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Date Posted: 7/09/02 8:14:54 GMT+10
Author: Perceptor II
Subject: P2 reviews the Mini-Con Destruction Team

DETAILED REVIEW OF THE DESTRUCTION MINI-CON TEAM

Vital Stats:

Released: Late Summer 2002
Toy Line: Armada
Original Price: $5-7(US) range
Price Point: Mini-Con (formerly Basic)

The members of the Mini-Con Destruction Team have vehicle modes that suit their name. They definitely look like they're designed to do damage! The team's gimmick is that each Mini-Con has a feature that is activated when the vehicle is rolled along the ground, or when it is attached to Cyclonus. Remember the exposed gears underneath Cyclonus' cockpit? These Mini-Con's can attach to that spot and have their features activated by the same trigger that is used to spin Cyclonus' rotor. There is a drawback, though. The increased resistance does slow down the rotor and the trigger becomes a little harder to pull. Still, it is a cool feature.

On to the reviews of the individual bots!

BUZZSAW

Measurements:

Vehicle Mode:
Length: 2 7/8 in (7.3 cm)
Height: 1 1/4 in (3.2 cm)
Width: 1 in (2.5 cm)
Diameter of saw: 1 1/16 in (2.7 cm)

Robot Mode:
Height: 2 1/4 in (5.7 cm)
Width: 2 1/8 in (5.4 cm)
Depth of torso: 5/8 in (1.6 cm)

Insignia location: Middle of the top of the vehicle, or in front of the robot's left shoulder.

Powerlink location: Back end of the bottom of the vehicle, or on the robot's--ahem!--sit-upon. :p

Buzzsaw's vehicle mode really has no earthly equivalent. I have seen pictures of some heavy-duty coal mining equipment that comes close. The Mini-Cons are supposed to have been originally a worker class, so perhaps Buzzsaw was originally designed to cut into and mine Cybertron's core. In any case, you can imagine was a Decepticon would like to do with the business end!

Thanks to a series of gears within the toy, the saw blade rotates when the vehicle is rolled along the ground. This works very well on hard surfaces, but skips a bit when run on carpet and doesn't seem to work when run on a very soft surface such as a couch or pillow, but really that's to be expected. The same gimmick works when Buzzsaw is attached to the underside of Cyclonus' cockpit and that toys' rotors are rotated. When attached, the saw blade sticks out past the regular cockpit, but not as far forward as Crumplezone when he is attached. For some reason, Buzzsaw's gimmick provides less resistance to Cyclonus' mechanisms than those of his teammates.

Transformation to robot mode
1. Rotate treads down.
2. Flip back the treads' front fenders to form robot feet.
3. Separate the halves of the top portion of the vehicle and swing them down and to each sides.
4. Rotate the right arm up to lock the shoulder into place.
5. Rotate the treads/legs the rest of the way and flip the chestplate into place.

Buzzsaw's robot mode may look odd to some. He has a wide torso and thick arms, which give him a brawny look, but his legs are very thin and spread far apart. The yellow, green and grey color scheme seems to work well. There is no visible hand on his left arm--just a stub where the saw blade is attached--and on the right arm there is merely a the suggestion of a fist molded in, but on a Mini-Con this is forgivable. Some fans may be bothered by the sight of his powerlink connector on his--ahem!--sit-upon. One of the gears that is used in activating his gimmick is exposed in back of his left shoulder. However, I've found that flicking this gear with my thumb will cause the saw blade to spin, which is kinda cool. The robot has six points of articulation: the head rotates, the arms and legs also rotate and he swivels at the waist.

Overall, this is one of the better Mini-Cons out there. Good articulation for such a small toy, with a creative transformation and a nice mechanical gimmick to boot! This guy rates at the same level as Bonecrusher and Knock-Out of the Land Military team.

DRILL BIT

Measurements:

Vehicle Mode:
Length: 2 7/8 in (7.3 cm)
Height: 1 3/16 in (3.0 cm)
Width: 1 1/16 in (2.7 cm)
Length of drill: 1 3/16 in (3.0 cm)
Diameter of drill: 1/2 in (1.3 cm)

Robot Mode:
Height: 2 3/16 in (5.6 cm)
Width: 1 3/4 in (4.4 cm)
Depth of torso: 1 in (2.5 cm), 1 3/16 (3.0 cm) if you include the gear on his back.

Insignia location: On top of the rear portion of the vehicle, or on the right shoulder of the robot.

Powerlink location: Bottom center of the vehicle, or in back of the right shoulder.

Drill Bit is basically a "drill machine" (or "excavation vehicle" as the packaging of the Technobot Nose Cone described that toy back in the day). Some fans have found it odd that the cockpit and the drill are on opposite ends of the vehicle, but if you think about it this is a very practical design, as you'd want the operator as far away from the business end as possible. The drill itself is designed well. It's not simply a screw, but also has a number of forward-pointing "spines" (for lack of a better word). The silver-on-orange wash actually looks good. Like his teammates, Drill Bit's feature--the drill--spins when he is rolled along the ground, or when he is attached to Cyclonus and the rotor is triggered, though this gimmick doesn't work quite as well as Buzzsaw's.

