Dino Megazord [Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Re-Ignite]

It’s time for the Zords to combine, because we need Megazord Power! After finally acquiring all the members of the combinable Dino Megazord team, it was time to put them together and see how things worked out.

This is a large toy, so it was a bit of a wrestling match to assemble them. First, I formed the Dino Tanker, which is pretty much the Megazord sitting down and reading an imaginary newspaper.

The Tyrannosaurus folds into place easily. The lower legs fold up into the thighs, and the Sabertooth Tiger and Triceratops connect to the folded-up T-Rex’s knees. You’ll have to adjust the Sabertooth Tiger into proper position. I feel like there was a glitch in the matrix somewhere, as the Tiger has some articulation behind her front legs that I don’t recall noticing initially. The Triceratops pretty much just connects — he’s a basic toy.

The connection points have little release buttons on the backs of the knees that I found pretty novel. Considering the size of it all, locking joints are a good idea.

The Mastodon forms the back and arms of the Megazord, and the cannons for the Dino Tanker. It’s essentially the same configuration, with the positioning of the Megazord’s hands and arms being the deciding factor.

The Pterodactyl is the only really difficult member to utilize in Tank form. She rests on the tank’s back, her missile launchers connecting to the cannons to complete the weaponry. There are obvious connection points I couldn’t get her to snap into due to the Mastodon legs that form back ornamentation blocking the way. The other option is to slide her tail into a docking point between those Mastodon legs. This works and seems designed for it, but it’s not very stable. I think Pink Bird fell off a thousand times while I was putting the tank on a TV tray to get a halfway decent picture.

The joints are nice and clicky, but the combined weight makes this form feel a little unstable. I couldn’t get it to stand fully upright without the tank leaning.

Forming the Megazord, however, was a much better experience. Remove the Pterodactyl and stand the tank upright. Flip the Megazord’s hands out, remove the launchers, and connect them to the back. There’s also some shoulder armor to flip up. On mine, those parts didn’t line up perfectly and came loose a few times. Folding them back down for Mastodon mode required holding everything just right to allow clearance.

The Tyrannosaurus head folds away into the chest compartment, and the Megazord’s head remains — just fold out the horns. The Pterodactyl’s head and wings fold into themselves and connect to form the chest plate. The Mastodon head, which was the front of the Dino Tank, becomes a shield. The Power Sword, which had been sitting off to the side, can finally be held.

In this form, the team is much more stable and satisfying to handle. I’ve seen horror stories of Tyrannosaurus waists breaking, so be careful with yours. The Megazord is a big, chonky robot with nice clicky joints, and I love it.

I’ve seen others online not like it as much, so your mileage may vary. There’s also a boxed set with a slightly different deco if you want to forgo acquiring all five members separately.

Ultimately, I really like this set despite its flaws. The individual Zords are fun, if basic, and the combined Dino Megazord feels like a Shogun Warriors spiritual successor. Later this year, Playmates will be releasing a Thunder Megazord set in the same size, and I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully a Dragonzord will join the team as well.

Dino Megazord/Daizyuzin is a large and fun representation of the classic combiner meant for kids… but loved by this grown-ass man. There’s a real sense of accomplishment in completing a team like this, and I’m going to bask in it for a while.

Devastator [Defender Version]

Today we’ll be looking at the Blokees Defender Version of Devastator, which was a bit of a project to take on. The vehicle mode Constructicons were released across Defender Version series 01–03. These are blind boxes, so that could be a challenge unless you buy the entire case — which is what I try to do. Then you’re required to buy the combining parts kit to merge the vehicles into Devastator. That doesn’t sound like a lot here as I’m typing it, but explaining it can be confusing for some folks.

People get hung up on the whole Defender Version vs Galaxy Version thing, too. The devil’s in the details, and somewhere somebody’s so confused they’re trying to buy hot dogs at Arby’s and getting really pissed off in the process.

