Dave's Mega Transformers Rant Skywarp with Thunderclash Overload with Roll-Out Predacon with Skid-Z and Side-Burn Red Alert with Longarm (no review, just capsule) Got these over the course of a couple weeks. Found Skywarp first, someone had beaten me to the Overload, but I got one later on. Also picked up Predacon, but passed on Beach Red Alert, just listing him above for completeness. Strictly speaking, this is two waves: wave 3 regular and wave 1 Powerlinx. But I'm just melding them together. CAPSULES Skywarp: Nice-looking remold, but suffers extensively from differences in tolerances. Thunderclash is very nice. Mildly recommended. $19.76 at Wal-Mart. Overload with Roll-Out: Colors a bit too saturated, vehicle mode kinda "thrown together chunks with wheels on 'em" in nature, robot mode pretty unposeable. But lots of fun transformation stuff and the classic transformation sound effect. Good play value despite flaws. Recommended. $19.99 at Target. Predacon with Skid-Z and Side Burn: I actually like the colors of this remold of Transmetal Megatron, and losing the purple chrome is a definite plus. Joints are stiffer than on the original (well, most of them). Bad choice of Mini-Cons to go with this one, though. Recommended if you don't have TM Megatron, Mildly recommended if you do. $18.80 at Wal-Mart (price drop in the weeks between Skywarp and Predacon). Red Alert with Longarm: Red Alert gets an orange and white beach patrol recolor, didn't care for it. I presume there's no other significant changes, but will amend this file if any are reported to me. Neutral. $18.80 at Wal-Mart. RANTS I kinda doubt we'll ever see techspecs for these guys, especially Skywarp and Predacon, so I'll just make my own. DECEPTICON: SKYWARP Function: Air Warrior Altmode: Aerospace Fighter Mini-Con: Thunderclash Motto: "Why run away when you can run amok?" SKYWARP came from the same famous manufactory as STARSCREAM, and the two have had a moderate rivalry for years. SKYWARP is the newer model, but STARSCREAM is more experienced. This rivalry has never come to blows, however. Among the advantages granted by his "newer model" status are a STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) capability and circuits that let SKYWARP manipulate DECEPTICON warp technology to make short hops of up to 2.5km in addition to transport on an interplanetary scale. This gives him a strong tactical advantage that he exploits ruthlessly, often warping right behind an opponent and unleashing the power of his Energon Lances. However, he gets a bit predictable, and often finds his victim whirling about just in time to make him the target of a surprise attack. In robot mode he is able to detach one wing and use it as an Energon Whip to cut opponents to ribbons. THUNDERCLASH is loyal to SKYWARP, but prefers a straightforward fighting style, considering SKYWARP's use of teleportation to be dishonorable. This doesn't stop him from attaching to SKYWARP's nose and helping make the sudden strikes from behind, though. STR 8 INT 4 SPD 9 END 7 COUR 8 RNK 5 FRP 8 SKL 7 Avg 7 Okay, a bit long-winded, but hey. Skywarp is really bound in there. 9 twist-ties and 4 rubber bands, plus another twist-tie for Thunderclash (this last one needs to be cut, since it just goes through the support bubble, not all the way through to the back). All the hard parts of Skywarp are the same mold as Starscream, except for the head. They changed three soft parts, all making them from violet plastic: - The tail fins, which have gold (non-spinning) turbofans molded into them. - The canards, which have been shortened to just little cannons. - A fin added to the top of Skywarp's head, which acts as a weird too-far-forward vertical tailfin. Skywarp is mostly black with light gray parts and a lot of violet. He has gold/copper paint on his STOL fans, the openings of his launchers (which are yellow on Starscream) and a bit on his forearms. There's red paint on his jet intakes and some bits on the thrusters. His cockpit is yellow-orange, staying true to Skywarp G1. The Decepticon symbols molded onto the wings are painted with white borders this time. The colors look good on him. His new head is gray plastic with the purple "horn" and a black faceplate. No mouth, and rows of slits instead of a nose, vaguely reminiscent of Gundam faces. They remolded things a little (I think) so that the missile launchers cannot just be squeezed or pushed to flip forward, you need the Mini-Con. This is really the only bit that holds together better