The Energon Pub

I have watched a few reviews by Bikertrashwolf and a few other good reviewers out there, and they often mention mini-con ports with a groan.

What's the story or gripe about these things? What are they, beyond what I could find on Wikipedia?

Beats the hell out me.

As far as toys go they were small companion Transformers that accompanied all figures in the Transformers Armada toy line. These little guys transformed and somewhere on them featured a female min-con port (circular with a prong in the centre). These could be pushed onto male minicon ports on the larger transformers often to activate a gimmick of some sort. Some had a third transformation or combined to form weapons for the larger robots.

The Armada toy line and TV series pretty much revolved around mini-cons (considered a separate faction to Autobots and Decepticons) and their ability to 'power-up' the Transformers. It was very much about hunting down mini-cons and preventing Megatron from using their power for destruction/conquest. Since Armada mini-cons have appeared in the Energon, Cybertron and Classics line but more as smaller robots than the main gimmick of the line.

Many fans disliked mini-cons because many of the early min-con gimmicks were overly intrusive and restrictive of the transformation and articulation of the larger figures. Also many found the image of these little vehicles hanging off the larger figures ugly and unnecessary. The mini-cons themselves were concidered by most to be pretty nice little Transformers much like better designed and articulated Micromasters.

Yours AK

In addition to AK's excellent post on the matter, many fans objected to Mini-cons on the grounds that they appeared to be Hasbro's attempt to cash in on the pokemon "gotta catch 'em all" phenomena, especially since much of the first half of the Armada cartoon focused on the 'bots and 'cons trying to rescue/capture a new mini-con each episode.

What a lot of stuff I've missed out since G1! Thanks guys, really comprehensive responses and pretty much answered everything I was curious enough to find out!

I find there where a few that where really good. The Space team that combined to form a blaster for a larger figure to use.

The triple changing ones that became weapons by themselves. Particularly Prowl, had a great looking gun mode.

But the features or gimmicks that the could unlock on figures really weren't all that great, and did most of the time hinder some aspect of the figure.

The Starscream mould was one of the most noticeably affected ones:

IT ended up with a huge protruding ack pack thing, to accommodate the spring loaded missiles (and the sound box)

when it could have been easier to have it fold down unto his back, and have the launchers be able to be placed on his forearms. He already had minicon hard points molded on them so why not mold some ports on the launchers.

Minicons are definitely better than Cyber Planet Keys. They may be a little more obstructive, but at least they have some play value. They are pretty diverse, too. One could amass quite a collection of some very cool little TFs.

Just to give you an example, the head and chest of the Armada Overload mold(in Overcracker's sig) is the largest, and probably most unique Minicon.

PorQPine wrote:Minicons are definitely better than Cyber Planet Keys. They may be a little more obstructive, but at least they have some play value. They are pretty diverse, too. One could amass quite a collection of some very cool little TFs.

Just to give you an example, the head and chest of the Armada Overload mold(in Overcracker's sig) is the largest, and probably most unique Minicon.

Ahh yes Rollout, He's as close as we got to a Headmaster. Still he's a pretty nifty guy.

PorQPine wrote:Minicons are definitely better than Cyber Planet Keys. They may be a little more obstructive, but at least they have some play value. They are pretty diverse, too. One could amass quite a collection of some very cool little TFs.

Just to give you an example, the head and chest of the Armada Overload mold(in Overcracker's sig) is the largest, and probably most unique Minicon.

Yeah, the Mini-cons really annoyed me...until we got Cyber Planet keys. Then, suddenly, Mini-cons were much cooler.

I believe that Ak's post on the matter is quite an accurate statement.

Personally, i viewed the minicons sortof like a bonus; with every figure came this little bonus transformer and it felt a lot like the micromasters too. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The armada cartoon series got better after the 15ishth episode, but it kinda dragged before then.

It was nice to be able to have little tf's to man the different battlestations that armada optimus prime's cab would afford. I especially liked the variety of the minicons too.

I also thought the armada video game (the version i had was for ps2) was fun, you could run around as either hot rod, optimus prime, or red alert, and your little minicon counterpart would follow along and help you out by shooting at stuff with poor accuracy now and then, or you could have it connect to you, giving an effect somewhat like an adrenaline rush, slowing everything down significantly while you still moved at normal speed (depending on your semantic perspective on this), thus helping you accomplish objectives in this manner.

You could also other minicons that you find in the game equipped in your inventory, and you can activate them whenever you want, enabling you to utilize the power they provide for you, like shooting missles, flying/gliding ability, sniping, having more armor, being invisible, and so on.

One thing that should be noted is not all of the ports activated features on the Armada bots. These "dead" ports were just to attach minicons to the figure and nothing else. These dead ports were included to some degree on some of the Energon figures since that toyline had a different gimmick and even fewer Cybertron figures had them.

hey DeathAura, that makes that game sound pretty cool. I might have to play mine sometime.

I like(d) Mini-cons. Like better designed Micromasters (which I loved anyway) and some were Targetmasters as well. Cool idea.

Minicons also enabled Hasbro the jack up the price of their figures, seeing as they came with an "extra" figure.

Another gripe many people have about minicons is the amount of times Hasbro r-paints them for every line. Some molds have had over 3 releases within 6 years.

Still for the most part, Minicons are great little additions to the franchise, small well made figures that have a lot of play value, especially with the Armada line.

I remember how they used to come packaged in groups of three for the armada and energon lines, yet came packaged in 2's for the cybertron line, yet you were paying for the 2 like you were paying for the three in armada.

