Mini November - Cyberverse Legion Flak

Flak

"The Battle tactics Flak invented might be unusual, but he know they'd work - if only he could get them tested out on the battlefield."

Generation: Live Action Movies

Toy Line: Dark of the Moon

Size Class: Cyberverse Legion

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 6

Speed: 7

Endurance: 9

Rank: 4

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 3

Robot Mode

Flak's robot mode uses a green and brown camouflage deco and has black chest windows and a silver Autobot insignia on his stomach.

Flak's face is silver and features sculpted blue eyes and a sculpted face mask. His helmet is brown and features a swept back design on it and a small chevron on top as well. Flak has a backpack on his back that holds his gun turret and allows it to hang over his right shoulder. Though the gun is unable to actually fire, though it can move up and down, like in vehicle mode.

Flak's legs are connected to his lower legs at the groin by a set of ball joint connectors, which allows them to be raised forwards and back as far as possible without hitting other body parts. His legs have otherwise got no articulation and are just solid. His feet are just forward protrusions, which enable him to stand freely in robot mode.

Flak's arms are connected to his upper body by a hinge and ball joint combination that allows them to move at quite a surprising amount of articulation for such a small figure. the hinge allows them to be lowered and raised at a range of about 90 degrees, and his ball joint allows the actual arm to rotate on the axis fully. Flak's elbow is created by a pin joint that allows him to bend the lower arm inwards by about 90 degrees. His right hand features a sculpted grip that allows him to interact with the Cyberverse playsets and other accessories, whilst his left hand is just sculpted with an open hand.

Vehicle Mode

Flak turns into a gun mounted personnel carrier in a green and brown camouflage deco. It's sculpted with detailing such as side windows, ladders and ports across his form. His Autobot insignia is located on his very front, but is coloured in a silver that is hard to see unless the light is shining on it.

Flak's wheels are fully capable of moving, allowing him to roll along a smooth surface if desired. Flak's gun turret is also able to move up and down at a 180 degree point from the pin joint, although you can also rotate the turret, it looks off as it's only really meant to be for the transformation sequence.

My Thoughts

Flak is one of my favourite new figures, despite his small size he is actually a very good toy, he has reasonable articulation for a toy of his size, his vehicle mode looks good and actually has some special features! Not only that, but Flak actually seems to be in scale with some of his fellow Cyberverse toys like Guzzle (not to mention having similar colour schemes as well)

Something that strikes me about this figure is that it could make a very nice Movie continuity Ironfist/Fisitron toy as well (repainted obviously, possibly with a new head) or even a Hardhead toy (based on his IDW continuity Earth Mode)

In my very honest opinion, if you see this toy you should grab him, whether it means you have to cut down on about £4 of your shopping or not., he is well worth it, especially if you have any of the playsets or additional Cyberverse figures (Guzzle in particular)

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.

Mini November - Micromaster Hot Rods

The Autobot Hot Rod Patrol

"Each possesses 16 cylinders of carbonic Autobot muscle! High-performance avengers have more rubber-burning speed that the fastest squad of Decepticons. Usually seem cruising up and down Earth beaches and boardwalks. Highly mischievous and adventurous, sometimes mistaken for Decepticon punks. Though preoccupied with fun, still able to quickly respond to emergency roadway situations. Able to spot dangerous Decepticon highway marauders using telescopic, kelvar-energized, localizer radar. Each car is protected by a geometric shield which deflects Decepticon photon disintegration beams. Courage and tenacity are the patrol's finest attributes."

Generation: Generation One

Toyline: Transformers Micromaster Patrols

Faction: Autobot

Function: Highway Reconnaissance

Team Motto: "The essence of speed relies on our power to perform!"

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 8

Speed: 8

Endurance: 10

Teamwork: 9

Courage: 9

Firepower: 8

Skill: 9

Big Daddy

Quote: "We can take Decepticons any time, anywhere!"

Big Daddy is a black and orange robot with red flame deco on his arms. His head is encased in a protective area (like Huffer and some others are). His actual head features a follow shevron on his orange helmet. He has a dark blue face that features a sculpted set of eyes, nose and mouth.

Big Daddy's arms are able to rotate on a pin joint fully and features a sculpted pair of hands on the insides as well.

His legs are connected to the torso by a pin through the groin that allows them to bend forwards and back somewhat. His lower legs are connected to the upper legs by a pin that creates a knee joint (though both legs are stuck together) the two lower legs can be moved separately, but only up to the point where the knee pin is found (meaning he can lift his leg up daintily if needed). He is kept upright by his feet, created from some outward plastic, stopping him from toppling over.

