Dave's TF: Cybertron Rant - Deluxe Wave 1 Dirt Boss Thundercracker Hot Shot Landmine See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Japan/GD0608 for a full review of Inch Up, who was renamed Dirt Boss here. This review also includes general comments on the Cyber Planet Keys, although I will note how things differ here. CAPSULES Dirt Boss: Fixes on of Inch Up's problems, adds a new one. So it gets the same rating of mildly recommended. $9.99 at Toys R Us. Thundercracker: Looks nice in both modes, has a good modification of the Hooligan (Cyberjet) transformation, but is really unstable in both modes and doesn't hold together well. Mildly recommended. $9.99 at Toys R Us. Hot Shot: Solid vehicle mode, okay transformation, decent robot mode with a bit of a kibble issue, uninspiring key gimmick. Recommended. $9.99 at Toys R Us. Landmine: Solid vehicle mode, nifty attack mode, interesting transformation bits, good robot mode, no significant problems. Strongly recommended. $9.99 at Toys R Us. RANTS Packaging: The bubble shape is, as mentioned in my All-Stars review, oddly shaped, like a crystal on a pedestal or something. They're on cards 12" (31cm) tall and 7.5" (19cm) wide, and the bubbles are 3" (8cm) deep. The bottom of the bubble is flush with the bottom of the card, with its tab being folded under and glued in place. As with the All-Stars, the card fronts are large faction symbols surrounded in color burts of the relevant shade (red or purple) and bordered in cool gray metal plate patterns. Here's where things get clever. The top of the card is cut to conform with the general shape of the top of the faction symbol, and the order of stuff inside the bubble is mirror-flopped between the factions. Autobots have the package art oft he character on the right, with the Planet Key showing in the lower right corner. The name is in a red section under a "dent" in the bottom of the bubble that vaguely resembles a 7. "Unlock the power!" is the motto at the bottom of the right side of the bubble, and the character name and faction logo are repeated on the bottom of the left. Decepticons mirror-flop all of these placements, as well as the direction of the dent. Both have the series logo sandwiched between the inner and outer bubbles at the time, and the art looks to be hand drawn and computer colored. Kinda overcolored, in my view. The top "hook" area has their planet affiliation in words and in symbol, and "Deluxe Class". Recommended for ages 5+. The back of each card has the techspecs (in a maddeningly small font, with magnitude bars so small it's hard to tell the stats from them either) and bio note in the upper right corner for both factions, no mirroring there. The upper left shows off a Planet Key gimmick, and the robot and vehicle modes dominate the middle of the card. Across the bottom are the co-sells (the other three in the wave) and an alert that you should take the secret codes from the Planet Keys and enter them on transformers.com for more information. The useless "skill level" marker is still there, I say it's useless because all Deluxe and Voyager toys so far are skill level 3. Inside the bubble, the toys are twist-tied down to the inner tray, and the keys are held in by molded tabs, as are some accessories (missiles tend to be twist-tied down). The map/catalog is rolled up in a bag loose inside the pedestal part of the inner bubble, while the instructions are not bagged and are stuck between the inner and outer bubbles at the bottom. The instructions are line drawings with highlighted areas in the faction color, little different from Energon instructions (although they do differ by having key gimmick instructions). The maps replace the comic this time. It's divided into quarters, and we'll get them in the same way we got the four comics of each previous series (so it might be hard to find the last one). The maps are 13" (33cm) high and 19" (48cm) wide, and this first one covers Planet Speed. It has a "view from orbit" of Speed (which, oddly, was called Velocitron in the first Cybertron episode we got in America), then various insets showing some plot points from the storyline. Override, the leader of Speed, gets a profile, which makes it clear she's a she. :) I'll type in the stuff below. The other side of the poster is a catalog of the first wave and some of the second. The labels for each character show their affiliation, planet (no one is Cybertron yet, except for those who have all four like Vector Prime or the Mini-Cons) and size class. Some of the planet labels are different from the ones used in Galaxy Force, mainly with Cybertron keys being relabeled Earth. The Mini-Cons have their own color (blue-green) and symbol, but they're on an oval with the Autobot symbol, demonstrating their allegiance. And now for the poster quotes: ----- SPEED PLANET The Speed Planet is a tangled mass of roads, trails and aerial race- tracks, ruled by the dazzlingly fast OVERRIDE. For millions of years, its inhabitants have been devoted to the pursuit of perfect acceleration, tuning their vehicle forms for optimum horsepower, displacement and