For the first time ever,my faithful (and faithless) readers here at Insidepulse will get something AWESOME: a review of an item which still has to enter the market! A Pre-Review! How exciting is that, huh? Well dudes, how u been? I brought something special for you. And if you want some, come get some… minicons!

Transformers Universe 2.0 Review: Kmart exclusive Mini-con 12-pack

Size: special

Series: Armada

MSRP: 20$

Out: October 2008 (uhm… )

A TF review written exclusively for Inside Pulse by Alessandro “Rikkomba” Riccombeni

Unbelievable! Incredibile! Parbleu! Unglaublich!

Yes, you are right: Insidepulse’s Transformers section ain’t dead yet. It may not have a real section, it may not have any active writer at the moment (ehm…), but it still has your so, so lovely Rikkomba! What more could you want ?

Maybe a decent TF review?

Naaah, come on, stay with me!

Gotta catch’em all (fast version)

Please, don’t ask how I got this item weeks before its release, it would be too much knowledge for a mere mortal mind. Just know that this fall Kmart’s shelves will be graced by some of the coolest store exclusive Transformers ever: a minicon 12-pack! Yep, they are 12 in a single package. A wonderful package, actually: even Energon Ultra Magnus’ box has to kneel in front of this amazing feat of packaging design. Not only each minicon has its own, separate space in this box, but there’s also an uber-cool transparent plastic cover with printed-on names for the minicons. Please use this as reference. Actually, since Insidepulse started “modernizing” its posting system, nobody bothered to tell how to post pics again, so this will do for the moment.

Minicons, Transform And Rise Up!

This is what happens when you try to screw up things but you get distracted at the very last moment. As I always say, it’s insulting, to say the least, to have introduced minicons during Armada as the new Third Transformers Faction, to only have them repainted as Autobots and Decepticons for the Cybertron toyline. “The Third Faction”! Naaah, no new factions, just old marketing trickes. Though, minicons survived Armada, and after all this time, now that series Energon, Cybertron and Classic joined past TF toy lines, we got a decent amount of new teams. Transformers Classic finally brought 6 new teams, where Energon had only a new one, Energon Perceptor, and Cybertron gave us just a couple (Recon Team, Giant Planet Team). These 6 teams’ present situation is as follows:

1. Dinobot Team: no Hasbro variants; Takara repainted it for Micron Booster 4
2. Demolition Team: repainted by Hasbro for this 12-pack; 2 members have been repainted for Micron Booster 4
3. Night Rescue Team: repainted by Hasbro for this 12-pack; 2 members have been repainted for Micron Booster 4 the last one became a Japanese exclusive toy for the Movie toyline;
4. Dirt Digger Team: repainted by Hasbro for this 12-pack; 1 member has been repainted for Micron Booster 4
5. Predator Team: repainted by TFCC as BotCon 2008 exclusives; 2 members have been repainted for Micron Booster 4 the last one became a Japanese exclusive toy for the Movie toyline;
6. Clear Skies Team: repainted by Hasbro for this 12-pack; each one of its member became a Japanese exclusive at different times, including one of the most studiply named toys ever.

So, there we go, team by team, repaint by repaint. Mind that, while being direct repaints of minicon teams, for this release 4 new minicon teams have been formed, shuffling all members. After 5 years of straight repaints of minicon team, I am happy somebody put a drop of originality into the formula. And you can’t even just “make things right”, because at least 3 teams have a strongly unifying theme.

An important note: minicons are stronger than Hasbro! Don’t you believe me? Well, even though Hasbro put Autobot and Decepticon symbols all around the packaging… all 12 minicons bear a Minicon Faction Symbols, and nothing more! That’s the way! Such little Patriots!

Every team has its own story, but I won’t waste my time pasting something you can easily read here.

Landslide Team

• Backstop: repaint of Classic Sledge, comes with weak knee joints which cause its weird legs to flal on the floor all the time. This mold already sucked by itself, regardless of QC issues or this new, awful new color scheme.
• Bodyblock: repaint of Classic Grindor, an awful repaint, let me say it: they took a good minicon and returned… a snack! Too much cherry for my tastes.
• Knockdown: repaint of Classic Wideload, after color schemes Vomit 1.0 and Vomit 1.1, they finally made it. One of my favourite minicons of the bunch.

Overall: the Landslide includes a bad mold (Backstop), a nice mold affected by a stupid color scheme (Bodyblock) anda weak mold whose color scheme has been GREATLY improved (Knockdown). While Blight is even worse, this still is the worst team of all 4.

