Mini-Con Sabotage Team

In 2006, Fub Publications took the Transformers Armada mold of Jetfire and repurposed him as Astrotrain for their Transformers Collector's Club. Bundled w/ Astrotrain was a repainted Transformers Cybertron Giant Planet Mini-Con team, dubbed the Sabotage Team.

(from right to left) Astro-Hook, Astro-Line, Astro-Sinker

If those names sound familiar it's because it's a homage to Hook, Line and Sinker - heralds to Unicron in the original (US) Marvel Comics run.

The toys themselves were some of my favorite toys at the time they were released. Each of these molds would see various releases and at one point I owned them all. The submarine (Astro-Sinker) was always one of my favorite Mini-Con molds. The molds for this release feature only a deco change as there were no changes made to the molds.

Astro-Hook is some sort of double crane truck? He reminds me of one of the old original G1 Micromaster Combiners in vehicle mode, especially with the two crane arms. The mold does feature a pretty cool transformation w/ the rear wheels forming the upper torso of the robot. Unfortunately the arms really aren't articulated beyond 360 degree movement at the shoulders.

Astro-Line is one of those designs that looked better on paper than in plastic in my mind. While the alt mode is pretty cool plane, the missiles are a little overkill...in either mode. The nose of the jet covers up much of the robot mode and his legs/feet are thin and small. If you remove the missiles from his hands the robot mode does look a little better, but it's the weak link in this trio if you ask me. The new purple and yellow paint scheme doesn't do much for me either. If you want this mold in your collection, stick with the original release.

In my book the clear winner in this group is Astro-Sinker. This is one of those Mini-Cons that looks good in both modes...something that didn't happen all that often. The submarine is very detailed and translates to a nice robot mode. Yeah the arms are a little long, but I can live it with. I love how the wide the legs and feet are. It not only gives him stability in robot mode, but makes him look more beefy and intimidating. Mix in the new darker color scheme and this is one of the better Mini-Cons released anywhere, period.

I originally kept these trio of Mini-Cons when I was downsizing my collection, opting to sell Astrotrain (and Astrocatcher). Before I gave up my quest to own every Mini-Con/Micron toy, these guys were some of my favorites. The molds were pretty good and the new paint decos were interesting. I have no idea what these guys go for on the secondary market these days, but I know you can find the original Cybertron Giant Planet set for decent prices around the internet. Recommended, but this set is for completionists only.