One thing to be mindful of when buying the parts kit is that it’s only $4.99 from Blokees themselves. I’ve seen shady dealers trying to pass it off for a lot more — in some cases around $50. I’ve also seen various sources claiming Blokees isn’t allowed to sell it in America or other countries. That isn’t true for the U.S. anymore, as I easily bought it. Just be careful out there and make good decisions. Some of these assholes are trying to rip you off. 

Once you have all the needed parts, you can assemble the MIGHTY DEVASTATOR!

Before we do that, let’s take a quick look at the individual Constructicons themselves. Some of the characters are available in robot mode as either Defender or Galaxy Versions. They’re really neat, but I feel like the vehicles are pretty great too. They’re about the size of a Mini-Con in alt mode, and there’s just something undeniably charming about a set of six little construction vehicles. They’re fun to push around all on their own. I’m particularly fond of Mixmaster’s tiny mixing drum.

The parts kit comes with an instruction manual that I ended up using more than I thought I would. Some parts need to be removed and will not get reused in the final product, so make sure you store them somewhere safe for later. For the most part, the arm guys (Bonecrusher and Scavenger) plug right into place with the lower arms attaching. Scrapper and Mixmaster form the lower legs and it’s not super difficult. Scrapper’s combined mode is fairly reminiscent of the G1 toy, which I liked. You’ll have to remove Mixmaster’s front wheels for Devastator’s stability — you can leave them on, but it creates an uneven foot.

The thighs plug into the leg guys and then into the hips. Devastator’s torso is formed from Hook and Long Haul… really the whole process is very similar to combining the G1 toy. You’ll have to assemble Devastator’s Solar Energy Beam Rifle. Transformers fans of a certain age probably see this weapon when their eyes are closed. I’m glad it was included — sometimes these older weapons get replaced with a generic blaster, and this one is an unmistakable shape.

When assembling Devastator’s head, you get two choices: a static toy-style face or an angry RAWR face. I went with the latter, but you can swap them out as you please. Once assembled, Devastator is AWESOME. He forms a much larger kit than you’d assume given the smaller components — around Voyager-size — and has plenty of articulation. It’s pretty impressive just how expressive he is… especially with the angry face. Normally combiners are a mixed bag when it comes to movement. Classic ones were pretty basic due to their construction. Newer ones have a decent range of motion, but stability tends to negate that. This version, however, is basically an action figure that can hit all sorts of poses. Neat!

I doubt I’ll ever stop singing the praises of Blokees, and considering they’ve got a team of Combaticons coming next… the music is probably never ending. I’m really impressed by this set, and completing it feels like an achievement. Feels good man.

Skydive [Age of the Primes/Deluxe Class]

In our ongoing quest to complete the Transformers Age of the Primes Aerialbot team of five buttheads, today we’re looking at Skydive! Skydive is the bookworm of the squad — well-versed in aerial tactics, strategy, and history. He's also the most visually distinct member of the team thanks to his mostly black color scheme, compared to the primarily white look the rest of the Aerialbots have going on.

This figure is a remold of the Air Raid toy we looked at a little while back. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out, but side-by-side the shared engineering is clear. Still, the sculpting and new parts are handled so well that it doesn’t feel like the same toy with a new coat of paint. And really, it makes sense to stretch the tooling budget when the original characters themselves shared similar silhouettes in the first place. Skydive and Air Raid have usually been “same shape, different guy,” so this is just accurate to life.

As I’ve been saying with these current Transformers Generations figures — Skydive looks like he stepped right out of the cartoon. Which would be terrifying if he did that while I’m napping during G1 reruns on the Transformers channel. Damn.

Skydive is nicely articulated and comes with two blasters. They work well in robot mode and can also peg under his wings in jet mode. Transformation is quick and easy: legs compress, arms fold in, the backpack settles into place — your standard modern jet-transforming-guy routine. In jet mode, Skydive’s unique colors stand out even more. The darker gray body and lightning pattern on the wings look great, and now that I’m thinking about it, that kind of flashy detail seems to originate back to his G1 toy. I don't remember similar patterns before him, but plenty after. Neat!

