Mini November - Mini-Con Recon Team

Mini-Con Recon Team

"Jolt -- the leader of the team, and the only one able to speak a human language - is a great lover of human culture, addicted to television and the internet. On more than one occasion he has caused difficulty for the Autobots by forgetting he's not a human being. Six-Speed and Reverb, though sometimes frustrated by their leader's tendency to become distracted by cartoons and web-comics, love the excitement of missions with their human partners, working as a fast response strike and rescue team on away missions on the Lost Planets."

Generation: Unicron Trilogy

Toyline: Cybertron

Faction: Mini-con (Autobot Allied)

Strength: 5

Intelligence: 7

Speed: 9

Endurance: 6

Rank: 4.5

Courage: 6

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 7

Jolt

Jolt's robot mode features a red and silver torso, black arms and upper legs, green and gold lower legs and a white and clear dome above his head, and also features his black rotors on his back. His Mini-Con port is located on his left arm in this mode.

Jolt's arms are connected to the torso by a simple ball joint that allows them to rotate fully, and can also fold inwards by about 90 degrees (thanks to his transformation). The arms feature sculpted details, including his hands (which couldn't hold anything due to their size anyway).

Jolt's upper legs are connected to the lower torso by a pin joint that allows them to bend forwards and back by about 90 degrees either way. His lower legs are connected to the upper part by pin joints can allows them to bend backwards by just over 90 degrees (you can make them go further by folding back his feet, as if you were transforming him).

Jolt's head is encased in a white and clear dome, however his actual head is fully visible, and we can see that it features a green helmet with a forehead chevron and "ears". His face is silver and features a sculpted set of eyes, a nose, mouth and cheek details. The head itself cannot move, but the dome surrounding it can be rotated around fully, giving the illusion that it's moving if needed.

His rotors are stuck mostly in place by his tail piece on his back, but by simply lowering his tail piece you can allow him to rotate his rotors, as if he was about to use a wind based attack.

Jolt's vehicle mode is a small red, green and white helicopter with black landing struts, a three bladed rotor, and a tail piece with a sculpted rear rotor on the end.

The rotor blades are fully capable of rotating freely, just blow on them or flick them with your finger and watch them go!.

Inside the dome of his cockpit Jolt has a sculpted seating area for the driver and passenger, it doesn't do anything, it just looks pretty :)

His Mini-Con port is located on one of his landing struts in this mode.

Reverb

Reverb's robot mode is mostly blue, but with an orange chest plate and inner lower arms and also features some silver and yellow detailing on his lower legs. His upper arms and upper legs are black. His Mini-Con port is found on his right arm. His head is a blue helmet with antennae ears and a forehead chevron. His face is silver with sculpted eyes, nose, mouth and cheek detailings.

Reverb's arms are connected to his torso by a hinge and pin joint combination that allows them to move outwards by about 90 degrees, and (unlike his team mates) he also features an elbow joint that allows his lower arms to bend forwards by about 90 degrees. The lower arms feature sculpted hands that, despite having tiny holes in the middle, cannot hold a normal weapon (unless you count plugging in another Mini-Con with a gun mode in his Mini-Con port).

Reverb's legs are connected to the lower torso at his groin area. the legs can be bent forwards and back by about 90 degrees either way at this connection and he also features a knee joint connecting it to the lower legs (which is just the front of his vehicle mode).

Jolt's vehicle mode is a blue pick up truck with some orange lining in his holding area. He also features silver windows and front grill, plus yellow lights for his headlights and roof mounted lights.

His wheels are green (shared with Jolt's legs etc) and are fully capable of rolling freely, just put him on a slanted table and watch him go!

His Mini-Con port is located under his vehicle mode, beneath the holding area.

Six-Speed

Six-Speed is a mostly green robot with blue inner lower arms, and clear and black deatilings on his chest. He has black upper legs and knees, as well as his stripes on his back. His Mini-Con port is located under his chest plate, but isn't accessible in this mode easily. His head features a green helmet with small horns and a forehead chevron. His face is silver with sculpted eyes, nose and mouth plate (one similar to G1 Wheeljack's, which is coincidental considering that Wheeljack also turned into a race car).

His arms are connected to the upper torso by a pin joint that allows it to rotate fully, however it does catch on his chest plate every so often, but you can still get past it. Six-Speed features a sculpted hand on each arm, but of course, it cannot hold a weapon of any sort.

