and courageous, his size prevents him from presenting a real challenge on the track. He races out of a sense of duty to his mentor BRAKEDOWN, and he knows every bit of road on the Speed Planet like the back of his hand. It's his knowledge of the Great Race that gives HOT SHOT the edge he needs. STR 4 INT 7.5 SPD 7.5 END 9 RNK 4 COUR 6.5 FRB 4 SKL 8.5 Avg 6.375 Key code info: Clocker has a racetrack tactic that he's been secretly practicing. While driving at top speed, he hits the Energon-overdrive button while going into sixth gear. This maneuver usually sends Clocker flying into turns at ridiculous speeds! The only bad thing is that Clocker has yet to master this maneuver perfectly, so not only does he fly into first place, but also he usually flies right off the road!! (Also shows vehicle concept art. It's notable for lacking the triple pipes on the sides, and for calling the deployed gimmick rocket boosters rather than laser blasters. The concept had them popping straight up, rather than rotating up from the sides. Musta been too hard to engineer at this size.) Packaged with his Key gimmick partially deployed. Three twist-ties and two rubber bands hold it together. Vehicle Mode: The best guess of my car expert (Hi, Than!) is that this is a sort of melange of 80s concept cars, including some possible Ferrari influence. Given that it departs from the concept art in some significant ways, I expect that the hybrid idea is right, and that the concept art was from a more identifiable car. It's been described by some as the love child of of G1 Hot Rod (and someone's already done a very nice kitbash of the toy into Hot Rod) and Armada Blurr. It's an open-topped car, but not a convertible (well, there's no sign of a roof to fold out, anyway). It has big triple exhaust pipes pegged onto either side that look more like afterthoughts than anything else (especially since the original design lacked them) and that rub against the wheels in the official position. I prefer to swap sides and have them look more like wings. 4" (10cm) long, the main color of the car is white, but I don't think there's any white plastic. The front end and windshield are made of clear blue plastic, as are the wheels (more Tachymers). The interior seats, some of the visible underside of the front end (including the rear view mirrors) and part of the Key gimmick chunk are light blue. The rest of the toy is made of yellowish orange plastic. There's extensive pearly white paint on most of the car, with silver accents on the hood, the hubcaps, the Key chunk and covering the side pipes. There's a bit of black paint on the part behind the seats that becomes the robot toes, and a tiny red Autobot symbol tampographed where a hood ornament would be. From what I hear, the Speedians lacked any faction symbols, so the ones added on to the US releases are generally small. Anyway, the unpainted clear blue on the windshield, headlights and wheels looks very nice. The interior detail isn't at Alternators level, but it's pretty good. The car rolls along okay, but it's easy for the frame to get twisted so that one of the wheels doesn't stay on the table. And as mentioned earlier, the default position for the pipes rubs against the rear wheels, keeping them from spinning well. Inserting the Key into the rear of the car makes the booster-looking bits on the sides flip up. You then manually unfold the orange barrels of the laser weapon. The whole thing doesn't look that great, although it still beats Dinoshout's Key gimmick. If you leave the barrels out while restoring the pods to stowed position, they don't *quite* fire into the windshield. Planet Key: Standard Speed Key. Transformation: Like Ransack, it's a bit cheaty in that you remove the whole Key assembly, and the vehicle mode doesn't really look whole without it. The Key assembly becomes the hand weapon, and looks best if you just fold out the barrels without inserting the key. The rear section unfolds to become legs in a fairly standard carformer way, but there's folding panels that make sure that the underside isn't hollow in car mode, nor the boots backless in robot mode, a nice touch (although don't press too hard on the panels in robot mode, or they snap off!). The front end unfolds and makes a box for the torso in a peg-and-slot manner. It's a bit tricky the first time, but not hard once you get the hang of it. And it holds together pretty well. As an aside, swapping the pipes also makes them come out looking better in robot mode too. :) Robot Mode: 4.25" (10.5cm) tall, he looks even taller because he's kinda lanky and rectangular. The front of the car and windshield hang off his back like a short cape, and much more orange is exposed. His head, chestplate and upper arms are all light blue plastic (the driver's and passenger's seats form his upper arms). His forearms, the top of his torso and pretty much everything from the waist down are yellow-orange plastic, although the boots are painted mostly pearly white and black with some silver. There's also a lot of white paint on his chest and forearms, and some red paint on forehead and chest. His abdomen is painted silver with yellow-orange hoses. His face is silver and his eyes are lightpiped blue, although the front end of the car blocks most of the light from the lightpipe opening. The head and waist turn, with a slight clickiness on the waist but not an actual ratchet. The shoulders are very stiff ball joints, and the elbows are somewhat loose hinges. The hips are ball joints and the knees are hinges. The knees are a bit restricted by those panels that close off the backs of the boots. Pretty average articulation for a Basic. Er, Scout. The Key assembly is now a gun, and looks stupid deployed. It's better as a flat panel gun. Alternately, fold away the barrels and it's a shield. Oddly, the pipes don't stay firm in the peg holes on the boots that hold the gun, despite both theoretically being 5mm pegs. It turns out that