Dave's Cybertron Rant: Voyager Wave 7/8 Quickmix with Stripmine Galaxy Force Vector Prime with Safeguard Everything else in wave 7 is an older toy (Vector Prime, Nemesis Breaker, CD Scattorshot). Wave 8 replaced Vector Prime with a recolor called Galaxy Force Vector Prime, which I bought for someone else, so won't be opening. Quickmix is the smallest of the Giant Planet non-Mini-Cons, and also the only one of the trio to have a more or less "real" vehicle mode (yes, Metroplex is based loosely on a piece of mining equipment, but doesn't really resemble the real thing aside from the shovel wheel itself). http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Cybertron/Mega1 is my review of the original Vector Prime. CAPSULE Quickmix with Stripmine: Good, if somewhat loose, vehicle mode. Fairly simple transformation. Good robot mode. Good Mini-Con. Great interaction with Mini-Con. Recommended, strongly recommended if you're willing to overlook a little looseness. $19.76 at Wal-Mart. Galaxy Force Vector Prime: From what I can see in the closed box, no better or worse than the original. Not as shiny as pictures would indicate. Recommended if you don't have the original. $19.99 at Target. RANTS Quickmix Packaging: Standard Voyager box with the "Primus Unleashed" bit added on front. The cosells on the bottom are for Metroplex, Nemesis Breaker, Prims and Menasor. The back of the package shows robot mode, vehicle mode, and a battle platform variant of the vehicle, plus Stripmine in both modes. Mine came with the Jungle map, but they seem to be doing a running change to Giant Planet, as I heard from someone that they got that map with their Armada Prime recolor. One twist-tie holds Stripmine in, and one holds Quickmix's missile. Five more hold QM's vehicle mode in. There's no rubber bands. AUTOBOT: QUICKMIX Planet: Giant Altmode: Concrete Mixer Truck Mini-Con: Stripmine (Mobile drill) Previous Name Use (Quickmix): G1, Universe (KB Exclusive) Previous Name Use (Stripmine): None Previous Mold Use: None Key Gimmick: Giant Torpedo Launcher Key Code: ve37 Quick-thinking, intuitive and totally loyal to the Giant Planet and its inhabitants, QUICKMIX serves as right hand mech to METROPLEX. it is he who first confronts MENASOR over the evil robot's betrayal of the Giant Planet's traditions, and who encourages METROPLEX to avoid becoming involved in the affairs of the AUTOBOTS. He rarely fights, preferring his role as a builder and repairman, but when the safety of his home world is threatened, he never backs down. STR 7 INT 9 SPD 4 END 7 RNK 8 COUR 8 FRB 8 SKL 7 Avg 7.25 Key Code Info: Those Giant Planet Transformers MUST have come from Cybertron originally, because there is an ancient Transformer (actually he's from 1988) that was named Quickmix too! The 'original' Quickmix was an Autobot chemist and he also turned into a cement mixer! Maybe this was the Gigantion Quickmix's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather!? (Also shows Pantone color guide.) Planet Key: Giant Key with silver border and chrome. Vehicle Mode: This is a concrete mixer (cement mixer) truck. I wasn't able to find any specific model matching this, and the size of the driver's compartment suggests it's meant to be a model somewhat bigger than the ones you might see on the street. During the searching, however, I did find that all the kibbly elements are plausible, if not always found together on the same vehicle. The weird "nose" the truck has seems to be a link for using the truck's high torque engine to run other machinery. The chunk at the rear, while mainly being unhidden robot kibble, does match some of the toolboxes and stuff on the backs of real trucks. And, of course, the hopper at the top rear is normal, if a bit oversized. Total length including nose and rear trough is 9" (23cm). Most of the chassis is orange (FF6600) plastic. The nose and concrete drum are medium gray (999999). The wheels (two larger in front, four smaller in back), truck bed and some connector bits are dark gray (333333, more or less). There's a few bits of bright yellow (FFFF00) plastic in connecting bits near the back. The windows and a joint at the back of the mixer drum are clear colorless plastic. Much of the drum is painted a very pale beige (almost white), and there's a few bits of silver, yellow, darkish red and dark bronze scattered about. The