Like his teammates, Skydive forms part of Superion — and we’ll take a full look at that combined mode once Fireflight finally joins the squad. These Age of the Primes combiners are a big improvement over the Combiner Wars versions from ten years ago (which I actually liked a lot at the time), so I’m excited to see Superion come together here on Zone Base.

Dinobot Sludge (Legacy Evolution/Core Class)

It's taken me longer than intended, but today we're looking at the final member of the Core Class Dinobots. Sludge comes in forming Volcanicus's lower torso and mirroring Rairyu in the eventual Dinoking version of this set. Sludge is a likable little fellow, though his dino mode kibble is impossible to ignore. There's two rear legs just hanging to the side of his robot mode legs. There is no getting around them and that might be a turn off for a few people. Honestly, the blocky old schoolness of this set that I've mentioned before keeps me from disliking it that much. In a stand alone figure, it'd be annoying. As a small chonky little robot whose part of a combiner team... I can't help but to instantly compare it to older toys and enjoy it for that. 

Part of a combiner team is accepting that there'll be some compromises and Sludge is a big compromise. Forming the lower torso of Volcanicus means some load bearing and this (little) big boy is built for that function. Transformation to brontosaurus is easy and just works. I have no complaints about that and found the entire process likable. As a brontosaurus, Sludge is absolutely adorable. Just a cute little dinosaur. Once again simple, but simple works.

Slugde forms the lower torso and waist of the combiner. The other parts form together fairly easily into a delightfully little version of Volcanicus. Volcanicus has a decent amount of articulation for a combiner and his smaller form makes for an easier time playing around. His fists strongly resemble those of older Micromaster combiners and of course there's the obvious Dinoking resemblance. I'm really happy with how he turned out. I really like Volcanicus despite the initial idea of the Dinobots as a combiner irked me. Thanks to misinformed folks in older days spreading a rumor that the original team could combine, the idea was a bit of a thorn in my side. However, ever since Volcanicu's introduction... I've liked him quite a bit. He's a cool combiner and I'm a sucker for the Dinobots.

Grimlock (Legacy Evolution/Core Class)

I really like the Dinobots, Core Class, and Volcanicus. What happenes when all three of those things are combined? You get a Core Class version of Volcanicus! Obviously this is something I'm interested in and happily found Grimlock before seeing Rise of the Beasts a little while back. There's no denying Grimlock's very blocky proportions. Make no mistake about it, this is a small combiner peice and some sacrifices were clearly made. Giving you a simple and blocky robot mode and one awkward dinosaur.. I'll admit my forgivness is heavily influenced by the smaller Pretender toy vibes I get from the toy. Not to mention, I'm used to giving combiner limbs a pass.

There's often some comprimisng done in the individual toy as part of the overall team. I know I'm not the only person to make the comparison, but there's a heavy Dinoforce vibe with this set and hopefully a remold results in an update of that team as well. Perhaps even a future Monstructor. That'd be great. I also can't help but to make mental comparisons to Pretender Grimlock as well. It's not an exact comparison, but there's some familiarity. The gun made from the tail bit contributes to that. Grimlock is a pretty decent little figure. On his own, maybe not so great, but as part of a neat looking combiner... yeah he's ok. Part of me wants to see him worked into a Pretender update as well.

Operation Micro Combination

 

A time I truly miss in Transformers is from of the early 2000's. Takara started re-issuing the Micromaster combiners from late G1. Instead of gift sets, the figures would come in blind box style packaging with each combiner team serving as a series. There would be a little hole in the bottom allowing you to see the number of each member on an insert, so it wasn't a totally blind box. The insert would be a generally informative set of instructions, who all else was in the set, and a short pack in fiction. However the number wouldn't be much of an indication of you got the regular toy or the chase color version. The line would even include Landcross whom was sold as a DX Micromasters.