Big Daddy turns into a black Modified Chevrolet Bel Air Hot Rod Convertible with red flame deco on the sides and white-grey windows. His rear wheels are much larger than his front ones, so he is forced to dip down, but this doesn't hinder his driving on a smooth surface.

Big Daddy features all the expected sculptings for a car mode of his model, such as doors, rear lights, headlights, grills and other such things. Big Daddy also features some fins on the back that really over-accents his dipping appearance, making him look like he's dipping further than what he actually is.

Trip-Up

Quote: "If you're not driving to win, don't drive at all!"

Trip-Up is a white and green robot with blue flames on his arms and gold and black detailings on his body. Trip-Up's head is surrounded by a protective barrier of sorts (sort of like Huffer and Pipes'). His head has a green helmet with a large Mohawk type chevron on top (sort of like Ironhide's from the Cartoon). His face is painted white and has sculpted eyes, a nose and mouth.

Trip-Up's arms are connected by a pin on each side that allows them to rotate fully on that point. He features a sculpted hand on each arm on the inside.

His legs are able to be moved forwards by 90 degrees and back by 45 degrees by a pivot joint that connects it to the lower torso. His lower legs are connected to the upper ones by a pin on the knee area, which stitches the two legs together as well, meaning they have to move together, unless you fancy some mod work. The two lower legs can be moved separately, but only up to the point where the knee pin is found (meaning he can lift his leg up daintily if needed)

Trip-Up's vehicle mode is a white Ford Mustang Hot Rod car with gold windows and blue flame door deco. His rear wheels are larger than the front ones, meaning that he dips forwards somewhat, but despite that he doesn't obstruct himself whilst driving on a smooth surface.

Trip-Up also features several sculpted details like air vents, headlights, front grill, bumpers and much more. Trip-up also has the newest make of car out of the four members of this set, so he seems a bit out of place in this sense.

Greaser

Quote: "I dig watching Decepticons crack up after I cross the finish line first!"

Greaser's robot mode is an orange and black stubby robot with yellow flames on his arms and sides. Greaser's head is all black, except for his silver optical visor. He features a pair of horn-like ears, a noticeable helmet and sculpted nose and mouth..honestly his face reminds me of G1 Jazz's, maybe he's a fan?

Greaser's arms are connected to his torso by a pair of small pins that allows them to be rotated a little under 90 degrees downwards and they feature some lightly sculpted fingers. Greaser's legs are connected by a pivot joint that allows them to move forwards and back as needed. His lower legs are connected by a pin that allows his knees to bend forwards by about 90 degrees (thye are connected together though). He's able to stand stably due to the extension from the rear of his legs. The two lower legs can be moved separately, but only up to the point where the knee pin is found (meaning he can kick you in the shin at an awkward angle if wanted)

Greaser's weird....it looks like he was originally supposed to transform in the opposite direction but was changed pretty much last minute. His arms are very gimpy, his legs are clearly backwards, and the majority of his decoration is hanging off his back. It just seems to me that they must have originally planned for him to transform more similarly to Hubs, but was changed for some reason and this was what they were left with.

Greaser transforms into an orange Ford Deuce Coupe Hot Rod complete with larger than life engine block (which in fact ends up being higher than his actual roof).

He features a set of blue windows, yellow flame deco on his sides, sculpted doors, sun roof panel, headlights, wheel hubs, front grill, bumpers and all other expected car detailings for this model of vehicle. His wheels are able to fully rotate and he features a larger pair at the back, but unlike the rest of his team, this doesn't make his dip forwards that much.

Hubs

Quote: "I enjoy burnin' rubber over Decepticon metal."

Hubs is a green and white robot with orange flames on his arms. His face is red and is sculpted with a just visible mouth and eyes, and also has a sculpted forehead chevron and horns. His stubby arms are able to move on a pivot joint fully and feature a sculpted hand on the inside of each one.

Hubs' legs are connected to his lower torso by a pivot that allows them to move forwards by about 90 degrees (in 45 degree increments) and backwards by 45 degrees. His lower legs can fold back 180 degrees (for his transformation) but are stuck together by a pin which means they can't be split apart (unless you're willing to do some modifications). His feet are just some poking out plastic from the front that stops him from toppling over. The two lower legs can be moved separately, but only up to the point where the knee pin is found (meaning he can lift his leg up daintily if needed)

Hubs turns into a green Willys Coupe Hot Rod. He has larger wheels at the back of his vehicle mode that makes him slope forwards slightly.