hubcaps are painted a dark gunmetal that almost blends into the tire color. An Autobot symbol is printed (but not molded, suggesting to me they may be planning for a Decepticon recolor down the line, or simply weren't sure of the faction until late in the game) on the left side of the hopper. The orange and dark gray plastics react a little to UV, the yellow paint and clear plastic react fairly strongly, and the yellow plastic reacts very strongly. Stability of the truck chassis is pretty good. The nose chunk is a bit loose to move, though. And the mixer drum doesn't snap into place very firmly at the front, and you have to hold it carefully to get it to turn without coming free. Similar issues with moving the hopper section. The robot forearm that forms the rear chunk doesn't peg on very solidly, but a little nail polish clearcoat on the peg should fix that. The drum does turn, though, with a ratcheting action. The hopper section can rotate like a turret, but the trough is not hinged to fold down. That's probably the one significant "functional" flaw in the toy, it can't actually dispense concrete. There's a hardpoint on the roof of the cab, and another on the rear "bumper" thing. Note: the rear bumper is pictured in the instructions as having its longer barrelled side pointing in the direction of the robot fist, but reversing it makes the rear end a little more symmetrical. There is an attack mode in which the mixer drum snaps onto a tab on the hopper section and then gets opened up by the Planet Key (the slot for which is on the drum). The hopper section folds up to become a control panel for a Mini-Con, with little pegs that fold out specifically for attaching Stripmine's arms. Inside the drum is a missile launcher (orange plastic), and a missile that is bright blue (close to 00066FF, glows strongly under UV) with a yellow tip under a clear dome, and a yellow shaft (well, the blue is more of a collar around the yelllow). A yellow button is pushed towards the rear to fire the missile. The arm joints that connect to the drum give the weapon a pretty wide range of motion, although it traverses a little oddly. To further weaponize this mode, remove the double barrelled gun from the rear and attach it to the hardpoint on the cab. Also, if you remove the Planet Key, the hopper can be folded back down and left open to show a 5mm peg that the rear hardpoint on Stripmine's vehicle mode can plug into, making this a double turret (you can also just do this attachment in regular vehicle mode, leaving the drum in mixer mode and using the hopper section as a smaller turret weapon). Transformation: Very simple. The rear wheel segments fold back in a winglike manner reminiscent of Mudflap's (albeit on a smaller scale). This lets the shoulder pieces fold back and snap into place. Fold down the chestplate, rotate the head, separate the legs and do some manipulation to get the boots into the right shape. Note, however, there's an undocumented step in the transformation that lets the shoulders slide down and forces the hips apart. It does NOT lock into place, however (at least mine didn't, no matter how hard I pushed)...if you push down on the head while the figure is standing on a low-friction surface, the legs will come together and the shoulders shrug. It gives me the impression that he suddenly has to use the bathroom or something, or has seen Thunderblast kick someone in an unpleasant place. Another undocumented feature is that his forearm gun (the rear bumper thing) can peg onto his chest. The holes aren't the same separation as the chest hardpoints, but there's a gap between the long barrels that lets it fit on as chest armor. And it covers his nipples ...what? Robot Mode: 7" (18cm) tall and well-proportioned, if a little broad (which you'd expect from a construction guy anyway). The way the mixer drum becomes the right forearm is reminiscent of Gekiryujin (Attack Dragon God) from Gaogaigar. There's a pretty good balance of the colors: orange on the chest, shoulders, head, left forearm, pelvis sides and boots; yellow plastic for most of the joints (the ankles are clear plastic); dark gray on the torso, upper arms and thighs; light gray on right forearm and feet. There's also several silver decos on the torso and a pearly white on the shoulders. The head has clear lightpiping, silver forehead, dark gray