Transformers Armada Max-Con Class Overload (with Rollout): Welcome to the bad disguise club

From personal experience, there seem to be two types of combining toys when it comes to Transformers. The "Combiners", like Abominus, Bruticus, Rail Racer, Superion, and others like it, and then there are those that come off as more like an upgrade kit for another bot. These normally seem to be the two bot combiners, and while that might not accurately describe versions of the function like the Energon Autobots or the Mini-Cons, it does describe today's gimmick victim perfectly. Armada Overload, not to be confused with his more badass Decepticon relative, Overlord.

I'll start with the Mini-Con first because as you'll quickly find out, this toy does not work without either Rollout or Optimus Prime. To my knowledge, Rollout is the biggest Mini-Con made in Armada, if not the biggest Mini-Con ever made. Most of that comes from the fact that Rollout doesn't interact with Overload the same way as other Mini-Cons do with their partners. Most Mini-Cons either activate electronics, deploy and/or fire a spring-loaded weapon, friction fire some ammo for a weapon, and other functions like that. There are a few that do more with their larger partners though, like Sideway's dual Mini-cons being a rider for him in bike mode, and are two different heads for him in robot mode. In the case of Overload and Rollout though, Rollout is the core part of Overload's alternate mode (turning into the truck needed to make Overload into something functional other then being a red brick), a Headmaster for Overload (with electronics that activate when connecting), a Targetmaster for other robots, as well as needing to be a stand-alone robot. As a result, Rollout's not a very good Mini-Con, just due to all the extra things it needs to do, but there is still a certain charm to it. It uses the same transformation ideas that characters like Inferno (not the bug one) still use to this day, just tuck everything behind the stomach, but does not have any articulation in robot mode other then a pair of awkwardly placed, somewhat pointless thigh swivels and some elbow swivels meant more for transformation. It's hard for me to hate this guy though just because of everything he needs to do. His partner on the other hand...

I feel sorry for almost every bot that exists to connect to an Optimus Prime. I do, I genuinely do. Why? Because more often then not, they're going to get the short end of the stick and be made worse for the sake of making that Prime better. Case in point with Overload, because I don't even know what this is supposed to be. A launch ramp for Armada Jetfire? A red brick to help justify Prime's name in Japan, Convoy? While the sculpt work on it is great, and the paint is solid, but underdone at points, the "trailer" is just a bunch of robot parts stuck together, the only thing it hides are the hands. There are no gimmicks in this mode, the only thing it can do is attach itself to Rollout, Optimus directly, or Prime's trailer. The brick motif continues onto the robot mode to, because Overload is even more static then several G1 figures.No necks, no elbows, no knees, and the legs can only bend one way, and can only go two clicks of the ratchet. For a toy to play with, he's fun, and the blocky look to him gives him a real presence, but there isn't a lot here from an adult's perspective. Even figures like Tidal Wave pull off the blocky, powerful robot look while still being able to pull a pose. Everything about this though screams "let me leach on Optimus Prime". So how well do those work?

Starting with the lesser known function, it can connect to Prime's trailer in base mode. Turning the base into an awkward looking turret, letting you put two more spring-loaded launchers on it, and have Prime operate it. It doesn't do much, it's a pretty fixed turret, but it's a simple enough alternate configuration for the guns. The mode it's most well known for though is the ability to connect to Prime's super bot mode. While it's a slight pain to connect it, once it's on, it's secure. It's tight, it's not going anywhere. Does it look ridiculous when attached to Prime? Yes, but it's a good kind of ridiculous. It's at a level of it being so obscured that it comes back to being badass. The same thing can be said for the quality of it. It's not objectively good, but it's still fun for being so bad that it's kind of good.

That's really the best thing I can say about Overload as a whole. Is it good? Objectively no, but it's fun enough to the point where I don't really care. It's fun for kids, it's certainly more durable then toys are nowadays, and for as bad as the execution of the gimmicks are, the result is so stupid that it's badass. Don't get this toy if you don't have Optimus though, because while it doesn't fix Optimus at all, Overload sacrifices everything in order to connect to Optimus, and suffers as a result. Up next, the reason why we did these three, for a reason you'll soon find out, Armada Jetfire. And up next on the main site, with the holidays coming, how about we check out a game for the family, Super Mario Party.

