Dave's Ultra Cybertron Rant: Menasor with Heavy Load Shipping in cases with Wing Saber and Sky Shadow. I got mine via trade online, having not seen it in stores yet. I've heard numerous quality control issues with this toy, such as non-locking hips or chest in robot mode, so it's apparently something of a crapshoot. Mine had loose hips and tight chest, insert your own lewd comment here. The character was named Moledive in Galaxy Force, and AFAIK is one of the molds never produced for the GF toy line. I don't know if the toy design was done before or after the cartoon design, but it does seem to differ somewhat in vehicle mode. CAPSULES Menasor: Vehicle mode is a little better than it seems, transformation is Scout-level simplistic, robot mode is a MegaDeus. Kinda unstable in both modes. Nice Mini-Con, if also unstable. Recommended. $27 price point. RANTS Packaging: Standard Ultra box, and mine came with the Jungle map. Notice on lower front corner tells you that you need to supply two AAA batteries of your own. Cosells on the bottom are the recolor Optimus Prime, Nemesis Breaker, Metroplex and Primus. Pictures on the back show robot and vehicle modes of both characters, plus Heavy Load activating an attack gimmick and Heavy Load's storage space inside Menasor's chest. A single twist-tie holds Heavy Load to the blister, but the tie does not go through to the back of the cardboard tray. Fortunately, HL can be pulled out without having to undo or cut the ties. Seven very thick ties hold Menasor in the box, and one rubber band keeps the plow blade together. The battery compartment was open on mine, and the vehicle mode was "mistransformed" (but see below). DECEPTICON: MENASOR Planet: Giant Altmode: Assault Dozer Mini-Con: Heavy Load Mini-Con Gimmick: Wrecker Drill Previous Mold Use: None Previous Name Use: G1 Stuncticons combiner Key Gimmick: Electronic Laser Drill Key Code: us4r MENASOR knows the power of the Giant Planet. He burns with jealousy of the power and glory of METROPLEX, and is disgusted that the leader of the Giant Planet uses all of the power at his disposal only for peace. MENASOR has waited centuries for the arrival of an ally like MEGATRON - a true leader with the wisdom to know the true purpose of power. With the power of the DECEPTICONS at his back, he hopes to overthrow METROPLEX and turn the Giant Planet into what it was always meant to be - a conquering war world at the center of a Galactic Empire! STR 9 INT 8.5 SPD 7.5 END 8 RNK 8 COUR 9 FRB 9.5 SKL 9 Avg 8.4 (This is, BTW, almost nothing at all like the character in the show. The only real point of similarity is that both versions see Megatron's arrival as a catalyst.) Key Code Info: Menasor, like Repugnus and others, is another creative use of an older Transformers name. The original Menasor was actually the name of of a giant, super-robot that was created when five other smaller robots combined to merge into the larger form. It's fitting, since the current Cybertron version of Menasor is from Gigantion, the Giant Planet. The differences far outweigh the similarities - for even though the old Menasor was also a Decepticon, he was made up of 4 different racing vehicles and a semi-truck!! (Also shows the color guide for both Menasor and Heavy Load.) Planet Key: Standard Giant Planet Key. Vehicle Mode: Despite the package calling it an assault dozer, the blade is a plow, not a bulldozer. Oddly, it's pacakaged in what seems to be the "intended" vehicle mode, with the mode in the instructions being more of a battle mode. I say this because there's some bits that connect together (robot elbow spurs and heels) VERY clearly in packaged mode, but not in the official vehicle mode. http://www.dvandom.com/images/menasoralt.JPG shows this. The official vehicle mode has the robot arms spread farther apart, with the whole thing riding a little lower and with less stability. However, the wrecker drill side can get in the way of the intended mode when not deployed if you don't have things just right, which may be why they changed the official mode. There's also an Assault and Pacification Mode in which the arms are raised up and the tiny (and misaligned in-package) wheels on the plow support the front end, not helped by the plow being loose and floppy. The final tweak on the vehicle mode has Heavy Load inserted into a gap between the plow halves, which holds the whole plow together a lot more solidly but does