Dave's Energon Rant: Basics Wave 1 Mini-Cons: Energon Saber Terrorcon: Battle Ravage Omnicon: Strongarm Omnicon: Skyblast Yay, finally getting some Energon! An entire endcap of Basics at the Wal-Mart 20 miles away, needless to say I snagged one of each. Even the Energon Saber, making my third copy of the mold (well, fourth...picked up a spare of the original on a price mistake for kitbashing). CAPSULES Energon Saber: Good remold. Loses the realistic altmodes but gains more stability and a better saber mode. Recommended. $6.94 at Wal-Mart. Battle Ravage: A few joints are a little too loose or tight, but there's plenty of 'em. The transformation is on the simple side, but has some nice tweaks from the standard big cat transform method. Nice weapons. Recommended. $6.94 at Wal-Mart. Strongarm: Cool little jeep mode, good transform, very nice (if blocky) robot mode, good weapons. Recommended. $6.94 at Wal-Mart. Skyblast: Extremely cool vehicle mode and weapons, clever transformation, decent robot mode (if a little kibbly and with only so-so knees). Recommended. $6.94 at Wal-Mart Now, I've given them all "Recommended," but they spread out to cover the range of that category. Ranking them, I'd put Strongarm and Skyblast as tied for best, Ravage in the middle, and Energon Saber barely above "mildly recommended". Just so ya know. RANTS New line, so time to go over the packaging in detail before I review the figures themselves. There are no tech spec cards with the Basics, although reportedly the bigger toys have 'em. The cards are the same width as Armada Mini-Con sets at 7.5" (19cm) wide, but they're taller at a foot (30cm). The sides are cut into in the lower half to follow the trapezoidal shape of the blister bubble. The background is black with red lines forming multiple grid layers at the top. On the bottom, thre's a blue-gray plating with a square hatch opening to reveal swirling energon in a round pool, light radiating out and lightning crackling inward from the edges of the card. On the card, in the upper right, is individual art of each character or team, a welcome return. Most have the robot modes here, but Battle Ravage has art of his beast mode, since he's packaged in robot mode (everyone else is packaged in vehicle mode). The logo at the top keeps the "Convoy" font for "Transformers," but has a new font for the "Energon" underneath it. On the back is the same background pattern, if a bit muted. The Skill Level is in the upper left, and below it are small co-sell pictures of the other three Basics. The back is dominated by a picture of the character in the package, in two modes. Energon Saber does not show individual vehicle modes, just robot and saber. The blisters are trapezoids, 6" (15cm) tall, 2.5" (6cm) deep, 5" (13cm) wide at the top, 7" (18cm) wide at the bottom. A cardstock insert has the name and subteam (Mini-Cons, Omnicons, Terrorcons) on the front, with faction symbol (Mini-Con, Autobot, Decepticon). On the right side (your right, as it faces you) is a thin strip with the faction symbol. The bottom panel has all the legalese and barcode. The left panel runs up the entire side of the blister, and repeats the card art. Figures are held into the blister trays with a variable number of twist-ties. Taped to the inside of the blister tray is a packet with instructions (same basic style as Armada) and a comicbook/catalogue in the same style as Armada. The first comic stars Hot Shot and Strongarm against a horde of Battle Ravages and Scorponok...as they point out at the end, they were lucky to survive that one. It lays out the basic concepts pretty well: energon exists in liquid form on Earth, and everyone wants it. Omnicons (Autobot basics) and Terrorcons (Decepticon basics) can suck it up and turn it into really powerful weapons for others to use. Terrorcons are personality-free drones that work in hordes (dozens of Battle Ravages in the comic), while Omnicons are just specialized individuals, they don't seem to swarm or otherwise lack personality. The bigger characters on both sides are not able to process energon in this manner themselves, but can use the end products. The Omnicons and Terrorcons come with little clear plastic covers to put over their spark crystals to represent when they're channeling energon. The catalog side has Megazord Prime on the cover and Alternators Smokescreen on the foldout panel. On the other side of the foldout is Universe: Tankor and Obsidian, Inferno, Ratchet and Depthcharge. The inside front cover has Skyblast, Strongarm and Battle Ravage. Page one has Energon Saber and Starscream, who is a Deluxe despite the implication of the grouping. Page two is the Deluxe combiners Hot Shot and Inferno, with both Powerlinx combined forms shown, and page three does the same for Megas Ironhide and Jetfire. Page five has recolored Tidal Wave and new Scorponok, page six has Optimus Prime and recolored Unicron. No pictures of Rapid Run or Treadbolt, recolors coming out in the first wave. The last two pages are a spread of second wave BTR. Hot Shot and Prime continue on unchanged, Starscream is recolored as Thundercracker, Demolishor is recolored in gray and blue for night attack. Plus we