Safeguard Team

• Heavytread: repaint of Classic Broadside, it seems to homage G1 Warpath directly. Still a minicon with MANY, many design problems, at least it gets a strong color scheme. But… I mean, couldn’t they just release Movie Brawl? No, they had to experiment on the minicon size class first. Dammit.
• Makeshift: repaint of Classic Oil Slick, this solid mold gets a vastly improved color scheme, even though the huge minicon logo is cheesy at best.
• Flatfoot: repaint of Classic Strongarm, even like this it keeps reminding me of Movie Barricade somehow. I mean, this time it reminds me of Movie Recon Barricade, but this mold sucks much, much more. I mean, when it is like this, ok, release it once to experiment a little, but then… stop it. STOP IT, please!

Overall: the Safeguard team has solid and defined color schemes, unified by the strategic use of black to give more seriousness to these 3 little robots. My second favourite team.

Ransack Team

• Suppressor: repaint of Classic Firebot, one of the strongest Classic minicon molds.This time it gets a Hazmat logo, which together with the yellow paint reminds me of the HAZE videogame. Luckily, this little guy is much better than that awful game.
• Blight: repaint of Classic Dirt Rocket,a boring repaint of a boring minicon. You can probably exchange the arms with this mold’s other 2 versions without trouble. Maaan, this sucks. Next?
• Brimstone: repaint of Classic Nightscream, it reminds me a lot of Cybertron Brimstone with these colors. Nice, ok, but I was really hoping for Cryotek colors… maybe next time?

Overall: the Ransack team has a unified color scheme, more or less, something I don’t see so often these days. This team includes a cool mold, an awful mold and a nice mold. Good effort, but it only ranks at third place.

Overcast Team

• Cloudraker: repaint of Classic Divebomb, which had already been repainted in Japan once. This time this helicopter got a realistic color scheme, without homaging Whirl… most importantly, finally we got a green ‘chopper without getting any G1 Springer homage. Kudos!
• Boltflash: repaint of Classic Thunderwing, seems to be a homage to the Go-Bot leader of the Guardian faction… Nice minicon in the end, and it’s the best version too!
• Skyhammer: repaint of Classic Steel Wind, it homages a Cobra airplane from Transformers’ sister toyline. Great color scheme, you should get this 12-pack just because of this guy.

Overall: the Overcast Team is what the Clear Skies Team should have been. It’s always like that: Hasbro first releases a new mold with a so-and-so color scheme, then they release a repaint in gorgeous colors. See Energon Jetfire and its repaint, for example. All 3 minicons here have at least a decent mold, with an awesome color scheme. My favourite team of the whole 12-pack, I’d gladly spend 20$ for these 3 guys alone.

Armada Series

Yes, Universe, being the Cloaca Maxima of non-TV series Transformers, has “Series”. These 12 minicons belong to the Armada Series, even though NONE of them are Armada molds! Do you know why they didn’t use Armada molds? Do you think they didn’t because Hasbro developed a coscience, and so it won’t beat the dead horse with more repaints of 4-times repainted molds? Nah, come on. The answer is easier: the factory contaning Armada minicon molds burned down to the ground. Well, shit happens.

Rikkomba Wants You!

At the present moment I am all alone here, so if you are interested an motivated to write TF reviews and articles about TFs, please send me and email, possibly including a review written with your own personal style. It’s full of passionate TFans out there, so I hope that somebody will bring new life to Insidepulse’s TF section… even if there won’t be any real section, who cares, I review 4 da lulz. Lol.

Write me!

Bottom Line

The Kmart Universe 2.0 Mini-con 12 pack should be out in stores in October, but it’s possible you’ll find one at your local Kmart even during September, these things are not written in stone lately. With a 20$ price tag you get 4 Scout class toys, which would cost 7$ each. Is an 8$ discount a good reason for buying this set? Well… I’d say, if you are a minicon fan like me, buy it without thinking twice about it. If you like TFs, you are getting 12 little TFs for just 20$, and this is never a bad thing. Actually, MISB collectors are the ones who’ll enjoy the most this item, probably the best TF packaging I’ve seen since a long time. And again, at 20$ it’s a recommended buy for most.

On the Energon scale, I give this 12-pack 7/10 Energon cubes.

So… keep yourselves healthy and write me if you wish to write about Transformers here on Insidepulse!

Yours,

Rikkomba

Last 5 posts by Rikkomba

• Transformers Review: Cybertron Minicon Vs. sets wave 4 - May 3rd, 2008
• Transformers Review: Micron Booster 4 - February 6th, 2008
• Transformers Review: Movie Longarm - December 22nd, 2007
• Transformers Review: Japanese store exclusive Wedgeshape - August 28th, 2007
• Transformers Galaxy Force Master Galvatron - August 28th, 2007