on Skywarp than on Starscream. The wings pop off very easily, probably due to the fact that the plastic used on Skywarp isn't the same as the kind used on Starscream (yes, this is my usual recolor complaint, but I doubt we're talking mold rot yet on this one). Also, the wing-sword REALLY has trouble holding together. Some of the floppiness may just be mold release oil (although this is why I call it a whip in my bio note), but it feels on the verge of popping apart. At the other end of the spectrum, I need to use a metal tool to pull out the fists, my nails feel like they'll tear before the dratted fists come out. An allen wrench is actually pretty good for this...insert in the fist hole and turn. Anyway, just putting the sword in one fist once has resulted in visible stress lines in the fist. Transformation is, of course, identical to Starscream. However, I leave the wings horizontal rather than rotating them, for two reasons. One, they pop off when I rotate them. Two, this helps visually distinguish the two jets. Thunderclash is designed to fit in the same places as Swindle, although you have to fold up the wings to get it onto the hardpoint at the back. Undocumented feature: when you snap it into place under the cockpit, you can fold Thunderclash's wings up to form canards for Skywarp. Oh, and it may just be mine, but pushing down on the cockpit doesn't do as good a job of popping Thunderclash out as it does Swindle. All sounds are identical to Starscream's. Thunderclash: Some sort of starfighter in ligth gray and some violet with a bit of black paint. Connector on the underside of the nose, Mini-Con symbol on the right wing. Vehicle mode is pretty big for a Mini-Con, 2.25" (5.5cm) long with a wingspan of 2.75" (7cm). The main body is gray plastic, with missiles and wingtips in violet. Both violet bits can be moved (missiles swing, wingtips rotate). It's easy for the missiles to get out of alignment and look weird. On the ends of the wings are big horkin' machineguns, making me want to build this as a vehicle in Hard Vacuum, the wargame of WWII space combat. }-> Transformation has a nifty bit for the torso, although the arms (missiles) do NOT move the way the instructions say they do. Robot mode is 2.25" (6cm) tall with a big wide shoulder piece that makes him go along nicely with Skywarp. He can still be clipped under Skywarp's cockpit in robot mode, but it looks kinda bizarre. He has an orange visor and violet thighs in addition to the colors of the jet mode. The black details around his cockpit now become good chest design stuff. He has no hands, but his arms swing through 180 degrees at the shoulders. The hips move freely and the knees can bend 180 degrees as well (as part of transformation). He has huge heel spurs to keep him balanced. He's a beefy Mini-Con with huge machineguns on his shoulders. Fear him. Overall: If it wasn't for the problems with weak joints in the wings, I'd proclaim this superior to Starscream. Sadly, this is a pretty big issue, as are the fists which look like they'll crack if I leave anything in them. Thunderclash is very nifty, reminding me of how Thunderwing's little inner jet combined with his shell in G1 Pretenders. AUTOBOT: OVERLOAD Function: Multi-Role Support Alt-Modes: Shuttle Transport, Weapon Harness Mini-Con: Roll-Out Motto: "I've got a good head on my shoulders." OVERLOAD is pretty cheerful, considering that he's one of those rare AUTOBOTS without a humanoid mode on his own. In a pinch he can transform without ROLL-OUT, but his sensors are poorly suited to navigating in humanoid mode and he tends to be clumsy and half-blind on his own. Normally, ROLL-OUT connects to him in humanoid mode and provides sensors and guidance. OVERLOAD is strong and tough, but even with ROLL-OUT's help can be pretty slow and clumsy. He's best off letting others use his might in a fight, and doesn't mind letting OPTIMUS PRIME do all the thinking when he attaches to his leader in Weapon Harness mode. OVERLOAD's transport mode is only a trailer, and he needs someone else (usually ROLL-OUT or OPTIMUS PRIME) to pull him. He also has a few different weapon platform modes he can assume, but his accuracy is so low that it's best to just let someone else operate him. The truth is, OVERLOAD doesn't mind being treated like non-sapient machinery most of the time, as it frees his mind for creating poetry that would be considered some of the greatest ever written by human or Cybertronian...if he ever showed it to anyone. ROLL-OUT knows about