get $4 price point super Mini-Cons Ramjet and Roll-out. And that's it for general packaging, on to the actual toys! MINI-CONS: ENERGON SABER WRECKAGE (JETSTORM remold) SCATTOR (RUNWAY remold) SKYBOOM (SONAR remold) Each of these is an extensive remold of the original Air Defense Team, with a new name that makes very little sense but recycles something off The List (of trademarks Hasbro wants to keep). The remolds are pretty exclusively in the upper aircraft bodyshell parts, all done now in transparent golden yellow plastic. The robot heads and limbs are pretty much unchanged, although the "hook Runway's legs onto Sonar for a better grip in Saber mode" trick is gone. Not that it's necessary, the golden plastic holds together a LOT better than the colorless plastic in the original or the light gray plastic in the Dark Saber recolor. Wreckage has a completely retooled upper fuselage and wings, giving more of a starfighter or hovercraft appearance. Scattor's wings pick up a little more space-y look on the main part, plus swept-forward bits that help fill in the Saber a bit. Skyboom gets canards at the midpoint, at the back of the pieces that become legs. These canards prevent the positioning of the hilt of the Saber straight out, as was possible with the original. Also, Scattor's swept-forward bits link into the hilt sections, requiring some care in assembly. All of them have golden clear plastic and light gray plastic, plus silver and gunmetal paint apps. Skyboom and Scattor also have Dutch Blue parts, and Wreckage has black paint. The robot modes look about the same, as the robot pieces were not really remolded. Some of the paint apps could be better, especially on Scattor's head, but things generally look good. Put together, the Energon Saber holds together better than the Star Saber, is filled in better, and looks more like a weapon made of Energon and less like some planes stuck together. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/MiniCon1 has more detail on the original molds. You might need to type haven.stanford.edu until December 15, due to DNS issues. TERRORCONS/OMINCONS: General comments The new Basics share a number of things in common, so I figured I'd go over them first. Spark Crystals: They all have small faction symbols in clear domes recessed into their chests. These are smaller than the Beast-era crystals at only 7mm across. Also, they are uncolored, the symbol molded into them and looking dark against the background. The top of the crystal is 2.7mm back from the opening (yes, I pulled out a set of vernier calipers). Energon Chips: Each also has a clear plastic piece that fits over the sprk crystal. For Terrorcons, it's neon yellow with eight rectangular spokes radiating from the central circle. Well, okay, just for Battle Ravage. Colors may vary for later ones, but I expect a yellow-to-green range for most. Omnicons get various shades of red, and a sort of five-pointed shield that looks like a rather abstract red turtle. All types have a central lens which does magnify a little. However, since the spark crystals are recessed, they're too far from the lens to get any clear image. The energon chips are used to represent when the character is processing energon into weapons, they do not unlock any special mechanical features in the toy. I hear that the larger toys can fit the energon chips, but do not come with any of their own. Energon Weapons: Each figure comes with several pieces that connect to make a big energon weapon, or can fit separately on the robot or alternate modes. Each piece has multiple connections, pegs that are the same size as the Saber handle, so there's a lot of backwards compatibility with Armada. Additionally, each weapon has a Powerlinx connector somewhere. There's usually a couple ways to connect the pieces of each one alone, but the fact they use standard couplings means you can really go to town when you get multiples. Like the Pick-axe of Doom that's been made from Skyblast's spear and Strongarm's axe. And, of course, thanks to the chosen size of pegs, everyone can swing around the Energon Saber now! Although the Basics tend to get overbalanced by it. Chunkiness: Okay, not really a feature per se, but all three of the new Basics are kinda chunky. They have lots of joints, and kibble doesn't really restrict motion...they just feel blocky. Not a bad thing, but a definite change from the more spindly Beast-era Basics (the last time we really got new Basics other than Spychangers, Mini-Cons and recolors). Not a whiff of "Shellformer" about these. They all hang out with Overload. TERRORCON: BATTLE RAVAGE This one is packaged in robot mode, as if to say that the jaguar mode is the "real" one, and humanoid mode is just a disguise. So I'll lead with the robot mode. Five twist-ties on the robot, one each on the two parts of the weapon. Robot Mode: 4" (10cm) tall. The main plastic colors are black (torso and upper limbs) light gray (head, lower limbs, center of chest, disc on right shoulder), and purple (tail, some internal bits). Paint applications are mostly dark red and silver, with some gunmetal and a bit of neon green (mostly for beast mode and the eyes). Beast head hangs