Article Number

RV0020

Author

Gerry

Toy Line

Transformers: Armada

Manufacturer

Hasbro

I went out the other day to run some errands with my GF at Walmart and decided to take a look to see what they had in the toy section. I was surprised to see the new Transformers Armada Unicron was in stock. The new Transformers Armada and Universe lines don't hold much interest for me though I hear that fans really like it. The reason is because Hasbro is re-issuing a lot of the same molds that came out from Transformers Generation 2 and Beast Wars to stock both the Armada and Universe Line. And let's face, it the whole "Mini-con" gimmick has been done in earlier lines. Does anyone remember "Powermasters?"

However, I have been watching out for the Unicron figure. Out of curiosity mostly. I was interested to see if Hasbro can do this figure true justice. (Read my conclusions at the end.)

The Box

At almost 16 inches in height Unicron is displayed in a window box in Robot form. The box has nice animation shots which I assume are from TF Armada. The print on the box is in three languages, French, English and Spanish. It's very nice and colorful. One side panel gives a brief story of the history of Unicron. The box back panel shows all the different features and apparently Unicron is electronic and comes with "Dead-End" mini-con.

Unpacking

Unicron is wire tied to an inner cardboard insert in a multitude of places. The right arm is nestled into a bubble at the elbow while the left arm is also nestled into a bubble at the forearm and fist. Unicron can be seen holding the "Dead-End" mini-con in the palm of his left hand. The planet rails are tied and bundled with wire ties on the bottom of the inner cardboard insert at Unicron's feet and all remaining accessories are in a bag and wire tied to the inner insert side-panel.

The inner box has an orange, red and blue background with sphyrical grid lines much like a globe or planet. If you are like me, you like to preserve your packaging while removing the toy with as little damage to the packaging as possible in order to re-insert your toy for preservation after play. This promises to be a rather difficult endeavor indeed.

Two pieces of the clear dome which form part of the planet when Unicron is in planet mode and as wings when Unicron is in robot mode are the first to be removed. A bag containing 6 long missiles and 1 giant missile are next followed by the planet rails that mount on Unicron's shoulders in robot mode and ride around the circumference of Unicron while in planet mode are next to be removed.

Attached on the back of the inner insert panel as you can see are the literature and a whole lot of wire ties which need to painstakingly be untwisted and removed to preserve the packaging.

The bubbles that hold Unicron's left and right arms are fitted "tabularly" into the inner insert's side panels and anchored down with tape. This has to be cut away without risk of damaging the inner insert.

The bag of literature contains the instructions and a very cool catalogue which contains volume 4 of a mini comic. I assume volumes 1 - 3 can be obtained when you purchase other TF Armada toys. The catalogue is interesting because it features Built to Rule also known as "BTR" transformers Armada figures that you put together sort of "Lego-style" but I don't think they are made by Lego. (Between you and me, Lego should've patented this method of toy construction and model building. They are probably missing out on huge revenues). Also in the bag of literature there is a Unicron trading card.

I curse the man who invented wire ties!! It took me almost 30 minutes to carefully untwist these cursed things to remove Unicron. These things are designed so you have to untwist them!! You can't simply tare the box to shreds to try to extricate Unicron, No!! Even if you do you'll still have to untwist the bloddy things to remove them. Either that or get a pair of wire snips. I'd like to see a 5 year old try to remove Unicron from the packaging!! After all that is the starting age that this toy is rated for. Once, he's unpacked forget about putting him back in the box right away. It'll probably take over an hour to get him back in the box.

The Toy

Unicron has a transformation difficulty rating of 4 which is the highest and the most difficult. (Doesn't make sense being children 5 and older is what the toy is rated for.)

When pulling Unicron out of the box in Robot mode he surely can't stand up so don't even try. His feet are folded in on themselves so you have to arrange them so he can stand. Unicron has an 8 inch foot print. This is no doubt due to his top-heaviness. The planet Rails and 2 dome quarters (wings in robot mode) mount in an area between the shoulders and chest where the arm locks into the torso.

Unicron has clicky joints-a-plenty with loads of articulation. You can find clicky joints at the arm shoulder, elbow, knees, hips and ankles. The large horns to the left and right of the head can be locked into an up or down position. Three quarters of these larger horns along with Unicron's smaller head horns are made of a rubber type material. The shoulders also have a rubber feel to them. The spikes coming out of Unicron's forearms are also made of rubber. This is obviously due to a safety issue and I can see that if they were made of plastic they might easily snap off.