Six-Speed's legs are connected to his lower torso by a pin-joint through his groin area that allows it to bend forwards either way by about 90 degrees each. There is a pin in each leg that creates a knee joint with the lower legs, which are created from the rear of his vehicle mode.

Six-Speed's vehicle mode is a mostly green LeMans Race Car, with dark green at the front, leading for a clear cockpit, where Six-Speed's head can be seen as his driver. His rear spoiler is painted with black details, along with a couple of black arrows just behind the cockpit.

Six-Speed's green wheels (same as Reverb's) can allow him to roll along the ground freely as needed (handy for a race car) and has a large enough ground clearance zone so he doesn't catch on anything.

Six-Speed's Mini-Con port is located in the middle of his undercarriage.

My Thoughts

If you know me from the fandom or in real life, then you will (or should) know one important thing about me...I LOVE MINI-CONS!!! The Recon Team is one of my favourites for a few reasons, the most important being that they are fun to play with and to have interact with one another.

Something about this team that I find very interesting is that all three members are totally different types of vehicles, when normally a three member Mini-Con team will have a common theme between them, such as the Sea Team are all aquatic military vehicles, the Predator Team are all wild animals and so on. This team however are all unconnected vehicles, a helicopter, a pick up truck and a race car, they don't even share a common colour scheme, which some teams do.

I got my Recon Team off of Ebay for about £2 (loose) and I've felt that it was a great deal, of course that may be me just being biased due to my love for all things Mini-Con, but I still think it's a justified position as well. The Recon Team have been repainted various times, either as a set or as individuals sometimes as the same characters, but also as new characters, with the most recent repaints being from the 2010 Transformers line as new characters (Drivetrain, Swashplate and Brake-Neck). So if you don't like the colours or characters of these guys, then you can always just buy one of the many repaints, but either way I think it's well worth buying at least one version of each of these molds.

V is for Vector Prime

The Winning Toy

"Vector Prime is one of the first Transformers. A powerful, wise and incredibly ancient warrior, he has served as protector over Cybertron since it's beginnings. Pulled out of the shadows by a distress signal broadcast by his damaged planet, he arrives too late to save Cybertron without assistance. Arising from an era in which all Transformers lived in harmony, he is unaware of the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons, a fact that Megatron uses to trick him and steal the map to the lost planets and the planet keys. Realizing his mistake, he joins Optimus Prime and pledges his knowledge and skill to the desperate quest to retrieve the planet keys before Megatron."

Toyline: Cybertron

Generation: Unicron Trilogy (but all by extension)

Size Class: Voyager

Faction: Autobot

Strength: Unknown

Intelligence: 10

Speed: Unknown

Endurance: 10

Rank: Unknown

Courage: 10

Fireblast: 10

Skill: 10


Robot Mode



Vector Prime's robot mode is actually quite reminiscent of the G1 series as he is quite bulky and box-like in design, but he actually makes it work quite well (this was from a pre-Classics toyline remember). Vector Prime is mostly white, with brown, gold and green highlights across his whole form. He also features sculpted details that shows panelling and fine detailing. The most distinguishing feature of this torso is the red orb inside the green disk on his chest, which could be seen as his Spark Chamber, and is also neatly hidden behind his Cyber Planet Key when it's clipped in (the port is just below the dish). When inserted, the Cyber Planet Key just activates some sound bytes....let's just pretend that a forcefield goes up or something, 'kay?

Vector Prime's arms are connected to the upper portion of the torso by a stiff hinge-pivot joint that clicks when it's rotated. The lower arms are connected by a pivot-hinge combination that enables the lower arms to be rotated fully and flexed 90 degrees forwards as well. Vector Prime's hands are sculpted with fingers and have peg holes for him to hold his sword and other similarly sized weapons. His shoulders are hidden behind two large shoulder pads that can be lowered up or down if you desire (as part of his transformation sequence too), the shoulder pads can be removed as well if you want to with no damage to the toy. Vector Prime's lower arms have a sliding panel that can mostly hide the hands and also holds two of the three Mini-Con hard-points, designed so Safeguard can be posed as a blaster if you want him to.

The legs are connected to the lower torso/groin area by another pivot-hinge joint that leads to a knee joint created by a pivot-hinge combination again, enabling it to rotate around and be placed in a seating pose. The feet are connected by a stiff hinge that can be folded backwards as far as possible (almost 3/4 the way) though it's not that necessary to put it that way. His feet are sculpted with blasters as "toes", so I guess he can shoot you whilst kicking you too.

