Drill Bit

Allegiance: Minicon
Size: Mini-Con
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light milky gray, black, and some silver, very dark blue, blue, and dull metallic gold
Rating: 4.4

    Drill Bit's vehicle mode is the laziest I've ever seen for a Minicon. Seriously.. what the heck is this thing? It's very clearly his robot mode on its stomach with drills flipped out of the feet, even after a casual glance. The arms are also pretty clearly above the two wheels, and no real attempt is made to hide them. Not to mention the design is completely impractical-- the cockpit window is directly BEHIND the raised drill front, not in front of it, so a driver wouldn't even be able to see where they're going! Still, on the plus side, there's a pretty good amount of mold detailing for a Minicon, and the color scheme of light gray, black, and blue works fairly well together, and the silver and gold are nice accent colors. Drill Bit's Minicon port is on the top of this mode, near the back end, so you'd have to plug him into a larger Transformer's Powerlinx port robot-face up, which kind of stinks.
    Drill Bit's robot mode is much better, though it's hard NOT to have a good robot mode with such a stinker of a vehicle mode. The overall design and proportions are almost exactly identical to Leader-1, with the exact same articulation (and limited backwards knee articulation) to boot. I do like the paint apps and design of the chest and head better on Drill Bit, however-- the mold detailing and contrast of the paint apps are more pleasing to the eye.
    Drill Bit has a fairly good, if not extraordinary, robot mode, but he may as well not have a vehicle mode, it's so incredibly poor. Definitely not the highlight of the set.

Metroplex

Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Leader (Super)
Homeworld: Giant Planet
Cyber Key Code: lm74
Difficulty of Transformation to "Work Mode": Easy
Difficulty of Transformation to "Battle Robot Mode": Medium
Color Scheme: White, light milky gray, black, blue, very dark blue, and some dull metallic gold, transparent light red, and red
Rating: 7.4

    Metroplex is a nod to the G1 character of the same name-- however, instead of being a fortress this time around, he's now a kind of highly futuristic strip miner-type thing. (The main homages to the G1 version are in the two robot modes.) This mode is most definitely NOT the highlight of the figure-- in fact, it's downright lazy. It looks like his robot mode just sitting down in an odd position with the arms turned the wrong way, quite frankly. I mean, it's painfully, PAINFULLY obvious that the rear "treads" are just the robot arms turned backwards. IT's also obvious the main body of the vehicle is the robot chest and legs curled up, and there are some noticeable gaps in the side of this mode that make it obvious in what position the legs and chest are fixed in. In fact, the only clues that help one identify that it's a strip miner are the big claw/sawblade assembly on the top, and the treads and miniature shovels on the front end. Everything else just looks like his robot mode folded up. Still, at least the sawblade/claw assembly does look pretty cool, and it's on a piece that allows it to rotate around, so you can decide whether you want the claw or the sawblade to point forward. The sawblade cannot turn because of the Cyber Key gimmick (discussed later), alas, but the claw can open and close, and there's a slot on the upper part of the claw that allows Drill Bit's vehicle mode to fit in there perfectly. The arm itself can also move at four different points. The "vehicle head-cockpit" underneath the claw/sawblade arm also looks very cool and menacing, and the dual (non-firing) guns mounted on the side of the cockpit are creative uses of the robot head antennae. The color scheme of white, gray, black, and blue is similar to his G1 self, but with a few extra colors and accents added in to spice things up a bit, and overall the colors look pretty good. There's also a pretty good amount of mold and paint detailing on him in most places, though a few places, like his sawblade/claw arm and robot arms, could use a some more paint detailing.
    Metroplex's "worker" robot mode is the least impressive of his two different robot modes, but it's still fairly good. My only really big problems with it are that his legs are too short proportionally in this configuration, and that his battle axe/chainsaw weapon can't be stored on his back without it sticking way out in front of his head. The bolts are also pretty visible on the upper legs and waist, but that's a fairly minor quibble. He's got nice, long feet, so he's pretty stable, and his got pretty good articulation-- he can move at the head, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), his upper four fingers on each hand can move as one, and he can also move at the waist, hips (at three points), and knees. I also really like his robot head design-- it's very reminiscient of his G1 self, but a bit modernized and less blocky. The light piping for the eyes also works exceedingly well. There also isn't really any vehicle mode kibble to speak of in this mode, although there shouldn't be considering his lazy alternate mode...
    Metroplex's "battle" robot mode is where it's all at, and is most definitely the main draw of the figure. In a word, it's flawless. I'm not kidding, the robot mode is completely flawless. I have absolutely no problems with it. He's got perfect proportions for a super-tall 'bot, he's huge for his size category and could almost pass for a Supreme, he has no vehicle mode kibble to speak of, he's got articulation out the WAZOO, with no major point unaccounted for (and even some very unconventional points of articulation, such as an ability to bend over at the stomach), he's very stable, he's got a total of 14 Minicon ports for more firepower, he's a great nod to the G1 character, he's got a good color scheme, a good number of paint apps... everything's covered. His WEAPON-- not the robot mode itself-- I think is just a tad too big and unwieldy, but it can be stored on his upper back if you don't want him always holding it, so it's all good. But with it out, he still looks pretty cool-- like a huge lumberjack or something. His ratcheting joints on his arm can handle the weight of this huge weapon just fine, but his sideways point of articulation at the elbow isn't QUITE strong enough, so if you move him back and forth quickly, the arm that's holding the weapon may flop around a bit. If you insert the Cyber Key into the slot on the chainsaw, the two halves of the chainsaw split apart and a clear plastic part blinks red for a short while some kind of "powering" sound is emitted. Making the two chainsaw halves stick out a bit more makes it look more like a battle axe, which is what it's supposed to be in this mode-- a battle axe named "Sparkdrinker", to be exact. Coool.
    Cybertron Metroplex has an incredibly awesome, flawless robot mode, and a decent "work" mode, but his vehicle mode is little more than a badly disguised contortion of his robot mode. Because of this, I have to-- reluctantly, because of his incredible robot mode-- recommend him the least out of the Cybertron Leader Class toys.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Transformers: Cybertron Index