down on the back, mostly out of the way, and the front claws fold down onto the forearms. They look like hairtrimmer attachments. "Want a little off the top? How about the entire head?" Shoulders and hips are severely limited ball joints, very stiff (hips a bit less limited, so legs can spread apart a bit). In fact, the shoulders are stiffer than the transformation joints they're attached to, making it tricky to pose the arms without partially transforming the body. Elbows and knees are standard hinges. Ankles ratchet with three stable positions. Head and waist turn, although the beast head gets in the way of waist rotation a bit. The tail is on a detachable balljoint with a ball diameter equal to the standard peg size, so it will fit snugly in his fists as a weapon. The front halves of the feet are on pegs, and can rotate to give firmer footing, a very niec trick. Weapons: The tail is a ball and chain. The comic implies that there's a way to use Battle Ravage as a weapon for Scorponok, kinda like the BW Neo Cybertron Basics became weapons for the bigger guys. Ravage's energon weapons are a blaster (missile-launching with spring) and a sight that strongly resembles that from G1 Megatron. The Powerlinx connector is on the main launcher part. They don't really combine in any weird ways, just put the scope on the gun. Place in hand, or in holes over the shoulders, singly or merged. Transformation: Rotating the torso activates a gear that moves the beast head into position, a nice extra touch for what's otherwise a "reposition the legs and pop the head" beast transformation. In fact, there's enough extra flips and twists to make this a very good Basic transformation. The robot heel spurs do no fold away as in most variants of this transformation. Beast Mode: A very good robojaguar 6" (15cm) from snout to tail mace. Very little visible robot kibble, lots of nice mecha details and color balance. The shoulder area is built up both to hide the robot head and to give peg holes for the energon weapons. It helps to leave the energon chip in place, or there's a big discontinuity on the back. All the joints of robot mode remain, and the beast head is very poseable on a ball joint. The head is flanked by neon green rocket launchers or something, green bumps in two rows of three. Overall: Has a few problems with joint stiffness, and his weapon isn't as fun as the others, but otherwise a very worthy member of the first real Basic figure wave in a while. OMNICON: STRONGARM One twist-tie on the weapon, one twist-tie on the vehicle. Plus a rubber band around its hood to keep it from coming open, although mine doesn't seem to have any risk of that. Vehicle Mode: Chunky little Turner's Yellow (kinda tannish yellow) jeep with dark blue-fray parts, bluish silver paint, clear red windshields and some blue robot chest details made to look like some sort of gadget in the trunk. It's exactly 4" (10cm) long if you have the clear red spare tire on. The main part of the weapon attaches to a peg-on-a-hinge as a clear red crane with movable hook. It doesn't extend, though, so it can't pick up things in front of the jeep, just on the sides and back. An Autobot symbol is molded in raised relief on the back, opposite the crane hinge. It is painted red, very neatly, although I hear that some early ones had the entire symbol painted red, without borders left blue between the pieces. The tires are hard plastic, but roll pretty well on anything but really smooth surfaces. The interior detail is GREAT, with driver and passenger bucket seats, and even a centerline piece with stick shift and storage compartments for driver and passenger (okay, slots). The centerline piece is made of a light tan plastic, as is the crane hinge peg and the rollbar behind the driver compartment. The doors open in what's called "suicide" fashion, hinged at the back instead of the front. A gas tank is molded at the back, and there's lots of "metal strengthening" grooves all over the body. Y'know, recolor this in olive drab, and it's Hound. Weapons: The crane is also already a rifle, just swing the hook away from the barrel. The spare tire can be a shield on its own, or split apart into twin axe blades to fit on the crane. Or be held as crescent blade weapons separately. The barrel then becomes the handle-peg. The crane has two Powerlinx connectors up at the front, back to back over the hook. This helps attach the axe mode to the forearm of figures with hardpoints on their forearms. The pieces also connect well with Skyblast's weapons to make bigger weapons. Transformation: The legs transform in a pretty standard "hood folds down, rotate at waist" way, with the windshield turning into toes. The doors become Gundam-like skirt armor. The arms rotate out from behind what becomes the back, reminiscent of how the original Bluestreak's arms folded out and wheels folded in. Oh, and then turn the head around. And remove the spare tire if you haven't already, it makes a stupid-looking hat (as at least one picfic has demonstrated). Robot Mode: A metallic blue chest nicely centers this design, surprisingly, rather than clashing. Like Ravage, he stands 4" (10cm) tall, although that's at his