Dave's Transformers Rant: Armada Deluxes Hot Shot with Jolt Cyclonus with Crumplezone Demolishor with Blackout Yeah, I know these are officially "SuperCons", but I'm sticking with the old Basic/Deluxe/Mega/Ultra/Super divisions for now. See my "Overview" post for most comments on the packaging. CAPSULES Hot Shot/Jolt: Hampered by cheap-feeling plastic and a lack of painted detail, but the car mode is decent, the transformation an interesting hybrid, and the robot mode fair. Jolt looks good and makes a cool accessory for any larger vehicle or robot. Mildly recommended. $11.99 at Kay Bee Cyclonus/Crumplezone: Some robot bits get in the way of the vehicle mode, and vice versa, but there's lots of gimmicks that work, decent poseability and good solid-feeling plastic. Crumplezone is a bit off for anything but his cockpit mode. Recommended. $11.99 at Kay Bee Demolishor/Blackout: Very nice tank, good transformation, good robot mode, good gimmicks...and a WIDE variety of fan-modes. Maybe not as good as BMac Scavenger in that regard, but the "Base Mode" listed in the instructions is perhaps the least of the alternate modes for this baby. Crumplezone looks a bit odd, but good. Strongly recommended. $11.99 at Kay Bee RANTS Reminder (or new for those who haven't read my Mini-Con reviews): in talking about the PowerLinx stuff, when I say "connector" I mean the thin peg inside a hole that is found mostly on the Mini-Cons. When I say "hardpoint" I'm referring to the hollow cylindrical peg, often with a button inside the hollow part, found mainly on the larger toys. AUTOBOT: Hot Shot Altmode: Sportscar Mini-Con: Jolt - Helicopter Quote: "Well let's go!" Hot Shot is a young, heroic fighter who rushes into danger without regard to his own safety. He courageously charges into the middle of the fight to aid his friends in battle. He has taken charge in several battles, showing great leadership potential. But he needs the guidance of his elders before he can hope to lead the AUTOBOTS. Will he learn to be a leader who strives for good, or will his reckless nature ruin his promising future? STR 6 INT 7 SPD 9 END 6 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRP 4 SKL 5 Avg 6.25 Between this techspec and the comic, it's clear they intend for Hot Shot to be the main "kid identification" character of this line, much as Cheetor was for most of the Beast era. Too bad they dropped the ball on Hot Shot's toy. Vehicle Mode: A bright yellow sportscar 5.5" (14cm) long and 3" (7.5cm) wide with metallic blue windows, silver grillework and hood detailing, red hubcaps, Autobot symbol and spoiler hardpoints, and black or very dark blue coloration along the bottom. The detail molded into the plastic is largely lost in the bright colors, this toy really could have used a wash like Demolishor's treads. Additionally, the plastic used feels soft and slippery, kinda cheap. It may also hold edges more poorly, damping out some of the modled details. On the design board, this was a good vehicle mode. In practice, not so much so. There are three hardpoints, all attached to the rear spoiler. One on each side (reminiscent of Prowl/Mach Alert's spoiler) and one on top in the middle. Jolt is connected to this middle one and folded over for "super speed" mode. The other two are intended for weapon-ish Mini-Cons, although the two SSTs from the Air Defense Team look good there. Oh, there's a fourth hardpoint on the underside, but it's not really meant for use in this mode. Jolt also carries an engine block/gun that can attach to Hot Shot's hood. Pushing down on the front of this releases the "driving claws" that form the robot mode's feet. This is NOT a PowerLinx gimmick, however, and anything thin enough to fit into the holes (under 5mm) will do the trick. The missile's thin end, for instance. The engine gun doesn't hold on very well, unfortunately. And the driving claws are less than impressive. In Car mode, the missile just rests inside the rear axle, its ends forming the red hubcaps on the rear wheels. The left rear wheel has a much smaller red area than the other wheels, a paint app on its hubcap to make it match the missile color would have been nice. The wheels in front and back are also different. The front wheels are a single piece that rotates around a smooth axle, and they roll freely. The rear wheels have the tires separate from the hubs, and the hubs are fixed. As a result, the friction on the rear wheels is a bit higher. Also, since the rear hubs don't turn, it looks like the rear wheels don't turn at all. Kinda odd. The