the poems, but even he doesn't get to see them, no matter how much he wheedles...OVERLOAD isn't convinced they're good enough to show anyone yet. STR 10 INT 6 SPD 4 END 10 COUR 9 RNK 5 FRB 8 SKL 4 Avg 7 Note that the comic included with Overload has him and Roll-Out speaking as separate characters, if only for a panel or two. Vehicle Mode: Overload is a God Bomber/Apex Bomber style trailer on his own, a sort of mass of chunks that more or less resembles something designed to transport Jetfire's shuttle mode. It depends on Roll-Out or Optimus Prime to tow it. Overload is overwhelmingly RED. A few dark gray and silver bits, plus some gold and yellow accents. But mostly red. A whole LOTTA red. It does hold Jetfire pretty well, but there's nothing to lock or peg jetfire down, it just rests on the ramp. Sadly, there's no way to drop the ramp at the end to turn it into one big car ramp. Oh, and there's some scallops out of the ramp end "toes"...these are not for connecting to Jetfire as I first thought, they're purely for keeping the toes out of the way in robot mode. It's pegged together pretty solidly and has two dead hardpoints on the sides at the rear. There's a pair of guns near the front, but they're not very obvious given that they're, well, RED. Also, you need to fold them up, the toy is packaged with them folded down. A couple of dark gray canisters are also at the front, they don't do anything, they're the battery covers. Yes, there's a sound gimmick, but it's not available in this mode, although the speaker is pretty obvious above the battery covers. Roll-Out has a big hardpoint on a limited ball joint that acts as a trailer hitch. There's also a second hitch that folds down at the front of Overload for connecting to the back of Base Prime's trailer (it's a bit tricky getting it locked in, though). Transformation to Robot Mode: Once you get the hang of what to twist when, it's fairly simple, but it's getting the hang of this that's the trick. The final step is to pop up the big head from Roll-Out and push the Mini-Con into the slot between Overload's shoulders. This will activate the sound gimmick, which is the "chee-chee-choo-choo-choo" G1 transforming sound effect, woot. I swear, I'm gonna wear out the batteries in this. So nifty. Robot Mode: A big red brick, really. 7" (18cm) tall at the head, add another inch for the shoulder pistons. It just screams "Ultra Magnus", but they decided to hold off the Ultra Magnus color scheme for a recolor (that we may or may not get in the U.S.). The color balance is pretty good, though, and the redness isn't quite as overwhelming in this mode. he has more yellow and dark gray, and his face is dark blue with neon green eyes. His chest has white in it from Roll-Out's front. Poseability? I laugh. Ratcheting shoulders and hips (plus some side-spin on the thighs due to transformation joints), that's it. This toy puts a premium on multimodes, not pose. Oh, and the feet can bend at the ankles, he can ratchet one click forward and lean drunkenly without falling over. You can also put him in a walking position with one leg forward and one leg back. Keep on truckin'. There's six dead hardpoints, not counting the more or less inaccessable one right behind the head. One on each forearm, one top each shoulder stack, one on each boot. He can fire missiles out of his heels, too. His hands are the right size to hold hardpoints or the Star Saber, but there's enough bulk around his fists that he can't always hold stuff. Flipping up the panels on his shoulders that have the Autobot symbols reveals missile pods. LRM-10's, to use Battletech terminology. Other Modes: Overload has two more official modes, at least one that was clearly designed into him but not mentioned in the instructions, and a lot of fan modes possible. Most of these modes involve sliding the boots off his legs and onto the ends of his arms, using a rather clever little mechanism of tabs and slots. This reveals tab-holders in his leg stumps that will attach to the tabs on Prime's Battlepants/trailer. They're really meant to be used to stabilise the battle platform mode, but can also attach to let Overload wear the Battlepants or Space Pants. Not stably, though, they don't really click on solidly. The Battlepack mode (earlier called Battleshirt) basically turns into a big backpack for Super Mode Prime, snapping onto some of the back kibble with a lot of effort to hold on pretty well and provide him with shoulder cannons that fire missiles about a meter. As far