W is for Windcharger

The Winning Toy


Toyline: Alternators

Generation: Generation One

Faction: Autobot


Robot Mode



Windcharger's robot mode is pretty solid really, especially considering that the toyline that had just ended at the time was Energon, which whilst being fun, didn't have the greatest looking robots aesthetically, by today's standards anyway.

Windcharger's robot mode is mostly red with black parts (such as the arms, legs, head and some other small details and some greay on the upper legs and some detailing as well. Windcharger's Autobot insignia is found on the dead center of his chest (as well as a small one on his left wrist from his licence plate)

Windcharger's torso features a lot of sculpted details like pipes and other internal car parts rearranged to resemble ahumaoid chest and abdominal area. His groin area is silver and black with red lights on either side.
Windcharger's head consists of a silver face with sculpted eyes, nose, mouth and chin, with the eyes being concealed behind a translucent dark blue visor. His face is surrounded by a black and red helmet with an indent on the center, leading to a cap-peak that leads to the visor. His head resembles Overdrive's more than Windcharger's traditional looks.

Wincharger's shoulders are connected to the torso by a pivot and hinge joint combination allowing free movement (assuming there's no obstructions). The vehicle mode wheels hide a pivot joint that leads to the upper arms allowing as free movement as you require sideways. In the middle of his upper arm he has a pivot joint that enables it to rotate 360 degrees and then leads to a hinge that allows him to bend his arm at an elbow joint.
Windcharger's hands are connected to the lower arms by a ball joint that enables them to be folded inwards and rotated as much as needed. His fingers are also articulated to a small degree with his index finger being able to move independantly of the others by a pivot joint, and the middle, ring and pinky fingers connected together and able to move on a pivot as one. The thump is unable to move.
Windcharger's lower arms feature large-ish holes on them where you can put his rehicle mode roof to act as a shield. He also features a smaller hole in the palms of both hands which enables him to clip his weapon into.

Windcharger's upper legs are connected to the groin area by a hinge and pivot join that enables him to raise them outwards by about 90 degrees (obstructions withstanding) and can enable him to raise them forwards and back as far as possible as well. He has another pivot joint near the top of the upper legs that allows them to rotate if needed (for balance reasons mostly). The lower leg is connected to the upper leg by a couple of hinge joints that allows them to bend inwards and backwards (though the backwards folding hinge is a bit stiff). His feet are connected to the bottom of the legs by a ball joint each which gives it some rotation (for balance again mostly).
Windcharger's vehicle doors become a side skirt in robot mode, which could fictionally be used to hold more weapons if you want.


Alternate Mode



Windcharger turns into a realistic and liscenced red soft top Honda S2000 sports car.
In this mode Windcharger features highly accurate detailings, such as his headlights, forwards grill, exhaust pipes, moving steering wheel, sculpted fuel intake, indicator lights, emergency lights, radio antennae, folding chairs (so you can throw things into the boot), gears, an opening boot, windshield wipers, side mirrors, treaded tires, spoked hubcaps and other such details.
Windcharger features the Honda logo on the very front of the vehicle and on the boot, and the Honda S2000 logo on the sides as well, behind the indicators.
Windcharger's licence plate shows an Autobot insignia and the letters "WNDCGR" an obvious abbreviation for "Windcharger".
Windcharger feature's two posisble roofs for his vehicle mode, a folded down one that just plugs into the holes behind the seats, or a soft top roof (that would fictionally be seen to fold out from the folded version) that connects into the same holes as the previous one and into a small gap on the windscreen as well. This roof features a rear window as well.




Legacy

The character of Windcharger was originally for the first series of Transformers toys in the Mini-bot subline (along with characters like Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Huffer, Brawn, Gears and Hubcap). Sadly however, out of the batch who appeared on screen (ie all but Hubcap) Windcharger seemed to be the least used. He appeared sporatically through the G1 Cartoon until his off-screen death in the G1 Movie, where he was seen along with Wheeljack's corpse being moved by Arcee to make room for the catapult weapon...Though he did appear in a background scene later, but that was hardly uncommon for G1 to do. Windcharger also appeared in all the G1 based comic series, but has yet to make a major appearance as of yet. Windcharger tends to utilise a magnetic power in his appearances.

