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Toys I Don't Love #001: PoCoCo Grimstone and this Dinobot Drones
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Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Feb 28, 2015, 4:03:58 AM2/28/15
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Power Core Combiners was a weird sideline, running at the same time as the HFTD and YellowBox and RTS lines, when continuity was a flexible thing and toys like Jazz, and Sea Attack Ravage could appear in the same line. PoCoCo characters have appeared alongside Movieverse characters in Cyber Missions, and Huffer's bio appears to reference G1 Huffer. Hasbro has sometimes claimed these are all in their own separate continuity.
I think that in the end, you just play with your toys as you like.
The main gimmick of PoCoCo is that the main characters are roughly scout sized, and there are drones that can connect as limbs. Very basic combiners, roughly akin to Energon Optimus Prime's drone force, and one more of Hasbro/TakaraTomy's attempts to create decent combiners, which ultimately led to the current Combiner Wars!(TM). Translucent minicons transform into weapons and armor.
The drones are all slightly odd -- they don't have names, there is a question of how sentient they are, and they are almost always out of scale with the main figures. I find the notion of semi-independent miniature cars zipping out to be one step too far for me to suspend my disbelief effortlessly.
And then there are the Dinobots. The drones are animals, which gives them a bit more autonomy than small vehicles, and the scale issues are solved by my ignorance about the proper scale for dinosaurs. Also, they are robotic dinosaurs.
For me, these are definitely G1 toys -- not because there is anything inherently G1 about them, but because G1 is really the only continuity that counts. I could see Wheeljack building more Dinobots at some point, and being inspired by the Aerialbots, and not doing a great job.
The drones all have trivial amounts of articulation, if any at all. Small robotic dinosaur statues.
Spinosaurus Drone can bite by raising and lowering his upper jaw, and wag his tail up and down. He's gray, with a silver head, red tail and gold sail with orange trim. He has a somewhat haughty look to his face, because of his posture, and bright blue eyes. You can extend his neck forward by tipping his front feet backwards -- a part of his transformation to arm mode. He's pretty cute. He has a minicon port on the tip of his tail.
Ankylosaurus Drone can nod his head up and down, but not shake it side to side, leaving him perpetually agreeing with everyone. He can raise and lower is tail a little bit. He has a similar color scheme to the Spinosaurus Drone, but with less red -- silver head, gold back, and a silver spikey ball on the end of his tail. Two black guns on his shoulders give him a bit more bite than the Spinosaurus. There is a minicon port on his back. He's not as cute as the Spinosaurus Drone, but he's reasonably nice.
Pachycephalosaurus Drone is gray, with a silver dome on his head, silver cannons on his shoulders, red chest and forelimbs, and big gold feet on his rear legs, The accidental articulation here is kind of fun -- lifting his tail causes him to duck his head down, and releasing it makes him headbutt. He has a grim little expression on his face. I think he hops like a kangaroo.
Parasaurolophus Drone has a similar general look to the Pachycephalosaurus Drone, but with a smarter and slightly sinister look to his face -- perhaps because he has the same head shape as the drone warriors in the Star Wars Prequels. Weapons on his shoulders are larger and black, with gold tips. He has a silver tail and rear feet, and I also think he hops like a kangaroo.
Sometimes, knowledge about dinosaurs is a bad thing that makes everything worse. It's unlikely that there were that many hopping dinosaurs in reality, but Wheeljack might not have known that.
Grimstone is a Styracosaurus in beast mode. He looks a little odd, since he has a bright red underbelly, and his rear legs appear to be too large. Overall, the dinosaur mode is a little too busy with kibble and mechanical bits.
Transformation to robot mode is fairly straightforward, and the results are a little disappointing. He's a weak robot with piles of kibble on his back, and little effort to make the robot chest look like it isn't a lump of plastic with major transformation elements (the shoulders pivoting forward for beast mode look terrible in robot mode). The beast head is on the chest, and looks up at the robot head. That seems different.
The combined mode is... Well, fidgety and difficult to assemble, with the connector nubs on the legs being on tiny but loose joints and some of the drones needing to be transformed by hand to actually get it onto the peg. The core does look better in this mode.
I think I remembered this toy being a lot better than it is.
I think that in the end, you just play with your toys as you like.