shoulders, which are a millimeter or so higher than the top of his head. If you put the crane on his shoulder, he bears a faint resemblance to Smokescreen (Armada). He has neon green eyes, although at first glance it seems like he has a red visor optic. This is actually just roboeyebrows. Kinda Kirby-style, actually. Hey...that's it! The "chunkiness" I mentioned above is a Kirby sort of heft. The actual details aren't very Kirby, but the general feel is, a little. Lots of joints. Unrestricted ball joint shoulder and hips, hinge elbows and knees, poseable toes (to a limited extent), turnable head and waist. The driver and passenger seats keep the legs from singing backwards at the hips, but you might notice that your own legs don't move backwards from the hips either. :) Oh, and the "relief holes" on the shoulder joints were enlarged to accept the standard pegs, so you can place the shield halves as shoulder blades. If you really want, you can also mount the cranegun sideways on his head, but that looks dumb. Maybe steal Ravage's gun and put it on his head? Okay, still kinda dumb, but symmetric at least. Overall: The more I play with this, the more I'm tempted to up this to a Strongly Recommended, as the flaws just don't seem as bad, and the play value becomes more and more apparent. However, I kinda want to leave room to be even more impressed by later toys in the line, so I'll leave this as just below the border. OMNICON: SKYBLAST Two twist-ties on the vehicle, one on the weapon shaft (none on the spearhead) and a rubberband on the vehicle. Vehicle Mode: This is like a mix of every sci-fi animated or videogame idea of a space fighter based on real air-breathing fighters. There's strong elements of the Super Valkyrie (G1 Jetfire), but wider wings like Skywarp's Mini-Con Thunderclash. It's 4" (10cm) long with a wingspan a little over 4" (11cm). The main plastic color is white with some dark red (mostly in the form of paint) and medium gray, plus some black and blue paint apps and a gold border around the dark red clear cockpit. Actually, the entire nose piece is clear dark red plastic, just painted a lot. The molded Autobot symbols on the tops of the wings are painted red without the lines between bits being filled in (as before, reports are that the early ones had the lines filled in with red). The Autobot symbols molded on the underside of the wings are left unpainted. Oh, and there's a blue accent on the piece that becomes the chest of the robot. The gray blasters over each wing can be tilted up to track a target that Skyblast flies under (since they're toes for robot mode). On the underside are a pair of capture claws like those on the Mega sized Jetfire. They're made of red plastic and mesh well, but also seem useful to let Jetfire clamp onto someone's arm as a shield or weapon. Weapons: Four pieces make up this weapon. Two halves of a spearhead, a shaft, and a piece that connects them all (it's not immediately obvious that this piece separates from the haft). The connector looks kinda like a short two-barreled blaster, and with the haft connected to it becomes a big gun for vehicle mode (the spearhead halves fitting over the wingtips to extend the wings a bit). The vehicle mode is 7" (18cm) long with weapon attached, and reminds me of the Swordfish from Cowboy Bebop. They combine into a spear 5.5" (14cm) long with a wide blade. The Powerlinx connector is on the haft piece. The spear mode can be held either at the very end, or using a handle coming off the back just below the blade. Transformation: The wings conceal the arms in a very clever way, and you do have to transform things in the right order to get them out. However, the clever transformation also prevents the figure from having hinged knees. [Later note: There's an autotransform trick I missed the first time. Rotating the tail section makes the nose section spin around to put the head facing the right way.] Robot Mode: 4" (10cm) tall at the head, although the cockpit behind his head rises up nearly an extra inch. More red is visible in this mode, and the overall balance of red, white and gray is very good. The wingtips on the forearms are a bit kibbly, though, and would have looked better if they had the Autobot symbols painted as on the package art. The toy is also missing some yellow paint on the shoulders that looks good on the package. I like the design of the head, and it has good paint applications. The shoulders are actually double-hinge universal joints, but the hips are ball joints. The elbows are hinges. The knees bend sideways at the transformation joints, but they added swivels so you can at least point the feet different directions. The waist is fixed, and while the head has a ratchet joint, the cockpit hanging off the back prevents movement unless you flip it up and have him wear it as a hat. Overall: Very good vehicle mode, weapon and transformation, but it pays for that with some poseability issues in robot mode. A good toy overall, though, and probably has some extra play value for combination with others. Dave Van Domelen, has spent the entire night on this, probably good for his health that he didn't also find any other Energon today....