Dave's TF Cybertorn Rant: Mini-Con Set 4 Scrap Iron vs. Grindor Blastcharge vs. High Wire Backblast vs. Sureshock PINs ending in 1100, 1200, 1300 in that order. These toys are recolors of the Space Team from Armada (Decepticon recolors) and the Street Action Team from Energon same characters, with new paint jobs). I'm writing this initial review from scans of the toys posted by Torsten Abel, originally by tffans...if I get them and there's any significant other points ot make, I'll amend this file. However, I'm not keen on the E.Perceptor molds (they got Mildly Recommended) and Space Team didn't really impress me either (also Mildly Recommended). I finally broke down and got the Blastcharge/High Wire set because I like High Wire's new colors. I also amended some of the other reviews based on seeing the toys on the shelf. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/MiniCon3 (Space Team) http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Energon/Basic2 (Street Action Team) http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/mini4fix.JPG (Touched up paint on High Wire and Blastcharge. Also stiffened up the joints on HW, but that's not something that shows in a pic.) CAPSULES Scrap Iron vs. Grindor: Grindor's new colors are about equal to the old, and the robot mode is still a waste of plastic. Scrap Iron's colors are pretty bad, although it's an okay mold. Neutral. $5 pricepoint. Blastcharge vs. High Wire: High Wire gets a good color upgrade, sort of an Evel Knievel thing. Blastcharge comes off pretty badly in the new colors. Mildly recommended. $4.76 at Wal-Mart. Backblast vs. Sureshock: Sureshock's colors look okay, robot mode is still lame. Backblast looks like he joined the Sea Team, probably the best robot mode of all six. Which isn't saying a whole lot. Mildly recommended. $5 pricepoint. RANTS Packaging: Standard Cybertron Mini-Con versus blisters. Obviously, I can't do a twist-tie count without buying them (or someone buying them and telling me). Blastcharge is held in by one tie. High Wire is held in by two ties and a rubber band, and STILL looks kinda mangled in package. In fact, the seat is flipped around backwards to fit in the blister. Instructions have vehicle to robot for both on one side, and robot to combiner component on the back, plus component assembly. Theme: This set also has a theme, the continuation of the rebellion against the Council of Sages. The Deep Space Team is sent to establish a decoy base to lure Council fighters into a trap, and waste their resources. And it's the Street Action Team that's jumping headlong into that trap. The Deep Space Team all have a lightish purple, with Scrap Iron and Blastchage also having a lot of white plastic, plus accents in gold and medium light blue. Backblast is mainly the maroon plastic of the Sea Team and some cool gray. The Street Action Team is a mess of red, white and blue shades that reminds me of the G1 Seacons. It's not as bland as the original color scheme, but it's not really GOOD either. Again, making up the Position lines myself. Set 1: Scrap Iron vs. Grindor DECEPTICON: SCRAP IRON Altmode: Space Telescope Previous Mold Use: Astroscope (Armada) Previous Name Use: None Team: Deep Space Position: Long Range Assault SCRAP IRON got his name because of his talent for locking onto and destroying moving targets from space. You knew you were in his target zone when you stumbled across the unidentifiable remains of whatever was there before. He's not too into the idea of running a defensive operation in deep space, which was why he was so glad to hear that the Street Action Team was on its way. He's never met them, but it's nice to have the opportunity to destroy a celebrity. STR 7.5 INT 9 SPD 10 END 10 RNK 4.5 COUR 6 FRB 10 SKL 9 Avg 8.25 Color swaps: Red replaced by purple, darker blue by white, light blue by what I think is gray (although most of the "gray" parts are painted pretty heavily, I'm assuming the swaps on the rest of the team are consistent). Paint apps: Gold on the legs/solar panels, both inside and outside, plus some on the eyes. Purple paint on the robot chest. A checkerboard pattern in black paint is on the habitation section of the satellite, and a Decepticon symbol printed at the shoulder-end of the launcher. Other