Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Mini-Con (3-pack)
Overall Rating: 5.5
 

Divebomb

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Light milky gray, dark blue, and some light red, yellow, and silver
Individual Rating: 3.5

    Divebomb's vehicle mode is a helicopter, and proportions-wise this is pretty nice mode-- most helicopter Transformers have somewhat short "tails", but not with Divebomb-- his helicopter proportions are very convincing. What he's really lacking, though, are sizable wings-- I mean, I know helicopter's wings are nearly as large as planes, but he has some STUBBY little side wings., and the fact that the robot arms are folded up underneath them makes them look even more stubby. (Though the fact that the tips of the robot arms are molded to look like missile launchers is a nice touch to help them fit in with the vehicle mode slightly more. There's also a rather noticeable gap between the top of the wings and the main body piece of the vehicle. Otherwise this mode looks pretty nice, though, with pretty good mold detailing, even to the point of there being miniature "rivets" in the wings, and a fair amount of paint detailing-- I especially like the light red stripes on the propellers, which can twirl around pretty nicely. The Minicon port is on the underside of the cockpit in this mode.
    Divebomb's robot mode, though... what the!? I mean, the cockpit-chest looks alright, and even though it looks a tad goofy, I can even deal with the propeller-head. But his arms can only move to the SIDES at the elbows, an utterly useless point of articulation, and other than that he can't move at all in this mode. He's almost literally a brick. And his tailfin-legs look really, REALLY od. He's basically standing on sticks, to the point where they almost look like stands and he's actually supposed to be hovering in the air in robot mode, like Beast Machines Obsidian. There's a little slot that his lower legs are supposed to peg into his tailfin-legs, but they don't fit in their at all.
    Divebomb is a poor excuse for a Minicon. His robot mode is absolutely awful in every respect, and although his vehicle mode is decent with only a few flaws, it'd have to be made of gold and be able to be remote-controlled and be able to actually fly for it to negate his horrible robot mode.

Firebot

Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Moderately light red, dark charcoal gray, and some metallic silvery blue, metallic gunmetal gray, silver, and light pea green
Individual Rating: 8.6

    Firebot's vehicle mode is a fire truck. This is a pretty nice mode. Normally, it'd just essentially be a red block, nothing to get too excited over, but the semi-futuristic angular styling to the figure, the two rotatable water guns on the front, and the very nice mold detailing all make it look great-- if you look carefully, you can even see details as tiny as a ladder near the rear end of this mode! He's got a fair enough amount of paint detailing as well, though another paint or two on the rear end or on a few parts of the robot mode couldn't have hurt. His color scheme of light red and charcoal gray isn't the best or the most attractive, but it's certainly not a bad color scheme and is definitely appropriate for a fire engine. Firebot's Minicon port is on the underside of this mode, near the center.
    Firebot's robot mode not only looks utterly awesome, it's a bit original in its design, as well. The legs are of a rather unique construction, having rather large feet, angular upper legs, and an almost chicken-walker-like construction without being too skinny. His large upper arms and smaller lower arms with the rotatable water guns give Firebot the impression of being a pretty tough little guy, as does his MEAN-lookin' face-- he looks like he has a knight's mask on, and his narrowed optics make him look like he's ready to take on any Decepticon ten times his size. His articulation is decent for a Minicon, too-- he can move at the shoulders, the hips, the knees (though more backward articulation there than forward articulation), and from side-to-side at the elbows.
    Firebot is an awesome Minicon in both modes, with an original yet great design. He's easily the best of the Wave 1 Classics Minicons-- he really doesn't suffer from anything but the most minor flaws.

Strongarm

Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Black and some silver, dark metallic blue, dull metallic red, and dull greenish yellow
Individual Rating: 4.4

    Strongarm's vehicle mode is a police car. Overall, the proportions of this mode are pretty good, ignoring the obvious compromises that have to be made for a toy this small, such as the hinges at the rear bumper. Black makes a nice color scheme, though Strongarm is desperately, DESPERATELY begging for more paint applications. None of his windows are even painted, for Primus' sake! His sirens look nice, as does his front bumper, and the miniature "Police District" logos on his sides are cute, but geez, I can't believe they didn't even paint the windows, especially since the only parts painted in his robot mode are his optics as well. Strongarm has two Minicon ports, both located on the underside of this mode, to the rear of center.
    Strongarm's robot mode isn't as terrible as Divebomb's, but it's still pretty bad. For one thing, his arms can move back and forth at the elbows, and he has a useless side-to-side point of movement at his knees, but that's it as far as articulation goes. His transformation mostly consists of spreading the two halves of entire vehicle mode apart, and it's REALLY hard to do without popping some parts off. The end result of the transformation isn't that hot, either-- the halves don't quite straighten out in respect to each other, so Strongarm's arms and legs are at a slight angle to each other. His legs also look extremely awkward, jointed and rigid as they are, and the way his elbows actually come out of his arms close to Strongarm's shoulders, that looks pretty weird, too. On the plus side, having the front side of the police car mode turn upside-down for the chest helps to give Strongarm a bit of originality, and his face sculpt is pretty detailed mold-wise, too. Too bad you can't see it easily because of the lack of paint...
    Strongarm has nice vehicle proportions, but he suffers from an extremely lack of mold and paint detailing and his robot mode is pretty darned awkward. Still... he's better than Divebomb, I guess...

    Of the Night Rescue Team, Firebot is the only good Minicon of the bunch-- he's thoroughly awesome, but it's a shame you have to buy such bad toys as Divebomb and Strongarm in order to get him. After all of the "mainline" Classics deluxes and voyagers, if you really want to get Firebot or love Minicons no matter what they look like, than go ahead and pick up this set. Otherwise, spend your hard-earned money on something else.

Review by Beastbot

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