Vector Prime's head is a brown and silver helmet with green face and red eyes. He is sculpted with eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, forehead chevron and other such things. Now I shouldn't have to tell you this, but Vector Prime's face is actually design to resemble the Autobot Insignia, so you might think it looks familiar because of that.

Vector Prime's vehicle mode wings are folded down into a cloak-like appendage that can be raised upwards or opened up for whatever reasons you have (like pretending it's a flight mode or shield generator or something), but it is designed to look like a cloak. The bulk of Vector Prime's vehicle mode is folded back and hangs off his back, which adds to the cloak look of his physique. His third Mini-Con hard-point is located in the middle of the recessed area just above his Autobot insignia, and he also has a rubberised clear blue plastic sword hidden inside the right hand side of this area which can be held by Vector Prime.

Vector Prime's Cyber Planet Key is designed to look like a gear (keeping the theme alive) which, rather than having just one Planet's symbol, actually has all four, plus a small Autobot insignia as well. Since Vector Prime comes originally from an era before the war, this could imply that there was no Decepticon faction in the distant past.


Alternate Mode



Vector Prime's vehicle mode is a mostly white ancient Space Shuttle covered in finely sculpted deatils, most of which being gear-like in design, just to show how old he is.

Vector Prime has a pair of translucent wings that I'd assume are meant to be Solar Wings of sorts, especially since he's from an ancient era when they would have been using more natural resources, and with what could be small thrusters on the rear ends of the wings as well. What adds to my belief that these are Solar Wings and small thrusters is that he doesn't have any other thrusters unlike on most other aircraft Transformers.

The forward section of the vehicle is mostly just a long protrusion that culminates in a missile firing gimmick at the very tip of it (must resist phallus comparison....). Underneath the protrusion are two pairs of non-firing guns. Vector Prime has a translucent green cockpit window about halfway down the protrusion (though there's nothing inside it to look at, which is a missed opportunity). Just above the cockpit is his tiny Autobot insignia (it's odd that a Prime would have just one tiny insignia like that). Behind the cockpit is a recess designed to hold Safeguard in Vehicle mode, so he can act as an extra weapon, or as an escape vessel or captain's yacht or something.


Safeguard



Vector Prime has a Mini-Con! YAY!!!

As I mentioned in an earlier review very few new mold characters from the Cybertron series came with a Mini-Con, so Vector Prime stand out for a good reason because of Safeguard (not that Vector Prime isn't cool on his own anyway). An interesting thing to mention however is that, when you compare the two, Safeguard and Vector Prime are actually quite similar in terms of transformation sequence and general appearance.

Safeguard is a mostly white figure with black upper limbs, green highlights and face. His Mini-Con socket is located on his stomach area and is sculpted with pecs and some mechanical parts integrated into his body. His head is encased on a helmet with two points at either side and a recessed chevron on the forehead. Safeguard's face however consists of a green face mask and a pair of unpainted white eyes.

Safeguard's arms are connected to his upper torso by a pivot joint that leads to his ball joint elbow. His hands are purely sculpted with fingers that are (obviously) not articulated. He also has a het wing on the forearm as well.

Safeguard's legs are connected by a bar to his groin area which enables them to move independently of one another. His lower legs are connected by a small pivot bar each creating a knee joint, then enables him to bend them backwards by about 75 degrees, and his feet are able to fold back fully as well at about 180 degrees. The lower legs have his two smaller rear wings/fins attached to them. Interestingly Safeguard seems to have shoes on, since his feet seem to have soles and heels.

Safeguard's vehicle mode is of a long nosed Space Jet, which can also double as a robot mode blaster for Vector Prime to use by clipping him into one of his Mini-Con hard-points.


Legacy

Since his introduction into the franchise in the Cybertron series (2005), Vector Prime has been used quite a lot (especially since he's a character introduced in a series that isn't G1). As he was introduced as one of the first Transformers, and extremely old, he was one of the first characters to be placed into "The Original Thirteen", the very first Transformers to be created by Primus on Cybertron along with Prima, Megatronus Prime (The Fallen), Liege Maximo and Alpha Trion, and later being joined by Nexus Prime and Solus Prime (with the others still needing to be named/identified).

Vector Prime's primary function in the franchise is to watch over time and space, meaning that he's been present at some of the iconic moments in the history of the Transformers, including when the Beast Era Megatron killed G1 Optimus Prime (with Vector Prime weakening the damage caused) and when Octopunch accidentally woke up Primus, which in turn alerted every incarnation of Unicron to Primus' location.