The main gimmick of PoCoCo is that the main characters are roughly scout sized, and there are drones that can connect as limbs. Very basic combiners, roughly akin to Energon Optimus Prime's drone force, and one more of Hasbro/TakaraTomy's attempts to create decent combiners, which ultimately led to the current Combiner Wars!(TM). Translucent minicons transform into weapons and armor.
The drones are all slightly odd -- they don't have names, there is a question of how sentient they are, and they are almost always out of scale with the main figures. I find the notion of semi-independent miniature cars zipping out to be one step too far for me to suspend my disbelief effortlessly.
And then there are the Dinobots. The drones are animals, which gives them a bit more autonomy than small vehicles, and the scale issues are solved by my ignorance about the proper scale for dinosaurs. Also, they are robotic dinosaurs.
For me, these are definitely G1 toys -- not because there is anything inherently G1 about them, but because G1 is really the only continuity that counts. I could see Wheeljack building more Dinobots at some point, and being inspired by the Aerialbots, and not doing a great job.
The drones all have trivial amounts of articulation, if any at all. Small robotic dinosaur statues.
Spinosaurus Drone can bite by raising and lowering his upper jaw, and wag his tail up and down. He's gray, with a silver head, red tail and gold sail with orange trim. He has a somewhat haughty look to his face, because of his posture, and bright blue eyes. You can extend his neck forward by tipping his front feet backwards -- a part of his transformation to arm mode. He's pretty cute. He has a minicon port on the tip of his tail.
Ankylosaurus Drone can nod his head up and down, but not shake it side to side, leaving him perpetually agreeing with everyone. He can raise and lower is tail a little bit. He has a similar color scheme to the Spinosaurus Drone, but with less red -- silver head, gold back, and a silver spikey ball on the end of his tail. Two black guns on his shoulders give him a bit more bite than the Spinosaurus. There is a minicon port on his back. He's not as cute as the Spinosaurus Drone, but he's reasonably nice.
Pachycephalosaurus Drone is gray, with a silver dome on his head, silver cannons on his shoulders, red chest and forelimbs, and big gold feet on his rear legs, The accidental articulation here is kind of fun -- lifting his tail causes him to duck his head down, and releasing it makes him headbutt. He has a grim little expression on his face. I think he hops like a kangaroo.
Parasaurolophus Drone has a similar general look to the Pachycephalosaurus Drone, but with a smarter and slightly sinister look to his face -- perhaps because he has the same head shape as the drone warriors in the Star Wars Prequels. Weapons on his shoulders are larger and black, with gold tips. He has a silver tail and rear feet, and I also think he hops like a kangaroo.
Sometimes, knowledge about dinosaurs is a bad thing that makes everything worse. It's unlikely that there were that many hopping dinosaurs in reality, but Wheeljack might not have known that.
Grimstone is a Styracosaurus in beast mode. He looks a little odd, since he has a bright red underbelly, and his rear legs appear to be too large. Overall, the dinosaur mode is a little too busy with kibble and mechanical bits.
Transformation to robot mode is fairly straightforward, and the results are a little disappointing. He's a weak robot with piles of kibble on his back, and little effort to make the robot chest look like it isn't a lump of plastic with major transformation elements (the shoulders pivoting forward for beast mode look terrible in robot mode). The beast head is on the chest, and looks up at the robot head. That seems different.
The combined mode is... Well, fidgety and difficult to assemble, with the connector nubs on the legs being on tiny but loose joints and some of the drones needing to be transformed by hand to actually get it onto the peg. The core does look better in this mode.
I think I remembered this toy being a lot better than it is.
Zobovor
Feb 28, 2015, 10:47:14 PM2/28/15
to
On Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 2:03:58 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> I think I remembered this toy being a lot better than it is.
This was the only Power Core Combiners set I ever bought for myself (though I did buy it a second time for my son, along with a set of construction vehicles, when they went on clearance for five bucks a set).
> I think I remembered this toy being a lot better than it is.
I liked that they were G1 Dinobot colors and there was a certain novelty in finally getting a Dinobot combiner. I think the concept worked better than the execution, though. PoCoCo's helped to define contemporary Transformers combiners as being a floppy mess. Combiner Wars does it so much better.
> For me, these are definitely G1 toys -- not because there is anything
> inherently G1 about them, but because G1 is really the only continuity that
> counts.
