Transformers Campaign Micron - Superlink Micron Throttle (Windcharger)

Store exclusive Microns are nothing new in Japan. Back in 2004 during the days of the Superlink series (aka Energon), the combiner we know in the west as Perceptor, was cast in translucent plastic and given away as individual Microns as part of a Toys R Us promotion.

Throttle, or Energon Sureshock if you will, was given away in August of 2004 at Toys R Us stores in Japan with the total purchase of 2,000 yen or more of Superlink toys. Reports are there were only 4,000 made. His combining partners, Accel and Screw can merge together to form the Windcharger.

While the combined form looks pretty good, this as a stand alone Micron sucks. Well at least the robot does. I can live with the 4 wheeler alt mode. These guys always escaped my grasp when I was collecting anything and everything Micron / Mini-Con related. I only was able to grab Throttle and even then I had to spend more than I wanted. I do have to say the use of the translucent blue plastic mixed in with the solid gray and black plastic looks good against the clear plastic. I would have loved to build Windcharger as I already had the other versions of this toy (Energon, Micron Booster), but it just wasn't in the cards for me.

I can only recommend this version of the Micron combiner to the hard core collectors, especially if you can't obtain all 3 at one time.

Transformers Energon: Optimus Prime transforming ink pen

It wasn't often that I received Transformers for Christmas.  Granted I did get some pretty sweet G1 toys back in the day on that glorious morning every kid dreams about, as an adult it's been a different story.  Even today my mother still asks me for a Christmas list.  Every year I put TFs with weblinks of where they can be purchased, but it's very rare I end up with any of them.

Back when Beast Machines was in full swing, that Christmas I received a new BM Primal Prime and a box of Takara's S.F.C. figures.  In my stocking was the usual candy and small stuff - including a transforming Energon Optimus Prime ink pen!

I'll be the first to admit I wasn't a huge fan of the Energon toy line or TV series.  That doesn't mean I didn't appreciate this gift from my mother.  The pen when transformed into truck mode has a rather faithful version of the deluxe/voyager toy, albeit scaled down to the size of a modern basic/scout figure.

Paint apps are limited, but mostly applied pretty good.  All 6 wheels are free rolling and the transforming does share some similarities with the larger versions.  In fact other than the pen's tip being on the back end of the truck, you can't really tell this is an ink pen.

Due to the nature of the figure also doubling as a functioning ink pen some sacrifices were made to the robot mode.  Other than the head not lifting high enough and the slender legs, it looks pretty much like Energon Optimus Prime.  The arms are articulated at the shoulder and elbows.  There aren't any real feet so I had to prop him up against the back wall.

Optimus even retains his larger combined helmet and Spark of Combination features!  I don't recall who made this toy/pen hybrid, but they did a pretty good job.  If nothing else it makes a nice oddity for any Transformers collection.

Transformers Energon: Insecticon

The best part of Transformers Armada (in my opinion) was the introduction of Mini-Cons.  While I was excited about the entire line in general, I eventually felt a sense of disappointment with the non-Mini-Cons.  When I heard of the toy line's sequel, Energon, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Then pictures started to hit the internet and I started to get excited.  While I like bigger Transformers, I've always preferred the smaller "basic" scale.  Blame that on G1 and most of the toys I had were small to medium sized.

While the name Insecticon may not win any awards for originality and might bug (no pun intended) some long term Transformers fans, the toy I find fascinating.  I guess you would call Insecticon here a stag beetle.  He's kind of like an updated G1 Bombshell.

The front legs are on ball joints, however the back legs are connected together as part of the transformation.  The "horn" section on the front can be lifted up and down.  That is about all articulation wise you'll get in insect mode.

All of the basic sized Energon figures came with translucent weapons.  The Omnibots were able to generate weapons for the Autobots forged from Energon.  I assume these weapons would be made of Energon as well.  Insecticon comes packaged with two weapons that can be merged to form a large drill.  This can be clipped onto the front.  He also comes with a yellow Energon chip.

Things really get interesting in robot mode.  Transformation is very simple and only involves a few steps.  In this form he is very short and stout (hm, wonder where is his handle & spout?).  He sports a very odd looking robotic face and has very large fists.  I myself always liked this toy for this reason, he looked different and stood out amongst some of the other smaller Energon figures.