In the Cybertron TV series, Vector Prime was introduced when he arrived through a time rift above Cybertron and alerted the Autobots to the dangers of the Black Hole and makes them search for the Cyber Planet Keys to restore the balance and wake up Primus in this universe. Vector Prime helped them until just after Galvatron stole the Omega Lock and the four Keys, after which Vector Prime used his time/space powers to manipulate events so the Autobots could chase him (they were trapped in an alternate universe after the theft) after which he disintegrated into nothingness, seemingly dying. His spirit later appeared to help Optimus in his final battle with Galvatron, and then later appeared in the astral plane fighting Galvatron's spirit as well. Vector Prime also appeared in the Collector's Club's companioning comic that showed how he arrived on Cybertron ad also showed him fighting with Ramjet before being forced to Earth by Over-Run so he could let things continue at their natural pace in regards to the Nexus Prime Quintet.

Elsewhere, Vector Prime appeared on the Hasbro website as the one who answered the viewer's questions in the "Ask Vector Prime" segment, and also was mentioned in the Allspark Almanac books for the Animated series where he described some events and even did a special "Ask Vector Prime" segment as well. Vector Prime is also set to appear in the Aligned continuity through the novels, as are most of the Original Thirteen.

Vector Prime's toy has been repainted twice into updated versions of himself (both golden-based repaints) one under the name of Galaxy Force Vector Prime in the Cybertron series, and the other just being as a representative of himself for the Universe 2.0 series, both of these has similarly recoloured Safeguard's as well. His toy has also been repainted and remolded into the Botcon 2007 figure Alpha Trion, whom is meant to be the first version of the G1 character as an official toy, and was also later recast as the Shattered Glass version of the character (that's right, two members of the Original Thirteen who use the same mold!) the Mini-Con who came with Alpha Trion was repainted and renamed as well as Beta Maxx, most likely as a nod to the G1 character from the Quintesson Era of Cybertron who was part of Alpha Trion's resistance cell.

Vector Prime's over all design is quite clearly based on the comic-only character, The Last Autobot, whom was revealed right near the end of the Marvel comic series. The name Safeguard was later used for the combined form of the Jet Twins from Transformers Animated.


Is he Cool?

Vector Prime is a very cool toy, he may be getting on in years nowadays, but that doesn't matter...in fact it kind of helps with his image as an elderly character that his toy is looking more aged now than it did back then!

I mean lets just face the facts here, his vehicle mode looks fantastic, he has some great accessories (his cool Cyber Planet Key, Safeguard and a bendy sword!) and can also interact with them all quite well. Also his knight-like appearance and the fact that he's one of the Original Thirteen helps things along as well.

The only real complaint I have about this figure is that his Cyber Planet Key and Mini-Con don't unlock any other features, unlike with the other figures who feature either one of the other. But then again, that's a very minor complaint.

If you can find Vector Prime (or one of his repainted nakesakes) in the shop, then I'd say he's fairly worth having, he's a decent figure and can fit in nicely with the updated Classics series'. Also, it's fun to get him to fight with your ROTF or Titanium "The Fallen" or with Universe Ramjet.

U is for Unicron

The Winning Toy

"Many Transformers still superstitiously toss a small handful of energon coins over one shoulder whenever his name is uttered, for the word itself means chaos and destruction. Once an all powerful eater of entire planets, he was destroyed decades ago by the Autobots. For too long he was trapped in the rusting hulk of his old body. Now, resurrected and redesigned as an unstoppable destroyer tank, he is not yet at full power, but soon all the universe will know him, and tremble."

Toyline: Cybertron

Generation: All

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Unicron

Function: Chaos Bringer

Strength: ??

Intelligence: 10

Speed: n/a

Endurance: n/a

Rank: ??

Courage: ??

Firepower: 10

Skill: 10

Please note: I have lost Unicron's missile (I will no doubt be sent to his fiery bowls for this) so just imagine that he has a red missile in his cannon turret.


Robot Mode



Unicron's robot mode is of course heavily influenced by his Supreme class toy from Armada, and the character who has appeared in multiple series'. He's a mostly orange figure with varying shades of grey and brown on his limbs, chest, and other parts. He has red and purple highlights across his body (because those are evil colours!)