torque. Its pure racing culture is about to change forever, as it becomes the first battleground in the war for the lost Planet Keys. In order to save CYBERTRON, HOT SHOT and RED ALERT are sent to face the untold dangers of this lost planet - and an army of DECEPTICON warriors. ----- Aside...yes, it annoys me that they seem to be using acceleration and velocity interchangeably here and elsewhere on the toy info. I teach physics, can you tell? Next is Override's profile. The drawing of her manages to be pretty clearly female without resorting to any cheap tricks other than lipstick mouth. ----- OVERRIDE Long-time champion and leader of the Speed Planet, OVERRIDE is always ready for a race. Acceleration is her only ideal, but she respects anyone with the guts to challenge her. She's faced and beaten thousands of upstart speedsters in her time. At first she's suspicious of the intentions HOT SHOT and the AUTOBOTS have for her world's CYBER PLANET KEY, but once she realizes what's at stake she's only too glad to help. ----- Finally, here's the three snapshot captions. "HOT SHOT takes the jump at Seti Alpha V, the most dangerous jump on the Speed Planet, dared only by the bravest or craziest racers." (The planet Khan was trapped on was Ceti Alpha V.) "OVERRIDE toys with her opponents on the treacherous Scrap Metal turn in Accel City." "Before his final race to win the CYBER PLANET KEY, HOT SHOT goes to a reluctant RED ALERT for a deutronium transfusion and general tune-up." Dude, Hot Shot's juicing! Along the left side of the map sheet are pictures of some of the Speed Planet's denizens, but not all of them. Hm, I wonder how much it'd cost to have Kinko's laminate one of these? DECEPTICON: DIRT BOSS Planet: Speed Altmode: Monster Truck Planet Key Code: d3h7 A wild outlaw, rugged villain of the rough backwaters of the Speed Planet; those who are fooled by the sheer size of DIRT BOSS into thinking he's slow are soon left choking on his exhaust. He lives to pound his opponents into the dust and leave them spinning their wheels - that's if he decides to leave the wheels attached. HOT SHOT is certain to learn some tough lessons from him. STR 7.5 INT 6 SPD 7 END 8 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 6.5 SKL 6 Avg 6.75 Key code info: As one of the citizens of Speed Planet, Dirt Boss is known for two things, and two things only - one is being the meanest, rudest and crankiest driver on the road and the other is that he LOVES to drive, drive and oh yeah, drive some more! It's hard to believe, but like most folks on Speed Planet, Dirt Boss LOVES to stay in vehicle mode! Why walk when you can drive - but watch out! If you cross Dirt Boss on the road, watch your tail lights!!! (Also lets you see a design sketch.) Not the same numbers as Inch Up. And this is the only mention of "villain" in the Decepticon bio notes from the four 'Cons I bought today. No repeats of the All-Stars' notes. I've already reviewed Inch Up, so here I'll just go over the differenecs. Plastic: The torso rear half and the bottom half of the key chamber are green on Dirt Boss, rather than purple as on Inch Up. Paint: The forearm clips are not painted on Dirt Boss, and are left bare dark gray. There is a Decepticon symbol tampographed on Dirt Boss's chest. And the green patch that's on Inch Up's lower chin is shifted to the upper chin on Dirt Boss. Also, the green paint is less yellow on Dirt Boss. Key: Pretty much identical, except for the addition of the code. Mechanisms: The vehicle mode key gimmick is much more stable on Dirt Boss, and will not pop open just from the force of the wheels springing apart. You have to pull on them, although not with Excessive Force. The key itself fits in much more firmly, and requires more force to remove. Unfortunately, Dirt Boss's head doesn't sit as well on his shoulders as Inch Up's, and I've heard others have had that problem. It gets worse if you deploy the guns. Overall: Fixes Inch Up's problem but adds its own. Looks different enough you can easily tell them apart, but not different enough to really merit getting if you already have Inch Up (or vice versa). DECEPTICON: THUNDERCRACKER Planet: Earth Altmode: Fighter Jet (Sukhoi Su-37 Flanker, earlier mis-ID'ed as a Su-34) Planet Key Code: d98d [Later note: The jet fans are coming out of the woodwork on this one. Apparently it's not a Su-37 either. Or any single Flanker, but rather an amalgamation of all canard-bearing Flankers.] This loyal DECEPTICON works under the command of STARSCREAM for the recovery of the Planet Key on Earth. THUNDERCRACKER believes that the most effective way to defeat an enemy is to terrorize and demoralize him before attacking. The mere sound of his focused sonic booms - audible for more than 200 miles - is enough to frighten many other TRANSFORMERS. STR 8 INT 6 SPD 9 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 5 FRB 6.5 SKL 6 Avg 6.44 Key code info: Thundercracker is a goofball, and a practical joker. One time, he thought it would be funny to throw a surprise birthday party for Megatron. Little did he know that Optimus prime in a battle