Dave's Energon Built To Rule Rant Skyblast with Gunner Station The Energon Built To Rule sets seem to have only been released in a few very limited test markets, and as they're being clearanced in those markets now, looks like they won't be going wide. Thanks to Justin Anderson, who lives in a test market, for getting me this one (I suppose I could have asked him for more, but my enthusiasm for the line isn't really that significant). He also reviewed the ones he's gotten, a review that can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/domientius/btrprime.txt (it's more than just Prime a this point). CAPSULE BTR Skyblast: This is the unreleased BTR Ramjet with a little remolding in new colors with a missile platform added to justify a $10 price point. Decent vehicle mode, reasonably good robot mode that looks little like Skyblast, but adaptable. Mildly recommended if you can find it. $9.88 originally at Wal-Mart, clearanced for $7.00. RANT Packaging: Windowless corrugated cardboard box, 9" (23cm) wide, 7.5" (19cm) tall, 2" (5cm) thick. The front, top and side show the same image, of the jet mode flying past the gunner platform. The package art from the real Skyblast is used, but it's mostly cropped and covered. The left side shows a small bust shot of Energon Prime BTR's robot mode, and brags about the marble-shooter missile launcher. Only on the back do they show the robot mode, as well as pictures of specialty pieces (no window to show the actual pieces as with Armada BTR). Only about half the box is actually used for product. A cardboard spacer keeps the bag of parts in one half, and the instruction book flops around in the other side. As with the inclusion of the gunner platform, I suspect this was just "padding" to make it look more like it was worth ten bucks. The box claims there are 45 pieces, which is kinda low even for a BTR. Gunner Platform: This uses up about half the pieces, mostly large chunky ones. There's three large feet in a T shape, 5" (13cm) wide at the top of the T, and about 3" (8cm) long from front to back on the upright of the T. This tends to wobble, but I find that moving the side feet (the top of the T) inward by one peg rank each helps a LOT. This makes it only 4.25" (11cm) wide. The feet are gray, with dark red pieces connecting them at the top. Atop this footing is a gray and white rotating column that spins freely, has a dark red control panel (a piece used for a foot in larget sets) and two clear red "scuba tank" sort of panels on the front. It's 4 ranks square (3cm) and the entire assembly is 3.5" (9cm) tall. On either side of the column are clear red missile launchers attached to ratcheting pegs, so they can independently traverse up and down. The missiles themselves are opaque dark red, and when loaded the launchers with missiles are just under 5" (12cm) long. The launching mechanism is a 2x2 round attachment point that rotates to trigger the spring, as with most larger launchers in BTR. Overall, if you're looking for Lego-like pieces to build up a firebase for your regular Transformers, this is a decent piece. It matches Skyblast's colors reasonably well, and is about the right size. Vehicle Mode: First you have to assemble the Trans-Skeleton and fold it into a block. This assembly isn't as clear in the instructions as I'd like. The block created is 3" (8cm) long and 2" (5cm) wide, mostly white and gray with a little dark red. Assembly is pretty straightforward, although the fact that the legs don't stay pegged in place very well and can cause some frustration in putting this together. The resulting jet is clearly Ramjet, a triangular wedge longer than it is wide, rather than the short and wide shape of Skyblast. It's about 5" (12cm) long, with a wingspan of 3.75" (9.5cm), mostly white with red and gray trim. The hooked wingtips remind me of G1 Slingshot (Harrier VTOL). In fact, it's possible to make a Slingshot-ish version, although with canards and a split tail (and it doesn't use all the pieces). I'm particularly annoyed that they didn't remold the nosecone piece to make it so you could mount the missile launcher under the nose instead of having to put it off-center on the fuselage (or a wing). That would have helped a lot in giving the illusion this was actually supposed to be Skyblast. The closest you can come is centerlining it on the underside of the jet, but in that case the missile doesn't even poke out past the nose. Reassembly: It's basically about taking ALL the pieces off the Trans-Skeleton, unfolding the T-S and putting a few pieces on the front, then sticking all the remaining vehicle parts onto the back in a not very stable configuration. Official Robot Mode: 4.5" (11.5cm) tall. Aside from the face and the general colors, it looks nothing like Skyblast. Even a simple thing like using the clear 1x2 red piece to represent an Energon Star is muffed, as it's supposed to be placed at the lowest rank of pegs on his abdomen. The arms are stubby but have universal ratcheting action, and the waist turns on another ratchet. However, because of the huge backpack kibble, you really can't turn at the waist without knocking something off. If you take a little care, you can fire the arm-mounted "marble-shooter" rifle (so-called because there's a sphere on the missile that snaps into a claw, pressing on the back of the missile builds up force until the claw gives way and the missile shoots out, like a marble). It fires straight up under a foot (20-30cm). Unofficial Robot Mode: It's possible to get a robot mode that's closer to the real thing, at the cost of some of the poseability. I took pictures here: http://www.dvandom.com/images/btrskyblast.JPG It's as tall at the head as the official mode, but a total of 6" (15cm) tall at the top of the nosecone. Because of the tail section being attached to the chest, the arms cannot rotate at the shoulders now, but still can raise up a few clicks. Waist articulation is freed up. The head is a bit farther back than on the official mode, because I needed to use the red block to mount the nosecone section. While the colors aren't correct, the general shape is a lot closer. Piece Fit: Like most non-Lego building block sets, the tolerances just aren't as tight as on Lego, which means that some pieces need to be forced together while others just sorta fall off if you look at them funny. While not the worst fit of any BTR set I've gotten, it's not great. Overall: Well, it looks like the BTR line may be dead, and I can't say as it'll be terribly missed. I've seen actually-transforming Lego Transformers made by fans that were lightyears ahead of the best of BTR, and the way BTR was designed made it hard to use the pieces to make anything but slight variations on the theme. That said, I think they might have done a lot better had they started with the Mini-Con style, as this is at least a passable set. If you actually see it on the shelf, you might want to snag it, but don't go to a lot of effort. Dave Van Domelen, considering reviewing some History Collection minifigs he got, but that'll be for another night.