His wheels are working and allow him to roll along a smooth surface with ease. He features a sculpted car boot on the back, a large hot rod engine at the front, blue windows, orange flames on his sculpted door panels, sculpted headlights, front grill, bumpers and other such expected things.

My Thoughts

Ah the Hot Rod patrol, a colourful, yet random collection of vehicles, whose only connection is that all four have exposed hot rod engines. Like most transformers sold in pairs/groups these guys have been gang molded in pairs (to save on production costs and plastic usage) Big Daddy and Greaser are one pair, with Trip-Up and Hubs beings the second one.

This team was mostly ignored for a long time, until Dreamwave decided to use them as the main characters in the (painful) Micromasters mini-series, possibly the last fully completed series' from Dreamwave before they went down the pooper.

So far, only Big Daddy has received a new updated toy, in the form of his Movie toy counterpart (a repaint of Cybertron Downshift) which looks very close to the G1 version, so he could easily fit in with the aesthetic of the Classics line if needed. And something of note, the ROTF figure Hubcap looks quite a lot like Greaser (minus the flame deco) but seems to emulate Hubs' name...interesting....

I'd personally say that this team is well worth getting personally, and this is from someone who's not all that fond of the G1 toyline in general! They have fun looking alternate modes, they all look pretty good, and due to them being quite underused, they won't be on any scalping radars, so they shouldn't be too expensive (my complete boxed set was about £5 on ebay)

Mini November - Legends Trailcutter

Name: Trailcutter

Faction: Autobot

Toyline: Reveal the Shield

Generation: Generation One

Size Class: Legends

Strength: 8

Speed: 4

Rank: 7

Firepower: 5

Intelligence: 8

Endurance: 9

Courage: 7

Skill: 6

Robot Mode

Trailcutter's vehicle mode is predominantly black with a blue chest panel and silver and red highlights on his legs.

His torso is very basic in design (very appropriate for a G1 based figure) due to his very small toy size, and has a slightly portly build to him. His head is connected to the top of his torso on a pivot that can rotate upwarps by about 180 degrees. His head is sculpyed with a helmet, forehead chevron, mouth and chin. His visor is also sculpted, but also features some blue paint as well, making it more distinguishable from the rest of the face (his face could really have used some silver paint or something). Above his head is a silver device that is fictionally able to be re-purposed as his force-field generator.

Trailcutter's arms are connected to his upper torso by a hinge joint and a ball joint that allows them to bend backwards by about 90 degrees (if wanted) and rotated on the ball as much as needed. Due to his small toy class he doesn't feature any other joints for an elbow, however he does feature a set of sculpted hands, including fingers and a singular separate thumb.

His legs are connected to the torso at a groin area by a ball joint on either side that allows them to be spread outwards, kick forwards and back as needed. Again, like with the arms, he lacks a knee joint due to his size class, however he does have a pair of feet that are able to fold back on themselves (mostly for the Transformation sequence, but you can repose them slightly if needed to)

Trailcutter is a fairly sturdy figure as well, and despite his basic design and small format, he actually looks quite good as well, in my opinion any way.

Alternate Mode

Trailcutter's vehicle mode is a black camper van with a dark blue windscreen, gold headlights, silver grill and front bumper.

Trailcutter features sculpted windows on the rear section, side view mirrors, doors and other standard features on a van like this. His heat sensitive rub-sign insignia is found on the top of the back of this mode.

His wheels are sculpted with tire tracks and are free spinning, allowing him to roll along a smooth surface (aided by a lack of undercarriage kibble as well of course.

My Thoughts

Trailcutter is a very worthwhile figure to add to your collection, he's a long overdue update for one of the original toys, Trailbreaker (renamed for Trademark reasons). However Trailbreaker has also received some additional attempts at a new toy, such as the Overhaul/Leobreaker character from the Cybertron series (with Leobreaker even retaining the end of his name).

Additional toys that were originally going to be Trailbreaker's but were either repainted/renamed as other characters include Universe Spychanger Ironhide, Universe Deluxe Ratchet, and a remold of Alternators Hound (used instead for Rollbar and Swindle).

Trailbreaker (using his original name) has been appearing steadily in Transformers fiction for G1 media since his creation.