A Micromaster combiner team (gestalt style, not the two vehicle combiners) would consist of six robots with a unified theme. There would also be the various combiner parts included with the figures that you'd need to form the main robot after completing the set. Those combiner parts would also assemble a flying vehicle of sorts your Micromasters could pilot. The originals were normally sold in a singular box (for the most part), however in this line came individually sold in the a fore mentioned blind box.

The boxes would come 12 to a display box that'd sit on the counter of a store. These display boxes were generally how you'd buy them online if you weren't in Japan (like me). Some sties did sell them individually, but it usually was by the display box that they were bought. Enough to complete two sets of the teams would be in that box. Perfect for trading or selling. The reissues didn't have stickers like the originals, instead the details were tampographed on. If you find yourself wondering if you've found an original, that's the easiest way to figure out.

Above I mentioned the color chase versions. That's because there would be an alternate version of the team in the set. Generally in solid colors and sometimes with a faction swap. They were highly desired and generally you'd get about 75% of one in that box, leading to some trading or buying extras to complete it if possible. Later Hasbro would release these teams under the Universe banner. Individually packaged and usually exclusive to Kay-Bee Toys (here, at least) they were mostly straight repacks of the Japanese releases named after classic combiner teams instead of the original teams names. Only Superion and Devastator got new colors and were really nice looking. These are still my favorite versions of Superion and Devastator to this day.

Seacon Saga 2: The Beginning

This morning I found some time to play with my new rainbow colored Seacon set and man, what a time I had. Like I said yesterday, it's a downsized set. Meaning, it's much smaller than the original toys. 

Whenever these knock off toy companies make a Transformers set, they tend to get creative. There's molded over parts, sometimes new parts made to compensate for deteriorating molds. Or in these downsized sets, they seemingly have to re-engineer some of the parts a little. 

The Seacons were a Scramble City style combiner team, meaning any of the limbs would work as any limb. That wasn't the case here, or from what I could tell after a lot of fiddling. Not to mention, the neat 6th member could be a gun wasn't universal either. Which didn't matter as Piranacon doesn't have fists to hold it with. I opted to keep Tentakil out of the combiner since I just love his weird sea monster mode so much. Thanks to ample peg holes and guns, you can fashion a blaster type hand easily. Honestly in combined mode, I really like this toy. The wacky colors look sharp and the sculpt looks really good in a smaller size. 

Going back to the individual team members, the sea monster modes look really great. Snaptrap is as small as the limb bots, which is funny as the smaller size makes for good proportions when combined. They're really good copies of the original toys as well.

In robot mode, some of that knockoff toy new part magic comes in. Leg/mid-sections are serviceable, but are clearly where the company has had to get a little creative. It's still a really nice looking set. While a few parts were omitted and not all the accessories are there, they've all got weapons. Aside from scale and color, they're pretty close approximations of the team. 

The quality is always in question with knock off toys. Sometimes it's a near perfect replica, sometimes it's kinda ok. Sometimes it's apparently made from old soap and turns into powder instantly. For the most part these guys were pretty good. Some of the joints are really loose, while one of Snaptrap's legs was impossible to move. I'm no stranger to knock off toys and some of my old tricks came into making a more stable set.

I absolutely love the Piranacon this set makes. That smaller Snaptrap makes for a different looking torso and the proportions are absolutely wonderful. Normally with Scramble City style combiners, you have a big body with stumpy limbs. Everything is more evened out here and it makes for a better looking robot. I can't help to look at other combiners and imagine them with similar builds.

It was a total surprise when Shawn sent me this and made for an interesting week. I'm pretty grateful for it. I've got a ton of toys, but the ones with stories I really appreciate. Shawn's an awesome friend as is, but dude gets me. He saw some weird shit and knew I would not only like it, but would turn into a week of site content.