robot head is visible through the back of the car, I guess they figured Jolt would cover that up, so why bother. Transformation: Four fairly large panels just fold down and out of the way, making Hot Shot more closely related to the Robots in Disguise designs than the rest of the line. After folding down the panels, the rest is pretty trivial, the only real challenge comes if you try to do things out of order (like move the arms before folding the panels down all the way). Robot Mode: There's a lot more red in this 5.25" (13cm) tall robot. The visual design is meant to look like a race car driver, complete with helmet and five-point restraint (they only painted four of the five straps). Contrary to early suggestions, he does NOT have a goofy grin. In fact, he's gritting his teeth, and his mouth is almost completely straight across. However, because of the curvature of his face, looking down from above gives the illusion of a smile (what I call the Liefeld Grin). And despite the general brightness of the colors, the balance is pretty good. There's a lot of molded detail which would have benefited from a panel line wash. Poseability is iffy. The hips are ball joints, but the soft plastic used in this toy makes them very weak. In fact, you can't stand him on a smooth surface without him sliding down into terminal splits. The knees are restricted ball joints (about 45 degrees of normal knee bend, plus spin around the long axis for transformation). The shoulders just lift to the sides, which is a very sturdy joint that melds smoothly into vehicle mode, but it's kinda disappointing as a joint. The elbows bend normally, and there's a swivel just above them that gives some extra poseability but looks very bad in anything but straight-ahead position. The head does not move, although a black visor does drop down over the face. I get the impression the visor was originally planned to be smoky translucent plastic. The hardpoint where Jolt normally sits in vehicle mode is not normally accessible in robot mode, but you can pull the panel out a little and attach Jolt as a buzzsaw weapon. The hardpoint on Hot Shot's back activates his missile launcher gimmick (more on that in a second). The engine block gun can fit either on the spoiler hardpoints over Hot Shot's shoulders, or plug onto his chest as armor. It holds on well in this duty. It can't be held in his hand, though. Well, it can sort of sit there. Finally, Hot Shot's fist pegs are intended for holding the Star Saber. Due to the plastic quality, though, it doesn't always fit right for everyone, and some people have reported stress marks (but not everyone has). And now for the launcher, the gimmick that ate Hot Shot's shoulders. And it's a veritable Rube Goldberg of connected springs, levers and buttons, let me tell you. If you plug a Mini-Con into the hardpoint on his back (Jolt doesn't seem to work well for this, oddly) and push up on the hardpoint, the launcher formed frmo his rear axle flips up, spins around and launches its big red missile in one smooth action. Usually leaving the missile somewhere inaccessible in the room the first time you discover this. You can't deploy the launcher and not fire the missile (assuming it's loaded). Not using the PowerLinx, anyway. However, it's easy enough to pop it out by just pushing on the latch that holds it in place, and it will not rotate around and fire. Then you can push the hardpoint, even without a Mini-Con on it, to rotate and fire the missile. But as long as the launcher is pointed forward, its trigger is pressed. I'm tempted to set up some sort of zipline to run the axle down. }-> Pushing the trigger hardpoint when the missile is not loaded will cause it to rock back as if by recoil. [Later note: If you're REALLY careful, it's possible to get the launcher to pop up by attaching the Mini-Con and not whip around to fire.] Jolt: This is a red helicopter with a couple of silver and black accents. It's sadly made of the same cheesy-feeling red plastic as Hot Shot's legs, and as a result it's floppier than I'd like. There's two connectors, one on the underside of the main body and one on the underside of the tail. The Mini-Con symbol is molded onto the pilot side door. The vehicle is 2.5" (6cm) long, with a rotor diameter of just over 2.5" (7cm). The rotor spins very freely, and Hot Shot's engine block gun pegs onto the bottom of Jolt. There is a LOT of panel line detail molded onto this toy, it's just begging for an ink wash. Transformation is pretty much Micromaster style, fold down the legs and flip