Dave's BW Neo Rant:

     Break
     Dead End
     Stampy 
     Sling

     Here I continue to wade through the pile of BW Neo toys I traded for,
with the non-recolor Basic assortment.  As a side note, please don't ask me
to set up a trade deal for you with my trading partner unless you're someone
I know pretty well...my last attempt to set up something between my trading
partner and a person I didn't know turned out REALLY badly.

CAPSULES

     Break: Very good penguin mode, okay robot, slightly frustrating
transformation.  Recommended.  Prices on this and the other Basics are going
to be mainly shipping an markup.
     Dead End: Nice-looking if immobile beast mode, pretty good robot mode
once you remove the shell bits.  Recommended.
     Stampy: Fair beast and robot modes, third mode is pretty weak
considering how much engineering went into it.  Mildly recommended.
     Sling: Pretty good beast mode and third mode, but the robot makes
Terragator look beefy...a skeleton with beast kibble.  Mildly recommended.


RANTS

CYBERTRON: Break
STR 5  INT 5  SPD 6  END 6  RNK 7  COUR 9  FRP 6  SKL 5  Avg 6.125

     While the r/l confusion in Japanese means he could be named Blake, the
fact that he's paired with Dead End suggests this is a semi-reuse of the name
Breakdown.  And being a penguin, Break has down, so it works out.  }->

     Beast Mode: Just over 4" (10.5cm) tall, Break is a pretty realistically
colored emperor penguin, and is almost as poseable a the real thing.  His
head turns, flippers and feet are on ball joints.  His missile can be loaded
in beast mode, but thankfully sticks out to the side of his tail, so there's
no "bird dropping cannon" thing happening.  Non-beast parts showing are
minimal: the missile, seams, and pegs on his flippers so that Longrack or Big
Convoy can hold his weapon mode.  Very stable mode.  One oddity is a panel on
his chest that folds open like an old-fashioned automobile hood/bonnet.
"Yep, yer penguin needs new sparkplugs, and that belt's gettin' worn!"

     Weapon Mode: Lift out the part holding the flippers and gun, turn the
head aside, and you have a Buster Cannon that the larger figs can carry.  You
have to remove the missile first, however, and pulling that bit out
eliminates most of the toy's stability...panels flop all over in this mode.

     Transformation: Crack the shell, then crack the nuts inside.  Er, I
mean, pull out the robot bits.  Getting everything back in can be tricky,
however, and you practically have to massage the bits back into place.

     Robot Mode: A somewhat puny 3.5" (9cm) tall at the head, he's dwarfed by
his own beast kibble.  The odd, heel-less construction of his ball-jointed
feet makes this topheavy toy even harder to stand up, even with the gun
removed (the gun piece can be removed, but the left arm kibble shell is
screwed on).  Unfortunately, the shoulder pieces have the shoulderpad holder
and the shoulder joint on the same piece of plastic, so you can't get the
arms totally clear of the kibble.  Also, if you raise the shoulders up to
proper position, the beast kibble turns into a hat or something.  One plus in
the poseability department is the waist, which is actually a ball joint due
to the way transformation works.  His insignia crystal is on the gun.
     Of course, this is all snap-together stuff, and you can remove most of
the kibble pretty easily.  You can even make a shorter penguin out of the
removed beast bits.  }->  Sadly, it still doesn't stand up very well even
with all the stuff removed.  Looks nice, though.

     Overall: Ow, my hand hurts from struggling to put him back in beast
mode.  If you're into penguins (for instance, if you use Linux), this is a
good penguin toy.  And it's not a bad Transformer, aside from the kibble
problem.  


DESTRON: Dead End
STR 5  INT 8  SPD 9  END 8  RNK 7  COUR 7  FRP 5  SKL 6  Avg 6.875

     It's the peppermint candy of doom!  Well, not quite...he's light grey
with pink stripes, not white with red stripes.  Still....

     Beast Mode: An ammonite (prehistoric shellfish like a squid in a snail
shell) in a shell 3" (7.5cm) in diameter and 1.5" (3.5cm) thick, like a big
peppermint candy.  With tentacles coming out at one point.  Because he's an
Angolmois'ed up ickycritter, his shell has gaps in it, showing the robot
inside.  This is a good thing, because the gaps help you remember where the
robot arms and legs need to go when you transform him.  The head moves a bit,
but that's the extent of the poseability.

     Camoflage Mode: Well, sorta.  Tip him onto his side and he becomes a
landmine.  The spring that launches his right shell half has just enough
power to get the thing out of the launcher, but if another TF is standing on
Dead End at the time, it'll be knocked over.  "Hey, look...a giant candy!"
BOOM! 

     Transformation: Remove both shell halves, it'll make things easier (the
left one doesn't launch, but it is removable.  Inside resembles the result of
a Transformer trying to play a practical joke on Omega Supreme.  From there,
it's pretty easy to figure out how to get him into robot mode...a bit more
challenging figuring out how to get him back in the shell.

     Robot Mode: A more standard 4" (10cm) tall, pretty well-proportioned and
reasonably stable, although his chest doesn't really lock down.  With the
shell halves removed, it looks like he has side-shooting cannons mounted over
his shoulders, a pretty neat effect...and his insignia crystal is on the left
one.  With the shell on, he looks like he's about to get caught in a nasty
trap.  But the shell halves are nicely balanced, and he can stand pretty
easily with them on.  Unfortunately, they do keep him from moving his arms
much, because like in Break's case, there's a pretty solid connection between
the shoulder and the kibble.
     In theory he can launch his left shelf half in robot mode, but it
basically just falls off.  More of a shield-smash than a real weapon.  Part
of his tentacle mass becomes the Tuning Fork of Doom, his hand-held weapon.
There's a pretty good balance of squiddish colors in this mode, although his
face could use a little more paint to pick out the details.