Windcharger has recieved a few toys over the years. His original toy from G1 was a Mini-bot (as mentioned earlier) which turns into a red TransAm Firebird and was later repainted or retooled into several other characters including Tailgate, Rook and Camaro, he was also used for the basis for Shattered Glass Rook, whom is very easy to make a custom toy of. Windcharger also obviously recieved this toy as well, but was named Overdrive in Japan, and came with an exhaust pipe barrel on his weapon, turning it into a gun rather than a shield as well as die cast metal, like with all Binaltech toys. The Alternators/Binaltech toy was also repainted/retooled as Arcee, Decepticharge and was intended to become a new toy for Black Arachnia and acted as the bases for the Kiss Players character Legion. Windcharger's recently recieved another new toy from the Reveal the Shield line which emulates his original toy but is actually a hybrid of a Camaro and Mustang in design. This new toy even has built in magnets to emulate his ability from fiction.

The name Windcharger has been used for the Japanese name for Energon Perceptor but nowhere else, other than on characters that are connected to or meant to be the G1 character


Is he Cool?

I have to admit, I have a bit of bias for Windcharger, he was the first Alternator's toy I bought and he got me in the mood for collecting figures on mass again. This was also the sort of time when the Movie was announced and was well into my mind (in 2005) so with his realistic alternate mode and fantastic robot mode (for the time) I figured that he could be what the movie figures would look like in time (I was proven wrong of course lol)
Now then, other than my personal reasons for liking him, I still think he's a very cool figure. He features an amazing vehicle mode that is even fun! (not very many car modes are that fun if your honest) and his robot mode works as an homage to both the G1 character of the same name and Overdrive as well.
If you can get this figure, or any of his repaints (I personally have Windcharger and Arcee, whom comes with the full sized gun barrel and the hard-top roof rather than Windcharger's ones) and you can get them for a reasonable price, then I'd really recommend them to anyone.

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.

T is for Terrorsaur

The Winning Toy


Toyline: Armada

Generation: Unicron Trilogy

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Decepticon


Robot Mode



Terrorsaur's robot mode is different to most other Armada toys, mostly because he was modified from a Beast Wars toy, he shares this trait with Airazor, Cheetor, Rhinox and Predacon. Because of him being originally in a different toyline he has the aesthetic feel of the other line, in this case meaning that he has smooth lines, organic feel and musculature rather than being mostly boxy in appearance. His colour scheme is of course different to that of the original usage of the mold and is now orange and two shades of green along with some silver highlights, such as on his VTOL parts, screws and teeth.

Terrorsaur's upper arms are connected to the torso by a ball joint enabling it to have full articulation (as long as the arm kibble doesn't get in the way). The lower arm is connected to the upper arm by a hinge that enables it to bend forwards by about 90 degrees. His hands aren't articulated at all, but has three sculpted fingers. The wings on Terrorsaur's lower arms are able to be removed by folding them inwards and then slotting them out. These wings can be used as blade weapons by inserting the handle-like section in between the thumb and middle claw and then slotting a small clip into a small socket on his palms. The blades have the word "Terrorsaur" emblazoned on them (I guess so if they get lost then he can have them returned to him)

The upper leg is connected to the lower torso by a ball joint and pivot joint combination, giving it amazing articulation. The lower and upper leg are connected by a knee joint created by two hinges, this enables him to bend his knees fully backwards, to an extent where he could easily tuck his knees up against his chest. His feet are created by flattening out his beast mode feet-claws, however the entirety of the support for these feet is from a circular point between them, so the claws are just for aesthetic purposes.

In this mode Terrorsaur has a Mini-Con hard point on both shoulders and well as on the folded down panel on his back (which has to be lifted upwards to reveal the hard-point.

Terrorsaur's head is sculpted with a snarling expression revealing his teeth. He has a nose and two red eyes sculpted as well. Terrorsaur also has a Mohawk on top of his head.