Zob
banzait...@gmail.com
Mar 1, 2015, 10:31:33 AM3/1/15
to
I get really emotional when people bash the PCC toys. Pretty much everyone hates them, and I will concede that many of them combine into a "floppy mess". With that said, these are some of the most original toys Hasbro has put out in some time. As much as we all love the combiner wars, it's really just a very well executed reissue. It's almost as if they have fired most of their creative staff, and our pulling things out of the G1 archives. PLEASE don't get me wrong, I am 100% on-board with the generations line, but I do sometimes miss the brand new concepts.
In defense of the PPC line, here are a few reasons why we should all love them:
1.) Drone concept. No need to memorize countless insignificant figures names. It's also quite unique to the Transformers line. Even Brunt and Scamper were sentient beings.
2.) Undertow. To quote Kanye West... "This is one of the greatest transformers of ALL TIME!!!" http://www.tfu.info/2011/Decepticon/Undertow/undertow.htm
3.) Clear colored plastic. I LOVE IT!!! GIMME MORE!!!!
4.) Targetmasters.
5.) Snap on limbs, no transformation / accessories required. Sure, some of them snap right off, but this can be fixed if you are really so inclined.
6.) This guy: http://www.tfu.info/2010/Decepticon/Crankcase/crankcase.htm
OK OK, I will get off my soapbox. But I really wish people would give these toys a second look.#PCC4LIFE
-Banzaitron
In defense of the PPC line, here are a few reasons why we should all love them:
1.) Drone concept. No need to memorize countless insignificant figures names. It's also quite unique to the Transformers line. Even Brunt and Scamper were sentient beings.
2.) Undertow. To quote Kanye West... "This is one of the greatest transformers of ALL TIME!!!" http://www.tfu.info/2011/Decepticon/Undertow/undertow.htm
3.) Clear colored plastic. I LOVE IT!!! GIMME MORE!!!!
4.) Targetmasters.
5.) Snap on limbs, no transformation / accessories required. Sure, some of them snap right off, but this can be fixed if you are really so inclined.
6.) This guy: http://www.tfu.info/2010/Decepticon/Crankcase/crankcase.htm
OK OK, I will get off my soapbox. But I really wish people would give these toys a second look.#PCC4LIFE
-Banzaitron
Gustavo Wombat
Mar 1, 2015, 3:16:42 PM3/1/15
to
<banzait...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I get really emotional when people bash the PCC toys. Pretty much
> everyone hates them, and I will concede that many of them combine into a "floppy mess".
I really want to like them. And I think that across the line there are
> I get really emotional when people bash the PCC toys. Pretty much
> everyone hates them, and I will concede that many of them combine into a "floppy mess".
probably a few excellent sets -- possibly created from other sets.
And that's one of the nice parts of interchangeable limbs -- some are going
to be better than others, so you can mix and match.
>With that said, these are some of the most original toys Hasbro has put
> out in some time. As much as we all love the combiner wars, it's really
> just a very well executed reissue. It's almost as if they have fired
> most of their creative staff, and our pulling things out of the G1
> archives. PLEASE don't get me wrong, I am 100% on-board with the
> generations line, but I do sometimes miss the brand new concepts.
transformations, etc. Thunderhoof!
> In defense of the PPC line, here are a few reasons why we should all love them:
>
> 1.) Drone concept. No need to memorize countless insignificant figures
> names. It's also quite unique to the Transformers line. Even Brunt and
> Scamper were sentient beings.
by the main robot at all times, are they AIs, are they basically trained
animals? Are the minicons more sentient?
I really like the Huffer/Crankcase mold and the Smolder/Stakeout mold. I'm
torn on which I like better of each version of the mold -- Huffer isn't
very Huffer, Crankcase is too close to Nemesis without getting there,
Smolder is an evil emergency vehicle, Stakeout actually makes the blue nubs
fit in.
Smolder comes with Chopster, which is just an awesome name for an
Axemaster. And to give Stakeout a nice Axemaster that matches, you need to
dig up another toy and get Razorbeam.
Chopster is awesome.
--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.
Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.
Mar 3, 2015, 11:51:08 AM3/3/15
to
I love the pc core bots, but the drones suck, and the target master wannabe have really bad looking in every mode. The only close to ok looking weapon mode is Searchlight's search lights, and only when attached to Searchlight's vehicle mode in a manner I made up. even the combiner mode for core bots looks cool, but the limbs just turn it into a mess.
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