This figure, despite it's limited articulation and basic design is in fact quite a fun figure to play with, especially for young kids, or even just for a G1 fan who wants a new version of Trailbreaker, complete with almost intact name.

Familial October - Arcee, Chromia and Elita One

The Sisters

The Bike Trio are an interesting set of characters, and here they are:

Arcee

"Arcee jumped at the chance to join up with Ironhide and the other Decepticon hunters on Earth. She proved such an effective warrior that she was quickly given command of her own strike team, made up of robots similar to her in attitude and design. Together with the Autobots she leads, she stalks the Decepticons in silence, creeping close enough to look them in the optics before she strikes.

"

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 8

Intelligence: 6

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 5

Courage: 7

Fireblast: 7

Skill: 9

Robot Mode

Arcee's alternate mode is odd, she has a serpentine-style design where her upper and lower bodies are connected by a segmented connector similar to a snake's body.

Arcee's body is mostly pink with black added for the limbs, wheels and connectors. Arcee's body also features some silver detailing such as on her arms, upper body and face.

Arcee's torso is designed to emulate a woman's bosy with noticable abdominal areas and a feminine chest (if you mistook her for a male character then I feel sorry for you). Arcee's head is connected to the torso by a combination of a gear-based hinge and a ball joint that allows it to rotate to either side and nod up and down. Her face is silver and surrounded by a pink helmet and uses a lot of angular shapes, like triangles to create cheekbones, a chin, nose and chevrons, giving her a very feminine look (better than some other attempts). Her face features a light-piping effect that gives her pale blue lit up eyes.

Arcee's arms are connected to her torso at the left side by a ball joint connector that gives it great freedom of movement, which leads to an elbow joint created from another ball joint, again giving it a great amount of movement. Arcee's left hand to sculpted with dainty fingers, and the hand is able to fold in on itself, thanks to the transformation sequence she uses. This arm also features a black weapon created from her licence plate area from vehicle mode, which is flipped around by 180 degrees, and has a button that releases her translucent blue blade weapon.

Arcee's right arm is connected by a hinge connector that is hidden by her vehicle mode windscreen and surrounding area, creating a shoulder. Arcee's actual arm is connected to that by a ball joint that again gives it great mobility, and again leading to an elbow created by a ball joint connecting to the lower arm. Arcee's lower arm is surrounded by a chunk of her vehicle mode's shell that could be used as a shield or a make-shift bladed weapon if desired.

Arcee's snake-like connector is created by three black pieces that are connected to the upper torso by a ball joint and to the lower body by another ball joint and hinge combination. The inner piece of the connector is connected by a pivot joint and a hinge joint respectively. As can be assumed here, the number of joints in this section allows Arcee to be very flexible in this mode, allowing you to pose her in pretty much any pose you need, however, due to the excessive usage of the ball-joints, they do wear out pretty fast, so you may want to use some nail varnish to make them thicker and restrengthen them after a while.

Arcee's lower body is essentially her vehicle mode wheels and their gears etc folded in on themselves, creating a pair of wheel-based limbs for her (like what Sideswipe and Demolishor also have in this continuity) however, unlike those two,Arcee can use a stand in this mode to keep her standing upright (as seen in my pictures). However if you have a surface with indents made especially for her, or that has a malleable texture and can be reshaped as needed, then you can gte her to stand without it.

Vehicle Mode

Arcee's vehicle mode is a pink and black motorcycle with a set of Cyberglyphics on either side, and features some sculpted features like her windshield, translucent headlights, handlebars with brakes, twine exhaust pipes, wheel spokes, plastic tyres, licence Plate, gears, chains and seat, along with other smaller features.

Arcee's wheels are each capable of rotating on their axis' and she also features a working kickstand for her to being to stand upright (or as upright as possible for a two-wheeler).

Arcee's stand, which enables her to stand upright in robot mode is also used in vehicle mode in one of two ways, with as a pair of non-firing side-cannons, which clicks into the right side of his rear wheel, or as a side car that clips into the left side of his rear wheel. You can place a Mini-Con or a small Human figure from another toyline in there to enjoy the ride as well. In either of these configurations, Arcee doesn't need her kickstand deployed.

Chromia

"Chromia is as tough as nails, and always spoiling for a fight. She's been friends with Ironhide for centuries, and their reunion on Earth was one of the high points of the war for both of them. Now they work side by side, hunting and destroying Decepticons. Neither of them has ever been happier. The two robots make great partners, and she, along with her sisters are an invaluable part of the team."