Unicron's arms are connected to his upper torso by a light brown connector. His shouler his connected to the connector by a pivot joint that allows it to rotate fully (barring obstructions). The upper arm is connected to the shoulder piece on a hinge joint that allows it to be raised outwards by 90 degrees and is connected to an elbow joint by a pivot (allowing him to rotate his lower arm at a different point to the upper arm. The elbow joints enable him to flew his arm inwards by 90 degrees. All of this makes his arm's extremely articulate of course. His hands are sculpted with fingers and fitted with a peg hole to hold weapons (such as the removable blades from his legs or the Star Saber amongst many more fun things). Unicron's vehicle mode pincers are also able to be flipper outwards (after flipping the hands inward) to act as weapons if you want.

Unicron's legs are connected to the lower torso by ball joints (giving it full articulation) which leads to a knee joint created by a piece of plastic between the upper and lower legs giving it 90 degrees of movement backwards (so he can sit and eat small planets maybe) The rest of his lower leg is just a single piece, which is very impressive looking, but doesn't give any extra articulation to the leg. His feet are connected to the bottom of the leg by a hinge that enables both the front and heel of the foot to rotate somewhat (however this has the negative effect of sometimes making the heel go upwards, and therefore unable to support all of Unicron's weight.

The panels on the side of the legs are used to hold a pair of single edge blades and a pair of double edged blades for Unicron to use in a battle with a Klingon. Unicron has the maw on his chest which can open up when his Cyber Planet key is inserted through the slot on his back (above the wheels), revealing some gatling guns to kill an opponent, and also has a large cannon on his right shoulder, and a tiny gun on his left shoulder.

Unicron's head is situated on the top of his torso inside what can only really be described as a collar. The head itself is found on a translucent red piece of plastic (the radar from vehicle mode) that is flipped upwards for transformation (and can therefore be used to make him look upwards or something). The head itself is sculpted with Unicron's orange helmet and iconic horns, but rather than having his classical head he instead has a skeletal head (much akin to G1 Bludgeon's Pretender Shell's) which gives him a set of unpainted sharp teeth, a sharp cleft chin and defined cheekbones, as well as seemingly missing parts, which are all used to show that he's still healing.

The eyes use the Light-Piping gimmick, which means that if a strong enough light source is shone through the back of his head, then his eyes will glow a bright red. Above his bright red eyes we can find some purple paint on the helmet, acting like eye-brows in this situation and a chevron above the brows


Alternate Mode



Unicron's alternate mode is...well according to his bio it's called a "destroyer tank" but to imagine it, just think of his Supreme class toy's alternate mode squished into a pancake and put wheels on the bottom, and that's what you have! (I don't mean for that to be negative, but it's the best explanation for what it looks like in a sentence lol)

The vehicle mode is mostly orange with some grey for the blades, gun, maw and pincers. The wheels, treads and large cannon are brown. The whole vehicle has purple highlights to break up the colour somewhat. The cockpit windows and radar are a translucent red colour.

Anyway, the tank mode rolls along the floor thanks to two large wheels at the back (like monster truck wheels) and two small wheels situated under the forward tank treads (like with most tank alternate mode Transformers) These wheels work perfectly week if you're on a smooth service and have transformed him from robot mode perfectly, as having anything out of place then the undercarriage will catch on anything.

Pretty much everything in this mode is a reference to the larger Supreme class figure and character itself, especially the planet mode of that figure. The pincers at the front are clearly based on the pincers that are used to drag planets into Unicron's maw. On top of that of course is the maw just above the cockpit which can even open and close (by inserting his Cyber Planet Key, which also reveals a three barrel gatling gun from inside it (I guess because he can't exactly use the maw to eat planets now). The "wings" on the sides are clearly meant to be parts of his planet mode surface, with the blades on top of them resembling the wings he deploys from his planetary rings.

Some parts that have been added to this mode that are nothing to do with his planet mode are of course the giant cannon on top (since he's a tank now), the wheels and tank treads, the cockpit (which, considering that this is Unicron, seems weird that he's have a driver..), the thrusters on the back and the Radar on top, which I believe is mostly used just to hide his robot mode head.

The gun turret is able to be raised up at about 45 degrees and rotated slightly either left or right. The smaller gun in on a small ball joint which enables it to move freely, minus any obstructions. The blades on the side parts are also able to rotate slightly or be removed as well.