the gun has 4.9mm pegs and the pipes have 4.8mm pegs, while the fist holes are 4.7mm and the holes on the boots are 5.3mm. I love vernier calipers. Anyway, putting both pipes on one hand makes a funky sort of gun, but the pipes generally look better as defensive bucklers. Anyway, the pipes can be connected to Mini-Cons too, which means Reverb has a new toy. HA! Okay, I just noticed that his face is mispainted. His eyes are painted over silver, and the unpainted clear blue parts are the area over his eyes. The effect gives him a long face and makes it look like he has bags under his eyes. Also, fun trick, if you use the gun as a shield and insert the Key partway, you can have Clocker look through the Key. [Later note: the animated version has the "mispaint" on the eyes too. Guess they were just being show-accurate.] Overall: Well, the Key gimmick is a total write-off, in my opinion, and the pipes are a bit much, but it's a decent, average toy otherwise. Worth picking up, but not worth hunting down. DECEPTICON: HARDTOP Planet: Earth Altmode: Dune Buggy Key Code: s4mm HARDTOP has been left on Earth to serve as a spy, tracker and ground- based spotter for the aerial team of STARSCREAM and THUNDERCRACKER. He uses his impressive array of sensors not only to pinpoint AUTOBOT targets up to 7000 miles away, but also to listen to and record the treasonous whining of STARSCREAM. Though he generally prefers to hang back from the front lines of a fight, he finds a certain pleasure in taking pot shots at AUTOBOTS with his super-precise, long-range laser rifle. STR 5 INT 6 SPD 6 END 7 RNK 4 COUR 4.5 FRB 6 SKL 7 Avg 5.69 Key code info: Hardtop is a Cybertronian Comic Book collector! If you were to go into his room in the Decepticon home base, you'd find thousands of comic books from all over the galaxy!! From 3-D ones to ones made of leaves - he just loves them! If he's not blasting Autobots on the battlefield, he's racing around the universe looking for the missing issue of the Galactic Guardians. (Also shows concept art of the vehicle mode, possibly the largest image I've seen so far in these things. The concept art has a much beefier vehicle and weapon, but the fundamental design, including the gimmick, is the same. Oh, and yay more geek Transformers. :) ) Packaged with weapon separate (2 twist-ties of its own) and deployed. 2 ties on the vehicle. Vehicle Mode: Your basic dune buggy rapid strike desert vehicle, the same basic body as the Ransack Mini-Con (Adventure Team). 3.5" (9cm) long, it has the Key stuff as a completely separate piece. Unlike Clocker and Ransack, though, the vehicle looks fine without it, it's just an add-on weapon and could be replace by, say, Strongarm's weapon just as easily. The main chassis is forest green, albeit a shade or two lighter than Overhaul's. There's bits of light blue (much lighter than Clocker's) and purple plastic around the joints, giving it an Ugly G2 Color Scheme look, and the gun is mostly purple with a black piece over the Key slot. The wheels are also black. The rollcage is painted gunmetal, as are the brushguard and the housings of the roof lights. The headlights and roof lightbar are yellow. There's black paint on the running boards, on the back, and on a grille on the hood. A tiny bit of pale gold can be found on the doors and at the very rear (what would be the tops of the boots in robot mode). Finally, a Decepticon symbol is tampographed just ahead of the grille. The Key chunk is attached to a 2.75" (7cm) purple gun. Inserting the key causes the barrel to flip 180, revealing a longer sniper extension. However, if you have the gun pointed forward, this will catch on the vehicle itself. Also, the Key has a good two-click connection, so it can be left in without triggering. Deployed, the gun is 3.5" (9cm) long. The peg for the gun is a dead hardpoint, so Reverb could carry it around on his right arm. Leaving aside balance issues, of course. [Later note: dude, he stands up fine while holding the sniper rifle! Yay!] Planet Key: Standard Earth Key. Transformation: The rear end becomes the legs in a very standard way. The wheels are on struts that just move about 30 degrees down to act as heel spurs. The front end pretty much turns inside out in a rather clever way, and then just turn the waist to get everything pointed the right way. The seat back from vehicle mode folds up to become a chest panel with a sort of roboskull look. Robot Mode: 3.75" (9.5cm) tall, it's GIJoe sized. All the wheels are on the back side now, and the figure can street luge. There's a lot more light blue and purple in this mode, but it's decently balanced despite being garish. The head and front torso are light blue. The center of the chest, the underarms, pelvis and thighs are purple. The arms and boots are green plastic. The face is gunmetal with a yellow visor, and the "eyes" of the chest panel are yellow too. His face has a nose and a simple mouth closed in a frown. The back of the head looks like they painted over a lightpipe block with light blue, and he has black-painted "ears". There's extensive gold paint on the arms. The head and waist turn. The shoulders are ball joints, and the elbows are hinges that lock into position at fully straight and fully bent. The hips are ball joints, and so are the knees, but the knees are so restricted that they might as well be hinges. With the Key inserted, he has to have his arm straight to hold the gun pointing forward, but he can hold it fine in any pose with the Key removed. Too bad there isn't a peghole on the shoulder. The vehicle's weapon mount is on his left knee, and not too useful in this mode. Overall: A very unambitious Key gimmick, but by the same token it has less to go wrong. Good in both modes and a nice transformation, plus the added bonus of being able to street luge. Worth picking up, better than Clocker. Dave Van Domelen, now to open Decepticharge and see if the talk about high fragility applies in his case.