had just beaten Megatron... Megatron got back to the base and Thundercracker came out yelling "SURPRISE!!!?" Megatron was not amused. Thundercracker ended up spending the next 5 hours cleaning the Energon-Goodie-Cake out of his joints... (Also lets you see a screencap of Thundercracker shooting his gun.) The pictures of the robot mode on the back of the package are mirror- flopped, the gun arm is actually the left arm. There's also some mold detail on the exposed blue parts of the gun that's on the picture but not on the actual toy. Vehicle Mode: This isn't exactly a Su-37, but the launcher gimmick forces some deformation, and the Planet Key replaces the boom that sticks out the back of this variety of Flanker. [Later note: I initially ID'ed it as an Su-34, but that's a two-seat trainer version.] It's 7" (18cm) long without the key, and has a 5" (12.5cm) wingspan. The main color is a darkish gray with silver horizontal stabilizers and canards, orange details (including panel lines), black nosetip and clear orange cockpit. The missiles on the wing hardpoints (non-removable) are silver with orange tips. Some of the undercarriage robot bits are blue, as are some exposed connectors on the launcher and the jet nozzles. A Decepticon symbol is tampo'ed on the top of the fuselage between the wings. There's also some silver paint around the Planet Key hole. While there's lots of pegs theoretically holding this toy together, they don't really do anything for the most part. This is pretty disappointing, because it's a nice jet design, and it just doesn't stand up well to handling. Inserting the Earth Planet Key into the rear of the jet causes the majority of the fuselage to pop up, revealing a missile launcher. It points up about 20-25 degrees, and holds a clear orange missile. Pressing two gray studs on the sides launches the missile. If you're careful, you can keep the Planet Key inserted solidly without popping up the launcher. The landing gear is fairly stable, and easy to deploy. Planet Key: The Earth key is clear blue plastic with silver-painted tech-ish details around the edges. The Earth symbol itself is a partially eclipsed sun disk with five rays (spaced as if there were 8 total, with three covered by the eclipse) emanating from it. Transformation: Essentially the Cyberjet Hooligan/Jetfire transform, but with some extra details due to the larger size. This includes feet that come out of the thrusters in a way reminiscent of several fist-swap transformations (such as Depth Charge's). The left forearm is the big missile launcher, and the right forearm opens up to swivel out a fist. The entire wing and tail section remains in one rigid piece. The black tip of the nose folds under to make the torso look a little less pointy. You have to insert the key to deploy the launcher before you can transform, as it locks down pretty tightly otherwise (about the only part that DOES). Suggestion: fold the canards all the way forward on the legs, it looks a bit better than the way in the instructions. Robot Mode: 5.25" (13.5cm) tall, with a gun arm 4.5" (11.5cm) long. However, he has tiny feet, thus showing that the size of one's feet is not always related to the size of one's gun. Most of the body is dark gray, but the head, shoulders, thighs and feet are bright blue. The clear orange cockpit is on the chest. The faceplate is silver, as are helmet details. The eyes are light-piped orange. Shoulders are universal joints, both arms have upper arm swivesl, elbows are hinged (double hinge on the left arm with the gun), hips are ball joints, knees are stiff hinges, head can turn. The right fist has a 5mm peg hole and can wiggle a bit. Unfortunately, the shoulders aren't locked into position, and come loose easily. And the wings really block posing of the gun arm, even with the key removed. The feet are too small to help much with stability, and lack the play necessary to compensate for the topheavy nature of the toy. The most effective way to point the gun at the enemy is to fold the arm around weirdly so that it becomes a shoulder cannon, and he simply doesn't have a left arm. The instructions claim that there's a secondary trigger for the gun back near where the key is inserted, but this is false. Opening the gun with the key in this mode doesn't add much. Overall: If it actually held together in either mode, I'd recommend this solidly. If it held together well in both modes, I might even be enthusiastic enough to strongly recommend it (but probably not). As it is, though, the combination of tiny feet and bad stability dampen my interest in this toy. AUTOBOT: HOT SHOT Planet: Speed Altmode: Race Car Planet Key Code: d85b A natural leader with a lot yet to learn, HOT SHOT often races straight into danger at top speed. He takes great pride in the fact that he's the fastest AUTOBOT there is, but it isn't until he gets to the Speed Planet that he learns the true meaning of velocity. Faced by the almost unbeatable OVERRIDE, HOT SHOT needs to learn a whole new way of thinking about acceleration before he can win the Great Race. STR 8 INT 8 SPD 8.5 END 8 RNK 8 COUR 