Dave's Galaxy Force Rant: GD-08: Dino Shout (Undermine, formerly Wreckloose) GD-06: Inch Up (Dirt Boss) The names in the parentheses are the presumed TF: Cybertron names for the two listed in the TFCC newsletter. I picked these two up at BBTS's clearance sale for not much more than the anticipated US prices, otherwise I would have just waited for the Cybertron versions. [Later note: Wreckloose got renamed Undermine.] CAPSULES Dino Shout: Good, if chimerical, beast mode. Nice transformation, decent robot mode. Gimmick needed a little more work. Recommended. Expected to be about $7 in the US. Inch Up: Kinda ugly colors, excessive backpack, and an unstable gimmick in vehicle mode, but still fairly good. Mildly recommended. Expected to be about $10 in the US. RANTS I will not include the translations of the techspecs here, you should be able to find them at bwtf.com. Oh, and I'm doing these out of numerical order because I'm doing them in size order, Basic then Deluxe. :) Sorry... SCOUT, then Deluxe. Rassum-frassum ad geniuses.... First, some general comments about the planet keys (I forget if it's called something different in Galaxy Force). The basic idea is the same as the various action features in Armada that were triggered by Mini-Cons. Something pops out, deploys, unlocks or whatever when you insert the key. However, the interface is significantly larger than live hardpoints, sometimes adding bulk to a toy in bad ways. Also, instead of getting a potentially nifty little transformer to activate the gimmick, you instead get a 1.5" (4cm) long piece of clear plastic with some silver paint on it, whoopie. From what I've seen of some in-package Cybertron toys, in fact, there's not even as much paint on the Cybertron keys as on the Galaxy Force ones. The key has no way of being attached to (or held by, in cases where the hands are peg-holed fists) the figure except being inserted into its keyhole. Having a 5mm hole through the key somewhere so that standard pegs could be used for attachment would have helped a lot. All in all, I find the planet keys to be a less satisfying gimmick component, and they're even weaker than they could have been (I doubt it would have cost extra to make the molds have 5mm holes in them). DESTRON: DINO SHOUT Code: GD-08 Planet: Animatros Altmode: Spinosaur (more or less) STR 7 INT 8 SPD 8 END 7 RNK 6 COUR 7 FRB 7 SKL 9 Tot 59 Assuming the stats are in "standard" order. They list the total on the card. Packaging: The Basics use a style of blister card I've seen most often on Microman toys. Rather than gluing the plastic blister to the cardstock backing, the blister holds onto the card using tabs all the way around, taped down. Even with the tape cut, you can store it securely in package. The front inside of the bubble has a golden yellow cardstock insert with the character's name in large Japanese characters with the name in small English letters below. The front of the backing card reminds me of BWNeo with its use of CG character art and background. The actual line name is pretty small in the upper left corner, and "GD-08 Destron" is in the upper right. Hollow font letters running down the right side say "GALAXY FORCE", but this is partly blocked. On the left in solid italic is "ANIMATROS", which I presume is what Beast Planet is called in GF. Just above where the bubble starts is what looks to be a motto or tagline for Dino Shout. The back is typically busy for Takara stuff. In the upper left is a little Animatros battle scene showing the various beastmode characters fighting, and a few of the non-beast principals (like Convoy) involved as well. A picture of Dino Shout's robot mode is to the right of this, and below a sort of "strobe effect" transformation sequence for the toy. Below the middle line is a demonstration of how the planet key pops out a spine from Dino Shout's back crest. And the bottom quarter is given over to dense legalese in Japanese. Once the rather large amount of tape is cut, the interior can be accessed. I recommend just cutting three sides, so that the backing card will be more stable when resealed. And a really sharp knife is best for slitting the tape. The paperwork bag is taped to the backing with tape that lets you carefully peel it off without the need for cutting and without damaging the card. The paperwork includes the usual trading card, with techspecs and a bio note I'm guessing is in the voice of Galaxy Convoy, since his headshot is next to it. This has the second volume catalog (no comic). There's also the usual incomprehensible-to-me postcard to send in with your personal data so that you can be added to Takara's database. The instructions are single- sided and use grayscale photos of the toy (or a gray prototype) with purple highlighting bits of interest. There's also some sort of web interactive ad thing. Hmmmm, there's a sort of Big Daddy recolor/remold of Armada Sideswipe in the recolor auxiliary. Keen. A little more detail on the card. On the front is the CG version of the character as on the backing card. On the back, the upper 3/4 is split almost half and half vertically, with photos of robot and beast mode on the left, and techspec bars on the right. At the bottom of the techspec bars is the total of the 8 numbers and the symbol of the character's planet. The bottom 1/4 is the bio note, and in this case there's a headshot of Galaxy Convoy at the left of it. The planet key is just held into the tray by the shape of the plastic bubble, but six twist-ties hold Dino Shout into the tray. Beast Mode: Okay, I said above that it's a Spinosaur, and it's certainly meant to generally