Diver Dan, surface surface! That is what popped into mind when I first saw this collection of minicons. My wife was not so kind as she immediately thought of a tampon. I’m mostly waiting for wave two of Cybertron before I empty the checking account but I couldn’t pass on these guys. Their vehicle designs are similar to some in the past but their transformations confirm that they are not repaints. With the exception of jolt they are all new characters. I give you the Recon Team.
Jolt:
Once again jolt is a helicopter. I almost bought that POS that was Hotshot just to have a helicopter minicon. It looked so good in the product catalogs on Unicron that I really wanted it. After buying that POS Smokescreen for Liftor, the baddest ass looking mini, I decided that I was better off without. Now I have my helicopter. Jolt is very bulbous in design. He reminds me of the helicopter T.C. used to pilot on Magnum P.I. but that helicopter is traditionally one of the smaller designs of the helicopter world. This time around jolt has actual skids to land on, really really wide skids. One is the location of his minicon linking port. The propeller now has three blades instead of four and he has engine-like parts, that later become his legs, on top of the main body. The propeller is great, it averages 7 to 8 seconds of rotation with a single flick. This time around he has more detail. The original was detailed, but not painted and the detail just washed out. Transformation, this is where Diver Dan comes in, is simple however unfolding the legs can be a pain since the prop gets in the way, and don’t forget to rotate the dome! I did and when I first looked at the face I thought I had been screwed. After rotation at least I could see his face. You now have a round figure with a tail. If it’s up the prop doesn’t turn, down you have a fat tripod character. Nothing new is revealed. The arms are ball socket joints and the legs do have knees and ankles.
Reverb:
The surprise hit of the pack! If this character was produced back when a transformer’s name meant something than you would know this was one pimped out SUV. He’d have a 100-disk CD changer, bass cannon, and 1000-watt amp. He appears to be an Avalanche. And you thought it was just a remold of that space filler Ransack from Armada. I know that the vehicle mode is very similar, truck with lights on top of the cab, but Reverb was handicapped by the feature of being attached to Powerlinx Cyclonus which was good in the Destruction Team but crap in the Adventure Team, I won’t even bring up the desperation of Refute. Reverb is a pretty blue with grey tires, silver windows, yellow lights, and copper fists in the back. Yes, you can see his fists in vehicle mode. Robot mode is better no new colors but a nice transformation process that is simple yet non-intuitive. No new colors but we get an actual head. The arms have big fists, elbows, and shoulders. The legs have hips and knees. The overall form is great. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, big man nipples on his chest, just a great design.
Six-Speed:
I suppose a racecar could be a recon vehicle on Speedia…. maybe. This figure is reminiscent of Downshift of the Race Team. The vehicle mold is a little remolded, and not quite as aerodynamic. Still a good design. The colors are much brighter, lime green, I’m not sure if that’s an improvement or not. Downshift had the number 4 and a few other colors. The only painted details are of copper v’s behind the driver area, tail spoilers, and hood, other wise very blah. Transformation is simple again. He has knees. I like the head too, but little else. His arms rotate in the middle so either end could’ve had the hands molded in. his chest doesn’t stick way out… I guess that’s good too. We do see that his hands are metallic silver in color.
Overall:
I like minicons, they’re loads better than keys, but these are minicons for the sake of having minicons. Minicon ports have all but disappeared from figures aside from Vector Prime and Megalo Convoy. If you like minicons you’ll certainly like these, but they add nothing to the line, I wonder what role if any they’ll play in the show.
| Reviewer | Slugpitcher |
| Date | August 23rd 2005 |
| Score |  (7 out of 10) |
| Reads | 6647 |
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