I REALLY liked the new paintjobs on the cybetron ones though. Made me wonder to myself why they weren't done this way to begin with.

The Cybertron repaints and repackages where intended to be a sort of Vs. battle deal. However you needed 3 packages to get the whole team. And in the case of combining teams to get the whole weapon. While in Armada and Energon buying 2 or even just 1 package would get you the whole team and/or weapon.

It was a clever marketing technique to get you to pay more for the same thing.

Still some mincons where really nice and Deserved a new paint scheme. And sight remolding.

I for one liked the remoldings done to the Starsaber. and the repaints done to the requiem blaster.

i_amtrunks wrote:Some molds have had over 3 releases within 6 years.

And that is just stateside...consider all of the "X-Dimension" versions of the Micron Legends(Japanese title of Armada for any noobie)releases, as well as the highly sought after Micron Booster packs(with one super-shiny Mini), and clear exclusives.

I think that many US collectors disliked them because that is really all there was for about a year. Every store had constant oodles of Minicons, enough to make a person sick after just a few trips.

Overcracker wrote:

PorQPine wrote:Minicons are definitely better than Cyber Planet Keys. They may be a little more obstructive, but at least they have some play value. They are pretty diverse, too. One could amass quite a collection of some very cool little TFs.

Just to give you an example, the head and chest of the Armada Overload mold(in Overcracker's sig) is the largest, and probably most unique Minicon.

Ahh yes Rollout, He's as close as we got to a Headmaster. Still he's a pretty nifty guy.

Nah, Sideways was a Headmaster as well.

D-340 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:

PorQPine wrote:Minicons are definitely better than Cyber Planet Keys. They may be a little more obstructive, but at least they have some play value. They are pretty diverse, too. One could amass quite a collection of some very cool little TFs.

Just to give you an example, the head and chest of the Armada Overload mold(in Overcracker's sig) is the largest, and probably most unique Minicon.

Ahh yes Rollout, He's as close as we got to a Headmaster. Still he's a pretty nifty guy.

Nah, Sideways was a Headmaster as well.

Kinda, he also had his own head. None of the Headmasters had their own heads...

Overload is such a transector is it not funny. Of course he is a cool chunky brick, and the little guy is good, so I can't complain. Plus as Energon Magnus he's not a repaint of Prime (he is still a repaint of course) and he makes the transforming sound! Yay.

So what was the gripe with Cyber Planet Keys - apart from their outrageous inaccurate scale, some seem pretty cool to me (don't take me seriously though I only have 1 Cybertron figure, and that's GF Vector Prime). And Hardtop's key isn't too bad too.

Raymond101 wrote:So what was the gripe with Cyber Planet Keys - apart from their outrageous inaccurate scale, some seem pretty cool to me (don't take me seriously though I only have 1 Cybertron figure, and that's GF Vector Prime). And Hardtop's key isn't too bad too.

Cyber Planet keys were effectively Minicons, but without the added bonus of getting an extra transformer.

Raymond101 wrote:So what was the gripe with Cyber Planet Keys - apart from their outrageous inaccurate scale, some seem pretty cool to me (don't take me seriously though I only have 1 Cybertron figure, and that's GF Vector Prime). And Hardtop's key isn't too bad too.

As far as US releases go, only Supreme Starscream came with any
type of Cyber Key storage, so every other figure either needed
to keep their key on their person (effectively keeping the
gimmick 'active' at all times), or be stored seperate from the
figure in question. This doesn't make for a good Transformer,
as it leads to lost keys, and that can drive people nuts,
knowing they have an 'incomplete' transformer.

The Keys themselves looked pretty neat to me, especially
the Vector Prime key.

Starscream227 wrote:As far as US releases go, only Supreme Starscream came with any type of Cyber Key storage, so every other figure either needed to keep their key on their person (effectively keeping the gimmick 'active' at all times), or be stored seperate from the figure in question. This doesn't make for a good Transformer, as it leads to lost keys, and that can drive people nuts, knowing they have an 'incomplete' transformer.

A few other Cybertron figures had key storage, Snarl, Armourhide and more I cannot remember. Some figures had good places to store teh keys that did not hinder the figure, like Runamuch, Longrac, Downshift, Optimus Prime.

Starscream227 wrote:The Keys themselves looked pretty neat to me, especially the Vector Prime key.

VP did get the nicest of the keys.

i_amtrunks wrote:

Starscream227 wrote:As far as US releases go, only Supreme Starscream came with any type of Cyber Key storage, so every other figure either needed to keep their key on their person (effectively keeping the gimmick 'active' at all times), or be stored seperate from the figure in question. This doesn't make for a good Transformer, as it leads to lost keys, and that can drive people nuts, knowing they have an 'incomplete' transformer.

A few other Cybertron figures had key storage, Snarl, Armourhide and more I cannot remember. Some figures had good places to store teh keys that did not hinder the figure, like Runamuch, Longrac, Downshift, Optimus Prime.

I see. Sorry 'bout that, only have a few Cybertron figs,
mostly scout, at that, so storage space there is a no-go!

Starscream227 wrote:The Keys themselves looked pretty neat to me, especially the Vector Prime key.

i_amtrunks wrote:VP did get the nicest of the keys.

Yes he did, though Planet X isn't bad, just not as unique.

Starscream227 wrote:I see. Sorry 'bout that, only have a few Cybertron figs, mostly scout, at that, so storage space there is a no-go!

Hey no need for apologies, wasn't trying to prove you wrong or anything, the number of figures that had key holders in comparison to those that do not is quite small.