Dave's Transformers Cybertron Rant: Scout Wave 8 Ransack GTS Giant Planet Mini-Con Team [Updated 1/20/07 with Overcast's vehicle mode.] My comic store actually got this set in (the case of 12 had one Ransack, two GPMCTs and a variety of older toys), and while Diamond's toy prices are rather high, my "buys way too much here" customer discount brought it back down below $8, so I decided to get 'em. Ransack looked better in person than in the pics I've seen, so I snagged it too. By the way, my store would really love to be able to deal with a real toy distributor, and not Diamond...anyone know such a beast that'll work with small-volume stores? http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Basic1 - Ransack review CAPSULES Ransack GTS: Original version got Strongly Recommended. I've since cooled a little on the mold, and while th ecolors are pretty good, I'd go no higher than Recommended if you don't have a Ransack yet, mildly recommended if you do. $9.75 at comic shops. Giant Planet Mini-Con Team: All very good designs in both modes. I Pinch. Strongly recommended. $9.75 at comic shops. RANTS Packaging: Standard Scout blisters, both came with the Jungle map. DECEPTICON: RANSACK GTS Planet: Speed Altmode: Motorcycle (stretched Sbarro hubless wheel design) Previous Name Use: None (the "GTS" is new) Previous Mold Use: Cybertron Key Gimmick: "Gun barrels" Key Code: s2w5 The idea behind the new paint job is that RANSACK GTS is supposed to be a spy. Slip in, do some sabotage, and slip out again. That was the idea anyway. But the pressure is too intense for someone as twitchy as RANSACK GTS. He's used to racing headlong into trouble, and then talking his way back out. He may be geared for stealth, but his over-clocked vocal processor has GALVATRON considering just removing it entirely. STR 5 INT 7 SPD 8.5 END 8 RNK 4 COUR 3.5 FRB 5 SKL 7.5 Avg 6.06 Well, he picked up two points of Skill, anyway. Key Code Info: When not chasing down Override with his partner in crime, Crumplezone, Ransack likes to take his wise-cracking humor to the stage and perform Cybertronian Stand-Up Comedy! He's been practicing his bits and routines for days, and usually he ends up with Energon tomatoes to the face after his routine, but that's not stopping Ransack. He's determined to get on "Velocitron Idol" where he can showcase his 'talent' and maybe give up the whole fighting thing for a life of comedy. (Also shows the color guide, listed as "Ransack Redeco" at that point.) Planet Key: standard Speed Planet Key. He has paint this time, unlike on the original. Packaging: Two twist-ties and two rubber bands on the cycle, one twist-tie holds the weapon in place. Color Swaps: Red becomes black, dark gray becomes white, clear red becomes clear green. Paint Apps: Extensive gold paint all over the place. Metallic light blue on the wrists, chest, gun vents and boots. Black paint on the gun barrels (totally covering the clear plastic) and pelvis. The face is painted white with gold eyes, and while the rear opening of the lightpiping isn't painted over, most of the eyes are, so you only get a tiny bit of leakage around the eyes. There's green paint on his "ears". A Decepticon symbol is printed on the chest. Other Notes: Has the same assembly error with the rear wheels as regular Ransack has. Essentially, the wheel halves should be on the opposite sides, so that the cycle rides lower and the rear wheel fits smoothly into the space at the rear of the vehicle. Unfortunately, at least on mine, the pins ar ein so solidly that the tools I have (including using hot water in case the plastic would soften, or at least expand more than the metal pin) were inadequate to the task of removing them. Overall: It does look snazzy, and better than the pictures I'd seen led me to believe, but I wish they'd finally fixed the rear wheel. DECEPTICONS: GIANT PLANET MINI-CON TEAM Planet: Giant Key Gimmicks: None Key Code: None (no Key in package, may still have a code) One of the only MINI-CON teams operating on the Giant Planet without the partnership of a larger robot, these three have made a long habit of bitterness. Uninterested in construction projects - or simply without the patience to work on a building crew in the case of LONGARM - the GIANT PLANET MINI-CON TEAM roam abandoned sections of the world-city engaging their destructive