Dead End

Allegiance: Minicon
Size: Mini-Con
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Very dark gray, yellow, silver, and some metallic fuchsia
Rating: 6.8

    Alternate mode is a moon- certainly an awesome idea, given Unicron's alternate mode. It's actually pretty good, considering that it transforms- only the robot head sticks out a bit on the bottom. My only real beef with this mode is that the patches of yellow on an otherwise dark gray moon surface don't really look that great- I would have preferred the entirely of the moon surface to be one color, with paint apps on the shape of little impact craters here and there. Dead End has excellent mold detailing, although he could really use some more paint deco- only his robot head and big honkin' gun have any. Speaking of the gun, it adds bit of spice to what would otherwise be a rather boring mode to the kiddies- it's not just a ball, it's a ball with a gun! Plus, the top half can also swivel seperately from the bottom half- not only a great idea for aiming the gun, but also remarkable given that the thing transforms. Dead End's Minicon port is on the very underside of this mode. Dead End has no Minicon symbol.
    The only real problem I have with Dead End's robot mode (besides, again, the lack of paint detailing) is that his arms look prettty wonky. His shoulders are a bit too high when compared with his head, and he doesn't have any hands to speak of- just... pieces of a planet hanging off. Ah well, at least he still has a big gun. His legs and main body look pretty good for a moon Transformer, though, and his head looks very "Miniconish", with little horns as a nod to his "big bro". And yet... I find myself thinking, "is that it"? Namely because I expected Unicron's minicon to be more, well... menacing. He actually looks a tad dopey. More sharp edges and angles in his robot mode would have done wonders. He does have great articulation for a Minicon, though- he can mode at the shoulders at two points, the elbows (although only back-and-forth, not up-and-down), the hips, the gun, and the knees.
    Dead End is above-average for a Minicon, although his robot mode arms are pretty weird, and he has low paint detailing. However, he doesn't look EVIL enough to be Unicron's minicon.

Unicron

Allegiance: N/A officially, though technically according to the series he created the Minicons, so... Minicon?
Size: Supreme ($50)
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Hard
Color Scheme: Gray-white, gray, orange, "cheese" yellow, clear plastic, clear purplish plastic, metallic light purple, very dark gray, and some yellow, silver, gunmetal gray, metallic red, metallic fuchsia, dull gold, and baby blue
Powerlinx ports: 29 (3 gimmicked)!
Rating: 9.6

    The Dark God of the Transformers finally gets a toy of his own- and yep, it's a planet-eating planet, complete with a ring and everything! This mode is pretty nice all around, with WONDERFUL mold detailing. There's not much paint detailing, but most of it has been saved for his robot mode, and his colors are varied enough in planet mode where I don't really mind anyways. I especially love the horned mouth- push the horns together and the mouth claws move in and out in a "chomping action". Granted, you can't actually put anything IN there, but it's still pretty cool. Also, if you attach a Minicon to either of the ports on the sides of the planet mode and push forward, the three missiles on that side fire one after the other. What's especially cool about this is that if you only push it forward slowly, you'll only fire one missile at a time, so you get the option as to whether you want to fire all three or not without there actually being seperate triggers for each of them. There's also a whopping twenty-four Powerlinx ports on his rings for Minicon-connectin' goodness. Some people are miffed that Unicron isn't actually a complete sphere in planet mode- he's more like three-fourths of one with the bottom fourth cut off- but I actually prefer it this way, since if he were completely round, he's roll all over the place and possibly damage his ring (which, along with the planet surface halves in his robot mode, are his only fragile parts). The only problem I DO have with this mode, though, is that the parts have a hard time fitting together perfectly- there's almost always a noticeable gap between the planet shell halves and the legs. The legs themselves also stick out a bit from the rest of the planet mode- it would have been better if they'd been the same color as the rest of the planet, or something.
    Unicron's robot mode is astoundingly amazingly awesomely awesome, and is very close to his animated Transformers: The Movie incarnation, especially since it was widely thought before this toy came out that the Movie's Unicron could never get that accurate of a robot mode and still have a decent planet mode. Unicron has outstanding mold and paint detailing, nice proportions, and articulation everywhere you could reasonably want it- his fingers themselves EACH move at two points, and his thumbs at one point. The planet ring becomes skeletal wings in this mode, which I thought was a great idea in how it was implemented. The planet shell halves, alas, hang off of his already over-burdened wings, but you can take them off easily to get them out of the way. If you press in a button on top of Unicron's head, his eyes blink red on and off for several seconds, and the same happens with his clear fist if you push it in. I would have preferred if they had just stayed on instead of blinking, but it's still a pretty cool effect. Also, if you attach a Minicon to the port on his upper back, his chest opens, and a HUGE cannon comes out and fires a missile! It's a really awesome gimmick, although due to the spring-loaded nature of the button, you can't actually keep the Minicon on the port, or it'll pop off. Unicron also has plenty of storage spaces for Minicons- one can fit inside a compartment in each of his legs, as well as on two swiveling ports on his shoulders and, yes, there's even a compartment in his stomach for one! (Unfortunately, the panel to that one tends to pop off a bit easily.) Unicron is just an awesome all-around figure in this mode- his feet do look a tad odd, being that the back halves are so much larger than the front halves, but thsi is to give him some stability.
    Unicron is a great updated version of the classic Transformers character, and is definitely worthy of his name. Great articulation, detailing, proportions, gimmmicks, innovation... just about everything on him is great, in fact. A few minor quibbles- such as the planet mode not quite fitting together right now and then, as well as the planet halves hanging off his back in robot mode- but they barely are even worth mentioning, they are overshadowed so much by Unicron's awesomeness everywhere else. If you really are a stickler for the movie colors, get this version- otherwise, I'd wait for the even-more-awesome repaint coming up in the Energon line. Unless, of course, you want to get both- he IS that good, trust me.

Review by Beastbot

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