require the official arm positioning. They call this the Powerlinx Mini-Con Assault Mode. Anyway, all of the modes are about the same length as long as the extendable drill is not extended, 11" (28cm). The "conning tower" is the highest point for most modes, at 3.25" (8cm) high, and the intended mode is about 5.25" (13cm) wide. It looks kind of like a crouching mecha-beast of some sort...a mole, perhaps, with treads (and underlying little wheels) on the "feet". If you have everything aligned properly, it will not only roll along, the left-side drill spins as it moves. The dominant color is a dark blue-green (006666), with the rear section (robot boots) being a light tan (FFFFCC). Joint pieces are a mix of black plastic and two different pale gold (CCCC33) plastics. The left drill bit, the right side claws and a cannon/searchlight ahead of the conning tower are clear blue (00CCCC). The plow is painted mostly in light tan (good match) ant black. There are red (FF0000) accents on either side of the tower, and light blue (not on my color chart, brighter than 33FFFF but deeper than 66FFFF) accents are on the drill arms and shoulders. There's a silver "wear pattern" behind each drillbit, and dark blue-green paint on the very rear bits of the vehicle, above some molded support pistons. Note, the non-glowy pale gold plastic is a little darker, and has some faint swirls absent in the glowy plastic. Most of the colors react poorly or not at all to UV light. However, the lighter of the pale gold plastics (found on the shoulder joints, elbow joints, right drill bit, bit inside the right hardpoint, hip joints, wheels inside the plow, and underside guns) glows intensely. There are two dead hardpoints on the outside of each boot (rear of vehicle), a dead hardpoint atop the left side drill, and a live hardpoint atop the right drill. There is one Planet Key slot, on the outer side of the left side drill. Inserting a Mini-Con onto the live hardpoint unlocks the "Wrecker Drill" gimmick, so that you can slide the post forward. This deploys a pale gold drill (and I suspect the drill's supposed to turn as it moves forward, but it doesn't on mine...turning the deployed drill gently can cause it to retract a little) and lets clear blue claws snap forward on either side if there's room for them to move. The claws aren't spring-driven for the last centimeter or so of their motion, roughly, so they don't clamp onto anything, hanging loosely. Each claw "finger" is 2" (5cm) long, and the extended wrecker drill is 3" (7.5cm) long. The Key-gimmick drill on the left is "Electronic Laser Drill" on the package, but also "Photonic Disruption Drill" in the instructions. Inserting the Key makes the drill light up with red LEDs, accompanied by what I think are supposed to be drilling sounds. The Key stays in firmly without activating the sounds, but tapping it even lightly can trigger them. The instructions say spinning the drill will activate sounds, but it does not. Transformation to Work Mode: Stand the toy up and pull the plow halves apart to make wings/shoulderpads. That's pretty much it. If you start from the intended mode, you also have to unhook the elbows. Oh, and I guess you should flip the chest guns up, although they don't really need to be down in vehicle mode. Work Mode: This is basically the regular robot mode with squatter legs and wide, child-bearing hips. Never actually seen on the show, and it kinda strikes me as a fanmode given the imprimatur of inclusion in the instructions. The exact height depends on how much you bend the reverse-knee legs, but ends up around 7.5" (18cm) tall at the head. More details about the robot mode under Battle Mode. The main benefit of this mode is that the dead hardpoints on the boots are on the outside, so you can actually connect stuff to them, Transformation to Battle Mode: Bring the hip halves together and turn the boots around. Seriously, that's it. The hips peg together with rectangular pegs on either side, but don't hold well on mine. A bit of nailpolish topcoat may help if you have this problem, it did a decent job on mine. Battle Mode: This is the robot mode seen in the cartoon. 