Burn baby burn, Autobot Inferno

Earlier today, or I suppose yesterday... Friday morning. Friday morning (exact days can be confusing when you work over night) I stopped by Walmart on the way home from work to pick up some cat food. A quick visit to the toy aisle and I picked up Power of the Primes Inferno. I was pretty happy for this as I wanted him, but also... man I like Inferno. I just really like Inferno. I can't say I have all of his toys, but I do got a good bit and always glad to get another. There's just something about a red fire truck I guess. It doesn't hurt that I can't think of an ugly Inferno toy. He usually comes out looking great. I guess the traditional Inferno look just translates well into toy form. You got a fire truck, who doesn't love a fire truck? The traditional can chest really works well making this big beefy guy. He's just hard to hate.

This Inferno is based on the Combiner Wars Hot Spot toy mold. Which works pretty well, though I keep thinking it would have made for a perfect Pyro update. Probably because of the design of fire truck. His combiner form makes for a good modern Guard City. Some have been sticking Protectobots on him to serve this purpose. Me? Well, I've discussed before how I'd utilize other combining figures not in use and I plan to do so. New Guard City if you will. It's not an exact update, but it's not really intended to be. Just a clever nod for those in the know.

Demon General Abominus

I got the rest of the Terrorcons this past weekend at my local Walmart (because wave 3 is going to be impossible to find *snicker*) and am really looking forward to assembling my Abominus on July 4th. I got Rippersnapper with my birthday presents in March and Hun-Gurrr some time back, now all I need is the spare time of a holiday to enjoy them all. I was pointing out to my wife that Abominus is my favorite combiner and realized, I sure do have a lot of him. The original (including countless individual Hun-Gurrrs), a great color reversed ko, two different variations of the Beast Hunters version (I think I got extra Hun-Gurrrs there too), the Kre-O version, Infernocus, (who's basically the movie version, and is made of the Beast Hunters Abominus) and now the POTP version. Honestly, I could use a couple more. I find myself often wishing there was an Action Master or a SFC version.

What's not to love about that abominable fella?

Power of the Primes Battletrap

When I talked about Battleslash and Roadtrap, I said they were parts of a combiner that's the newest incarnation of Duocon Battletrap right? That's right I did and here is is in all his Trappin and Battlin glory! The two toys form a pretty well done new version of the classic character.

The two smaller robots form Battletrap who's roughly deluxe size. He's the sum of both parts and it shows as the two distinct forms show clearly, which is part of the Duocon theme after all. I can't find any fault with this approach and hope Flywheels gets similar treatment (I've always liked him).

As I've noted before, the two toys are nice looking, but are obviously intended to form a bigger mode and it really pay's off here. I can't really find any faults with the toy as he forms together pretty well. If I have anything negative to say, it's pretty minor. I'm not fond of how parts of Roadtrap come loose easily in leg form, making the knee's look a little messy without sticking them back together (that could also be just mine though) and that helicopter blade of Battleslash is just kinda stuck in the back of Battletrap kind of awkwardly (I did say I'm usually never happy with how helicopter blades work out). There is an attempt to stow it between parts, but the bottom half is still dangling.. I'm sure if the components were deluxe or larger, there would be an additional few steps to work this out better. As is, it's just part of the scales economy and not the end of the world. Two minor gripes in an overall great toy is pretty reasonable and there's always a little give and take with any combiner.

Power of the Primes Roadtrap

Somebody at Hasbro had a great idea, taking the classic Duocon Battletrap and turning his two vehicle forms into separate characters. That's what we got here with Roadtrap, now the SUV portion of the robot is his own character as well part of the combiner. The end result is pretty neat, with Roadtrap (now his own bot) making for a pretty decent little toy.

He's short and squat, owing to the fact that his third form is a pair of legs. Often with combiners you have to sacrifice a little for the combined form and that's true here as well. Fortunately, it's not too bad and Roadtrap's still a pretty satisfactory little figure. I'm really impressed with the articulation, which owes more to his various modes and the means to put the toy into them than anything. Which equals a pretty articulated little guy. However, it that means to transform between the forms leads to my only real problem with the figure. I don't like transforming him.