Legacy

Oh Unicron...he's one of those characters who hasn't been in a lot of media, but when he does appear you always remember him. In recent years Hasbro has announced that Unicron, and his counterpart Primus, are what are called Multiversal Singularities, meaning that they exist in all continuities as the same being, which has been further expanded upon by explaining that each of those versions of him are connected (also meaning that he can't truly die unless all his other counterparts are killed too)

Unicron first appeared in the animated G1 movie from 1986 where he acted as the primary antagonist as he devoured the planet Lithone, rebuilt the half dead Megatron and some of his troops into Galvatron, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps, and finally attacking Cybertron itself in his impressive robot mode, leading to his apparent death at the hands of the newly arisen Rodimus Prime and the Matrix. Unicron later appeared a couple of times in the following season three where he began to recover as a head orbiting Cybertron, where he showed Cyclonus where Galvatron had be sent after Rodimus threw him out of his body. Later he recruited the Ghost of Starscream and Scourge into helping him turn Cybertron into a new body for him, only to fail after the Autobots worked out what was happening, and later having his cells used to injure the Autobots, and being the site of Grimlock building the Technobots (implying that they were either created by parts of Unicron or from some of his victims).

In the comics, Unicron served as the second to last major enemy for the G1 series where he was alerted to Cybertron's location by Primus waking up (stupid Octopunch) and he approached he planet slowly, eventually arriving, and killing many of the characters, including Optimus, Scorponok and the Primus possessed Emirate Xaaron. Primus would also appear in some future based Marvel UK stories and in some flashbacks in the G2 comics.

When the Beast Era came about Unicron was mentioned/seen a couple of times. The first time was in Starscream's false flashback where he claimed to have been killed by Unicron defending Galvatron (he was actually killed by Galvatron for treachery) later his likeness was used by the Vok to speak to Optimus Primal as a figure he'd respect. Much later on, in the Beast Machines series Rattrap claims that Megatron's giant head form looks like a floating tribute to Unicron. Unicron's cells were also around in the Japanese series Beast Wars II under the name of Angolmois, which is later used to help revive him in the follow up Beast Wars Neo series, where he was reborn into the deceased Predacon, Galvatron's body, and went on to fight Magmatron and the planet Cybertron itself, eventually leading to his demise yet again.

Unicron appeared briefly in the Dreamwave series as an oncoming threat, but due to he collapse of Dreamwave he never appeared in much of a capacity. However in the Armada and Energon comic series he appeared as the final antagonist of the Armada series, killing many of the characters and abducting some (see the Terrorsaur review for more details). Whilst the Energon series shows him being repaired slowly and that the Decepticons are using his dead husk for their base, even upgrading some of them in there as well, like Tidal Wave and Megatron himself.

Unicron appeared in the Armada and Energon TV series' in a similar manner to what he did in the Dreamwave versions of these series, acting as the final antagonist for the second half of the series, and even being revealed as the creator of the Mini-Cons as well (being used by him to accelerate the war, along with his agents like Sideways) However he is eventually defeated and sucked into oblivion. 10 years later Unicron reappeared as a dead husk in the Energon series, where Alpha Q and the Decepticons are trying to restore him for their own uses. Eventually he is defeated again, and his husk becomes the basis of a new star, which gives life to Alpha Q's planets. Unfortunately that star was unstable and collapsed within the next 10 years, threatening to consume the Universe, beginning the events of the Cybertron TV series.

In the Collector's Club comic's first story, Unicron is revived from the Black Hole and is sent into another Planet, where he spreads chaos across the world, and eventually causes it's destruction and his rebirth (into this toy's body) after that he went his his servants Soundwave and Sideways to fight off the Autobots, when Primus appeared and chased off the Chaos Bringer...for now.

Unicron also appeared in the IDW Beast Wars series The Ascending with him trying to be reborn into a new body, using Angolmois to create chaos and to eventually use Shokaract as his new form, but he was ultimately stopped by a combined effort from the Maximals and Predacons of Cybertron. This plot line was also used in the 3H multi-year storyline, many years earlier.

Unicron later appeared in the Titan UK Movie continuity having possessed the dried up husk of Cybertron itself and reformed it into a new body, he was however forced out later on, sending him elsewhere. Unicron has also recently been appearing in the new Prime cartoon after having his blood (Dark Energon) being a major plot point throughout the series and associated media.

Being the great evil of the Transformers universe he has of course had a few toys, however he only has two molds, this one and his Supreme sized one (who turns into a planet). The larger toy has been used for repaints for the character many times now, even being reused as the G1 character himself! This toy however has never been reused (which is a great pity). Unicron's also of course had some smaller figures from other parts of the series like the Titanium 3" figures and Robot Heroes, however neither of these can of course transform.

Unicron was due to have a toy in a few earlier lines however, even during G1 and Beast Wars Neo, however none of these, before Armada, ever came to fruition due to cost constraints and other uncited factors.