Toyline: Revenge of the Fallen

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 7

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 5

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 8

Skill: 4

Robot Mode

Chromia's robot mode is very different to Arcee's but in concept is actually very similar, her upper and lower bodies are separated by a snake-like connector (though this one is much more simpler than Arcee's)

Chromia's body is a combination of blue, black, grey and silver for her detailings. Her torso is very similar in design to Arcee's, but in a slightly different set up. Her head is connected to a hinge and ball joint combination like Arcee's and her face in general has the same basic design as Arcee (suitable for a triplet character) Chromia features a pair of blue painted eyes, but she also has a light piping feature, but due to the eyes being painted it's been neutered.

Chromia features a pair of shoulder pads above her arms that come from the bulk of her vehicle mode. Her arms themselves are connected to the torso by a ball joint each, giving them some movement. Her lower arms are connected by an elbow joint created from a pair of hinges on each arm that allows them to bend inwards and upwards about 90 degrees each way. Chromia's right arm also features a large cannon created from the bulk of the rear of her vehicle mode that features a firing missile, with the trigger on the underside of the weapon. Chromia features an immobile sculpted hand on her left arm, but not on her right.

Chromia's lower body is connected to the upper by a pair of grey connectors that form her snake-like inner body that can be reposed to allow her to bend forwards, lean back and much more. The lower body iself is made up of her rear vehicle mode wheel that can be folded inwards (along with the opening hatch on her vehicle mode) to create a wheeled limb, like her sister has. Again, like Arcee she comes with a stand that can be used to keep her from falling over.

Now in my case I position Chromia's movable kibble pieces differently from Elita's so as to differentiate between them easier. In my Chromia's case I keep the wheel found behind her head upright, as she is most commonly seen in this manner in fiction. For my version I also rotate her headlights to point forwards with her handlebars folded inwards. I also fold in her hatch opening and wheel so that the hatch is basically unseen and it looks like it isn't even there, but the wheel is fully visible. Her stand is positioned so it fully encases her wheel and the pair of guns are pointed forwards (the same direction as her large gun and headlights).

Vehicle Mode

Chromia's vehicle mode is a blue, black and silver motorcycle with white Cyberglyphics across her form. Arcee features working wheels and kickstand like Arcee does, but also features a moving handlebar, brakes and light segment, that allows it to rotate either way (as if you were veering to the left or right) and also has a hatch in the center that can open upwards for you to pretend to put things in there (like your helmet when leaving it or your lunch, like on a real bike). Chromia also has a firing missile between her exhaust pipes, although the actual trigger is hidden in this mode.

Chromia's extra sculpted features include a gas intake valve, gears, chains, twin exhaust pipes, licence plate that can be lowered to act as a wheel guard for the rear wheel too, sculpted wheels and other smaller pieces of detail.

Chromia's stand from robot mode can be reused here, like Arcee's could as well, but in a different way. In Chromia's case you can clip it onto the ports just in front of the rear wheels that allows her to stand there straight, with cannons beneath her, and due to the positioning of it, can also be made to look like she's performing a wheelie by just pushing down on the rear point of the motorcycle.

This stand can otherwise be inserted into the slots found on the two exhaust pipes and be used as a pair of extra weapons, including a pair of gatling guns. In this mode you need the kickstand open or hold her up manually, otherwise she'll fall over.

Elita-1

"Though she is a sister to Arcee, Elita-1 has more in common with Sideswipe. She and the swordsman team up whenever possible - especially if it means they can get away somewhere nice to do a little Decepticon hunting. This time, the two Autobots have found themselves up against Axor, who should present just enough of a challenge to make things interesting."

Toyline: Transformers 2010 line/Hunt for the Decepticons

Generation: Live Action Movies

Size Class: Deluxe

Faction: Autobot

Strength: 4

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 8

Endurance: 5

Rank: 6

Courage: 8

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 6

Robot Mode

Elita One's body is the same as Chromia's (SHOCKING!) but of course features her own colour-scheme or black, metallic purple, grey and silver. Her eyes feature a blue light piping effect.

As she shares the same design as Chromia, there's no point in me just repeating the previous review's robot mode section, I'll just mention my own changes in how I pose her kibble.

Mostly Elita is the same as Chromia, but I fold back the wheel from behind her head fully, mostly hiding it from forward view, and I also leave the lights and handlebars as they were in vehicle mode, with the lights pointing upwards (towards her face) and the handlebars outwards. I also leave her storage hatch opened up and kept in front of her wheel, and rests on the front of it.