A few more odds and ends about the vehicle mode: the robot head kinda sticks out like a sore thumb. The face is partially hidden by rotating the head to face backward, where the face is partially but not totally obscured--you can still see the eyes. The hinges where the robot arms are swung out are molded a bit higher than necessary. It looks like they could be intended to be smokestacks of some sort. The robot's tiny left arm can serve a purpose to the vehicle mode: if it is rotated up it sticks out over the top of the cockpit and looks like a sort of gun. It's not nearly big enough to frighten away, say, Megatron, who's big enough to step on him, but it could be scary to other Mini-Cons.

Transformation
1. Swing tread down to form robot legs..
2. Flip the treads' back fenders forward to form robot feet.
3. Rotate head so that the face is facing forward.
4. Swing the arms to each side of the robot's torso and forward.

Drill Bit is an odd little robot. The fact that the vehicle's roundish cockpit forms the torso makes him look rather portly. His right arm, which has the drill instead of a hand of the end, is rather stubby save for the drill, and his left arm extremely tiny. Still, it's a look that works for him. He has an appearance that suggests he was designed for functionality at the expense of asthetics. The feet are fairly decent size, which gives him pretty good stability. Articulation is the same as Buzzsaw's except Drill Bit cannot swivel at the waist.

Overall, I like this guy. I would love for a writer to come up with a story as to why Drill Bit has such a tiny arm, but that might be pushing things. Vehicle mode is well designed and imaginative and the robot mode has character. Not every Transformer should look like a metal skinned human with huge biceps.

DUALOR

Measurements:

Vehicle Mode:
Length: 2 1/4 in (5.7 cm)
Height: 1 1/4 in (3.2 cm)
Width: 1 5/16 in (3.3 cm)
Length of turret (not including cannons): 1 3/8 in (3.5 cm)
Length of each cannon: 2 1/16 in (5.2 cm)

Robot Mode:
Height: 2 3/16 in (5.6 cm), 3 in (7.6 cm)if you include the cannons.
Width: 1 1/4 in (3.2 cm)
Depth of torso: 5/8 in (1.6 cm), 1 1/8 in (2.9 cm) if you include the "backpack" (the tank turret)

Insignia location: On top of the tank turret, toward the front.

Powerlink location: Bottom of the vehicle, close to the center. I'm too modest to describe where the powerlink is located in robot mode. Let's just say that Dualor interacting with Hot Shot would cause Pat Robertson to squirm.

Dualor is a tank, not a sort of construction/demolition vehicle like his teammates. Instead of one cannon mounted front and center on the turret, he has twin reciprocating cannons on the sides. Roll the vehicle on a flat surface and the cannons move back and forth, a la Strika. This reciprocating action works no matter which way the turret is turned. (Oh, by the way! The turret swivels 360 degrees!) The bright yellow color of the cannons is odd, though, especially when contrasted with the dull grey of most of the vehicle. Attaching him to Cyclonus is a bit trickier than with his teammates, but its worth it. Having both Dualor and Crumplezone attached to Cyclonus and watching all three guns go "rat-a-tat" is quite a sight!

Transformation:
1. Pull front half of vehicle forward to form legs.
2. Flip front fenders down to form feet.
3. Stand robot up. Rotate turret 180 degrees, so that cannons are pointed upward.
4. Rotate head so that face is facing forward.

It's a simple transformation, but it gets the job done. Dualor is appropriate bulky, as you'd expect a tank Transformer to be. Other than that, there's not much to say. The right leg seems a bit loose, though I'm not sure if that's a common flaw or if that's just peculiar to mine. As I said before, the power link is in a rather embarassing position. The waist can be rotated 180 degrees so that the powerlink is in a slightly less embarassing place and somewhat obscured by the turret, but this is not shown in the instructions, so I assume that it's not part of Hasbro's officially sanctioned transformation.

OK, I know you're snickering out there. Just let it out. :b

Overall, well, by himself Dualor is the weakest of the three, but his interaction with with Cyclonus is the best of the three, simply for the reason that contact weapons do not work well for an aerial vehicle.

THE TEAM AS A WHOLE

I like this group. The vehicle modes are quite a bit unlike earth modes, which will probably bother some people, but there's some good creativity in their designs. The action gimmicks are quite nice, and the way they interact with Cyclonus is a nice bonus. I'm taking the unusual, but not unprecidented for me, step of giving multiple ratings for this group.

Taken by themselves, I rate the team as "DT=B" (Decent Toy, letter grade equivalent of B). If you already have Cyclonus or are planning on getting him, then I upgrade the rating to "SO=B+" (Strong Offering, letter grade equivalent of B+).

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