evoke that beasty. But the head is not a Spinosaur's elongated snout, it's more of a raptor or even T.rex. In general, the beast mode is more like a cross between a raptor and a T.rex with a fin stuck onto the back. And it's not even a Spinosaur-style fin, it's more like a shark fin or a parasaur head sail. Ew, icky mental image...young punk raptor kills a parasaur, rips off its sail and attaches it via body piercing. Anyway, no real homage here, and the US name of Wreckloose is brand new. Maybe he's related to T.Wrecks. From snout to tail tip, Dino Shout is up to 6.25" (16cm) long. When posed to be as long as possible horizontally, he's 4" (10cm) tall at the top of the fin. Dino Shout's dominant color is a very bright green, nearly 00FF00 for those who read hex color codes. This green is found on the head, arms, outsides of the thighs, feet, and the stomach area. The neck, tail, calves and most of the body are a dull olive drab green. A medium gray makes up the shoulders, inner thighs, ankles and tail mace (okay, not a feature of raptors, T.rexes or spinosaurs), plus the flip-out blade. The planet key is made of a darkish clear green plastic with silver chrome on the claw-like Animatros symbol and duller silver paint around the edges (more on the key later). There's a lot of gold paint on this toy: all claws, extensive on the fin, on disks over the jaw joints, and along the top of the tail. There's also some metallic blue-gray paint like the sort used on Go-Bot windows, on the fin and on similar joint disks on the hips. A Decepticon symbol is tampographed onto the left hip disc. There's red paint on the eyes and inside the mouth (the molded tongue inside is not painted, but it's a nifty touch). Poseability is good. The head can raise and lower with the jaw opening, although the neck can only wiggle a little. The foreclaws are on hinged shoulders and that's it. The hips are universal joints, and there's three hinge joints on each leg (knee, true ankle, and "ankle" where the leg meets the flat part of the foot). The tail has three hinge joints to let it bend up and down, although the tab that holds the tail in place is pretty weak, so you may have to reattach it after posing the tail. The Animatros planet key has a symbol like a stylized paw at the center, and details around the edges that look like a beast's fanged mouth chomping down on a bone made of stone. When you insert the key into the back of the fin, a 1.5" (4cm) long blade springs out and slices into the back of his neck. Heh. It's Head Punch Luthor all over again! If the neck could swing down and stay there, it might make for a good melee weapon, but all it does in beast mode is render Dino Shout quadriplegic. Transformation: Pretty intuitive, but interesting. We've had lots of toys where the head and neck split to become the arms (like TM Cheetor), but usually the head halves are still in the "correct" orientation. The use of a hinge to fold the shoulders together makes the head halves upside down and backwards. Overall, the dino mode is the robot mode crouching down with its arms in front of it's face, with some flips and bits. But it works well. Robot Mode: 4.5" (11.5cm) tall at the fin, only about 3.5" (9cm) at the top of the head proper. The head with big fin looks more fishlike than dinosaurid, especially the gold visor with red eyeslits. When the key is inserted and the blade deployed, I am strongly reminded of freakyboy Injector. In fact, the overall look is freaky, what with the inverse head half forearms, the dino forelegs dangling like hair extensions over the chest, etc. Poseability is pretty good for a Scout. Ball shoulders, hinge elbows with "hands" that open up, universal hips, and the multiple leg joints from dino mode. No neck or waist turning, but thanks to a transformation joint the figure can bend over a bit at the waist. There are no upper arm or upper leg swivels, which causes some problems for posing, but not a lot. There's rectangular slots on the underside of each jaw half (the top of each "hand") to hold the tail-flail weapon. The tail-flail is 2.5" (6.5cm) long, and its rectangular peg means no one else can really use it. In theory the opening jaw hands can hold other weapons, but awkwardly, and the joint isn't stiff enough to support anything too heavy. It does mean, however, that Dino Shout is one of the toys that can hold his planet key in his hands. The fin blade is actually a feasible head-butting/charging weapon in robot mode, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't also shoot lightning or some other sort of energy in the cartoon. After all, his FRB stat is 7, implying some sort of ranged attack. Overall: There's some small problems here and there, and the auto- decapitation feature could have been thought out a little better, but it's a decent toy. I wouldn't recommend importing it unless you can get it as cheaply as I did ($10), but pick up Wreckloose once he comes out in the US. DESTRON: INCH UP Code: GD-06 Planet: Speedia (yes, Speedia) Altmode: Monster Truck STR 9 INT 6 SPD 7 END 9 RNK 6 COUR 8 FRB 8 SKL 7 Tot 60 Galaxy Convoy's head shot is next to the bio note on this one too. Packaging: This comes in a box that has one of the front edges truncated, much like the BW Neo boxes. Unlike them, though, it has a tab at the top of the sort usually used for peg hanging here, but there's no peg hole or slot. The tab has the logo and a bust shot of the CG art. The front has a window showing the vehicle inside and another cutout showing the planet key. The character's name is at the bottom in Japanese and English as with Dino Shout. A CG