It's not documented in the instructions, but you can take the front insect legs and fold them up and over his shoulders.  If you look carefully at the feet of the insect legs, they look a lot like guns.

He doesn't have to rely on these pseudo shoulder guns however as his Energon weapons are that of a sword a gatling gun.  You can merge them together to form the large drill weapon, but honestly he looks better wielding two separate weapons.

Now in the Energon cartoon and comic, Insecticon here was a mindless drone and did not feature his own personality.  Like Battle Ravage and Divebomb, Insecticon was a Terrorcon and Megatron used them to do his bidding.  They basically were cannon fodder.  In Japan, this toy was also repainted in a bright shade of green, Chromhorn Forest Type, and featured translucent green weapons.  I used to own that one as well, but he ended up being a casualty when I sold off the majority of my Unicron Trilogy collection.

These days it's hard for me to suggest anyone buying toys from the Armada / Energon / Cybertron era.  There are a few decent toys to be found, but if you do decide to buy this one just don't spend more than $5.  If you really want this mold, then track down the Superlink version.

Transformers Superlink: Grand Convoy SC-01

** 10/29/19 ** Pictures from this review have been corrupted and lost, however instead of killing the review all together I'm going to leave it up...sans pics.

I was excited about Transformers Energon coming out. I know a lot of collector's would never utter those words, but I had high hopes for the series for a couple of reasons.

1) I instantly fell in love with Mini-Cons that were first introduced during the Armada period. I had just about everyone one of them and I wanted more so I was thrilled when I heard early on there would be a more released under the Energon banner.

2) I heard a lot about robots combining and the return of 5 team member combiners. Well we know how that went so my enthusiasm was short lived!

3) Most importantly Hasbro owed us collector's a new and better Optimus Prime toy after releasing that horrendous "super pants" Prime in Armada. Did Hasbro deliver? Not really.

My beef with Optimus Prime during the Energon series was that he didn't "feel" like Optimus Prime. First off he lived up to his new nickname of "Fatimus Prime". Need I say more? Optimus combined w/ his trailer during Armada so they decided to mix things up a bit and give this Optimus a different gimmick. Instead of combining with his trailer he now controlled 4 scout vehicles / drones. In addition to having them hit a ride in his trailer he could also merge with them. This toy screamed Voltron and or Power Rangers...not a good thing in my book.

Before we get too much into the toy itself let's look at the beautiful CGI packaging of the Superlink version of Optimus, called Grand Convoy in Japan. One side of the box depicts Grand Convoy in CGI and I admit looks halfway decent. Remember those this is a Transformer and there is more than meets the eye here.

The other side of the box is displayed in the normal horizontal orientation and features images of the toy. They did add a transformation sequence of sorts of Convoy combining w/ his scouts. I like the double sided box and the bright colors as the box makes for a good display piece...better than the actual toy if you ask me!

Fatimus...er, um Grand Convoy comes packaged inside the box in vehicle form. Other than the odd shape trailer (which we'll look at in more detail in a bit) he doesn't look to bad in vehicle form. The truck cab is large and has some heft and it pulls the trailer just fine. It's not my favorite look for Optimus/Convoy, but I can appreciate what the folks at Hasbro and Takara were trying to do here.

Grand Convoy sports a few differences when compared to his Energon brother. As you can see here Convoy has a chromed grill which actually looks quite good...much better than the gun metal silver Hasbro used. The blue is also a much deeper shade which I think matches his show CGI model better.

There are two things about this Cybertronian truck mode that I don't care for...and I'm sure I'm not the only one. First are the robot arms that are just there. Sure there are notches on the back for the arms to fit into, but it doesn't hide the fact that the arms are still pretty noticeable. The other aspect that bugs me is the helmet thing. I don't care for the way it looks on top of Convoy's head and I don't care for how it just is there while in vehicle mode.

If you didn't know how this Convoy/Optimus got his nickname all one must do is look at the picture above. Horrible. Convoy/Optimus always had a fairly easy and simple transformation and this version is no exception. Fold down the legs, flip out the feet, pull out the arms and fold forward and flip up the head. Done.