While at first glance, he doesn't seem to challenging, but to go from robot to truck, there's a bit of magic with his chest that must be done that I didn't enjoy doing. It wasn't terrible or anything, just a little more fiddly than I'd like for a smaller figure. This partially owes to the fact that he also turns into a pair of legs (more on that later this week), but it still hampers the fun of the stand alone toy. Either way, I quite like the little guy despite a little trivial inconvenience. It's nice to see a little original thought go into a update of a classic character and add to him a bit.

The Walgreen's Wreck-Gar Saga continues

In what has seemingly become a legendary adventure, it's seems Walgreen's exclusive Wreck Gar is soon to becoming a reality. My main man at Walgreen's shot me some more info regarding the release. Like the past 2 Transformers exclusives, Wreck Gar will be available in the fall/winter.

Credit: Homeslice from Walgreen's

That date implies an arrival of September 28th 2018, though considering it's in a deluxe shipment, that's not a hard date (so settle down if it's not at your store until a little later). The past two exclusives have been making appearances anywhere from October - December, so this shipping date falls in line with the same general expected time frame.

Also of note, looks like the smaller Authentics figures will be making an appearance at Walgreen's too. Hoping this leads to a few more molds, I'm sure enjoying the silly little things.

Combiner Wars: Bruticus vs Sky Reign commercial

For some reason, I've been thinking about Combiner Wars toys. Specifically the deluxe class. Ironically, in a line focused around combining, I found myself really enjoying the individual members on their own. While some complained (take a shot) about the rampant reuse of engineering in the line (they wanted scramble style combiners, but I guess not the working system?), It never fazed me. I really liked the proportions of the figures and the overall build of the robots. I found myself really liking the odd members of more random combiners like Sky Reign that were composed from classic characters that were traditionally not combiners. There was just something about those proportions that just clicked with me as a figure. Sometimes I'll find some customs or digi-bashes of the toys and wish they could have been real. Not that I minded the Titans Returns figures or anything (man, I love that line, it's right up there with Beast Wars as far as favorites go), but it could be part of the reasoning that I enjoy the Power of the Primes figures so much, even though they've got somewhat different proportions.

Oh no, there's a fire. Don't worry, I'll save the day!

Cybertron is known for war and disco

I've always liked Inferno. I don't have a real reason why, he's just a likable character. There's just something about a big red fire truck I guess. Seeing as his newest toy is being made from Combiner Wars Hot Spot, I'm anticipating really enjoying the figure. While I'm not 100% set on it yet, My plan is to pair him with Rook, Alpha Bravo, Jazz, and maybe another white or light colored combiner limb figure to form sort of a Guard City combiner. I want to use that Wreck Gar that's allegedly coming to Walgreens, but feel that maybe someone else would at least pass better as Wreck gar is orange. Maybe Moonracer as her white and teal wouldn't clash too much.

It's been years and I'm still waiting on more

Not everything works out as you'd expect. When Powercore Combiners hit I was ecstatic. This was going to be huge I thought. I was pumped, I thought it was great. I still remember sitting in a  Captain D's when the leaked images first started popping up. We had already had various rumors and scuttlebut, but suddenly here was leaked images of this actual new line. I was spending the day with my Mom and we decided to have something to eat, and while I was checking my Blackberry (it was a lot longer ago than it seems) there it was. I was pumped! I was excited! This, this was amazing! This was going to be huge!

Basically you take a basic sized figure and give it a Mini-Con that serves as a weapon or can form armor. Then, you have similarly themed drones that auto transform when connected to that basic sized figure to make a large combiner. I thought it was great! I loved the drones. I hoped for blind bagged crazy color variations! Man, just wait until Takara gets a hold of these, there's going to be a crazy story and so many more. This, this is perfect.

When they started hitting stores I snatched up all I could. I loved these things, they were great. Unfortunately I was the only one who thought so, but luckily that meant I got plenty of them for cheap on clearance.