Is He Cool?

YES, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES, YES!!!

This incarnation of Unicron is one of my favourites, he manages to emulate the feel and aesthetic of the original G1 version, as well as managing to duplicate the look of the Armada Supreme Class mold, despite being a mere fraction of the size, and having a completely different alternate mode.

The toy is also quite noteworthy because it brought in more conspiracy theories for the franchise he was brought in with, mostly because of his Cyber Planet Key. He shares the key with Sideways and Soundwave, the former of which is an old servant of his from the earlier Armada series as well, somewhat concreting that the Sideways from Cybertron and Armada are the same guy, and that his home world of Planet X could be a world of his worshippers (very possible after Soundwave's following him in the Club Comic)

Another major thing about this toy in particular is that he has never been reused, which is, frankly, pretty rare for a modern toy as most get at least a repaint (even if it's as the same character) making this character pretty unique and more worthwhile in my opinion.

The only real flaw I can see with this toy is that he's quite difficult to transform compared to most other Deluxes from his line (and for that matter some of the larger figure too!) so that can be off-putting to some of the younger or easily-bored fans and collectors.

On the whole however, I would urge anyone who can find him, to just buy him on the spot. I did when he first came out in the UK all those years ago, and I never regretted it (I do however regret losing his missile). I mean don't bankrupt yourself over him, but if you can find one for a reasonable price, then do it, you won't look back.

Q is for Quickmix

The Winning Toy

"Quick-thinking, intuitive and totally loyal to the Giant Planet and its inhabitants, Quickmix serves as right hand mech to Metroplex. It is he who first confronts Menasor over the evil robot's betrayal of the Giant Planet's traditions, and who encourages Metroplex to avoid becoming involved in the affairs of the Autobots. He rarely fights, preferring his role as a builder and repairman, but when the safety of his home world is threatened, he never backs down."

Toyline: Cybertron

Generation: Unicron Trilogy

Size Class: Voyager

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 4

Endurance: 7

Rank: 8

Courage: 8

Fireblast: 8

Skill: 7


Robot Mode



Quickmix's robot mode is mostly orange and black, with some yellow, red and silver highlights and with beige and grey on his left arm weapon. His body is sculpted with mechanical parts like vents, gears and other things.. Quickmix also has 2 Mini-Con hard pegs on his chest, one on his left knee and on his removable gun.

Quickmix's upper arms are connected to his upper torso by a small connecting-hinge section and a pivot joint that enables it to rotate 360 degrees, and via the hinge, able to be opened outwards by about 180 degrees (but this looks odd if you do that). Quickmix has a hinge joint in his shoulder that enables it to be raised outwards by about 90 degrees each. The upper arm on the right arm is connected to the lower arm by a pivot and hinge joint combination, enabling it to be rotated fully, and bent inwards by 90 degrees. Quickmix's left arm has a few extra hinges and pivots connecting it's upper left arm to the weapon as well. Quickmix's right hand is sculpted with fingers, but also has a peg hole for his weapon.

The upper legs are connected to his lower torso via a hinge and stiff pivot joint combination, enabling them to be moved almost fully (barring any obstructions from the arms or other objects). His lower legs are connected to the upper legs by a pivot and hinge joint forming a knee. He is able to bend his lower legs backwards by about 90 degrees. His feet are connected to the bottom of the lower legs by a small hinge and pivot combination, enabling them to be repositioned dependant on the surface you need them to be placed on.

Quickmix's head is mostly orange with a silver mouth plate, silver forehead crest, and a black chevron above that. Quickmix's optics are in the form of a single visor system, which is not coloured, but due to the plastic used, there looks like there's a pair of white eyes and a nose just visible. These eyes can be lit up through his light-piping gimmick. Quickmix also has a hands-free headset, like those used on actual construction sites to communicate with each other. This can be repositioned to make it look like he's talking into it.



Quickmix is able to connect to his Mini-Con on any of the afore mentioned hard-points, or by slotting Stripmine's own hard point into the small hole just above his large weapon.

Quickmix has a gun on his right arm that can be removed and held in his right hand, or can be held on any of his Mini-Con hard-points, even on other figures with them.

By plugging his Cyber Planet Key into it's slot (hidden by the cement input area normally) which opens his weapon into two halves, revealing a gun. You can launch a missile from the weapon by pushing the small button which is now revealed.