Alternate Mode



Flip a chest backwards here, and fold some legs away there, and you can turn Terrorsaur into his alternate mode, a Mechanical Pteranodon (or Transmetal Pteranodon if you's prefer) This toy is of course the same colour scheme as his robot mode.

Luckily with this toy you can either have him in a flat on the ground or "flying" mode or have him in a perched mode (as I have photographed above). In his perched mode you can use the claws from his wings as an extra set of limbs to support him upright.

The wings are able to flap on a ball joint (as it is the same mechanism as his arms in robot mode). His legs aren't able to move, however the claws can be extended as needed, but don't actually affect anything.

The neck of this toy's beast mode enables him to bob it up and down for whatever pose you want him it, on top of that he has a beak that can be opened and closed, which reveals some hidden teeth (perfect for eating some fishes or small birdies). Terrorsaur also has a pair or orange eyes on either side of the head and ridges etc, and a small green piece at the back of the head balanced on a hinge.

The Mini-Con hard points are found on his back and the parts of his wings that are closest to his torso.



Because Terrorsaur is a slight remold of a Transmetal Beast Era toy, he does of course come with a third/power up mode. To convert to his jet mode you simple have to rotate the orange chest-connector pieces around to an upright position (and rotate his wings back to a spread out position of course) This enables you to open up the jet boosters at the back from the main rear torso of the beast mode to a full extent (you can leave the connector where it is, but you can't open the booster compartment up fully that way.

An extra thing you can do to make him different in this mode is opening up his VTOL jet cover, though that's totally up to you of course.


Ironhide



The Mini-Con that comes with Terrorsaur is Ironhide, whom is a repaint of the Adventure Team member Dune Runner (his team mates got repaints and were packaged with Cheetor and Rhinox). And to make things even more surprising, this Mini-Con is in fact a female....yeah...Ironhide's a girl....moving on!

Ironhide is a brown gun-mounted dune buggy with black wheels, seats, guns and guard rail. Her eyes are an orange colour, and she has silver hubcaps. The wheels are fully mobile and can allow her to roll along a floor unaided (yay!)

In robot mode Ironhide has limited articulation (as you should realise by now with Mini-Cons) she can move her arms on a pivot at the shoulders. The legs are connected to the lower torso by a pivot again, which is then connected to his lower leg by another pivot, giving her the ability to sit down. Her head is able to move on a pivot to the left or right, which is quite uncommon for Mini-Cons, and is only possible due to her transformation sequence really.

Her Mini-Con socket s located on the back of her head, which enables her to connect to any Mini-Con hard point.

Ironhide and the other Adventure Tea repaints have quite a rare feature actually, they have a suqare peg system on the undersides of their vehicle modes which enable them to combine with Cyclonus in his Helicopter mode at the exposed gear section beneath his cockpit, which enables the gun on Ironhide's vehicle mode to move by just pushing the trigger on Cyclonus' tail. (This trait of also shared by the Destruction Team and Refute, plus any repaints).


Legacy

Terrorsaur appeared at the end of the Armada comic where he, along with Cheetor, Rhinox and Airazor were abducted by Unicron in the final moments of the war and he, along with the other abductees were twisted into Unicron's Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Terrorsaur was turned into "Famine" and helped in an attack on Cybertron during the start of the Energon comic series, until they were chased off by Optimus Prime in his new upgraded form, thanks to Cybertron itself. The Horsemen later retrieved the Terrorcons after they failed in a mission. The Horsemen remained inside Unicron after that until the series was cancelled due to Dreamwave's collapse, but were due to appear again. Most likely the group would have been destroyed by the end of the series. Terrorsaur never appeared in the Armada cartoon.

Ironhide never appeared in the comics or cartoons, but is mentioned as now missing Terrorsaur after he got abducted by Unicron, despite how Terrorsaur stole her a long time ago.