Transformers Armada Super Base Class Optimus Prime (With Sparkplug): Behold, that time when Prime was a Pyromaniac

Armada's a weird part of Transformers, that whole section of the franchise's life is either loved, hated, or overall impartial, in terms of community opinions. What doesn't help is the mixed bag the toyline was for the time. And one of the best examples I can think of to show how drastic the quality can be in this line can come from this mini-series of reviews, starting with Super Base Optimus Prime.

Transformers Generations; Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Cutthroat: How does he cut throats? He hasn't got a knife

Yes, these are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night.

While I know I promised a land shark of a repainted velociraptor, the shark hasn't come in yet and there's not much to say about Cindersaur other then the new head and the bio card confusion. So, I thought I'd talk about another repaint that is a bit more exciting to talk about. Cutthroat, a decent retool of Wave 1's Swoop.

Transformers Power of the Primes Deluxe Class Blot: Who made Dr. Frankenstein's assistant a Transformer?

Finally, a second Terrorcon to review. Hopefully, this doesn't end up like Volcanicus, and the remaining limb bots are impossible to find. While other combiner teams go with a consistent theme to them, the Terrorcons were one of the teams that didn't have a consistency to them other than being monsters. The only other that comes to mind, in terms of Generation 1 Combiners is their Autobot counterpart, the Technobots. We go from a double-headed dragon to a... troll? Ogre? To tell you the truth I honestly don't know what this is supposed to be. I can at least review him, so I will.

Transformers Combiner Wars/ Power of the Primes Jet Mould Bonanza: So. Many. REPAINTS!!!

If Combiner Wars was known for one thing, it was mould reuse. If there was ever a line that milked engineering dry, it was this one. To give an extreme example, let's take the Dead End mould, one introduced in Wave 2 as a part of Menasor. How many times was that mould used? sixteen times when combining Hasbro, Takara, and convention exclusives. So while at first, it might appear that this review is looking at five different toys, we are in fact only looking at two, and at the same time, we're looking at twenty-eight toys. For you can find nine versions of Blast Off, and nineteen versions of the other four. And that's ignoring the fact that all five share almost the exact same engineering so it could be argued that we're looking at the same toy five times out of twenty-eight! If I included a revisit to Vortex here too, we'd be looking at forty different versions of the same basic toy released in three years. Will this get me out of reviewing all the variants of the Arialbot moulds? I hope so. Here is the revisit for Combiner Wars Blast Off (General Retail), the review of Combiner Wars Fellbat and Guyhawk, and Power of the Primes Dreadwind and Blackwing.

Starting in the Jet modes, it's clear who got which mould. For you see, all of these started in Combiner Wars Wave 1, with the Arialbots. Or more accurately, Blast Off, Fellbat and Dreadwind were in wave 1, Guyhawk and Blackwing's variant came in Wave 2. For some reason, they released Wave 1 with Drag Strip, one of the limb-bots of the Decepticon Combiner, Menasor, and Air Raid was in Wave 2, and Wave 2 had Air Raid, one of the Limb bots of the Autobot Combiner, Superion. Now, why is this weird? Because the rest of the Wave 1 Deluxes were the other Autobots needed for Superion, and the rest of Wave 2 were the Decepticons needed to make Menasor (well, in terms of the traditional configurations). You might say that they didn't want to have a wave of Autobots and a wave of Decepticons, but every later wave in the line didn't bother mixing them up. We even got two waves of nothing but Autobots in terms of the Deluxe Class. Now, what separates all of these flyboys? In terms of engineering? Not much. What defines any variations in engineering really comes down to what happens to the wings and tailfins. Arms, Legs, Heads and Cockpits? All exactly the same. Dreadwind and Blackwing have the most variations in engineering due to the requirements of Power of the Primes, but on top of that, there's also a gimmick that the two have that no other variations of the moulds do.

They can combine into a larger jet, which is, unfortunately, more impressive then it really is. All the extra engineering really gives you is two jets barely hanging together thanks to Blackwing only relying on the port meant for the combiner hand in Dreadwind's arm mode. A port not meant to take a lot of weight, and as such it takes no effort to separate the two. I'm also not a fan of how they handled Blackwing's nosecone and head, as they kinda just hang there, breaking the "sleek" look the rest of the jet goes for. What's also annoying is that one of the wings on my copy of Dreadwind doesn't properly connect to the leg assembly, though it's manageable. It still holds in place, it's just at a slight angle.