Unicron can twist at the waste (Not clicky though) and because of the large footprint, Unicron can lean roughly 10 - 15 degrees without toppling. Unicron can also twist at the elbow to pose the arms, the wrists to pose the hands and the knees to adjust the legs in varying poses. From the tips of his large horns to the floor Unicron in robot mode measures 16 inches tall.

Other interesting features include a clear right and opaque left hand with articulated finger joints. The clear right hand when pressed in an upward motion blinks red. The articulation of the finger joints you can probably guess will have a lot of children displaying their Unicron as if he is flipping off the Universe!!

The mini-con "Dean-End" in ball form can be held in Unicron's hand or stored in a compartment normally reserved for the fist while transforming into planet mode. More min-cons can be stored in fold out compartments in the shins. There are a number of other places to put mini-cons which I will get to later in this review. Just make sure you don't have your mini-con stored in one of these compartments when you transform into planet mode because then you won't be able to use any of the features that require the mini-con in planet mode.

The two quarter moons at Unicron's shins can be rotated horizontally and have the missiles inserted into them, 3 on each side. Attach the minicon to it's powerlink port then gently push forward to launch the missiles one at a time or quickly to launch all three at once.

Missile Attack Mode

The mini-con is inserted into another powerlink port on Unicron's back. When pushed in, the chest opens up and a larger missile comes shooting out while at the same time Unicron's eyes blink red on and off.

You can also make the eyes light up by pressing a recessed button on top of Unicron's head. Note: I was unsuccessful in showing this feature due to how rapid the eyes blink on and off.

Mini-cons can also be stored by pulling down a clear door that is recessed in Unicron's belly by pulling down on Unicron's hip belt then pulling down the hinged clear door. The clear front panels and two black side panels that make up Unicron's hip belt can swivel and do have a tendancy to come off during play and transformation. Other minicons can also be stored one on each shoulder.

Battery Replacement

A total of 4 A-76 button cell batteries need to be replaced for Unicron's eye's and left hand. 2 batteries are mounted in the back of the head for the eyes and two are mounted in the back of the left forearm for the left hand. Do not worry however, your Unicron already comes with a fresh set of batteries already inserted.

Planet Mode

I won't bore you with the details of the transformation process. Suffice it to say that it was very easy despite Unicron's 4 rating for transformation difficulty. Of course the instructions helped. :) Unicron folds in half and the wings and rails become part of the planet.

There are two modes of play while in planet mode:

Defense Mode

Rotate the mini-con in it's little recessed area to display his gun. That's basically it for defense mode.

Attack Mode

Unicron with the use of the mini-con can fire it's missiles. With the use of thumb and forefinger, press the horns on top of the planet to activate planet chomping action. As shown in the illustration you are supposed to put your mini-con in the teeth on top of the planet to "chew it up".

The planet rails are designed to hold up to 27 minicons which are sold seperately which would probably look cool to display in this mode if I had them. Nothing lights up in planet mode.

Conclusions:

Overall, I'd have to give this toy a rating of 8. The toy is nice and the plastic is of good quality. There are no diecast parts with the exception of the metal screws. Is it a worthy representation of Unicron? I'd have to say no quite simply because Unicron is the baddest evil transformer ever not to mention, he's the size of a planet. In order to do this toy justice, he'd have to be around the size of the Generation 1 Fortress Maximus.

The $48.77 Walmart price tag left me a little flat. As far as transformers go, he is 16 inches tall which makes him one of the biggest to date and I'm sure that the cost of the pre-installed batteries were figured into the retail price.

Unicron had some problems, like I mentioned above, some parts have a tendancy to fall off during transformation and to activate many of the gimmicks in robot mode required you to use two hands because despite his rather large footprint, he has a tendancy to lean very easily because the clicky ankle joints have too much give in them.

How would I make it better? Well for starters, I'd give him a big bad weapon for display in robot mode, that would be cool. I'd also not only make him light up, but I'd also like to hear some sounds coming out of him and maybe a few Unicron-style phrases. Finally for a toy of this size, he'd need to have more transformation modes other than robot and planet mode. After all, Sixshot which has been re-issued in Japan and has six modes of transformation and it's smaller than Unicron.

Well, that's my opinion and thanks for reading.

Gerry