8.5" (22cm) tall at the head, the wings made from the plow halves can be raised above that. The elbow spurs and general proportions give it a rather MegaDeus (from Big O) feel. ("Menasor! SHOW TIME!") The head is non-glowy gold plastic with dark blue-green paint around the edges. Red paint in a V shape looks like a visor at first glance, but he has clear blue lightpiped eyes above it. The tablet in his helmet crest is also lightpiped. The chest is made of clear blue plastic with dark blue-green, black and silver paint over most of it, plus a red accident near the center. There's a small Decepticon symbol printed in the clear window, and some gold accents between the dark blue-green top and the black bottom half. A glowy gold pair of guns is clipped onto the chest piece, and can swivel up and down. Non-glowy gold panels are on the flanks of the torso, a nice detail. The rest of the stuff is pretty visible in vehicle mode. The head turns VERY stiffly. Shoulders are ratcheting universal joints, elbows are ratcheting hinges. There's a ratcheting swivel above and below each elbow, so the arms are very poseable. Universal hips, hinge knees and hinge ankles (swinging forward and back) all ratchet. The mid-thigh swivels are non-ratcheting. A thumbwheel on the left forearm spins the laser drill very nicely. The chest opens up, and Heavy Load in robot mode fits snugly inside as a "pilot" of sorts. The panel doesn't snap closed, but at least on mine, it closes VERY solidly if you press it in hard. The hardpoints on the arms will still hold Mini-Cons, but the turning of the boots puts the leg-mounted hardpoints touching each other, even impeding straight-legged stances. Overall: I actually kinda like the mecha-mole vehicle mode, even if the plow part doesn't really do anything useful. The simplistic transformation is a bit disappointing, but at least a little better once you figure out the intended vehicle mode. Good robot mode, with some quality control issues. MINI-CON: HEAVY LOAD Altmode: Dumptruck/Plow hybrid Previous Name Use: RiD, Universe Heavy Load is always a dumptruck, but at least this time he isn't a Build Team recolor. And he has a plow, too. When it'll stay on. I'm tempted to just stick the plow in storage, though, as it falls off at the slightest provocation. Mr. Plow he ain't. A little over 2" (5cm) long in vehicle mode. The dumper bed, tires and plow blade are black plastic, the upper cab is the glowy pale gold plastic and the lower is non-glowy pale gold. The rear chassis is dark blue-green plastic. The Mini-Con Connector is on the underside, in a chunk of glowy pale gold. The Mini-Con symbol is on the rear left side of the dumper bed. The only paint on this mode is silver on the plow face. The dumper bed does not lift, but the plow does (rising to horizontal to make the Powerlinx plow segment mode). Things are held together kinda loosely, and it's entirely possible that when trying to use Heavy Load to activate the Wrecker Drill you'll smoosh it into a tangle of parts. Transformation goes best if you follow the order in the instructions, otherwise you're liable to pop the plow off a LOT. Or just pop it off deliberately and transform in whatever order you feel like. So there. While the vehicle mode locks together more or less, the robot mode depends totally on joint stiffness. The robot mode is 1.75" (4.5cm) tall with gorilla arms and the tiniest head on a Mini-Con since Wreckage's [Later correction: Knockout, not Wreckage] niblet. The teeny head is painted gold (darker than either gold plastic) with a red visor. The upper torso is non-glowy gold, wht shoulders and abdomen/pelvis are glowy gold. The forearms and "cape" are black, and the legs are dark blue-green with some silver paint. The shoulders are a combination of ball joint and "shrugging" hinge (transformation joint), the elbows are ball joints, and the hips are swivels. It takes some practice to get the joints to work the way you want to without popping stuff apart or at least mangling it. Fists are molded at the ends of the arms, but since the plastic is black this isn't immediately obvious. If you remove the plow, its pegs can slot firmly into gaps in Heavy Load's forearms, for use as a shield. I doubt this is intentional. He won't fit into Menasor's chest this way, though. In any case, the Mini-Con connector is blocked in robot mode. Overall, this is not the tiny god some have been promoting it as. It's just too floppy and mooshy for that. But it's a good one. Set overall: Looseness and quality control issues plague it, and the vehicle mode is kinda notional, but otherwise a decent set. Dave Van Domelen, now caught up on Cybertron again, but wayyyyy behind on Alternators.