The Energon Pub

Yeah, so I got these three yesterday. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the Dinobot minicons, these have me FAR less chuffed.

Snarl, well, he's the worst of the lot. His tiger mode can only pose his tail, or possibly lift his leg to "mark his territory", and open his mouth to show a tiny little gun nozzle. In "robot mode"... crap. Pure and utter crav. The shoulders are completely wonky, especially the 'catbutt' shoulder, and his legs look like he's been riding a robocamel for fifty years.

Overbite is much better. Still not THAT poseable in wolf mode, but he can sit down. His robot mode looks nice, if a little stiff and narrow-shouldered, but he has one huge flaw: He can't stand up. Period. If you DO manage to stand up his robot mode, a slight wave of a hand in his direction makes enough wind to knock him over.

Dreadwing is actualy pretty decent, ESPECIALLY compared to the other two. Not as poseable as some of the Armada / Energon / Cybertron minicons, he still manages to have nice proportions in robot mode.

Overall, this set just ain't worth it just for Dreadwing. I say... pass.

I say pass to all the classics minicons.

They are all poor compaired to the majority of previous Minicons, I in particular have no wish to get beast ones, and Minicons as a whole is past it and should be left to die peacefully along with every version of the A Sideswipe mold...

The Beast minicons do have a purpose - to get one of my Nephews into Transformers...

He's only 5 and yet can name all the original Dinobots! Unfortunately I think that he wants me to track him down some. Feck.

Redimus wrote:I say pass to all the classics minicons.

They are all poor compaired to the majority of previous Minicons, I in particular have no wish to get beast ones, and Minicons as a whole is past it and should be left to die peacefully along with every version of the A Sideswipe mold...

I gotta say that the Dirt Digger team is pretty good. Oil Slick is a pretty sweet Minicon. Great alt mode, good porportions in bot mode, and good transformation too. Grindor, while looks iffy in pictures is actually better than one expects; eventhough he wears leg warmers. Dirt Rocket is one of the better bike Minicons out there but he has difficulty standing and I don't like that the windshield becomes the bottom of his feet.

I don't have any of them yet, but I find Snarl (the tiger) oddly charming. He reminds some much of Bantor it's scary. Something about just how strange he looks amuses me.

Love Overbite! Wolves rock and he looks absolutely adorable in beast mode!

Dreadwing is easily the best of the set though. He looks real menacing in bot mode and he has a great colour scheme!

Hasbro needs to come out with more Beast minicons! Two sets isn't enough!

SKowl wrote:I don't have any of them yet, but I find Snarl (the tiger) oddly charming. He reminds some much of Bantor it's scary. Something about just how strange he looks amuses me.

Love Overbite! Wolves rock and he looks absolutely adorable in beast mode!

Dreadwing is easily the best of the set though. He looks real menacing in bot mode and he has a great colour scheme!

Hasbro needs to come out with more Beast minicons! Two sets isn't enough!

word

I must admit to really liking Dreadwing. His transform has some echoes of the Dinobot minicon Terradive (in the legs, at least), but he's much bigger and feels almost... well, regal.

SKowl, yes, Snarl has a nice-looking beast mode, even if it's stiffer than a brick. But his robot mode is worse than any transformer I've seen in a very long time, including Armada, Energon, Cybertron, RID, Beast WArs... should I continue?

How can any of you like these incredably lazy minicon designs? Beast or no, Hasbro has spent as little as possible on the design of these, and it damn well shows. Some of em make SWTFs look good, and that is saying something.

Because I also like some G1 designs.

Yes, they could have been done MUCH better. But they're the smallest 'official' beastformers out, and therefore the only ones in my collection, since they're VAGUELY "in scale" with the others.

Valandar wrote:Because I also like some G1 designs.

Yes, they could have been done MUCH better. But they're the smallest 'official' beastformers out, and therefore the only ones in my collection, since they're VAGUELY "in scale" with the others.

I rarely like beastformers.

BWs sucked, why would beast minicons be any better?

Just because. Call it a whim.

But to balance it out, I DID also get some of the Cybertron repaints of original minicons - the two-packs.

Valandar wrote:Just because. Call it a whim.

But to balance it out, I DID also get some of the Cybertron repaints of original minicons - the two-packs.

They havent been available in our contry (the UK) and I cant see me ever getting them if they were. Frankly I think Micromasters were better than your average Minicon...

Redimus wrote:

Valandar wrote:Just because. Call it a whim.

But to balance it out, I DID also get some of the Cybertron repaints of original minicons - the two-packs.

They havent been available in our contry (the UK) and I cant see me ever getting them if they were. Frankly I think Micromasters were better than your average Minicon...

Looking at them... no. Not in my opinion.

The average Micromaster had one-piece shins and feet, virtually no articulation, and hugely visible hinges and such. Most of the Armada era minicons are quite articulated, have better proportioned alt modes, and decent to cool loking robot modes, that don't look like, for example, a plane standing up with its nosecone folded back and engines pulled down.

Valandar wrote:

Redimus wrote:

Valandar wrote:Just because. Call it a whim.

But to balance it out, I DID also get some of the Cybertron repaints of original minicons - the two-packs.

They havent been available in our contry (the UK) and I cant see me ever getting them if they were. Frankly I think Micromasters were better than your average Minicon...

Looking at them... no. Not in my opinion.

The average Micromaster had one-piece shins and feet, virtually no articulation, and hugely visible hinges and such. Most of the Armada era minicons are quite articulated, have better proportioned alt modes, and decent to cool loking robot modes, that don't look like, for example, a plane standing up with its nosecone folded back and engines pulled down.

IMO some of the best Armada period Minicons were basically (what I like to call) 'Micromasters TNG'.

My Overbite's hind legs are on backwards. Either that, or they're backwards in the picture on the card.