the tail down to become the chest. Swivels at shoulders and hips (although there's a little freedom of movement in the hips to let the legs separate a bit and get around the tail rotor), bending knees. No connectors available in robot mode. Undocumented (I think) feature: the rotor assembly can pivot on its own, and detail molded onto the back underneath this suggests the rotor is intended to rotate up and let Jolt fly as if wearing a giant propellor beanie. Jolt makes a good buzzsaw weapon for other figures, as mentioned. And he might make a a good flightpack for Grindor...except Grindor can fly already. }-> [Late note: forgot to mention that Jolt can hold the gun/engine in robot mode too.] Overall: While often hailed as the new toy Antichrist, the only real sins Hot Shot is guilty of are those of poor paint application and a bad choice of plastic. He's a lot more poseable and detailed than pictures might suggest, and he likes jam. DECEPTICON: Cyclonus Altmode: Helicopter Mini-Con: Crumplezone - Tank Quote: "Out of my way! Attack!" CYCLONUS is so reckless that even his own DECEPTICON allies are afraid of him. While performing aerial attacks, he may suddenly fly off to attack a lone AUTOBOT, leaving his companions unprotected. MEGATRON likes to let him loose because he's so dangerous in battle, but he has trouble stopping him once he gets started. Will CYCLONUS ever learn to control his savage recklessness? STR 8 INT 5 SPD 8 END 7 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 5 Avg 6.625 The name card inserted in the packaging for Cyclonus was misprinted with a big Autobot symbol, so they put a sticker over it with the correct Decepticon symbol. This is perhaps emblematic of the many secrets Cyclonus keeps.... Vehicle Mode: 6" (15cm) long with a 7" (18cm) diameter rotor and 4.5" (11.5cm) wingspan. This is sort of a hybrid of helicopter gunship and helicopter transport. Basically, the cockpit suggests transport, but the stub wings (not to mention massive armament) say gunship. Of course, the cockpit becomes gunship-type when you attach Crumplezone. The main colors are light blue, white and gold/tan, with purple paint apps and a few bits of dark blue plastic. Oh, and one red stripe across the front of the cockpit. A Decepticon symbol is molded onto the right wing, and rather inexpertly painted. Weapon pods under the wings include both molded weapons and working missile launchers triggered by attaching a Mini-Con to the relevant hardpoint. You can also fire the missiles by pressing in with a pin, twist-tie, etc. You can't mount a Mini-Con without firing the missile, though. [Later note: Some have claimed you can get the Mini-Con on well enough not to fall off without firing the missile. Personally, I couldn't...in fact, it could launch the missile AND fall off.] The robot legs are folded up under the main body, and do not firmly attach to anything, so they're kinda floppy. Molded guns emerge from them, and there's also a hardpoint on each side that pops out molded guns for strafing runs. The tail section includes a trigger that when pulled spins the main rotor. It also spins a number of gears on the underside of the main body, one of which is involved in Crumplezone's gimmicks (to be discussed when I cover that Mini-Con). The rotor spins backwards a bit when you release the trigger, which suggests it's a bit too tightly geared and might strip. The vehicle mode has a couple of undocumented features, which may be abandoned gimmicks or (as some speculate) ways to interact with the upcoming Destruction Team Mini-Cons. Under the cockpit is an open rectangle with a pair of obvious clips on it for holding...something. An additional gear protrudes through this hole, and others have confirmed that it is NOT part of the Crumplezone gimmick. Rather, it's for something else entirely. Next, the tail assembly of the vehicle mode can be slid off the end, and is clearly designed to attach to something as a flightpack or something. There's a few ways to attach it to Cyclonus's robot mode (most easily on the right hand, while the missile is loaded) as a shield/weapon. It does not have a connector or hardpoint, though, so it can't be easily attached to Mini-Cons. Nor does the opening in it slide over either of Cyclonus's hands (the attachment methods that have been found take advantage of other protrusions and stuff on the forearms). Finally, there is at least one report of a Cyclonus with the tail section glued in place, so it might well be an abandoned gimmick. [LATER NOTE: Pictures of the packaging