9 FRB 8 SKL 9 Avg 8.31 Key code info: Talk about FAST! Until he went to Speed Planet, Hot Shot was the fastest car on Cybertron. He was so fast that if he revved his engine and gunned it, he could drive up the side of a building practically defying gravity! (Also shows a design sketch.) Dude, he's not even close to the fastest Autobot, not with Prime having stat inflation. Granted, Prime's top speed may be only in the air. Vehicle Mode: 5.5" (14cm) long, a little over 2.5" (about 7cm) wide. [Later correction: it's based on the Chrysler ME 4-12 prototype, see http://www.allpar.com/cars/me412.html for pics.] The main body color is a slightly metallic blue that's a shade or two lighter than medium. The windows and headlight covers are clear yellow plastic (and the doors are made of this, mostly painted metallic light blue, very good paint match). The vents on the hood and behind the doors on the sides are painted dark blue. The engine block/key unit on the top is dark blue plastic, as are the tires (with silver hubcap). There's a few bits of red plastic visible, but they're not intentional. Yellow paint forms a sort of fangs pattern on the spoiler and rear of the car. A small Autobot symbol hood ornament is at the front, and there's silver paint accents on the engine block. The interior is unpainted dark blue plastic, with molded seats and dashboard (a bit compressed, of necessity). It's worth noting that Hot Shot does not have clear tires, a nice touch...he may be assigned to Speed, but he's not a native, and lacks their special tires (http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Tachymers for my take on this stuff). On a lark, I checked it out under UV light. The clear yellow plastic fluoresces nicely, for an energy aura effect (Crystal Tachymers, perhaps?). The light blue plastic does so weakly, and the painted parts not at all... except for the red paint on the robot chest, which goes REALLY bright. Inserting the Speed Key causes "dragster wings" to pop out on the spoiler. Some have complained of these popping out without the key, but mine doesn't have that problem (in fact, I can't even get one out at all without the key unless I use Excessive Force). The Key sits flush, and covers up a strange hole between the engine block and the spoiler. There's some speculation that the square hole might have been intended for a trailer hitch or removable engine block weapon that was abandoned later in the design process. The key can remain partly in and be secure without popping out the wing. [Later note: I've gotten reports that the "hair trigger wings" thing is a result of wear...whatever spring or tab keeps them in place just wears down and stops holding after a while.] There's a 5mm hole on the engine block to accomodate Hot Shot's weapon, a clear yellow missile launcher that resembles a Key in shape with a dark blue "muzzle" and a red trigger. Transformation: Pretty close to the All-Star version, except with fold- down toes that require good strong nails, or a thin knife to pry down. Very G1 Hot Rod feel to the way the back swings around and puts the dragster wings up as backpack wings. And I just discovered that the top of the car (backpack) is completely removable, probably for safety purposes. It cannot be attached as a shield...which is a pity, because it looks really cool as one. Minor nifty thing: the hood ornament doesn't split in half. Like the faction symbols on many Alternators license plates, it all goes with one side, a dent being left on the other side. Robot Mode: I've heard there's a Hot Rod-style recolor planned, at least in Japan. This is a good idea, since this is clearly an update of the G1 Hot Rod design. Not just the earlier mentioned back fins, he also has the forearm triple-guns built into the insides of the forearm-mounted doors. Stands 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, 6.5" (16.5cm) total. Broad- shouldered and generally well-proportioned except for the forearms, which are too short. The shoulders and boots are light blue, as is much of the back. The torso, head, forearms and toes are dark blue plastic. The upper arms, thighs and the front-facing part of the backpack are a dark red plastic. Clear yellow plastic makes up the front of the upper helmet, but the eyes themselves are painted blue and the face painted silver. The earpieces on the helmet are painted yellow. The shoulders just swivel, although they cna shrug a bit thanks to the transformation joints. While big and bulky, they just barely stay clear of the backpack. The upper arms can swing in towards the center thanks to another transformation joint, and the elbows are ball joints. The shortness of the forearms reduces the poseability of whichever arm holds the gun. The head turns, but the waist does not. The hips are ball joints, the knees are hinges, and the toes can point. There isn't really a Key gimmick in this mode, although I suppose you could leave the wings undeployed most of the time. The Key's inserted position is relatively unobtrusive in robot mode. Overall: A solid design, although the color scheme is only so-so