Heavy Load

Allegiance: Minicon
Size: Mini-Con
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Black, dark bluish green, dull milky greenish tan, and some silver, dull greenish bronze, and red
Rating: 7.0

    Heavy Load's alternate mode is a bulldozer/dump truck hybrid. Overall, this is a pretty good alternate mode for a Minicon-- the proportions are as close to realistic as one can expect for such a small toy, and he's got a fair amount of mold detailing, though he does definitely need some more paint detailing, especially on the windows. The use of dark bluish-green is a tad of an odd choice for a bulldozer (although it doesn't clash), but otherwise his color scheme fits and works well with the toy. With the exception of the somewhat obvious robot feet on the back end of the vehicle, otherwise this is a robot extra-free mode. The shovel on the front end can move up and down, but it does have a tendency to come off a bit easier than I'd like, especially in robot mode-- this is the single biggest downside to the toy, as it gets pretty annoying after a while. Another more minor problem is that, given the way the pegs on the legs attach to the peg holes at the bottom of the roof, it's pretty hard to get the two roof halves together enough where they don't have a noticeable gap in betwen them. His Minicon symbol is right side of this mode, near the back end.
    Heavy Load has one of the most unique robot modes out of the Minicons, although unique in a good way. He's very much the "little tough guy" of the Minicons, given that A. He's smaller than almost any other Minicon except Ramjet and B. He's got a tiny head, large, long arms, and relatively short legs. I think these differences in proportion were intentional, and they really add personality to this toy. The face sculpting is also pretty cool-- I like the "big visor-face with a surrounding helmet" look, it looks pretty evil. I don't like how the lower arms are so flat and oddly-shaped for arms, however, and the fists really should be more noticeable on them. His articulation is slightly above-average for a Minicon-- he can move at the shoulders, elbows (on ball joints), and hips. He can also, due to his transformation, bend downwards at the stomach, in a manner similiar to Metroplex. No knee articulation, though.
    Heavy Load is one of the better, more unique Minicons, and his robot mode carries quite a bit of personality. He has a few weaknesses, but the only annoying one is his shovel, which pops off far too easily.

Menasor

Allegiance: Decepticon
Size: Ultra
Homeworld: Giant Planet
Cyber Key Code: us4r
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Dark bluish green, dull pasty tannish off-white, black, and some silver, red, dull milky greenish tan, dull greenish bronze, light pale greenish blue, and transparent greenish blue
Rating: 7.0

    No longer a G1 Decepticon car gestalt, Menasor's name is being reused, this time on the only Giant Planet Decepticon toy! In vehicle mode, Menasor is a... drill thing. I have to say, this is definitely the major downside to this toy-- this has got the be the laziest alternate mode out of any of the Transformers I have. It is so incredibly obviously the robot mode crouched down with a shovel over its face, something that is especially bad because of the rather big Ultra class size of this Transformer. I mean, there isn't even an ATTEMPT to try to unite the rear leg-tread pieces or anything like that. I like futuristic, alien vehicles and all, but only if they're not just an excuse to skimp on the alt mode. However, extreme laziness of the alternate mode aside, this mode does have some good points and pretty neat features (the vast majority of which carry over to the robot mode, given how similar the two modes are). The color scheme of bluish-green and various shades of tan may not be the first that comes to mind when thinking of a mining vehicle, or the most fitting, but none of the colors clash and, as a whole, it looks pretty good. The toy's also covered in mechanical mold detailing everywhere, and Menasor has lots of paint apps, relatively evenly spaced around the figure so that not any one part looks boring. I especially like the "worn metal" paint apps on the ends of both arms. Menasor's Cyber Key gimmick is rather lame, though-- insert his key into its slot on the side of the left arm, and a "mining" noise is emitted while a light inside the transparent drill blinks on and off a few times. I would've preferred to have the drill spin too, but at least you can manually do that by either rolling the wheel on the topside of the drill arm or just rolling the vehicle mode along on a flat surface. On his other arm, Menasor sports the only Minicon-activated gimmick in the entire line, at least when it comes to new molds-- put a Minicon on the port on the top of this arm and slide it forward, and two claws flip forward from the sides of the arm while the corkscrew drill not only slides forward, but also twirls around at the same time! A very cool gimmick, though sometimes a little more force than I'd like is necessary to get it going. (The toy also has five other static Minicon ports, in case you're wondering-- one of the top of the other arm, and two on each of the rear tread-legs.) Menasor sports one other gimmick in this mode-- if you open up his shovel halves a bit, you can stick Heavy Load's vehicle mode with the shovel tilted forward in there, for a bit more pushin' power. In theory, it's cool-- however, it's entirely too hard to get Heavy Load rested snugly in between those two shovel halves that I usually just forget about it and give up in frustration.
    Menasor's robot mode is largely similar to his vehicle mode, so most of the same comments regarding the colors and gimmicks apply to both modes. One new gimmick is available in Menasor's robot mode, though, and it's pretty cool-- Heavy Load, in robot mode, can fit inside Menasor's chest! (Almost makes you wonder if Heavy Load is the TRUE brains behind this Giant Planet 'Con, heh...) As for the overall look, Menasor has an extremely cool-looking, well-proportioned robot mode-- not that it wouldn't be easy to look so good here, considering his vehicle mode. The shovel halves on his shoulders actually complement the look of the mode instead of just looking like kibble, and although Menasor doesn't have any actual hands, the two drills help to give him a more inhuman, menacing appearance fitting for a Decepticon. The robot head design is also very alien, with the eyes to only recognizable features, but it still looks very cool and complements the look of the mode quite a bit. Menasor also has very, very good articulation-- he can move at every major point besides the waist, and he also has very good ankle articulation. Given this, his large feet, and no real heavy back kibble, you can get a TON of poses out of this guy. One last note-- Menasor also has a "work mode" like Metroplex, but it's an awfully laughable mode, since all you do is seperate Menasor's waist halves and turn his legs backwards. I don't know what kind of "mode" that is...
    Cybertron Menasor has a very cool, very inhuman and evil-looking robot mode, along with a nice color scheme and some pretty awesome gimmicks. It's a shame his vehicle mode is so lazy and obviously just his robot mode on its stomach, or he'd earn a much, much higher rating.

Review by Beastbot

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