as I have been able to determine, Overload cannot become pants himself. He can become a nice set of legs, but there's nowhere to attach Prime's upper half. I did get a decent AT-ST mode out of trying, though. There's also various freestanding battle platforms possible. http://www.protoformproject.com/dvd/images/overload0830.JPG shows some of the modes. From left to right: Battlepack, Pants-wearing, AT-ST, Spacepants-wearing. I'm not going to try to catalog or detail these moeds, suffice to say there's good flexibility in terms of making Overload into other things. Roll-Out: An odd hybrid sort of tractor that looks like it's partially a firetruck or something. Mini-Con symbol is rear of the windows on the left side, connector is under the very front, and the trailer hitch is, as mentioned, a hardpoint on a stick. Vehicle Mode is mostly red (surprise, surprise), with dark gray paers, white at the front, black windows and wheels. A full 3" (8cm) long, this is one of the biggest Mini-Cons, very beefy. It rolls on six deep-treaded wheels. Transformation is fairly simple: fold down legs, fold arms forward, pop up head, fold trailer hitch down. It's easier to get the head up if you pull down the vehicle front first. I recommend removing the legs and swapping them as well, which turns the heel spurs into toes. This also puts the weapon mode barrels at the back, so you can make another improvement (see below) without affecting the look of the robot mode. Robot mode is a fairly tall 3" (8cm) with red torso and legs. Arms and head are dark gray with dark metallic gold accents. There's no hands, just blaster tips to the arms. The shoulders are the only joints worth mentioning. You can make a chibi Overload mode by popping up the Overload head in this mode. Weapon mode just has the vehicle mode with gunbarrels folded out. The handle (trailer hitch) is near the front of the gun, making it hard for a lot of shorter-armed figures to hold it. The gun looks a little better if you pop out the gunbarrel pieces and flip them over, so that the painted detail will be on top when deployed. They're normally set the other way because this makes the painted detail into the shins of the robot mode. Component mode is the vehicle mode with the head popped up. If you deploy Roll-Out's head instead of Overload's, you give the impression of a HUGE robot with tiny head. }-> Overall: A brick, but a fun brick that makes the G1 transforming sound. Worth getting, although if you have patience you might wait and see if the Ultra Magnus color scheme is released here. DECEPTICON: PREDACON Function: Strategist Altmode: Mechanical T.rex Mini-Cons: Skid-Z and Side Burn Motto: "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry, yessss, but not as often as the worst laid plans, nooo." The quantum surge triggered by TERRORSAUR had wider-reaching effects than intended, and several other Transmetalized MAXIMALS and PREDACONS were able to escape the doomed Earth, although they were scattered across parsecs and months in the process. The PREDACON leader once known as MEGATRON was one such refugee, and he quickly realized that his situation would not support an immediate bid for leadership of his new world's DECEPTICONS. So, rather than sport a name that was itself a challenge, MEGATRON renamed himself PREDACON, deciding that he best embodied the "beau ideal" of his native faction. Presenting himself to the native MEGATRON, he offered his services as a strategist, crafting cunning plans for the DECEPTICON forces. While PREDACON's body is more powerful than it has ever been, he is still a small player compared to the AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS around him, so he prefers to stay in the shadows where possible. When that is not feasible, he has captured two Mini-Cons to boost his power temporarily into the range of his potential opponents. In T.rex mode, PREDACON is all about brute force and savage speed, with jaws that can rend battle steel and turbofans that let him fly up to Mach 0.7, albeit with poor maneuverability. In robot mode, his Spark Extractor Claw can pry open chest armor and do hideous damage to the interior of an opponent, even though it does not perform its original function anymore due to the differences in construction in this world. The claw can also fire bursts of electrical energy up to 400 meters with enough power to stun the average Autobot...when empowered by both of his Mini-Cons, these bursts become lethal. But PREDACON's most lethal weapon is