Armada - Street Action Team

"Although they look ordinary, these three robots are keys to the Mini mission of all the Mini-Cons. They combine into a robot, showing the strength of teamwork. Their capabilities continue to grow over time, but their real power is in making others discover their true potential. The Autobots and Decepticons see the unlimited power beneath their innocent forms and struggle to possess them."
Name: Street Acton Team

Toy Line: Armada

Continuity: Unicron Trilogy

Size Class: Mini-Con Triple Pack

Faction: Mini-Con (Autobot Allied)

Motto: "Seek Your True Power"

Strength: 5

Speed: 5

Rank: 5

Firepower: 3

Intelligence: 9

Endurance: 6

Courage: 7

Skill: 6

High Wire

High Wire's robot mode is a black and pale blue form, his face is made from a sculpted/painted white face plate and red visor optics, the hat on his head is made from his vehicle mode light. His vehicle mode handle bars are found on his back as kibble behind his arms, also as kibble, he has his combiner head hanging off a connector.

On his left side you'll find his Mini-Con insignia, whilst on his right side you'll find his power-link peg hole. His arms are created from the bars leading to his front wheel that are separated, but leaving the wheel on his left hand (guess he's right handed then!) The arms are connected via a ball joint at the shoulders to the torso enabling them to move as much as possible. 

The legs are connected to the torso by another set of ball joints that enable them to move as needed again. The legs are created from the rear bars of the bike mode and wheel split in half, and the pedals folded down into feet. The figure is able to stand up straight by using the rear wheel as a support behind the feet.

High Wire's alternate mode is a black and pale blue BMX bicycle with black wheels and a random head hanging over the rear wheel (I guess you can pretend that's the seat or a storage pack of some sort.

The wheels are fully able to rotate as needed, and the handle bars can rotate on a pivot if needed. The pedals can rotate as needed for play-value or just so he can be upright in this mode.

Grindor

Grindor's robot mode is mostly dark blue with some yellow patches of paint, and pale blue limbs. His face is sculpted with a face plate and optic visor, but is completely painted yellow. His chest features a black piece of chest decoration which covers the tops of his arms, which is found right above his Mini-Con peg hole. On his back you'll find a pair of wings/shoulder pads. His Mini-Con insignia is found on his back above the hard point.

His arms are connected to he back mounted shoulder pads/wings by a pair of pivots connecting to the upper part of the torso enabling them to fold up and down as required. His legs are connected to the groin area by a pair of ball joints that enable them to be moved as required for posing, whilst his knees are able to be bent inwards fully (as part of his transformation really, but it can be used for posing as well if needed)

Grindor's alternate mode is a dark blue and yellow rocket powered skateboard with bale blue highlights in the middle. You can place a small figure on top of this toy and pretend he's skating as well. The four small wheels enable him to roll along a smooth surface if needed. This mode prominently shows off a Mini-Con hard point that can be slotted into any Mini-Con peg hole as well.

Sureshock

Sureshock's robot mode is an orange block of plastic with some grey parts and a grey face with a pair of creepy yellow eyes coming out of the darkness and a small, almost invisible face plate as well. Her legs are unable to move individually, but as a block connected to the main torso by a pair of hinges that enable her to bend inwards. Her arms are connected to the torso by a ball joint enabling them to move as much as needed. The ends of the hands feature a pivot connecting to the now split front section of her alternate mode giving a potential buzzsaw weapon of some sort. Her Mini-Con insignia is found on her outer right leg, and her peg hole is found on her back, on the right side.

Sureshock's alternate mode is a small orange motorized scooter with a dark grey seat, light grey slightly moving handlebars and some gears etc.

The wheels are able to move fully as is expected. This mode also features some sculpted details like an exhaust pipe, struts, headlights and other smaller details

Perceptor

Perceptor is the combined mode of the three Street Action Team Mini-Cons. Sureshock forms his legs, Grindor forms the main torso, arms and his side skirts, whilst High Wire forms the head and back kibble.

This mode is about the size of an average Scout class toy but of course is lacking in terms of articulation to some degree.

The legs can only be reposed at the groin area and on the knees to bend outwards (crab style). The arms can move at a joint connecting the shoulder to the torso by a pivot, and also by a ball joint found on the shoulder as well. The head can be moved a small amount as well as it's connected on an articulated connector from the back-pack..

Even though he's a Mini-Con combiner and not a single Mini-Con he still features 2 of his peg-holes, so he can be connected to a larger figure still.

My Final Thoughts

This team is very unusual, it was one of the first sets of Mini-Cons (and Armada toys in general) to be released, but not only that, it's made up of a set of unusual alternate modes for Transformers, a batch of kid's vehicles.

This group is worth having, if only so you have them for the Unicron Trilogy shelf in your room, or if you love Mini-Cons like me, but if you're just looking for a good toy with great articulation, then you may want to pass over this set.

If you do want this set, then don't spend too much on it, it's really not worth more than the RRP if I'm totally honest.

Also, be careful with the peg behind Grindor's head, it's easily broken off, and if it does come off then the Perceptor Mode can't stand up properly (This is my second Grindor btw). Also remember, there was a new set of these characters from the Energon toyline which had updated vehicles and robot modes which you may like more.

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.