Terrorsaur's toy mold was of course originally used by Beast Wars Terrorsaur in his Transmetal body, which, whilst he only appeared in the series in his organic mode, upon his death he began to morph into his Transmetal body, but was never seen again (the only fictional appearance of this version of his body was in the Beast Wars Sourcebook. Obviously this toy had the Mini-Con hard points and Ironhide added especially for the Armada line.

This toy mold is also used for the beast Machines toy Terranotron (the pre-Mini-Con version obviously) and was also used for the fiction only bodies for Fractyl's Transmetal mode, and Ravenus' first body. Interestingly both of the latter two mold mates have had multiple bodies. Fractyl's was a physical toy and was a repaint of Terrorsaur's first body, his toy however was originally planned to be made as well. Meanwhile Ravenus' second body was actually based on G1 Swoop, using his Diaclone pre-Transformer colours. A version of Ravenus using this mold was considered for the Linkage series' exclusive figures as a mail-away toy, but this idea was cancelled after the original conception. (Though you could juts repaint an Armada Terrorsaur into Ravenus' colours honestly!)

As mentioned before Ironhide is a repaint of the Adventure team figure Dune Runner, and retains all the features from the original version. The name Ironhide is of course re-purposed from the G1 and Beast Wars character as well as being reused again for several newer characters in pretty much every continuity since.


Is he Cool?

Honestly, when I first put him up for an option I'd say no, but after reviewing him, and playing with the toy in the run up for the review itself, I have changed my mind. His articulation is quite high for an older figure, despite obviously having some signs of age compared to most of the newer figures (ie the general feel of the figure, colour scheme etc) but he still looks good regardless.

His robot mode looks like he's designed to emulate Starscream from the G1 series (cockpit on his chest, the general shape, the attitude of the character and the kibble on his shoulders).

My main complaint about the figure is that his hard points are added on as an extra feature, which doesn't activate any added features (totally understandable due to him being remolded from a previous toyline) And his Mini-Con doesn't really fit with Terrorsaur in terms of design, again because it was reassigned from another set, this is made even more obvious due to Ironhide's gear gimmick not being compatible with Terrorsaur at all.

All in all, I'd say the best reason to buy Terrorsaur would be to complete a set of the Four Horsemen, otherwise it's probably more worthwhile just getting the Beast Era toy. Of course, even saying that, if you like Mini-Cons like I do, then it's probably worth getting the toy purely for Ironhide, since she is one of the few female Mini-Cons available.

S is for Sky Lynx

The Winning Toy

"A powerful fighter. Self-centered and boastful. Fearless, daring, believes himself to be superior to many of his fellow Autobots. Shell-resistant and steel-reinforced hull can withstand enemy bombardment and extreme temperature variations. Possesses solar powered auxiliary engines. Acetylene blaster inside cockpit shoots 3000 degree celcius flames. As space shuttle, has interplanetary travel capabilities -- maximum speed 30,000 mph, range 40,000,000 miles."

Toyline: The Transformers 1986 line (2008 Encore reissue for my version)

Generation: Generation One

Size Class: Motorized Space Shuttle (Ultra to Leader class Equivalent)

Faction: Autobot

Function: Lieutenant Commander

Quote: "The best achievements are worth repeating."

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 8

Speed: 10

Endurance: 10

Rank: 9

Courage: 10

Firepower: 7

Skill: 8


Robot Mode

Sky Lynx is quite a unique Transformer, he comes with two robot modes, but rather than both being different characters, they are the same character (both referred to as Sky Lynx). So in this way they are like Arcee from the ROTF lines (3 robots all with the same conciousness with multiple alternate modes)



The first component is the bird robot mode. This component is almost completely white with red neck joints, tail and legs, and blue outer wings. He also comes with stickers that can be applied to add gold details along his sides an two large Autobot insignias on his wings. A rub-sign Autobot insignia can be found on he upped neck piece just behind the head. The toy is sculpted with shuttle panels and details, like fuel intake areas etc. The very rear of the torso also has his shuttle mode thrusters visible (which can be opened outwards to hide his tail into when transforming).