The chest is entirely too big and so are the shoulders. The legs look super tiny and his arms are too short. The only thing they got right is the head sculpt...it's a dead ringer for that classic Convoy/Prime look.

He has a spring loaded missile launcher he can wield in robot mode. When not using it can be stored via a 5mm peg on his back.

I'm not sure what possessed Hasbro and Takara to go this route. The main purpose of these small drones is to form the limbs of Grand Convoy, but they do retain some play value on their own. Some. Not much.

Fire-1 has a gray ladder extends every so slightly, but that's about it. Copter-2 has a free spinning rotor blades and some sort of extension on the back...not sure what purpose it serves. Digger-3 has a darker color yellow plastic than Hasbro's and from the pictures I've seen looks better. When rolled the drill does turn a full 360 degrees. Submarine-4, well, just rolls. All 4 actually have small free rolling wheels on the bottom.

Each limb has an official arm or foot mode, but they all are interchangeable and can be either an arm or a leg. Depending on how you "transform" the drone you can see the molded fist or foot.

Convoy's trailer can bit tilted forward to form a base for the drones. The top of the trailer has 3 sections that open up to reveal and "launch" 3 of the 4 drones. On the side are small tabs that ever so slightly extend a ramp inside each compartment. For Copter-2 the side flap folds down to form a helicopter pad. Each of these doors are marked for each corresponding drone. There is also a radar dish that folds up from the rear of the trailer.

Grand Convoy doesn't look like any other Convoy or Prime that I've ever seen. It's a good sized figure and has a decent weight to him despite his limbs being mostly hollow plastic. For several reasons though he just doesn't have that classic Autobot leader feel to him.

The truck's windshield opens up in the combining sequence in the cartoon to reveal a Matrix like item. Hasbro's version added LED lights and sound, but like with other releases Takara gutted those features for release in Japan. I guess little Japanese kids didn't need those fancy electronics to have fun playing w/ their toys.

Remember that helmet I mentioned I didn't like while in truck mode? Well it simply folds up from behind and over Convoy's head to form a larger head for this combined mode. From a distance this helmet looks like a larger head, but once up close you can tell that it just sits over the smaller head.

For a series of toys all about combining this toy is a big brick. There really isn't much articulation to talk about on Grand Convoy. Fire-1 and Copter-2 do feature a ratcheting elbow joint to allow the arms a little range of motion, but overall there ain't much posing you'll be doing with this toy.

I've been pretty hard on this toy and you may be wondering why did I even buy this? Well for starters I was buying just about every TF released during 2003/2004, but I held off from buying Optimus. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this was the first Convoy/Optimus to feature a mouth instead of his classic mouth plate. I hated that. I had heard that Hasbro corrected this with a later production run and replaced the mouth place with the more familiar solid mouth plate, but I never could find the toy at local retail with the correct production stamp on the box. I later learned that Takara went with the solid mouth plate from the get go so I tracked down the Japanese version.

During the Energon series I was so wrapped up in the Unicron Trilogy story that I could look past some shoddy toys (like Energon Ironhide, Cliffjumper/Beachcomber, Grimlock & Swoop...heck, just about the whole line!). While writing this post and thinking back I can't believe I wasted so much money buying these toys. After my recent purge I'm left with one non Mini-Con Energon/Superlink toy - the deluxe version of this toy. I only kept him as a small representation of the character.

According to my Shmax.com entry I only paid $35. I didn't realize until a week or so ago when I decided to purge a few more TFs from my collection that this guy ain't the easiest to find on the secondary market. That has made finding a reasonable asking price for this toy kind of hard. If I had bought the Energon version I may have decided to keep it and just tuck him behind some other Primes on my shelves, but right now I'd rather have the $$ I hope I can sell him for.

picture courtesy of TFWiki

If you aren't familiar with this toy and wonder why he is so fat it's because of some later combination options introduced later in the series. On the left you can see Convoy/Prime combined with the character Wing Saber giving him a flight mode. I used to own Wing Saber and one day I may track him down again...especially if I'm unable to move Grand Convoy. Wing Saber had a nice homage to G1 Star Saber and really deserves his own post, but for now I'll just mention that the toy could be disassembled and be added onto Convoy/Prime in one of two ways. The flight mode (pictured in the bottom left corner) looked pretty great.

