Allegiance: Minicon
Size: Mini-Con
Team Gimmick: Ability to combine into the Skyboom Shield

(NOTE: Because this set is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it the Armada Race Team. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the Armada Race Team here.)

    A bit of an explanation is in order for these unique exclusives before I move onto a straight review. These pack-ins do NOT come by themselves-- each of the following three Minicon repaints are packed in with their own Tiny Tins and one of six different Cybertron deluxes (the first two waves of them), and unfortunately, the deluxes themselves are unchanged from the mass retail versions. Each Minicon is packed in with two different deluxes (which ones are mentioned in the review), and the set retailed, at first for about $12 U.S. However, for obvious reasons (repainted Minicon, but not repainted widely-available larger toy), they didn't sell very well, so they're much cheaper as of this writing (8/06).
 

Dirt Boss

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Comes with: Red Alert or Landmine
Color Scheme: White, flat red, black, dark sparkly blue, and some yellow
Individual Rating: 7.1

    Out of the three Minicons in the Race Team, Dirt Boss has changed the most from his previous paint jobs. It's a rather interesting combination of his original and Road Assault color schemes-- namely, he shares the red from his Road Assault scheme, but retains most of the other colors from his original scheme. One thing that is new in the mix is that his main body is now white, as opposed to gray or black. Overall, the color schemes fits together pretty well and looks mighty nice (though not as nice as his Road Assault colors), but his main paint apps are identical to his original paint job, which still makes him too similar to his original scheme for my liking.
    No mold changes have been made to Dirt Boss.
 

Downshift

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Comes with: Dirt Boss (Deluxe, not the Minicon) or Thundercracker
Color Scheme: Dark gray, flat red, light gray, "baby" blue, and some black, yellow and silver
Individual Rating: 4.0

    Chalk Downshift up as another barely-repainted exclusive repaint. All that's changed is that the original Downshift's yellow has been changed for red, and the dark gray is now more of a black color. The red does look a bit better than the yellow, but it's still such an incredibly lazy re-release of the mold, it's definitely not worth getting.
    No mold changes have been made to Downshift.
 

Mirage

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Comes with: Hot Shot or Override
Color Scheme: Dark gray, flat red, black, and some silver
Individual Rating: 4.1

    Like Dirt Boss, Mirage is an amalgamation of his original and Road Assault versions. He shares the dark gray and paint apps of the original version, but has the red of the Road Assault version. Overall, I think it's the best color combination for this toy, but it still is a lousy mold and something more different than the previous two schemes should have been used.
    No mold changes have been made to Mirage.
 

Skyboom (Gestalt Form)

Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Flat red, light gray, black, dark gray, and some "baby" blue, silver, yellow, and dark sparkly blue
Individual Rating: 4.3

    This version of the Skyboom shield looks almost as good as the Road Assault version, because the ugly yellow of the original version has been replaced with red, and Dirt Boss' white goes together pretty well with the red and dark gray/black of Downshift and Mirage. In fact, all of the colors fit nicely together, though again, I don't think it's different enough from the original paint job.
    No mold changes have been made to Skyboom.
 

    The new Race Team have fairly good color schemes, but they're not nearly different enough to be repaints worthy of purchasing if you already have the originals (especially Downshift). However, if you don't have any of the previous versions of these toys, and you don't have the necessary three of the six Cybertron deluxe molds these guys come packed with, then it's a fairly good deal, especially now that they're all on clearance prices. However, that's pretty unlikely, so if that's not the case, only VERY hardcore completists should consider hunting these down.

Review by Beastbot

(All pictures taken from bwtf.com.)

Back to Transformers: Cybertron Index