Buried Treasure Review - Emergency Mini-Con Team

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Buried Treasure - Emergency Mini-Con Team (Armada series - 2003)

By Nekoman

The Mini-cons are something that are starting to be forgotten in the Transformers franchise. The current Universe line has updated Jolt, and offered a set of Mini-cons exclusively to K-Mart stores, but that would be about it. Mini-cons are really cool, and in some cases probably the closest things to Transformers accessory sets this fandom may see for a long time (well, as far as official products go anyway). So that’s why I’m looking at the Emergency Mini-con team, a set that is truly more than meets the eye.

Each of the three figures included in this set have three modes. Firebot Transforms into a fire engine, a robot (surprised?) and a missile pod. Prowl the police car has the third mode of an blaster/gun, and Makeshift transforms into a V-22 Osprey and a twin barrel gatling gun. Out of the three, Firebot is definitely my favorite, so I‘ll start with him.



Let’s look at his fire engine mode. It’s pretty simple, but detailed. There’s even a small translucent hose in the front of the truck. He has two Mini-con ports to combine with a larger figure on top of him. Unfortunately their positioning is a little poor, and he is not as flattering when combined in this mode.



His robot mode is nice, it's well detailed and articulation is good for a figure of its size. He doesn’t have any hands, but what appear to be guns in their place. Thus, he has a little more firepower than the average Mini-con or small-sized Transformer. A creative touch if you ask me.

There’s lots of little mechanical details that garnish this mode. There’s also good use of different colored plastics and paint applications. Little things like his visor, and chest details get painted, which makes him look less bland.



Now in missile pod mode he’s truly a gem. Transforming him into this mode is rather simple. You push his arms down, which also moves the position of his Mini-con ports, then fold him in half. Now the positioning is much better for his Mini-con ports. He looks just like how a missile pod should, and not much like a fire engine. Simply plug him onto any Mini-con port and voilà, extra firepower for any Transformer (with the Mini-con ports, of course). He’s pretty much an accessory like this, but I think that’s exactly what makes him so interesting.



Onto to Prowl, he has the vehicle mode of a police car. Again, he’s detailed, but the translucent blue doesn’t blend well. It works, but I would have preferred a solid color instead. Regardless, the color scheme goes together pretty well, and the blue plastic is dark enough to not be that noticeable.



In robot mode he’s pretty good. Not as interesting as the other figures included in this set, but nice none the less. He has ball joints in his shoulders, and hinge joints in his legs, so he can pose pretty well. I somewhat dislike that his head is one piece with his upper body, but he does plenty to make up for it.



His third mode is a gun, and this is how I like the figure best. He can be held by any Transformer with 5mm holes in their hands, so he’s not limited to just figures with Mini-con ports. He looks better as a gun than he does as a robot, and I find him most useful in this mode. His head is as stated above, one piece with the part of him that becomes the barrel of the gun. This makes his face somewhat less noticeable, which is nice.



Then last but certainly not least is Makeshift. He transforms into an Osprey helicopter in vehicle mode. It’s well detailed and the propellers even spin. The cockpit is painted silver, and there’s even this neat little emblem on his rear wing. There’s not really any kibble in this mode and he looks clean.



In robot mode he almost looks imposing, which is a little uncommon for an Mini-con. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the little things, but it’s sort of the same with the Generation 1 Mini-bots. Bumblebee for example isn’t the least bit imposing, but this guy is different. He’s real bulky in some aspects and the fingers he has adds to his badass-look. He’s just not that “innocent little guy” most Mini-cons/Mini-bots come off as.

His articulation in this robot mode is decent, with joints in his fingers/claws, shoulders, and kind of in his legs. Unfortunately, his legs are pin joints that only bend to the sides, meaning he can’t strike too many poses. But he looks good enough in static poses to make up for it anyway.



He also transforms into a gatling gun as stated at the beginning of this review. While not quite as recognizable as say, Firebot, it’s still an imaginative and detailed alternate mode. There’s many little orange details that can be seen here, it’s nice that they went trough the trouble of making him so detailed in this mode. As a weapon, he works as that nice little bit of added firepower, perfect for an larger figure.


(Armada Emergency Mini-Con team with 2004 Universe repaints)



All in all, this is a set Mini-con collectors should pick up, and more casual collectors should carefully consider. These three Mini-cons are loads of fun that compliment very well the larger figures you might find in you collection.

Links:

Visit the Makeshift gallery by clicking here.
Visit the Firebot gallery by clicking here.
Visit the Prowl gallery by clicking here.
Visit the Universe Makeshift repaint gallery by clicking here.
Visit the Universe Firebot repaint gallery by clicking here.
Visit the Universe Prowl repaint gallery by clicking here.
...Or find your own buried treasures by visiting all the toy galleries here!

* If you would like to write a review for our "Buried Treasures" feature, please send a private message to Skowl on the Seibertron.com forums!

Previous Buried Treasure Reviews:



Cannonball by Skowl



Snapdragon by Jeep



Cybertron Downshift by Chuckdawg1999



Frostbite by Duke of Luns



Octopunch by Jeep