Most of his body is totally unmovable (why would you need to move his torso?). Sky Lynx has a pair of bird legs which connects to the underside of the torso and can be positioned to be either together or posed as it he's walking. The legs has sculpted knees, which can't be bent, but his feet can be rotated on a hinge. The feet have three sculpted toes which are connected to each other by some plastic.

Sky Lynx's tail is segmented into five pieces: the connector to the rear torso, the upper tail, the lower tail, the end connector and the white tail end. This enables you to pose the tail as you need to, or to even pose it so he can balance out the standing Sky Lynx, let's face it, 2 spindly little legs aren't going to support him too well!

Sky Lynx's neck is in four pieces: the connector to the front of the torso, the lower neck, the middle neck connector and the upper neck which leads to the head. The neck is all red with parts of the front of the space shuttle on the middle and upper neck sections. Because of all the segments the neck can be posed as you want it to be. Sky Lynx's head is just his shuttle mode's cockpit opened up to reveal a set of teeth and inner mouth gun. Sky Lynx's shuttle mode windows act as his eyes in this mode.



The second component is the lynx mode. This part is mostly blue with a gold head, white upper legs, red lower legs, red tails and blue feet, basically acting as a contrast to his other component's colour scheme. He has a few red and gold stickers that can be applied, and also has an Autobot insignia that can be applied to his forehead as well.

Compared to the other component this one is quite basic. Once deployed his tails don't do anything else (like wag or anything) and his head is able to move up and down on a pivot joint after having his neck extended from his alternate mode. His four legs are connected to his torso by a screw each and have loose hanging feet (which is needed for his walking gimmick). The legs are able to be reposed by pushing the small red buttons next to them, which is also how you transform him from his alternate form.

This component is basic in design mostly because of his gimmick, by flipping the switch right near his tails to the "ON" position and making sure the switch under the battery section to "WALK" you can have this figure walk on his own. It's a bit of a staggered walk, but it still works (on level flooring anyway). The feet are loose so that they can be level on the floor regardless of leg position. You require 2 AA sized batteries to make him move.



The two robot modes are able to combine into one larger winged dragon-like robot by folding the shuttle's legs inwards and folding in the lynx's head and neck, then you connect the three hard-points on the lynx into the small holes so they stick together.

This combined form keeps the same gimmick from the lynx component, and because of the addition of the lynx component the figure is extremely stable to stand up unsupported (Four legs good!) as well as making the whole figure much more impressive, even compared to a few modern toys!


Alternate Mode



The bird robot turns into a pretty much all white space shuttle with gold stickers running along the sides. This mode is actually pretty convincing as a space shuttle shuttle except for the red legs on the under-carriage, though really, who looks at the under-carriage really?

The thrusters at the back, windows etc are all just present for aesthetic reasons and don't do anything extra. This mode has his rub sign insignia on the top of it, right behind the cockpit, and also has the two large Autobot insignias on his wings as well. A cargo hold area is able to open up, but there's no space for anything to be put in.



The lynx component turns into a crawler-transporter, which could be used separately as a moving platform for smaller figures, like Mini-Cons or Micromasters (as with Grandus).

This mode is just a folded down version of his robot mode, except that when you activate his motor gimmick you have to now switch it to "ROLL", which enables it to roll in a straight line across a smooth surface. However if you move the forward wheels found at the front of his undercarriage, then you can have him riding around in a circle.

One last time..REMEMBER TO REVERSE THE SWITCH! If you have the switch still on "WALK" mode, then the legs will move and it will go all weird!



As with the robots, the alternate modes can be combined (using the same holes and hard-points). This mode just makes him into a larger jet with a cargo area under the main shuttle. He can also of course use the rolling feature of the crawler-transporter mode just as well as the that mode, though of course you still need to make sure he is switched to the "ROLL" mode.