impulses, and occasionally raiding work sites to steal supplies. Packaging: Each figure is held into the blister in vehicle mode with two twist-ties. Overcast has one rubber band holding the tail section together, as does Deepdive. Deepdive also has a band around the bow, which is pretty much invisible and nearly impossible to remove without simply jamming a knife in the seam and cutting it. MINI-CON: DEEPDIVE Altmode: Submarine Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: None STR 8 INT 6 SPD 3 END 9 RNK 4 COUR 8 FRB 6.5 SKL 8 Avg 6.56 Vehicle Mode: 3.5" (9cm) long attack submarine with a conning tower about 1/3 of the way from the aft. I say attack sub because most missile subs have the conning tower in the front section, with missile tubes in the middle. There's dive planes at fore and aft, and lots of little fiddly details like rivet marks. There's a dead hardpoint atop the conning tower, and a Mini-Con connector hole on the keel almost directly below the hardpoint (a little aft), so you could theoretically build a tower of Deepdives (or place either of the guy's teammates on the hardpoint). The Mini-Con symbol is molded on the port side amidships. The toy's visible parts are made of a cool darkish gray (666666 with a slight tinge of blue, not as much as 666699). There's deep red paint details on the front of the conning tower and on some details on deck near the bow. There's also a metallic blue paint pattern on the sides that looks like rippling water. There is no Decepticon symbol anywhere (nor on the robot mode), a characteristic the three all share. It seems that faction logos are reserved for the two-pack recolors. A little bit of the robot head and the fronts of the fists are visible in this mode, there is otherwise no robot kibble. Oh, and in case you haven't seen the Giant Planet episodes yet, there are seas and other large bodies of water there, so a submarine altmode isn't as dumb as it would be on, say, Velocitron. Transformation: It helps to have good fingernails on this one. Pull the sides of the rear 2/3 apart and rotate them 180 degrees so they point backwards. The robot head folds back 90 degrees. Then the bow section pops apart and the pieces rotated outward long the long axis to form boots. Fairly simple, but elegant. Robot Mode: 2.25" (6cm) tall at the head, 3.5" (8.5cm) tall at the tops of the shoulderpads. This guy makes animation-model Minerva's shoulderpads look tiny. The package photo has the arms mistransformed so it looks like DD has gorilla arms and fold-back shoulderpads. The head is reminiscent of a cross between a Zaku II and an RGM-79, both from Mobile Suit Gundam. The shoulder joints and thighs are purple (9900FF) plastic, and the other two toys also have this color of plastic somewhere on them. The visor of the robot head is painted dark red. The hardpoint becomes a G1 Warpath- like chest cannon, and the Mini-Con connector is now on the back. The shoulders are limited ball joints, the elbows are hinged (and the forearms are actually a reasonable length, although they look puny compared to the huge shoulderpads), the hips are swivels, the knees are restricted ball joints (allowing bending and the equivalent of a below-knee swivel) and the toes are hinged. Overall: The shoulderpads are kinda freaky, but it's otherwise a good robot mode, and the submarine mode is rock-solid. A "wolfpack" fleet assortment of just this mold would be a really cool convention exclusive. MINI-CON: LONGARM Altmode: Crane truck Previous Name Use: Armada (several recolors) Previous Mold Use: None STR 6 INT 3 SPD 5 END 7 RNK 4 COUR 7 FRB 6 SKL 5 Avg 5.375 Odd that the heavy lifter character doesn't have the best strength score. Vehicle Mode: A fairly generic heavy truck mode 2.5" (6cm) long, but with a couple of not so generic cranes on its bed. The front one has a grabbing claw similar to Metroplex's. The rear is a hook crane as seen on many Transformers. Both cranes can turn around 360 degrees and elevate to straight up or slightly more. All six wheels roll. The Mini-Con symbol is molded on the left side of the cab, and the connector is at the center of the underside. The main body is chartreuse green (66FF00), the wheels are the cool gray seen on most of Deepdive, and the cranes are the bright purple seen on Deepdive. The front windows, bumper and radiator grille are