Now then, Combiner Limb modes (I'm skipping deco until robot modes for now). While these pictures don't have them include their hands or feet, it's because there's nothing extra to talk about with them. Blast Off, Guyhawk and Fellbat all have the Combiner Wars Hand/Foot/Guns, Dreadwind and Blackwing both have Prime armour hands with two thumbs. Seen them before, not much to add on the matter. All five leg modes look like squashed jets, and all five arms look like they're stuck halfway in the transformation process. Blackwing has one of the most awkward leg modes while Dreadwind doesn't even try to hide his robot mode arms. The other three manage to hide them better purely on the basis of their arms not standing out thanks to colour schemes. One annoying problem I noticed though with Fellbat and Guyhawk though is the shape of their heads. They're a tad too long to let the combiner peg assembly they're attached to do a full 360 movement. It's not the end of the world as it's easily worked around, but it is somewhat annoying as there are only a few other toys (to my knowledge) that have that same problem in the line.

To Robot Modes, and while they all share the same engineering to an extent, all five do at least look like different robots. Dreadwind and Blackwing have the advantage of being heavy retools, but if I was reviewing any other variant of the moulds from Combiner Wars, I would not be saying that. A lot of variety in the Combiner Wars versions of the moulds were in the heads and paint jobs. There was very little retooling in the line to help separate characters. As a result, Dreadwind and Blackwing are a nice change of pace, though while I'm more open to them, I probably wouldn't be if I got all the Combiner Wars versions of the moulds. What I find strange though is that while Dreadwind and Blackwing are built off Combiner Wars moulds, their combined modes feel like an afterthought. This is especially true for Blackwing, as all the extra joints needed for the combined jet mode make the combiner limbs look awkward. But at the same time, due to how bad the execution is on the combined jet, it's at least a good sign that the jet and robot modes look good at all. Out of the five though, I prefer Fellbat's robot mode. It's still surprising to me how powerful it looks when most jets go for a leaner look in their robot modes. When Blast Off was confirmed as an Arialbot repaint, most people were mad at it due to the fact that a Blast Off that was accurate to Generation 1 would be a Space shuttle. I honestly don't care either way, though I do stand by the belief of the fighter jet making more sense in the army team. As for Guyhawk, as obnoxious as the colour is, it is accurate to the original toy. There really is a pink Decepticon jet. As a pink Decepticon jet, Guyhawk does look good, though who in their right mind thought a pink jet would be a good disguise?

Should you own one of each of these? It's up to you. Should you own all twenty-eight variations of these moulds? No way! Unless you want them for combiner limbs, you do not need every version of this ever made, and even the combiner limb excuse isn't well justified as that number includes convention repaints and Takara releases. Are they fun toys to mess around with? Yes. Fun enough to buy them that many times? No. Nothing like this is.

Nendoroid Number 620; Zelda, The Wind Waker Version: Better then Funko Pops in every way?

I am not a fan of Funko Pops. Honestly, I hate them. I think they're quite bland, and either very generic or for those rare times when the standard mould can't be used, really creepy. It's why you'll never see a review of a Funko Pop on here that I bought for myself because I never will. I'm a huge Pokemon fan, not enough of one to look past the eldritch horror that the Funko Pop Pikachu is. There are other alternatives to it though, including a Japanese collectible line known as Nendoroids. At least when it comes to Australian releases, most never see the light of day here, but there are a few that do get a release here, including one that I picked up a few years ago, "Zelda, The Wind Waker Version", or as she'll be known as from here on out, Toon Zelda. Who's ready for a constant attack on Funko Pops?

Lego City 60191; Arctic Exploration Team: Perfect timing on my end!

Too late for Australian winter, too early for winter in the Northern Hemisphere, truly the best time to review a set themed around arctic exploration!

It might be because I've never actually been to the snow, but themes and locations based around snow, ice and the like always do intrigue me. I even tend to let Ice themed platformer levels slide just due to the theme, even if it means subjecting myself to Ice physics leading to awkward platforming challenges... Moving on, while the Lego City theme, one of the few original themes Lego does still prioritize to some degree, has a lot of sub-themes to it, a lot of it can be connected to either Firefighting, Police, or some form of rescue operations. There are some like trains that tend to remain in circulation for a long time, but rarely does the line branch out from the norm, most of it tends to be in "Lego City". However, every now and then, you get something new, such as a new sub-line themed around Arctic Exploration, and where we go to today because I rarely get interested in City themes, starting off with one of the smaller sets of the wave, the Arctic Exploration Team.