Transformers Mosaic: "Dark Auspices."

Excellent artwork, very nice indeed!
It's not often that the combining tapes get love in TF fiction...

Very nice. Glad to see my favorite cassettes in action.

I love the combining cassettes more that any other TF toys. Seriously. Toys can take on a personality all their own, and Slamdance just looked so badass whenever he entered an all cassette/mini vehicle battle that I promptly forgot whatever his stats said about his weapons and had him blast the slag out of every Con on the field. And Squawkbox looked...well, like a ringer for Soundwave's basketball team, but tall enough to make a formidable opponent for my favorite Autobot. I'm still pissed that GS and RD showed up in the Underbase Saga without ever waking up, and WW Age or Wrath got canned just as they were starting to actually figure in. And their being sentient Transformers without individual robot modes should remind us all that the organic-supremacist notions of Beast Machines were just racist garbage. I'm only loyal to the Decepticons because those two have yet to be used properly in an official story (delivering a crucial message to the Ark, finding it nearly deserted, and combining to fend off a dozen Decepticons), so part 2 of this story may actually change my allegiance!

One question though: are all the designs here based off the DW profile books, because that's the only place I've ever seen Raindance with cannons like Squawktalk's on top of his jet mode. He only came with the missiles for under his wings. Granted that looks cool enough that I bought extra cannons just for that purpose, but it continues a trend of those 2 always being either incorrectly drawn or mistransformed, even in the most comprehensive guidebooks and the official checklist. It's partly because Slamdance's design makes for versatile weapons placement, with extra room on his shoulders and legs to stack up other cassette guns. A spare Overkill missile pod goes great on his other shoulder opposite the main cannon.

Why they haven't reissued these 4 and the 4 dino-combiner cassettes yet is beyond me. Maybe an issue with the molds, but I sure hope not.

Awesome, cool characters used and a cool fight, plus old Cybertron is always a cool setting.