image of the robot mode is in the lower right. The left edge is the truncated one, and has "SPEEDIA" on it, with a brownish planet dominating the left side, the truncated bit and the entire left panel. The left panel shows the key gimmicks, but not clearly. The top panel has the strobe effect transformation sequence, while the right has a photo of the toy in robot mode. The bottom panel repeats the logo, CG art, name and a tagline for the character. It's worth noting that both the CG art and the photos show clear red plastic tires, but the actual clear red plastic on the tires is really dark, even appearing black at first look. On the back are photos of both modes, the usual legalese, and a picture of the Speedia battle scene with all the road vehicle mode characters and a few other major ones. As with the Neo boxes, it's best to open the side without the truncation. Less tape, less hassle reclosing. The inner tray is a five sided box with a double bubble tray inside (the halves are taped together). The planet key is in an indent on the outer tray, with a bit of plastic taped over it. The paperwork bag is loose behind the inner tray, and includes the volume 1 catalog, but is otherwise basically the same as with Dino Shout. Takara apparently trusts the double tray, since there's no twist-ties involved in this package. Vehicle Mode: Barneycon. Mostly bright purple monster truck with green exhaust pipes, hood detailing and suspension, silver paint in several places, dark gray front bumper and very dark transparent red tires and windshield. It's more akin to Micromaster Grease Pit in design, and the color scheme doesn't appear on any of the Micromaster monster trucks, so it's not really an homage as far as I can tell. The US name will be Dirt Boss, a new name introduced for the Mini-Con on the Skyboom team. In regular mode, it's 4.25" (11cm) long, 3" (7.5cm) tall and 3" wide. The wheels are an odd design, like yo-yos around green discs. They don't roll very well on smooth surfaces, and the gimmick self-activates a little too easily when rolling it around on rough surfaces. The robot fists are clearly visible in this mode, and the exhaust pipes are horizontal rather than vertical (they're really heavily pegged into place to keep them from popping up when the planet key is inserted). The Speedia planet key for Inch Up is clear red, not as saturated as on the toy itself, so it doesn't look as dark. The symbol is sort of like a stylized lightning bolt with a shockwave, and it's in silver chrome. The edges of the key are various dials and tech stuff, painted silver. When it is inserted into a slot in the box behind the driver's compartment, the wheels spread apart, dropping the vehicle into more of a lowrider aspect. Now it's 2.5" (6.5cm) tall and 4.25" (11cm) wide. It's worth noting that the key is not needed to activate this gimmick. Just press the wheels together and let go quickly, and they'll snap past the block and deploy. Transformation: You need to deploy the wheels first, or they get in the way. [Later note: transforming the legs and twisting the waist will deploy the wheels too.] The front end turns into legs in a fairly clever manner, and you need to keep track of the twists and turns if you want the legs to be able to come together (basically, just pull them straight forward first, avoiding twists of the hips). The arms are pretty obvious, and the head folds out of the big kibble box/backpack. If you leave the exhaust pipes deployed when transforming Inch Up back to vehicle mode, they can be left pointing up. Robot Mode: 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, 6" (15cm) up to the top of his backpack. The torso, shoulders, forearms/fists and lower legs are bright purple, with a slightly duller version on the forearm clamps that held the exhaust pipes in place in vehicle mode (actually, these are gray plastic painted purple). The upper arms, head, pelvis and toes are made of dark gray plastic, as are bits of the hip joints. The thighs, oddly, are of a more bluish plastic found nowhere else on the toy. The wheel backpack is bright green plastic, as are the exhaust pipe guns, and there's bright green paint on the head and boots. The back of the head is clear dark red plastic, but it takes a laser to get even the hint of an eye lightpiping through the one non-cyber eye. The face is silver. The head and waist turn (the neck is very stiff, tho). The shoulders are universal joints, there's upper arm swivels and hinge elbows. The hands have 5mm peg holes (and the pegs they attach to in vehicle mode are on the backpack and could hold Energon weapons). The hips are universal joints, there's a swivel just above each hinge knee, and the toes have transformation joints that can help in some poses. The feet are long enough to avoid the problem of the huge backpack formed by the lower half of the vehicle mode. Inserting the planet key makes the bright green exhaust pipes flip forward 180 degrees to form shoulder cannons. They don't shoot or anything, just look menacing. Because of all the interlinking stuff in the upper body area, you cannot leave the key all the way in without making the head pop up a bit. Pushing the head back down will shoot the key out. Finally, a missile weapon! :) Weird Fan Mode: From vehicle mode, just pull out the legs for Crab Truck mode! This effect can be enhanced by putting the robot arms down the sides like crab legs, although this makes the toy a bit unstable. Overall: Garish colors, overly bulky gimmick, massive backpack...still decent in spite of these issues. Dave Van Domelen, likes the crab mode, heh....