Legacy

Sky Lynx was one of the regular characters in the 80's G1 cartoon during season 3 and appeared in several of the episodes where he was shown to be fairly evenly matched against the Predacons, one of the strongest teams in the cartoon. His last appearance was in the season 3 finale, The Return of Optimus Prime where he rescued a Quintesson to revive Optimus Prime and end the Hate Plague, but ended up succumbing to the virus himself near the end (and presumably getting cured afterwards)

He appeared in a couple of issues of the Marvel series where he rescues some kids from being killed by Grimlock, gets captured by the Cosmic Carnival, gets freed, then gets captured by the Meccanibals, then being freed again afterwards. Meanwhile in the Dreamwave series he appeared locked in his shuttle mode and used as a normal shuttle by Ultra Magnus' team, and later used by Starscream to fly back to Earth, where it was discovered that he was in fact the giant Autobot, and was captured by Starscream and his team to be used as target practise...notice a pattern to his comic appearances now?

Something I should note as well, Sky Lynx was originally planned to be used in the Last Stand of the Wreckers Mini-series by IDW, but the writers were told not to use him, possibly meaning that they have a planned use for him in the future.

In all his appearances he's shown as being an egotist and very confident of his abilities, of course all appearances except for his Shattered Glass incarnation in which he's humble (and has a bizarre reverse design for this toy, with the Lynx as the upper body and the bird as the lower body).

The Sky Lynx name has also been used for a Decepticon allied Mini-Con from the Cybertron toyline where he turns into a Cargo Plane (using the Gunbarrel mold) and he also has a Transformers Animated incarnation as well, based on his G1 design (but with a more Zoid-like head cockpit) as seen in the Allspark Almanac II.

This toy has never been reused for another figure and was originally from another company called Toy Box, just like Omega Supreme, however the toy was reissued in 2008 in the Encore line (the one I have).

Something of interest though is that in the Marvel comics Sky Lynx is shown as a triple changer rather than being a combiner of sorts, unlike what's shown in the cartoon and Dreamwave comics. Also Sky Lynx's insignia was shown various times as the Decepticon one, which could mean that he was originally meant to be a Decepticon (much like how the Predacons were originally the Anibots, an Autobot team)


Is he Cool?

For a toy from the 1980's lines he's managed to weather the test of time very well, unlike most of the other figures from that era, who now look outdated (admit it, even if you love the G1 toys, they do look mostly out of place with the newer toys!) His gimmick still works and is even fun (to an extent) and he even has somewhat decent articulation for an 80's figure.

However now for the bad stuff, if you don't apply his stickers then he looks EXTREMELY bare, with most G1 figures you can get away without applying any stickers, but with Sky Lynx he just looks wrong without them. Also it does get annoying if you accidentally switch on the gimmick and it's in the walk mode when he's in vehicle mode (and then it starts worming around).

If you do plan to get this figure, it's probably wisest to get the Encore reissue, for a couple of reasons:

a) it's cheaper than getting an original G1 version

b) he has more paint applications that makes him look better

So all in all, I'd say that this figure is worth getting (despite his character being a total dick) but only if you can get the Encore version, as the 80's version would cost more and has less paint applications (ie the eyes and mouth cannon).

R is for Rapid Run

The Winning Toy


Toyline: Energon

Generation: Unicron Trilogy

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Decepticon/Autobot/Neutral


Robot Mode



Rapid Run's robot mode is pretty simple compared to most figures from the Energon line (since he's a pure repaint of an Armada figure) and actually invokes the feel of one of the classics 80's figures (boxy physique, non-articulate hands, lack of ball joints etc). His main colour-scheme is yellow with black stripes and details, brown upper legs and joints. Rapid Run's colour-scheme seems to be designed to emulate the Beast Wars toy Buzzsaw (a Waspinator repaint) it's unknown why this is however.

Rapid Run's torso is yellow and black with red headlights on his chest. The central part of his chest is a translucent green colour which holds his two faction insignias (activated by inserting his Mini-Con heads into the slots on either side of his head). Rapid Run's head is sculpted with a mouth, forehead markings and a red visor optic. His vehicle mode handlebars are used as antlers in this mode. Rapid Run can move his head forwards and backwards by a small amount. Rapid Run's motorcycle wheels are left on his back as kibble (folded in on themselves).