Quickmix also has a third work mode, like the other 2 members of the Giant Planet form the Cybertron line, but it's really not worth much, you just raise his legs into his hips and have his shoulders higher up than normal...it's really not worth even showing it honestly.


Alternate Mode



Quickmix's vehicle mode is a mostly orange Cybertronian Mixing Truck. He has a cab for a smaller driver (likely a mini-Con in a fictional sense). The cab has 2 pairs of smoke stacks at the back and a small indentation for his mixing drum to rest.

The vehicle mode drives on a set of 6 black working wheels which have sculpted tyres and hubcaps. he is able to roll on the ground unhindered by undercarriage. I front of the vehicle has a pointing out bumper, that could be used as a ramming weapon or maybe a drill of some sort if the owner decides to.



Quickmix's rear pipes can be removed (as it is the detachable weapon from his robot mode as well) and so it can be placed on top of his driver's cab as an extra weapon if desired.

His mixing drum is able to be repositioned as a cannon for a battle mode. As with his robot mode, you can insert his key into it's slot and reveal his weapon again. His Mini-Con Stripmine can also be plugged into any of the available hard-points or the small hole in the intact area. Unlike most Mini-Cons he can be inserted in either robot or vehicle mode (Robot Mode is shown here)


Stripmine



If you know me, then you'll probably know that I love Mini-Cons, and Stripmine doesn't disappoint.

Stripmine is a blue robot with yellow joints for his upper legs, back and arm connection. His chest has some silver detailing. His body has some minor sculpted detailing, such as treads on his legs or a helmet and mouth plate on his head. His eyes are a single bar optic visor that has been painted red.

One of the interesting parts about his Mini-Con is that he's able to switch his arms around, so the drill arm can be on his left or his right with no difference in the figure at all really. The other arm has a Mini-Con hard-point connected on a small hinge.

Stripmine's alternate mode is a blue and yellow treaded vehicle with a laser drill mounted on top. The drill doesn't spin around, and he has no wheels under him (unlike most treaded vehicle Transformers) so he can't actually roll by himself in any way, which isn't all that uncommon for a Mini-Con honestly. Something extra I noticed as well is that if you fold down the yellow hard-point then you can place it into Quickmix's right hand and be used as a welding torch or something.



Legacy

Quickmix was an on screen character from the Cybertron TV series on the Giant Planet, working as one of the construction workers for building the many layers of the planet, but unlike the other two characters from the Giant Planet (Menasor and Metroplex) he did hardly anything of note. He did however use his mixing truck to produce cement or other such compounds to trap enemies, but that's about it.

Sadly Quickmix has been very underused as a character in other fiction. A G1 version of him appeared as a Targetmaster, but fictionally he only appeared in a few places, in a couple of the Marvel comics (where he was positioned on Cybertron under Emirate Xaaron's command or under Rodimus Prime's command in a distant future) he also appeared in one of the Ladybird storybooks, in the opening credits for the G2 TV series (but never in the actual series). Quickmix also appeared briefly in one of the 3H Universe featuring the Wreckers comics. The only other Quickmix to appear was a Micromaster who formed one of the legs of the Micromaster combiner Devastator (a repaint of the Sixbuilder team).

Something of interest however is that every character called Quickmix is a Mixing Truck, something that's quite rare for a Transformers character.

Stripmine's name has never been reassigned, so he's literally unique!!

Both of these figures were repainted for the Universe 2.0 line as Heavy Load with Drill Bit, with both being a set of the first figures to be repainted from an earlier unrelated toy-line in the Universe line (pretty much every other has been used only for the Classics/Universe/Generations etc lines)


Is he cool?

Quickmix is a hard one...I personally like him a lot, I think he's a well designed character with some fun features like his key activated weapon and Mini-Con (always a plus for me). His articulation is pretty good (a common feature for Cybertron series figures). However I can also see why people wouldn't like him as well. Because he only has one real hand he looks a bit odd compared to most other figures, and his paint-job isn't that interesting (unlike his two Giant Planet counterparts) plus his Mini-Con doesn't activate any hidden features (unlike Menasor).

I actually wouldn't mind using this toy as a stand-in for G1 Quickmix, despite his colouring not being exactly right. I mean you can even recast Stripmine as Boomer is you want (and find a yellow gun to play Ricochet or just pretend that Ric' died some point)

So basically, this figure is what I'd class as a Marmite figure, you either like him or hate him (or only like him in certain situations). I would personally recommend this toy for any fan however, but it is totally up to you whether you want to buy him either for the Cybertron character or for the potential G1 recasting I mentioned before.