crest with orange tip and silver faceplate. There's a yellow plastic comlink sort of thing on the left side of the head, and it's just clipped on. Push in at the top and the bottom clip comes out, but it takes fairly significant force to pop the comlink off all the way. [It has been suggested that this is a Nextel headset. Bleep!] Good poseability, if a little odd in places. Head turns but waist does not. Shoulders are ratcheting universal joints, there's smooth upper arm swivels, and the elbows are lightly ratcheting hinges. The left forearm hinges in the "doing barbell curls" direction, though, and there's no forearm swivel to adjust that. The left fist has a standard 5mm hole, and can sort of hold the forearm gun by its hardpoint. The right forearm has a swivel, and gains a little more flexibility if you unhook the hopper from the drum. The hips are ratcheting universal joints, although the weird sliding pelvis bits can make this tricky to use. There's swivels just above the ratcheting knees, and the ankles have some useful articulation on their transformation joints. The Key gimmick works fine in this mode, although it can be awkward to position the huge forearm. There are two hardpoints on the chest, one on the right "kneecap" (the front of the vehicle cab), and one on the left forearm weapon. If you remove the forearm weapon, there are two 5mm pegs on the forearm for connecting other stuff. [Later Note: You can reverse his right arm and get the hopper side to the front, then connect Stripmine as a sort of rifle arm, as seen here: http://www.dvandom.com/images/quickmixhand.JPG (not shown, but you can also manipulate Stripmine's legs as claw fingers. The Stripmine-hand can hold the Planet Key.)] Mini-Con: Stripmine is an odd little vehicle. A little tracked block topped by a 4" (10cm) long horizontal shaft. The front end is clearly meant to be a drill, with a clear plastic (diamond?) coated bit and a trio of molded counter-rotating collars for clearing out the debris. The rear end of the shaft I'm not so sure of, in part because the tip has a hinged hardpoint instead of whatever implement it's supposed to have. In the middle of the shaft is a clear radar dish. Or maybe it's a spotlight. Anyway, it seems to be a mining vehicle or tool of some sort, but nothing you'd actually use in stripmining. The shaft is blue, as are the treads and body. The shaft sits on a bright yellow turntable, and the hardpoint and some interior joints are also yellow. A clear sheath covers the drill tip, and as mentioned before the radar dish is clear. The whole thing lights up under UV, with the sole exception of the dark gray paint on the debris-clearing collar and the metal rivets. Transformation is pretty simple. Unfold the undercarriage into torso and legs, rotate the turntable 90 degrees and fold around the torso to turn the shaft halves into arms. The official transformation has the drill bit on the left arm, but you can have it be the right arm just as easily. The shoulder panels hold in place only with joint stiffness, not pegs, so they'll come loose occasionally. In going back to vehicle mode, there's a clever little hook that not only keeps the shaft parts together but also automatically pops the dish up. Robot mode stands 2.25" (5.5cm) tall at the head. The head/torso, arms and lower legs are blue. The right "hand", thighs and backpack/shoulder joint section are yellow. The visor slit is painted red, and there's silver detailing on the chest. The feet are kinda small, so it falls over easily, especially if you point the drill arm straight down (as it's long enough that it becomes the "foot" on that side). Shoulders, hips and knees are swivels. The hardpoint that acts as the left hand can swing sideways on its hinge, letting Stripmine hold 5mm peg-holed weapons. Looseness in the shoulders lets them swing out to the sides as well, although this doesn't really look good. The Mini-Con connector port is on the chest, which is not accessible in vehicle mode. Yep, in vehicle mode Stripmine has only a "male" connector, and cannot connect to someone else's Hardpoint. However, if you just unfold the legs in vhicle mode and make sure they point backwards, it makes a good long rifle weapon for sticking on any sort of forearm or shoulder hardpoint. And it even has its own hardpoint on the stock for adding on yet another