Rapid Run's upper arms are connected to his torso by a knob and indent combination (able to be removed for Transformation). The actual upper arm is actually able to move on a pivot joint, allowing it to rotate 360 degrees and also uses a hinge point to allow the arms to be raised outwards by 90 degrees. His lower arms are connected to his upper arm by a pivot joint that can allow it to rotate fully (but not bend forwards). Rapid Run's hands are connected to the lower arm by a small hinge that enables it to bend forwards by 90 degrees. Rapid Run's hands are sculpted with fingers, and cannot hold any other weapons. He has a missile on both arms that clips into a small hole on his wrists which can be launched by plugging a Mini-Con into the hard-points on his lower arms and pulling them downwards.

Rapid Run's upper legs are connected to his lower torso by a pivot and hinge joint combination that gives it fully mobility (barring any obstructions). The lower leg is connected to the upper leg by a sliding joint, but cannot actually bend or rotate. The feet are connected to the lower legs by a small pivot that enables the feet to be repositioned to compensate for uneven surfaces if needed. His lower legs have a non-functional Mini-Con hard-point near each foot (maybe you can add some fast Mini-Cons to it to give him a speed boost?)


Vehicle Mode



Rapid Run's vehicle mode is a bulky Cybertronian Motorcycle with a yellow and black striped colour-scheme, making him resemble a hornet. His red painted headlights even look like eyes.

Due to the shape of his undercarriage he doesn't need a kick stand and can basically stand up in vehicle mode quite easily, however this undercarriage doesn't hinder his movement in this mode

Rapid Run's robot mode arm weapons are used as exhaust pipes in this mode, which of course can also be used as missiles here as well, just plug a Mini-Con into his active hard-points and open fire on whoever's behind him!! Rapid Run also has 2 non-active hard-points at the very rear of this mode, which are just to extra storage space.

Rapid Run has two small rectangular holes on his vehicle mode seat, which enables you to either place the two small Mini-Cons on there as a rider and passenger, or the combined Mini-Con as a solo rider (the larger combined Mini-Con actually has small grooves on this mode's arms to enable him to hold the handlebars.


Nightscream



Nightscream is quite a simple Transformer (to be expected from a Mini-Con however). His upper arms are connected to his torso by a small pivot that enables it to rotate fully, and even raise outwards by a small amount as well (possibly not by intention). His arms and hands are otherwise lacking any articulation. His legs are connected to his lower torso by a small hinge-connector-ball joint combination and has the same type of connector for his knees, this enables him to raise his legs outwards, backwards and forwards almost fully, and even bend at the knees as well (quite rare for a Mini-Con!)

Nightscream can transform into the Autobot head of Rapid Run by turning his arms upwards (to be parallel to his head, repositioning his legs into dreads (like my one shows) or antlers. You then slide down the lower torso panel to reveal his eyes, flip him upside down, and insert him into Rapid Run's head's slot (after pushing his true head down first of course)



By inserting Nightscream's hands, you push down both of the buttons, which reveals the Autobot Insignia, making him look like a happy friendly chappie!

Nightscream's colour scheme is mostly black with purple and yellow highlights. His Mini-Con face has a sculpted visor optic and mouth-plate (neither are painted however) Nightscream's Mini-Con socket is found on his lower back.


Nightcruz



Nightcruz is about as complex as Nightscream in terms of his design, and as such is pretty similar in his design.. His arms are connected on a screw enabling it to rotate fully, nut not move outwards like Nightscream's does. His legs are connected to the lower torso by a ball joint which enables it to move forwards, backwards and sideways as far as he can. Nightcruz's lower legs are connected to the upper legs by a hinge-connector-ball joint combination like on Nightscream's, which enables him to sit down with bended knees as well.

His transformation to his Decepticon head mode is very similar to Nightscream's, you rotate his arms upwards, split his legs, manoeuvre the legs into horns or antlers (dreads aren't really an option with this one). Slide his lower torso panel down to reveal his red eyes.