for upcoming second wave Mini-Cons confirms that the Destruction Team can clip onto Cyclonus's underside gearbox.] Transformation: Fold down and rotate the legs, bend the fuselage, fold down the arms. Pretty simple. A decent gerwalk (legged vehicle with arms) mode is possible, though. You have to really exert excessive force on the legs to fully straighten them the first couple of times. Also, you can remove the main rotor and attach it to one of the arm-mounted hardpoints if you want. The rotor attachment has a protrusion on the side, though, so no putting Mini-Cons on it for helicopter rides. Too bad...spinny minis would be fun. If you remove the tail section as well, you improve the range of motion for the legs. Note, the toy is a bit mistransformed in the package. The arms are pointed the wrong way, probably to make it easier to get into the bubble. Robot Mode: 6" (15cm) tall, the color balance remains about the same as in vehicle mode. Cyclonus's face is painted red, with neon green eyes. The head has a tendency to drift backwards, as the hinge it's on is a bit loose. Shoulders and elbows are hinges, with a little extra shoulder motion possible by flapping the stub wings. Hips are swivels, and the knees are hinged but lock very tightly in straight position. The heel spurs can move down a bit, but this doesn't help more than a couple poses. If you leave the tail section on, the legs can't move backwards from straight down. All the hardpoints continue to work in this mode, and the leg guns now flip up in a Fortress Maximus sort of way. The trigger can still be pulled, more or less, but the front gears are no longer connected to it. As mentioned earlier, the rotor can be attached to any hardpoint for use as a melee weapon. Cyc's fists are closed and have no peg holes, so he cannot use the Star Saber normally. However, the connectors in Sonar can be placed on the hardpoints on Cyc's forearms (this will, of course, launch the missile on that side). You can also attach the Star Saber using its central connector (on Jetstorm-is-blue), making it look more like a Star Shield. Crumplezone: A small tank in the same basic colors as Cyclonus, with an obvious helicopter cockpit stuck on its backside. Connector is on the center of the underside (robot chest), with the Mini-Con symbol molded into the plastic next to the connector. Vehicle mode rolls along on four little wheels inside the molded tank treads, and its turret rotates all the way around. It's a bit bulky and wide, almost a SuperDeformed tank. Not counting the cannon sticking out the front, it's 1.5" (4cm) long AND wide. Transformation has the legs fold out and the hips spin around, and that's about it. Robot mode is 2.25" (6cm) tall at the head and very top-heavy. The legs have swivel hips and waist, and hinge knees, but are pretty spindly in the middle. And the feet really need heel spurs for stability, even assuming you can keep it from slowly sagging over. The hip joints are a bit looser than I'd like. Also, the foot pieces don't lock together, making them wobbly in both robot and vehicle modes. However, interestingly, it stands very nicely behind Cyclonus's head, with the feet wrapped around a hump. "Now I'm 8 inches tall!" No, Cyclonus, Monty Python sketches notwithstanding, you're still 6" tall. By rotating the treads and turret around 180 degrees, Crumplezone turns into his main "partner" mode. Flip up Cyclonus's cockpit and you can snap Crumplezone into place as a new cockpit, a more appropriate gunship type. In helicopter mode, pulling the tail trigger also causes a cam to spin inside Cyclonus, tripping the end of Crumplezone's cannon and making it flick back and forth. However, it's relatively easy to get it into a position where it won't flick back, and then the cam stays out of position and won't trigger the gimmick at all. I've found that the problem sometimes fixes itself if you remove Crumplezone and mess with the trigger a while (transforming may also help). Crumplezone's bulk and squat appearance makes him bad for use as a weapon, though. Cyc looks okay with Crumplezone on his chest in robot mode, though. He can't see over his own flipped-up cockpit, but hey. The sacrifices we make for fashion. Overall: Decent and solid, lots of gimmicks and the promise of even more in the future (hopefully these aren't abandoned features, like Tigerhawk's tank mode). A good toy. DECEPTICON: Demolishor Altmode: Antiaircraft Tank Mini-Con: Blackout - Combat Car Quote: None available. There are no techspecs online for Demolishor. So I will