     Overall: Like Break, something of a latter-day Pretender, but executed a
little better in some respects.  The weakness of his launcher, however,
counts against him.


CYBERTRON: Stampy
STR 4  INT 7  SPD 8  END 4  RNK 7  COUR 4  FRP 5  SKL 8  Avg 5.875

     I have to wonder if the default pose in his beast mode is based on some
kind of folkloric depiction, since he doesn't really stand like a rabbit.

     Beast Mode: 3.5" (9cm) from snout to tail, this is a mainly white
jackrabbit with blue and grey accents and red eyes.  If you try to stand him
on all fours, his butt stick way up and out, and the intended pose seems to
be one frozen in mid-leap.  Can also be stood up on his hind legs pretty
easily, but this exposes robot bits.

     Weapon Mode: Much ado about very little.  An involved transformation
which ranks up there with the fan-created vehicle modes for Transmetal II
Cheetor, but for which the only mechanical gimmick in the toy was intended.
Once put in this contrived-looking scissors mode, you can pull back on his
cottontail and the scissorblades (his ears) move together by about a couple
of millimeters.  Very unimpressive.  And the big peg for Longrack or Big
Convoy to hold is very obtrusive in other modes.

     Transformation: Reminiscent of TM Cheetor, with the head coming apart to
become the hands and the forelegs and back of the beast mode pulling back and
turning into a backpack.  You just pull his head up from its half-retracted
position, which is a bit odd.  And in a repeat of B'Boom, he has puny robot
"toes" that pop down, with the big beast feet becoming huge heels.  Does make
him pretty stable in standing, however.

     Robot Mode: 4" (10cm) tall, his spark is mounted in his chest for a nice
effect.  However, he has one heck of an "outie" belly button, thanks to his
weapon mode handle.  A little lower and he'd be a member of Megatron's
Codpieces for Robots Club.  His rabbit ears are supposedly weapons, but they
don't swing far enough forward to be used that way, and they aren't
removable.  There's round pads on the paws of his beast forelegs, which can
be rotated up into view...wonder if they'll pull a "Diver" and have those as
a weapon in the anime?
     If you pull on his tail, he shrugs.

     Overall: Kinda problematic beast mode, and his weapon mode and gimmick
are almost laughable.  But he has a nice robot mode, the most stable of the
four.  


DESTRON: Sling
STR 6  INT 3  SPD 7  END 7  RNK 6  COUR 9  FRP 4  SKL 7  Avg 6.125

     I almost didn't get this one, but when I was totalling up my side of the
trade, I found I could probably get another Basic without pushing it, or a
Deluxe if I pushed it.  Having a childhood fondness for Dimetrodons, I
decided to not push it and asked for Sling.  Oh, and this is a case where the
r/l confusion doesn't really enter into it.  Sring?  I don't think so.

     Beast Mode: 6" (15cm) long and 3" (7.5cm) high at the sail, Sling is a
pretty good Dimetrodon, although for obvious reasons his sail is a bit
thick.  Side note: Dimetrodons are not dinosaurs, they predate the evolution
of dinosaurs.  Visually, about the only problem with this beast mode is that
the robot legs really aren't hidden well at all, and they drag behind Sling
like a broken muffler.  The head is on a ball joint and has no pegs to fix it
in place, so it kinda wanders around bizarrely when you try to open the
mouth.  The legs are all hip-only affairs, being fused into a single pose
like the forelegs of a lot of four-legger TFs.

     Camoflage Mode: Like pretty much all the camoflage modes of Destrons,
this involves splatting down and playing dead in some way.  After he splats
down (not a hard trick considering how much of a lowrider he is already),
open up his sail.  It becomes a colorful flower with a trap button in the
middle, snapping shut like a Venus Flytrap on anyone who wanders by.  While a
neat idea, ya gotta figure only the stupidest and unluckiest Cybertron will
be nabbed by this more than once.  So figure on Stampy practically living in
Sling's fin.  }->

     Transformation: Split his back apart into shield and tail weapon...a lot
like Terragator's transformation, except the pieces are bolted to his arms
and won't fall off.  Pretty simple from there, although getting the back
pieces together when turning him to beast mode can be tricky.

     Robot Mode: This scrawny robot stands 4.5" (11cm) tall, with an almost
solid yellow body.  His head doesn't like to stay in place and his beast head
doesn't fasten down in this mode either, just sort of flopping on his chest.
There's a big open hole in his back which can be covered by his beast legs.
There's nothing behind his spark otherwise, and if you lift up his beast head
you can shine light through the spark quite nicely.  There's really nothing
you can do to keep him from looking scrawny and kibble-covered, however.
     His beast tail forms, I dunno, a poking weapon that can swing out on a
hinged rod to put an eye out or something.  His flower trap becomes a
snapping shield which is likewise not removable.
     From the color scheme to the scrawny body, Sling's robot mode screams
"CHEEEEESY!"  

     Overall: Get it if you like Dimetrodons, and keep it in beast mode.  Not
worth the effort otherwise.

     Dave Van Domelen, keeping Stampy and Dead End in robot mode for now, the
other two in beast mode....