Now you plug Nightcruz into Rapid Run's head socket, which reveals his Decepticon insignia (his hands are smaller than Nightscream's so he only removed one panel rather than two)

Nightcruz has a purple, grey and black colour scheme with yellow eyes and mouth. His Mini-Con socket is found dead center on his back.


"Rider"



Nightscream and Nightcruz are able to combine into one rider component (who's name isn't known by me). He is formed by turning Nightscream into his head mode, but pushing his head inwards, revealing his larger gestalt head, and then pushing his arms backwards. Turn Nightcruz backwards, lift up his torso panel and rotate his legs around fully, next plug Nightcruz's head into the empty socket where Nightscream's head was before and reposition to look nice. He has articulated shoulders, upper leg joints, knees and elbows.

The rider's look is meant to emulate a motorcycle rider with full body leather, gloves, boots and even helmet. He works quite well in this function, especially since he can ride Rapid Run quite effectively. As he's the combined form of the two Mini-Cons he retains their Mini-Con sockets which are now found on his upper back and groin (I hope this isn't a female character....).


Legacy

Rapid Run never appeared in the Energon TV series or comics, so he has no fictional appearances (as with his Mini-Cons as well. However since this character is a straight repaint of the Armada figure Sideways (plus Mini-Cons) it has been speculated that this could be the robot whom Unicron abducted before and turned into his loyal minion. Sideways himself has been shown to be nigh-invincible and able to give himself a new body to suit his needs for various continuities (like the Robot Masters universe (as Double Face) and Animated, as well as the in continuity with Armada Cybertron series, where he is revealed to have originated from Planet X and has a new Alternate mode of a space jet.

Rapid Run was also shown to be a last minute new character made by Hasbro, due to his toy card backing showing him in Sideways' colour scheme, possibly meaning that he WAS originally meant as a simple repaint/reissue of the Sideways character for the Energon line.

The name Rapid Run has been used in two other cases as one of the Bullet Train Autobots from Robots in Disguise and one of the Micromaster Railbots from the first Universe line. Interestingly, both of these characters turn into trains, making this incarnation a bit out of place.

An interesting point (that I mentioned earlier) is that he appears to be an homage to the Beast Era character Buzzsaw for no real reason (other than Waspinator, a mold mate of Buzzsaw, turning into Thrust in Beast Machines, who was also a motorcycle, though that seems a bit roundabout for such an obscure homage, I mean why not just paint him green and black to make him a Waspinator homage??)

The name Nightscream has of course been used before for the Beast Machines character, and later for many...many Mini-Cons from various lines. Nightcruz however has only had one re-usage of his name, which was in the Robots in Disguise line, for a repaint of the Beast Machines figure Spy Streak. Incidentally, most uses for both of these names have been for robots with aerial alternate modes, despite neither of these two having aerial modes, just like how Rapid Run himself has only been used for trains other than this incarnation.


Is he Cool?

Rapid Run is a Marmite figure, you love him, hate him or are just "meh" for him. Personally, I like him, he's a pretty strong figure for using an Armada toy mold, which had a few weak toys in it, and his interactions with the Mini-Con's, as well at the Mini-Con's being able to combine with themselves really make him a fun toy to play with, as well as making him pretty screen accurate (if you imagine Sideways' character model in these colours) even to the extent with his arm missiles are present in his character model! (this is almost unheard of normally).

On the flip side however, I can see why people wouldn't want Rapid Run, he has absolutely no fiction for you to recreate, and no real back-story from which to create a story from making him a blank slate (which some people don't want for some reason). Also due to him being a very last minute repaint he was only made in limited numbers (about 10,000) he's probably quite hard to find fully intact or at a reasonable price nowadays.

So my general overall thoughts? I like him, but don't get him unless you really want to. You may as well just get the more available Sideways figure as he has more fiction and back-story to back him up. However if you DO like him then by all means get him, but he's not really worth spending a large amount of money on when there's a cheaper alternative in his Armada repaint. The Buzzsaw repaint isn't really worth a notable price-hike.

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.