Landmine
Landmine's vehicle mode
doesn't have a real-life counterpart- or at least I think it doesn't. It's
some kind of mining vehicle, that's for certain- it's got a bladed shovel
in the front, it's got treads, a crane arm, and it looks pretty rough-and-tumble.
There's also some gas vents near the top and a missile launcher thrown
in for good measure. All in all, Landmine's vehicle mode is great. His
mold detailing is very nice, with tons of little mechanical details everywhere.
His cockpit is see-through, with little seats inside. The same goes for
his paint detailing, too- he's got a wide variety of colors, although they're
still pleasing to the eye. The orange, gray, gold, and blue scheme is one
of the few rather original color schemes in Energon that still looks good.
Not to mention that for some reason I can't quite figure out, orange just
fits a mining vehicle better than any other color. And as for his electronic
feature in this mode, you can pull Landmine's crane hook out on a string,
then press the button on the crane arm to reel it back in, making a "retracting"
noise as it does so. It's actually fairly cool, and not at all annoying.
The problem I have with this mode, though, is that the front doesn't look
very solid at all. There's a VERY noticeable gap in between the front shovel
and the actual front hood of the vehicle, and the front sides don't stay
connected to the main part very well. In fact, the first time you try to
transform Landmine, you'll almost swear you're doing it wrong, because
the pieces just don't want to fit together. In fact, the front shovel is
the only thing keeping the front half of the vehicle mode from completely
splitting apart. Also- and this is a rather minor quibble- the treads in
the back are at a slightly different angle than the wheels on the front,
but although it looks a little bit on the "not quite right" side of things,
it's not bad enough to interfere with his movement or anything.
In his "regular" configuration,
Landmine splits in two. The front half of his vehicle mode becomes his
normal robot mode, while the back half becomes a weapons platform. The
battle platform, though, is pretty weak (just like 95% of all the other
Transformers' battle platforms). It's just his missile launcher and crane
arm on a rotating disk (that actually only rotates about 60 degrees) held
up by parts of his vehicle mode. I can't really see it doing much at all.
Landmine's normal robot mode, however, is pretty cool. The great colors
and detailing are all still there, and his proportions are fairly nice
overall (even though his arms are a tad on the puny side and his feet are
too big). His articulation is also great- he can move at the shoulders
(at three points), the elbows, the hips (at two points), the knees (at
two points), and the head. All in all, you can get him into a good number
of poses, although sometimes his stability is put into a jeopardy a bit
by his floppy heels. I'm not too sure I'm fond of Landmine's head sculpt,
though. I do like the visor, but I don't like that they made it see-through.
It magnifies his eyes too much. Oh, and the solid red face looks rather
icky, too. But he's a pretty nice Transformer overall. His Autobot spark
crystal in on his chest, and his red Autobot Powerlinx symbol is on the
side of his left arm.
By taking apart his
battle station, you can combine several parts of it with Landmine's basic
robot mode to form Powerlinx Landmine, also called his "brute mode". For
a third mode, it's actually fairly good. He now has two VERY large claw-arms
to slash some Decepticons with, although I do think the actual claw parts
are severely under-detailed mold-wise. These pieces also have a bad tendency
to fall off the arms a little easily. In addition to that, Powerlinx Landmine
also has a backpack of sorts, consisting mostly of his crane arm and missle
launcher slung over his shoulders. When you connect the backpack to Landmine's
back, a tinny "Transformation" sound is emitted. It's nice, but it was
obviously sped up a little. (Be SURE that when you connect his backpack,
though, that the dial is turned all the way to its locking point, as specified
in the instructions- otherwise, the transformation sound will go off if
you so much as touch Landmine, and it gets VERY annoying very quickly.)
In addition, another sound effect is now available- you can press a button
on Landmine's backpack to activate a short "firing" sound. The actual missile
launcher on mine is pretty touchy, but this doesn't seem to be a widespread
problem. Landmine may look a bit disproportionate in this mode, but he
makes up for it by looking like he can take out a whole Terrorcon army.
Landmine is a great
Transformer, and definitely one of the better Powerlinking Autobots. He
suffers from a few stability problems, though, along with a few more minor
downsides, and this is what keeps him from scoring high-up on the "must-buy"
scale. But he's still a very nice toy, and I highly recommend him.
Review by Beastbot