An additional change I make is with the stand. I connect it in the opposite fashion to how I do with Chromia, so the guns are pointing out backwards, and could be missed when seen from the front. Remember, optical illusions are your friends when it comes to repaints!!!

Vehicle Mode

Elita-1's alternate mode is the same as Chromia's except for the colour applications. Elita's colouration is a combination of silver, black and metallic/chome purple that works very well, even if I do say so myself.

Elita comes with more Cyberglyphics across her form (same as Chromia's but in different places) and features all the same sculpting details and working features as Chromia.

Elita's major difference in terms of details is her Licence Plate, which features a "leet/1337" version of her name "3L 174" (ELITA).

Elita of course features the same stand as Chromia, and it can be used in exactly the same ways again, there's nothing new to add here.

Combined Mode

As I'm sure is very well know, the combined form of the sisters was abandoned officially by Hasbro before Elita-1 was created, and thus Elita was made into a pure repaint of Chromia meaning that any combined form you make from them will look just wrong. But the one I pictures above seems to work well (enough) and is pretty easy to make, you just fold out their connector pieces (found on their backs) and slide them into each other creating a small triangle between them, and then repose Arcee into a laid-back position and have the two mold mates standing up.

This combined mode isn't great, but it's something at least. She isn't able to move any easier or release any new weapons in this mode, but it'll do for it's purpose...you might want to just ignore this mode and just look at the pretty motorcycles below....

there! Wasn't that a much nicer picture to look at that Abomination Gal? Yeah...just try to forget the previous picture..'kay?

My Thoughts?

The bike Trio are quite unique in that their toys were released across two toy lines (ROTF and HFTD) and on top of that, the third member, Elita-1 was merely made a repaint of the earlier Chromia toy (which led me to positioning her vehicle mode parts in different ways between the two to help differentiate between them). Also, because Elita-1 was hanged from an individual mold to a repaint, the combined form ISN'T what it was originally meant to be, but rather what I decided looks best, considering what I had available to me.

And interesting point I should make here is that all three of these girls actually had a counterpart in the first Movie's toy line as well. Arcee of course had her Deluxe class toy which was based on the concept created for her when she was intended to be in the movie originally, but the two Scout class Energon Arcee repaints in that line are actually very similar to the paint schemes on the other two toys (the blue Arcee toy as Chromia, and the black and chrome-like purple Elita One as he new counterpart, which ironically means that Elita was a repaint of Chromia AGAIN!).

The three sisters have been used in the comics and novels for the movies since the start and have been around for several key events (the launching of the Allspark, Starscream's Reign etc) but in the recent, pre-DOTM comics the Elita-1 character was killed off, and her sister's fates have been left unclear as of yet.

Arcee has been in the Transformers franchise since the G1 Cartoon Movie, where she was introduced as a female Autobot who could turn into a futuristic sports car. Very unusually for a main character in the series, Arcee never received a toy. However in 2001, Arcee received a Botcon toy of herself for the Universe line, and was a repaint of Transmetal II Black Arachnia, and later also received a Binaltech toy, which was a repaint of Decepticharge (who was also meant to have a repaint as Black Arachnia as well coincidentally). Arcee has also gone on to appear in the Energon TV series and Animated series, where she received a new toy in each (Motorcycle and Sports Car respectively). As well as the aforementioned Movie 1 Arcee toys, this version of Arcee has also been repainted as additional versions of herself, as well as receiving some smaller toys as well, in the Legends and Fast Action Battler sizes.

Chromia has actually been in the franchise longer than Arcee, though she has been used a lot less that the former female, she was introduced in the G1 TV series during Season 2 along with Elita One's G1 Counterpart as well. However unlike Arcee, Chromia has only ever received a toy in one other continuity. She received a toy in the Botcon 2005 set, which was a repaint of Energon Arcee (see some repetition here yet?). She has also received a Legends class toy, and the aforementioned re-purposing of Arcee's Movie 1 Scout toy.

Elita-1 premièred in the Transformers franchise at the same time as Chromia and was revealed to be the female counterpart/sister of Optimus Prime, both being rebuilt by Alpha Trion after being "killed" by Megatron. Elita's G1 counterpart received her first toy at Botcon 2009, where she was a mostly pink repaint of the Cybertron Thunderblast toy (at least she's not yet another bike!), and the aforementioned Movie 1 Scout toy of course.