comments: The checkerboard pattern looks kinda goofy. Like he's trying to be Mod in space. Overall: Ehn. AUTOBOT: GRINDOR Altmode: Hovercraft Previous Mold Use: Grindor (Energon) Previous Name Use: Armada, Energon (supposed to be the same character) Team: Street Action Position: War Hero Like HIGH WIRE, GRINDOR has fond memories of the peace they found on Earth after the end of the Energon Battles. He had fully supported for formation of an independent MINI-CON state on the moons of CYBERTRON, and was a vocal booster of the MINI-CON Council of Sages. He believes that all MINI-CONS can and should live in peace, and he still harbors hopes that the conflict with the rebeles can be resolved without too much fighting. STR 8 INT 10 SPD 7.5 END 8 RNK 5 COUR 7 FRB 5.5 SKL 8 Avg 7.375 Color swaps: White stays white, black stays black, dark blue becomes a bright cyan. Paint apps: The robot feet are painted medium blue, the red trim on the vehicle mode is now silver trim, and the cockpit is black with a silver stripe down the center. The face is gold. Autobot symbol printed on the right front "fender". Other comments: The lack of paint on the front of the robot mode increases the resemblance this toy has to a cheap knockoff of a Popy toy frmo the 70s. Overall: Bleh. Set 2: Blastcharge vs. High Wire DECEPTICON: BLASTCHARGE Altmode: Rocket Carrier Truck Previous Mold Use: Payload (Armada) Previous Name Use: Beast Machines, Universe Team: Deep Space Position: Construction Engineer In between the moons of CYBERTRON trails a 3,000-mile long field of debris left there by the many battles that have been fought in orbit around the machine planet. It is in the dangerous, remote center of this desolate asteroid field that BLASTCHARGE, under the direction of SUNSTORM, has constructed a decoy base of operations. The leader of the Deep Space MINI-CON Team had hoped to lure in and destroy fighters for the MINI-CON Council of Sages. He never imagined that the Council would send the one and only Street Action Team to their doom! STR 7 INT 6 SPD 5 END 10 RNK 4.5 COUR 6 FRB 3 SKL 7.5 Avg 6.125 Color swaps: Black becomes white, red becomes purple (6600FF), light blue becomes gray (999999). The white and purple plastics glow moderately under UV. Paint apps: The gray mask on Payload becomes light metallic blue, the orange becomes a orangey gold. The face is light metallic blue with yellow eyes. The borderless purple Decepticon symbol is printed on the driver's side of the cab. None of the paints glow under UV. Other comments: Lack of paint on the wheels looks really bad. I mean, I've heard of whitewalls, but really. Definitely gonna paint those myself. Looks okay in robot mode, but goofy in vehicle mode. Overall: Worse than the original. AUTOBOT: HIGH WIRE Altmode: Stunt Motorcycle Previous Mold Use: High Wire (Energon) Previous Name Use: Armada, Energon (same character) Team: Street Action Position: War Hero HIGH WIRE and his teammates on the Street Action Team returned to Cybertron as heroes after the Energon Battles. As a result, they were among the first warriors enlisted by ANTI-BLAZE and the MINI-CON Council of Sages to fight the MINI-CON rebels. He is reluctant to return once again to battle, but he also knows that - combined as PERCEPTOR - the Street Action Team is the most powerful warrior among the MINI-CONS, and the only one with a chance of going up against the Deep Space MINI-CON Team and winning. STR 8.5 INT 6 SPD 6.5 END 7.5 RNK 6 COUR 10 FRB 5 SKL 8 Avg 7.19 Color swaps: Powder blue becomes dark red (CC0000). The white on the thighs, feet, left forearm, rear wheel strut and Perceptor face become medium blue (0033CC, some of that stuff is actually painted white on the original). The rest of the white stays white. Black becomes dark gray (a little darker than 333333). The white plastic glows brightly under UV (so it's not the same batch as Blastcharge), the red and blue plastics glow a tiny bit. Paint apps: Blue stripes along the sides of the front end, with white stars on them. Black seat. The exhaust pipe is painted silver. The Autobot symbol is printed on in black just above the Mini-Con symbol. The front fender is painted white over red plastic. Perceptor's face and forehead are painted white, his eyes are yellow. None