painted silver, there's several patches of dark gunmetal, and there's a couple of bits of dark red on the sides. Transformation: The cab becomes legs in a fairly standrd way, with the added twist of having the front flip up to make knee armor (to avoid having slots up the front of the cab). The rear section folds over to form the torso, with the cranes becoming the arms. The head is simply on the joint between the sections. The torso doesn't snap together, which is a minor flaw, but overlookable. Robot Mode: 2.25" (5.5cm) tall, with the rear wheels forming the abdominal "muscles" area. The thighs are dark blue (0033FF), the arms are the purple cranes, everything else is chartreuse. The face is painted red. The gunmetal panels on the truck sides now delineate the flanks of the robot and make it look a little less rectangular, and the other gunmetal bits are now on the robot toes. The Mini-Con connector is inside the torso now. The shoulders are universal joints, although their swivels are a little low, proportionally speaking. The waist turns, the hips and knees are hinges (and the legs move separately). Note: the claw crane is the right arm, not the left as shown on the package pictures. They mirror-flopped that image. [Later correction: the image isn't mirror-flopped, the prototype was assembled with the arms on the "wrong" sides.] Overall: A nicely chunky and construction-looking robot mode, a reasonably clever transformation, and a decent vehicle mode. Definitely worth getting. MINI-CON: OVERCAST Altmode: Cargo jet Previous Name Use: Energon (Jetfire recolor) Previous Mold Use: None STR 4 INT 7 SPD 9 END 6 RNK 4.5 COUR 7 FRB 6 SKL 8 Avg 6.44 Vehicle Mode: Not counting the missiles (which are 2.75"/7cm long themselves), the cargo jet is about 2.75" (7cm) long with a wingspan of 2.5" (6cm). It's no type of cargo jet I can find in my various reference books, with jet engines mounted at the top trailing edges of the wings, near the wing roots. The fuselage shape suggests an amphibious role, like some sort of modern age Spruce Goose descendant. All this, of course, ignores the implausibly huge missile launchers under the wings. :) The Mini-Con symbol is molded on the top of the right wing, and the Mini-Con connector is on the underside near the front. All of the plastic colors have been seen in the above two toys. The majority of the plane is dark blue, with a cool gray panel on the top side. The launchers, missiles, and a fair amount of the underside are bright purple. A bit of the tail end is also cool gray. Silver is painted on the top of the cockpit area, along the wings and tail, and the underside of the rear fuselage. The missile launchers are of the "marble-shooter" variety, and fire okay. The plastic is a little on the soft side, though, preventing serious firepower. [Later note: Necromancer Bob ID'ed the most likely basis for the vehicle mode, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P6M_SeaMaster - The nose and cockpit are generic cargoplane, but the rest is pretty close.] Transformation: The front end does not just fold down, as seen on the package, it also hinges up so that the rear of the folding part is at the height of the neck. The tail section swings down to become the legs, and it requires strong nails or a blade to get the legs apart. The launcher chunks just fold down to become the arms. Robot Mode: 2.25" (5.5cm) tall, and rather squat in general. The Mini-Con connector becomes inaccessible in this mode. The torso and boots are dark blue, the head and toes cool gray, the arms, thighs and collarbone are bright purple. The visor is painted red. The shoulders and hips are ball joints, the knees and toes are hinges. The arms are permanently bent at the elbows, and if you remove the missiles the hands are claws. "I pinch." Some fairly dynamic poses are possible. Overall: My least favorite of the bunch, and I still think it's very good. This is a much better cargo jet design than Cybertron Jetfire, and I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up recoloring this in either Jetfire's or Skyshadow's scheme. Team Overall: It's been a long wait for totally a new Mini-Con team, but worth it. These are great Mini-Cons, you want to buy them. Dave Van Domelen, did not then see these at Wal-Mart later in the day, so the irony levels aren't too high right now. :)