his mind, when he doesn't let arrogance blind him to potential flaws in his plans. STR 9 INT 10 SPD 8 END 9 COUR 7 RNK 8 FRB 8 SKL 9 Avg 8.5 I'm not just going to refer you to my old review of this mold, I've decided to do a full review since it's been a while (I *will* say to go look at the Street Speed Team review for Skid-Z and Side Burn, though: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/MiniCon3). Beast mode: A mecha T.rex in proper posture, with body essentially horizontal. It's 10.25" (26cm) long from snout to tail tip, about 4.5" (12cm) tall at the shoulder, depending on how you pose it. The colors are mainly gunmetal gray, forest green and a sort of pale olive green. There's some brown joint pieces, and red and orange painted energon surge details. While the orange is a bit bright, it's really only around the hardpoints, and it's not too bad. The jaw opens, the tiny little forelegs move, and the tail is segmented in six pieces with limited ball joints. The tail tip also opens up as a claw. The rear legs don't really move in a meaningful way in this mode. There are four dead hardpoints, on the shoulders and on the hip fans. The ones on the fans can be used to spin the fans. Unfortunately, both Skid-Z and Side Burn have their connectors at the extreme back, so they just droop down when attached to the fans. Robot kibble is pretty much limited to the robot arms being visible in the chest from below. Transport Mode: Pop out rollerskates and flip up the fans. It's a flying robot T.rex with landing gear. Ph33r it. The fans do spin when you blow into them (unlike TM Megs...must just be looser now), and they can also act as a Mini-Con carnival ride. But not for Skid-Z or Side Burn. As mentioned in my review of TM Megs, the fans cannot be angled, but since the center of mass of the toy is ahead of the fans, it'd naturally tilt forward to give forward thrust. Transformation: Nicely complicated but with only a few minor bits that might be frustrating (such as all the panels on the back). And, um, ignore the picture on the back of the box...the tail "holster" should hang off the hip to one side, not down the front as a codpiece. Robot Mode: At 6" (15cm) tall, he's a bit short for a Stormtroop...er, for a Maxcon. Of course, he was originally a $15 Mega. His head, torso, upper arms and upper legs are brown plastic. His shoulderpads, lower arms and lower legs are gunmetal, and there's forest green accents throughout, for a very nice balance. The pale olive feet stand out a bit, though. Back to the shoulderpads, they're huge and made from the halves of his dino chest. His tiny dino forelegs rest easily behind his head, but with some effort (more effort now that there's hardpoints on his shoulderpads) can be pulled frward as blasters. His face and brow are tan, his eyes neon green, his teeth white and his forehead gunmetal/silver brushed. Poseability is very good. The waist joint is locked down by transformation stuff, but he has universal shoulders and hips (hips ratchet), above elbow/knee swivels and hinged elbows and knees. His feet can also pose some as part of the rollerskate deployment. The shoulderpads get in the way of the arm posing a bit, of course. His hardpoints move to shoulderpads and to the back-mounted turbofans. The dino tail becomes a weapon, flexible and with an opening claw at the end. Unlike with my TM Megs, the tail holds pretty firmly in the hand instead of sagging to the side. Also, the hands are the right size to hold hardpoints or the Star Saber. Mini-Cons: Side Burn is a red recolor of Backtrack, with black windows, silver headlights and neon green turn signals. The hidden robot bits are the same pale olive as Predacon's dino head. Skid-Z is a brown recolor of Spiral, with gold windows (sam greenish gold as some of the accents on Predacon), white headlights, orange turn signals, silver grille and gunmetal hidden robot limb bits. Both cars have silver hubcaps. Neither is any more stable or sturdy than the originals, sadly. And since both have connectors at the rear, it's harder to connect them to anything without looking dippy. They can act as shoulderpad extensors, I suppose. Overall: A good mold improved somewhat. Barely up to the $20 price point, though, and the Mini-Con choices were poor. Dave Van Domelen, not gonna fully review PowerLinx Red Alert, obviously. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/Mega1 has the original review, the new one is orange and white with "RESCUE" markings. Baywatch Red Alert.