of the paints glow under UV. The general color scheme evokes an Evel Knievel stunt bike. Other comments: The vehicle mode looks a LOT better, but the robot mode still suffers from an abundance of unpainted white plastic (I'm told that the head, at least, is a plastic that can't really be painted to toy safety standards as it'll flake off, but that won't stop me from painting it myself). Still insanely floppy in vehicle mode, like Evel Knievel's bike AFTER a failed stunt. Overall: A little better than the original. Set 3: Backblast vs. Sureshock DECEPTICON: BACKBLAST Altmode: Rocket Previous Mold Use: Sky Blast (Armada) Previous Name Use: None Team: Deep Space Position: Power Source BACKBLAST is a simple robot, nearly incapable of independent though. When BLASTCHARGE is told to attack, he attacks, and does not stop attacking until the order is given. It is only when he is joined with the other two members of the Deep Space MINI-CON Team as the powerful UMBRAL BLASTER that he feels his full potential. As a robot, he is only a barely sentient battering ram, but as part of the UMBRAL BLASTER the energy stored within his armred body is released in an unstoppable storm of destruction. STR 9 INT 3 SPD 5 END 10 RNK 4.5 COUR 8 FRB 3 SKL 5 Avg 6.06 Yes, he's called Blastcharge by accident. Name shuffle, perhaps. Odd how even the team moron has the same rank as everyone else on the team. Color swaps: White becomes maroon, red becomes purple, light blue becomes gray. Paint apps: The nosecone and thruster nozzles are painted gray. The scan I'm using for reference has a watermark covering the torso and head, so I can't tell how those are painted, but from the rocket mode it seems he has a Decepticon symbol printed on his chest. Later checking the actual toy in package reveals that the face is painted purple. Other comments: Nothing to add, really. Overall: About as good as the original. AUTOBOT: SURESHOCK Altmode: ATV 4x4 Previous Mold Use: Sureshock (Energon) Previous Name Use: Armada, Energon (same character) Team: Street Action Position: War Hero For SURESHOCK, it's nice to finally be back in action. He's enjoyed the relative peace under the Council of Sages, but even the most exciting off-road courses on the moons of CYBERTRON don't compare to hopping from asteroid to asteroid under constant threat of enemy attack. SURESHOCK lives for excitement, after all, and there's nothing more exciting than penetrating deep into enemy territory in order to pick a fight! STR 9 INT 10 SPD 6.5 END 8 RNK 7.5 COUR 8 FRB 6.5 SKL 6 Avg 7.69 And he seems to be the leader, by the Rank score. Heh. Color swaps: White replaced by medium blue, dark blue by bright cyan, powder blue by red. The handlebars, robot spine and some of the joints stay white, so they're probably on the tray with High Wire's white bits. Paint apps: Silver where the original is pale gold. Yellow eyes, but no other paint on the head piece (so part of the seat is red too). Autobot symbol printed in front of the handlebars. There's metallic purple flame patterns painted on the front and rear fenders. Other comments: The sparse paint is okay, since he's got so many colors already. Well, "okay" in the sense that he doesn't look *boring*. He doesn't really look good either. Overall: Meh. Combined Modes: Umbral Blaster vs. Perceptor Both combined modes are named on every package back, in addition to their naming in the bio notes above. Umbral Blaster: The stock/grip and barrel are mainly purple and white, while the central part is maroon. it doesn't look all that good. BTW, Umbral means pertaining to an umbra, which is the term for the area of shadow behind a planet or moon, where light from the local star is completely blocked. The penumbra is where you'd see the star partly blocked. The implication is that the Umbral Blaster uses some sort of darkness effect or anti-energy. Umbra is most likely to be heard in reference to eclipses, although it's not heard a lot. Then again, neither is "Requiem" heard a lot. Perceptor: A bit of a mess. Cyan and white legs, cyan hands, blue feet, torso and helmet, red upper arms and abdomen. White face and details on the pelvis. It's more dynamic than the original colors, but no great shakes. Dave Van Domelen, really doubts he'll buy this set.