weapon! Hmm, stick Deepdive on Stripmine, then something else on Deepdive.... Synergy: It's worth making a separate section for this. Quickmix is pretty good on his own, albeit with stability issues. Stripmine has a wonky vehicle mode but is pretty cool as well. But where things really shine are in the ways the two interact. Not only is there the usual Mini-Con connector (albeit in an odd place), but there's the design of the hopper section. Both the vehicle and robot modes of Stripmine can connect to the control platform in ways that no other Mini-Con can. Tiny little pegs that FOLD OUT to let Stripmine's arms connect. A 5mm hole specifically placed for the hardpoint at the rear of Stripmine's vehicle mode to attach to. Sure, any Mini-Con with small enough feet can stand on the platform, but Stripmine connects to it and stays on in any position. Overall: There's some looseness on both components, not all of which is fixable. The colors are a bit more garish than I like. But otherwise it's a very enjoyable toy and the Mini-Con isn't just an afterthought like on so many Armada toys. AUTOBOT: GALAXY FORCE VECTOR PRIME Planet: Universal Altmode: Antique Spaceship Mini-Con: Safeguard Previous Name Use: None Previous Mold Use: Vector Prime Key Gimmick: "Electronic Battle Sounds" Key Code: vz74 Ancient, powerful and wise, GALAXY FORCE VECTOR PRIME has survived all through the long ages of his existence through more than mere power. Granted the ability to travel through time and across dimensions, GALAXY FORCE VECTOR PRIME has left echoes of himself throughout the past and future of countless dimensions. Though his appearance often shifts along with the dimensions through which he passes, he remains always the same - loyal, honest and devoted to the cause of justice. Though he may sacrifice himself in one incarnation, GALAXY FORCE VECTOR PRIME will always exist, and will always rise whenever the universe is threatened. STR ? INT 10 SPD ? END 10 RNK ? COUR 10 FRB 10 SKL 10 Avg ? Looks like he has the Kang the Conqueror life insurance plan. And, frankly, given how badly jobbed he gets in the cartoon, I'd say those "unknown" values for his stats are under 10. :) Key Code Info: As Vector Prime traveled through time and space, he picked up an hobby that he found intriguing from an old movie he once saw on Earth. He began to phase in and out of time on a daily basis to look at a store window in a small town in the Midwest. It was here that he became 'friends' with a mannequin of a gentleman in a fine suit. He first saw this man in 1896. For the next 110 years, Vector Prime came to visit the mannequin and see what type of outfit he was wearing on that day. Over the years, the store changed hands, became more or less fashionable and finally was closed down. Vector Prime found it to be a wonderful diversion from his time traveling adventures... [Also shows a CG rendering of Vector Prime in gold and gray, with two steel-colored swords. Note that the bit about the mannequin is a reference to the Disney version of H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine", in which a mannequin with ever-changing clothing is in the background of the time trip.] Planet Key: It's the same mold as Vector Prime's, but with the clear blue plastic replaced with clear reddish orange, and most of the front is painted silver. Color Swaps: The white plastic is replaced with a pale gold (the packaging photoshops the pictures to make it look shiny, but it isn't). Dark brown becomes either black or a REALLY dark brown, and the clear blue (both soft and rigid) become clear reddish orange. The gold plastic reacts moderately to UV, the clear reddish orange reacts strongly. Paint Apps: Similar masks in some places to the original, but mostly new. A lot of silver, some deeper red-orange (notably on abdomen, spaceship nose, upper shins and forearm guards), and a lot of black. The reflector dish on the robot chest is unpainted black with a metallic blue sphere at the center. Safeguard's front end is painted gold in a decent match with the plastic color. Other Notes: As I'm not opening this, I can't really speak to the quality control. I will note that the bio note will let them justify recycling the character name until the end of time, though. :) Dave Van Domelen, nice to get a new TF on one's birthday (which is when Quickmix was found).