Elita-1 was originally announced to be called Flareup, named for the Botcon 2005 character who shared a mold with Chromia, but this was soon changed when the toy was announced. Also, the toy itself looks completely different to the character seen in the movie and comics, in terms of colour and body type (not shockingly considering that she's a repaint). The colour change was most likely done to make her look more similar to her Movie 1 counterpart.

Over all, I really like this batch of toys, it was fun to collect all three over time, and despite the third member being just a repaint, I still think it was well worth it in the end. Their snake-like designs have been well translated from the character models to toy-form (within reason of course, it would be impossible to have made them look exactly screen accurate).

Familial October - Jetfire and Jetstorm

"Created using the most advanced techniques known to Autobot science, Jetstorm and Jetfire were clones tech recovered from Starscream. Brought online in a secret laboratory deep beneath Cybertron, they are the first Autobots created specifically to battle the Decepticons. Though they are young, they are extremely intelligent, working their way through the Elite Guard boot camp in record time. Together they are potentially the most powerful Autobots of all time, especially when they combine into their Safeguard form.

* The only Autobots that can fly.

*Youngest Elite Guard members of all time.

*The first robots with the ability to combine."

Toyline: Animated US

Generation: Animated

Size Class: Voyager (Deluxe each)

Faction: Autobot

Jetfire

Jetfire is the orange ad white Twin, and he goes a little something like this....

Jetfire has a yellow Translucent panel on his chest with a sculpted pattern inside it (like an expanding stylized T shape). That panel is surrounded by a white border and a pair of brown markings on bottom (maybe they're light indicators?) and his lower torso is a slender black form that leads to his groin and legs. A little fun thing in that part of the body is that his chest panel can open up, so you can make pretend that Ratchet or someone is doing open-spark surgery on him, or that the Matrix can be hidden there.

Jetfire's head is connected onto the torso by a connector that is held in place by his collar. the head is connected to the neck-connector by a hinge that allows him to bob up and down and also turn to either side. Jetfire's head is sculpted with a pair of air-men's goggles, a pair of side ear muffs, and a flame effect on top as hair (which can be lit up along with his orange eyes by his light-piping effect. Jetfire's face features a sculpted smirking smile and stubby nose and of course the TFA trademark...a large chin (in the shape of a chin strap). Jetfire's face itself is white, and his helmet is orange, whilst his goggles and chin strap are brown.

Jetfire's arms are connected to his upper torso by an orange folding part that slots into place at the shoulder point. The upper arms are connected to that piece by a ball joint that allows it to move pretty much freely. His elbow joints are created by a hinge and a pivot that alloows it to rotate fully and bend forwards by 90 degrees. Jetfire's lower arms are just solid blocks that feature a flaming blade on the outside. Jetfire's wrists are articulated to rotate fully, but his hands themselves are just sculpted there and cannot hold any real weapons (but what does he care? he can make fire happen!!)

Jetfire's legs are connected to the groin area by a couple of messy hinges, but luckily they're covered up by his hip-guards (which feature his Elite Guard insignias). The actual legs are articulated up the top to move forwards and back as much as needed by a set of pivots and to rotate at the top due to another pivot , so he can be posed in a more stable manor. The lower legs are connected by a knee joint created by some hinges that allows them to bend backwards by about 90 degrees and inwards on itself by a small amount as well. Jetfire's feet are simply sculpted and made to look like boots, complete with grips on the bottom, arch and a heels. The lower legs themselves are shaped to look like a well sculpted runner's legs.

Jetfire's alternate mode is a Cybertronian jet of some sort with a thin nose-cone and a pair of boosters at the back, backed up with a pair of fold out wings at the back and a pair of smaller non-moving wings at the front (possibly meant to show his powers activating rather than actually being wings)

He also features a non-opening cockpit in the center as well and several speed enhancing parts, like slimlined parts and extra wings for aerodynamic reasons etc.

Jetstorm

Jetstorm, being Jetfire's twin, is understandably very similar to his brother, so rather than making you read the exact same review AGAIN I've decided to go for the lazy option, and just list what parts of him are different to his brother!

Jetstorm's body is of course most noticeably different in terms of his colours, Jetstorm uses a dark and light blue colour-scheme, with gold highlights instead of brown

Jetstorm's flame decos are also different as these ones are meant to emulate ice or wind currents, so they are much sharper and more jagged looking that Jetfire's smooth lines, and of course they are blue instead of orange.