and the short forearms are an issue. Second best Deluxe of the first wave. AUTOBOT: Landmine Planet: Earth Altmode: Power Shovel Planet Key Code: dr94 With a wisdom born of experience, and a tactical knowledge unmatched among the AUTOBOT ranks, LANDMINE is a soldier other 'bots follow without reservation. He suffered heavy injuries in the final fight with UNICRON. After crash-landing on Earth, he was repaired by the new human allies of the AUTOBOTS. An excellent battlefield commander, he's determined to prevent the DECEPTICONS from gaining an edge by recovering the Earth Planet Key. STR 8.5 INT 7 SPD 4 END 9 RNK 7.5 COUR 10 FRB 8 SKL 10 Avg 8 Key code info: Landmine is one of the oldest members of the Autobot team. But that doesn't mean this guy can't hold his own when it's time to rumble... In fact - he was the Autobot who first taught Optimus Prime how to fight!! (Also shows screencap of Landmine hanging out with one of the human kids.) This is, and isn't, the same character as in Energon. That "new human allies" bit suggests the reboot seen in the cartoon (i.e. humanity knows nothing about Transformers, unlike the close alliance of Energon). Vehicle Mode: A mega-machine power shovel on a different scale from the other ground vehicles, closer to the scale of Thundercracker. The sort of thing where the tires are taller than a person. It's 5.5" (14cm) long, 2.75" (7cm) wide and 3" (8cm) tall, with 3.5cm diameter tires. The wheels roll freely and well, but there's also some tiny hidden wheels on the underside of the vehicle near the back, for a nefarious purpose to be revealed later. Most of the body of the vehicle is yellow plastic, with black tires, brown front fenders (and some other bits) and a sort of cool slate gray on the smokestacks, shovel arms and hubcaps. The picture on the cardback shows this as a more silvery light gray, which is probably the color of the Galaxy Force version. An Autobot symbol is molded into the top of the cockpit and painted red and white. There's silver scratches painted on the shovel teeth, a common trick to make it look like the paint has been scraped off. The roof-mounted headlights are painted orange. The molded details may sometimes be fanciful (especially the missile launcher, with trigger shaped like more smokestacks), but they're nice. Especially the ladders up the sides, which help give a sense of scale. The shovel can be raised, although the two halves are only held together by a pair of small pegs, so it tends to split. Now for the nefarious purpose mentioned above. Plug the gun into the rear of the vehicle, pointing back. Lift the rear wheels up like wings. Now turn the Key in each hubcap (so far, this is the only "turn the key" activation I've seen, the rest just have you insert the key), which causes blades to emerge from the wheels (they're slate gray, not the red shown on the package). There's some little rubber-rimmed wheels that contact the tires and each other, so if you spin one, both tires counter-rotate with their blades. Alternately, leave the key in one tire and spin it to make everything whirl. This Attack Mode drives backwards into the enemy, with little wheels replacing the spikytires. Transformation: The basics are pretty simple. The shovel splits in two, with the struts becoming arms. The grinder section folds down to reveal the head, the underbody flips out as legs. But there's lots of nifty little details, the coolest of which is how the front half of the pelvis is rotated out of the cockpit. If you leave the legs together, he can use his front wheels to roll along, with his toes and heels long enough to keep him from falling over. Robot Mode: 5" (13cm) tall, in a nicely balanced mix of yellow (torso, backpack, shovels and boots), brown (forearms, thighs, head, rollerskate fenders) and slate gray (shoulders, upper arms, fists, knees, love handles, pelvis), with some black (toes, upper boots, upper chest) and red (on choves, boots, forehead). The faceplate is silver, with bright blue eyes. While the head bears no real resemblance to Landmine's from Energon, the way the exhaust pipes flank the head is evocative, as are the shovel bits on the forearms. The head turns, the shoulders are universal joints (hinge and swivel), the elbows are ball joints, and the fists can turn inward a bit on transformation joints. The hips are ball joints, the knees are hinges and there's swivels right below the knees. The toes and heels can point, helping with stability when the attack mode is deployed. Pulling up the backpack represents attack mode. The buzzsaws can't really do anything useful, but look good. And mounting the gun on the backpack in attack mode looks nifty too. To add further punch to attack mode, you can swivel the shovel blades around for melee weapons. Overall: The winner of the assortment. My only quibbles are minor (posing the shovel in vehicle mode, and the little replacement wheel on one side sticks), and there's a lot of play value to this "tiny god". Dave Van Domelen, will probably take a few days to mess with Vector Prime and Crumplezone before starting the next reviews.