Convoy/Prime could also be combined with Omega Supreme or Omega Sentinel. The transformation for this combination reminded me a lot of how Godmaster Ginrai / Powermaster Optimus Prime combined with his trailer. The figure is basically folded up into a cube and placed inside the larger figure - in this case Omega Supreme/Sentinel. I didn't realize at the time that the drones could also be attached to Omega via Powerlinx ports.

The whole Superlink / Energon series was all about the Spark of Combination and the toys really suffered because of it. Had Takara just focused on Convoy and left out all of the silly gimmicks (minus his combination w/ Wing Saber) I feel that the toy could have been much better. Unless you are a die hard Convoy or Optimus Prime collector it's really hard to recommend this toy. If you aren't turned off by his girth or my little review I believe the Energon version can be had for a decent price on the secondary market.

Transformers United: Axalon UN-28

A few years ago I went a little crazy and imported just about every Henkei! release from Japan. I was so impressed by the paint app differences when compared to the Hasbro versions. With the follow up line - Generations I decided to hold off on importing and stick with the domestic releases. Then came a few surprises released in Takara Tomy's United line. Axalon (UN-28)...talk about coming out of left field!

This is my second United release (the first being Rumble & Frenzy) and I feel as if I made a good choice. The blister packaging for these United deluxe figures is amazing. Like with a lot of Japanese packaging you can safely remove the backing card from the bubble without any damage. This feature also allows you to effectively repackage your figure on the card if you so choose to.

I love how the toy is presented on the back. The small trading card size tech spec cards have now been replaced with the info on the back of the card. I was sad to see this as the cards were a contributing factor when it came to whether or not I should buy the Japanese version. Oh well. Speaking of the techs see how every category is ranked 'unknown'? I don't recall many (if any) TFs ever having every category as such.

Axalon is labeled as an Autobot spaceship. This is a nice nod to the history of the Autobots spaceship as that was the name of the Maximal's ship in Beast Wars, the Autobots ship in Armada and from Animated.

While the mold does an OK job invoking a spaceship there are still many elements that scream shark. Of course this is because the mold was originally the Decepticon Sharkticon from the Energon line. This really doesn't bother me as the mold is fantastic and new paint apps are down right beautiful. Until this toy was in my hands I never noticed the resemblance to Universe Depth Charge. Was this intentional? Perhaps since this mold was originally an aquatic character.

The mold in vehicle form retains all the same features from the original. The four small turrets can rotate a full 360 degrees and to some degree elevated. The missile launchers are still hidden and can be revealed (and fired) by separating the side panels. This same attack feature can be utilized in robot mode as well.

The new colors really pop in robot mode. Just look at the beautiful metallic red and silver! The Spark crystals were first introduced in Beast Wars and were carried over into the Energon line. Instead of simply painting over this crystal in the chest Takara Tomy replaced it with the Autobot symbol. This is a nice touch and frankly something I wasn't expecting.

Articulation is pretty good for an older mold. He has the swivel thighs which I like. You can also swivel the entire top half. Elbows and knees are on hinge joints. I will point out that I forgot to snap in his left shoulder assembly before snapping the pictures...hence one shoulder has more of a downward slant. You are able to extend and rotate the missile launchers onto his sides as depicted on the back of the packaging. I always thought this mold could benefit from having a hand gun of some sorts packed in, but with the launchers on his sides I guess he doesn't need one.

The same blue plastic that the missiles are cast of is used on the back of the head to give it good light piping for the eyes...even though you can't tell that in my picture! No other changes were made to the head.

From left to right:
Energon Sharkticon, United Axalon, Botcon Sky-Byte

Wouldn't you know that while I was uploading this pictures I looked up on my shelf and saw that I forgot to grab my Botcon Sharkticon that shares this same mold for the photo shoot.

Owning 3 versions of this mold previously I didn't hesitate at all when I first saw the solicit pictures last year. It's a fun toy and the new color scheme is absolutely beautiful. Being that this is the first use of the mold for the Autobots makes it unique. Now the question I have remaining is where do I display this figure? Do I stick it in with my Classics/Generations Autobots or does it fit better on my mix match "Universe" shelf?