Power of the Primes Dreadwind

My wife gave me a Dreadwind the other day. I've been on a buying restriction until after Christmas as she doesn't want me to buy anything she might get me. Though finding recent Power of the Primes toys that I wanted, I guess she decided to give me one early to tide me over.

Dreadwind is a great toy. Like other POTP deluxes, he's a throwback to Combiner Wars toys. He can form both his modes as well as an arm for a combiner form.

Since Primemasters don't form heads for the bots, the way they interact is a bit different. A Primemaster in its shell homages Pretenders, but out of it's shell homages a Powermaster.  POTP deluxes hand/foot bit doubles as a method for merging the Primemaster and the Transformer.

It looks a bit clunky, and basically gives the robot a beer gut. Though it isn't bad and is a neat way of using the hand/foot part (though I didn't mind the giant weird gun from CW). The part has a little dummy panel to cover the hole where you'd place your Primemasters to create a Primemaster mode. As I don't have any Primemasters yet, I substituted a Titanmaster to get an idea of how it works.

Of course the difference would be a neat rune looking bit giving the robot super powers and not a screaming face in it's chest crying for an end to this horrible life. The hand/foot bit can also be attached in vehicle mode, which on Dreadwind looks like one of those sound box things from G2. Which I don't hate.

So far I'm very pleased with my first experience with a Power of the Primes toy. I'm looking forward to getting more (after Christmas of course... or on... now I'm curious about what's in those packages under the tree) and enjoying the newest incarnation of my Transformers. My only gripe so far s that I wish a Primemaster could drive a larger toy like in Titans Return. Though I believe they can in the Legends and Leader figures. It's a nice combination of the gimmicks from the prior installments of the Prime Wars trilogy and so far looks like a good way to end it.

Multi Master

I've not made it a secret that I really love the Titans Return line. The bulk of that love comes from the Titanmasters and how they interact with the larger bots. It's a combination of Micromasters, Headmasters, and Diaclone play patterns that just melts together in a wonderful robot fondue. So while wondering what they could do with Titanmasters if they ever revisit the play pattern and it came to me.

Several Diaclone vehicles would combine to form larger robots in which would have a pilot. I could easily see a Titanmaster, Primemaster, or even a similar new little robot utilize these vehicles to form a combiner that houses it's accompanied drivers as a team. While I can't predict the future, I'd be hard pressed to not see that be a big hit. I mean, it would be glorious. Think of tracking down all those little bots and finally reach the big pay off in this cool giant robot they'd form. Imagine if you could mix and match the little parts. Or what if there was blind bagged wacky color variations?

Man, that'd be neat.

Combiner Force Combiners?

Of all the places for something to turn up.

Recently art for new combiner teams for Transformers Robots In Disguise popped up. On a bus, but still, there it is. Recently I've gotten the Crash Combiners from the new Combiner Force expression and I'm loving them. They're simple, but all toy. So seeing news of possible traditional combiners in Combiner Force, it's got me wondering.

As the art shows, the teams have 4 members. So, they're not traditional. It looks like the team would have a body bot, two arm bots, and one leg bot? Other art floating around of the Bumblebee combiner shows Grimlock as the legs. So, obviously he splits to make a pair of legs. So it's easy to deduce that the leg bots would be a bit bigger than the others.

I wonder if the teams would be Crash Combiners style toys. The existing Crash Combiners are really basic robots with three modes. A vehicle, a robot, and a combiner form. A team could be released in a box set and if they're Crash Combiners, they could be reasonably cheap. Though, I do feel like Crash Combiners should be less expensive. As is, a two pack costs about $15 at Walmart. So a box set could be pretty pricey for the simple toys inside.

I keep saying I'd love to see individual Crash Combiners released blind box style, and I would. In crazy colors and crazy characters. However, a combiner team in blind box packaging would also be something neat. Each series could be a different team. Maybe even an alternate colors version.

Crap, I'd love that.