now make some up! Quote: "Get down here!" DEMOLISHOR is a high-powered ground combat vehicle like his commander MEGATRON, but there the similarity ends. DEMOLISHOR is a very straightforward DECEPTICON, preferring nothing more subtle than a barrage of explosive shells. Without his partner BLACKOUT, he's normally limited to a pair of five-barrelled calliopes that let him sweep the skies of Autobots. With his MINI-CON partner, however, he gains the ability to fire powerful long-range missiles at any target he can acquire on radar. BLACKOUT also has his own radar, and often goes afield to scout out targets for his master. But DEMOLISHOR's tactics are for the open battlefield...can he long survive the covert battles of DECEPTICON politics? STR 8 INT 4 SPD 4 END 7 RNK 5 COUR 8 FRB 9 SKL 7 Avg 6.5 Demolishor's name card also had the Autobot misprint, and the same sticker fix. Note: the "Demolishor looks like Metroplex and MW Soundwave had an angry, angry child" line is starting to get credited to me. I didn't come up with it, I just liked it enough to spread around. Vehicle Mode: Demolishor is an anti-aircraft tank, similar in layout to the "Sergeant York" AA Tank. Rather than one main gun like a battle tank, there's weapon banks on either side of the turret designed to fill as much volume of air with projectiles as possible. The tread section is 4" (10cm) long and 3" (7.5cm) wide. The turret is just under 4" (9.5cm) wide if you count the hardpoints, and the loaded missile launcher is 3.5" (9cm) long, 4" (10cm) when extended. The main colors are red, light tan and dark gray, with accents of silver, dark beige, olive green, reddish brown and a purple Decepticon symbol (molded onto the left front of the turret). The reddish brown on the front of the tread housing looks like it's supposed to be mud, but it looks more like dried blood. The tank rolls on four plastic wheels concealed within the tank treads. The wheels are notched to blend in better with the treads and also to give a more rumbling feel to the rolling. The turret can turn all the way around, and the launchers on either side can elevate independently about 45 degrees before they get blocked by the tread housing. The five-barrel guns (which I'm calling calliopes after the multibarrelled AA weapons) on each launcher can be bent backwards to cover the rear arc. There are four hardpoints, two on each side of the turret, but only one of them activates anything. By placing a Mini-Con on the left side lower hardpoint (or poking a thin object into the hole on the hardpoint), the left launcher springs forward about 6mm and the trigger for it is released. Once this is done, you can pull back on the hardpoint at any time, with or without attached Mini-Con, to launch both missiles at once. The right side launcher is just a missile holder, it has no mechanism. I am told by those who have tried this that it is possible to remove the right launcher and replace it with the left launcher from another Demolishor, in order to get one Demolishor with two launchers and one with none. This operation will require a screwdriver, however, as the arms don't simply pop off. There's enough symmetry in the arms that the modified Demolishor will not look too odd. In addition to the hardpoints, Demolishor's tank mode has two more places for Mini-Cons. The rear decking of the tread unit can be rotated around a horizontal pin through the back end, bringing up a chair that some Mini-Cons can sit in, especially Blackout. And Blackout's vehicle mode can be plugged into a hole between the front treads to fill the gap. Pushing a button behind the turret will launch Blackout. However, the tolerances are pretty fine, and some of the time Blackout will get hung up on the treads on either side, just sort of bouncing around inside without actually launching. You can improve the chances of a launch by lifting the cannons on Blackout up a bit. Transformation: The upper half of each tread unit folds down at each end to form big thighs. The treads themselves mostly fold down into thin lower legs and feet. The hips fold closer together on a couple of hinges. Then rotate the upper body and decking around 180 degrees at the waist, pull the upper body halves apart, flip up the head and fold the forearms down and around. Easy to do, but involved enough to be interesting. The method of turning treads into legs is at least somewhat new, and even if the results look a little odd, it's nice to see innovation. Note: There is a "base mode" listed in the instructions. It's pretty weak. A whole