Jetstorm's head looks more streamlined that Jetfire's and features sharper lines and more points to it. His chin guard is a light blue with two bolts up the top, connecting it to the rest of the helmet. His helmet itself is the dark blue of his body with a pair of gold stripes down the middle. His eyes are in a visor format (akin to Jazz) unlike his brother's individual eyes and can be lit up using his light piping feature. Jetstorm's face is silver with a sculpted, sloping mouth (doing a :/ face) and a small nose under the visor.

His alternate mode is exactly the same as his brother, with the only exceptions being the colour-scheme and the wings/flames being made to resemble his ice/wind motif.

Safeguard

Safeguard is the combined form the the Jet Twins, but not in the usual manner for a combiner...

As you can see from the picture above, the Jet Twins actually fold themselves inwards, hang their arms off their backs, convert one arm and one leg each into an arm or a leg for Safeguard, fold their individual head inwards and flip out a half-head for Safeguard, then both sides are slotted together thanks to some clips in his groin, chest and head halves.

Safeguard is able to bend his arms and legs at knee and elbow joins thanks to some hinges and picots which gives him some limited articulation. The connectors for his legs and arms that lead to his torso are unable to move forwards, but can allow them to move upwards to the sides as far as you can. Safeguard also features a rotating pivot at the tops of his limbs that allows them to rotate fully to whatever pose you need them to be in.

Safeguard's feet are the same as they are on his smaller components, but his arms are different (since they were the "other" leg in each case and feature a sculpted fist and a stinger weapon on his knuckles. His hands are obviously unable to hold any other weapons, but they can flip out the flame/ice blades that were from his individual part's legs (and as such there are another set on his legs as well).

The Twin's chest plates are reused in this form as chest plates again, but in a different configuration (having a mirror-image format here) and the Twin's arms are folded back to act as a set of wings for Safeguard to help him with flying.

Safeguard;s face is half orange and half blue with a silver stubble surrounding a sculpted mouth and yellow and dark purple markings on the top of his head (purple on the orange half and yellow on the other. Safeguard features a lightpiping effect for his eyes, which glow yellow and blue (depending on the side) when a light it shone through the back.

Safeguard's alternate mode is just a combination of his two individual halve's jets. You just clip them together using the clips found on the underside of their nose-cones and the middle-parts on their main body (that was a part of their torso in robot mode) as can be seen in the second image above.

This "Mega Jet" shares the same features as the smaller ones, but just doubled up!

My Thoughts

The Jet Twins are an odd batch, bar their head sculpts, wing decos and colour schemes, they are identical (as twins should be) ans yet they look different enough that it's pretty much impossible to mix them up, and also, despite them having identical transformation schemes and alternate modes, they actually have to combine in a set order (Jetfire is the right, Jetstorm is the left). Also weird, is that the combined form of Safeguard features his own alternate mode, which is pretty much unheard of anywhere else. Their combined form could be seen as an abstract version of the old Multi-force from G1 or the Energon combiners from Energon, but that they combine vertically rather than horizontally.

Both twins are made up of a lot of clear plastic that allows them to glow in the light, giving him a powerful look (and luckily it seems to be strong plastic, as mine hasn't snapped yet!)

In the TV series the twins feature a broken English-Russian accent for reasons unknown but was most likely just decided on by the voice actors on the day, they can generate wind and fire each (Jetstorm and Jetfire respectively) and can use both in their combined Safeguard mode. Also, the Twins have the distinction in the TV series are being two of the only toy-based characters in the series to deviate from their toy transformation schemes when on screen (when they combine it looks different to how it does in toy form). In the IDW comics it showed that the Twins were both in buggy-modes before an accident that led to them being used to create these guys in the Safeguard project.

The Twins are the only characters to have been officially introduced through the comic book, before they appeared in the TV series who were intended to have toys and be main characters (so Perceptor and Wheeljack don't count)

Jetfire's name has been used several times by various jet-based Autobots in the franchise, but doesn't resemble any of them (in fact the designers have said that if they decided to make a character based on the classical Jetfire character model, then they'd name him Skyfire, after his own rename in G1)

Jetstorm however is a character who has had his name used by Decepticons and Predacons, rather than an Autobot like he is here. Also though his name has "Jet" in it, at least one of his name-sakes actually had a car mode instead!!

Safeguard's name of course was taken from Vector Prime's Mini-Con partner.

The concept for the Jet Twins was actually around from the beginning of planning, even when the series was going to be "Heroes" and had a different aesthetic, with even resin versions of the toys being created for them as well (turning into jets who combine as well, but in a different design style.)