raft of fan modes have already been devised, including gun mode, Guntank mode, and a walker mode called variously AT-ST, ED-209 or Locust (after the Battletech mech) mode. While probably not as flexible as Beast Machines Scavenger, Demolishor is certainly a fun toy to find alternate modes for. Robot Mode: A little over 5.5" (14cm) tall at the head, closer to 8" (20cm) if you count the missiles sticking up from his shoulders. To the existing colors, the robot mode adds an orange stripe across the center of the chest and neon green eyes. The right eye looks more like an eyepatch or targeting reticule, and is even molded with some targeting computer patterns. Demolishor is snarling. Shoulders and hips are swivels, although the folding panels inside the hips allow the legs to be spread apart a bit. The elbows are hinges, as are the knees. The ankles have some movement possible, but not in a really useful direction for robot mode (very useful for the "walker" modes, though). The waist spins around freely, since it's the turret mount. The control seat can be deployed, letting Blackout sit behind Demolishor's head in a sort of "Master Blaster" mode. It's also easy to transform the arms back to weapon mode to give Demolishor a "Centurion" mode that combines legged mobility with full firepower. Blackout's vehicle mode cannot be plugged into its launcher in robot mode, as it's blocked by the piece that has the chair (even if the chair is moved out the way, there's still enough bits in the way). The calliope hands of robot mode cannot hold the Star Saber, but the forearm hardpoints can be used in the same way as those on Cyclonus to equip Demolishor with that weapon. Blackout: This Mini-Con is an oddly shaped "combat car" designed mainly to be able to fill the gap between Demolishor's front treads. The connector is in the center of the underside (in the middle of the robot chest), and the Mini-Con symbol is not visible in vehicle mode, being on a covered part of the robot chest. Vehicle mode is 4cm long and 3cm wide, shorter in length if you discount the cannon barrels sticking out the front. It's a six-wheeled vehicle by mold, but the middle pair of wheels is just molded on and not even painted black to match the rolling wheels (something for customizers to do). The main colors are the red and light tan from Demolishor, plus medium gray and orange. There is a radar dish that can be flipped up, and an alternate "scout" mode which has the cannon arms fold up to cover the top of the vehicle when the dish is deployed. This extra mode is NOT an afterthought, as the joints that make it possible are not necessary for transformation or even robot poseability. Transformation from combat car mode just involves folding the legs down. You can also fold the radar dish up over the head of robot mode for another version. The instructions make much of the possibilities of this Mini-Con. A number of gun modes are possible for attaching to Demolishor's forearm. Robot mode stands a lanky 2.5" (6.5cm) tall at the head. There are no hands on the arms, not even molded into the sides. The shoulders are swivels, and the "scout car" hinges let the arms spread apart when raised. The hips are swivels and the knees are hinges. The upper legs are VERY short, however, and the knees only bend about 45 degrees, being mostly useful to making a more squared-off sitting position. The face is a blank silver plate with a red visor. There's a lot of orange visible in this mode. Attachment gimmicks have already been discussed. Overall: Solid vehicle mode, a good number of gimmicks that work, and many possible transformations for both Demolishor and Blackout. Definitely the star of this threesome. Dave Van Domelen, took three days to write this monster.... UPDATE! Hasbro finally put up a Techspec for Demolishor, and here it is: DECEPTICON: Demolishor Quote: "As you command." DEMOLISHOR fights ferociously in every battle to which he's sent, regardless of the odds. If MEGATRON tells him to do something, he does it without hesitation. To DEMOLISHOR, a leader must always be obeyed at any cost. MEGATRON values the unswerving loyalty of his best soldier, but abandons him, when necessary, to save his own life. DEMOLISHOR has never resented any of these betrayals. But will there come a day when DEMOLISHOR questions the orders of his leader? STR 8 INT 5 SPD 6 END 6 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRB 8 SKL 7 Avg 6.75 Yep, he's a Cylon. I can almost hear him saying his quote in a tone like a Cylon centurion's "By your command."