[REVIEW] Dave's Powerlinx TF Rant: Deluxes

Dave's Transformers Armada Rant: Deluxe Powerlinx Set 1

     Powerlinx Thrust
     Powerlinx Hot Shot
     Cheetor

     I decided to pass on Powerlinx Cyclonus.  The bright green and dark gray
color scheme really didn't grab me.  I picked up the other three at three
different stores, and don't remember the exact prices (I think it was $8.76
at Wal-Mart for Thrust, $9.99 at TRU for Cheetor, $9.76 at Wal-Mart for Hot
Shot). 

     Here's my reviews of the originals:

     Thrust: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/Deluxe4
     Hot Shot: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/Deluxe1
     Cheetor: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Phase2/DTMet1

CAPSULES

     Powerlinx Thrust: Decent G1 Dirge colorscheme (a G1 Thrust scheme is
apparently coming), the backpack unit is a lot looser on this than on the
original.  Recommended if you don't have a Thrust mold, neutral if you
already do.  
     Powerlinx Hot Shot: Great color scheme, tighter joints, much better
remolded face and redesigned launcher gimmick.  Still has many of the mold's
problems, but is a big improvement.  Recommended even if you already have the
first Hot Shot.
     Cheetor: Okay recolor (would be better without the safety orange parts)
of Transmetal Cheetor, with remolded thrusters that are Powerlinx
hardpoints.  Cliffjumper (recolored Ransack) was a good choice, as it's one
of the few Mini-Cons who can connect to Cheetor's hardpoints.  Great mold
redone reasonably well.  Strongly recommended.  


RANTS

     Packaging: Standard Unicron Battles carding, each with sticker cards.
Cheetor obviously has new art, and Hot Shot also has new art due to his
remolded face.  Thrust's card has the old art recolored in the G1 Thrust red
and black.
     The co-sells on the back are for the other three in the set.  Thrust is
consistently shown in the red and black color scheme, suggesting that the
Dirge colors were a last minute change.  The others are pretty accurate,
allowing for weird lighting problems.


DECEPTICON: POWERLINX THRUST
MINI-CON: INFERNO

     The main color of this version is a dark tan, with dark gray stripes and
accents.  The leading edges of the wings and tail are silver, as is the VTOL
fan in the center.  The missiles, front nosewheel and the center of the robot
chest are dutch blue.  The cockpit (and its image on the robot's forehead) is
orange.  The robot face is white surrounded by dark gray, with yellow eyes.
The shoulders are white, as is most of Inferno.  Inferno's launcher is dark
gray, and his legs, shoulders and connector are blue.  Inferno's face is
painted blue, a bit sloppily.  The Decepticon symbols are applied carefully,
so that the lines between pieces aren't also painted in purple.
     The dark gray plastic doesn't seem to hold in as well as the green
plastic on the original.  The legs are a little floppy, and the backpack
(where Inferno sits in jet mode) pops off with almost no force.  The knee
launchers are still safety-linked and unremovable without the use of cutting
tools.  
     Essentially, the only real reason I picked this up was that the first
place I saw with Powerlinx Deluxes just had Thrust and Cyclonus.  I might get
the red recolor if it does end up coming out in this country and I see it in
the store.


AUTOBOT: POWERLINX HOT SHOT
MINI-CON: JOLT

     Or, as I think of him, Rod Shot.
     In a rough sense, Rod Shot is red where Hot Shot is yellow, and vice
versa, but not quite.  Rod Shot's spoiler is still the same yellow as Hot
Shot's, and with yellow hardpoints instead of red.  Rod Shot's hubcap
centers, upper elbow joints (which are red on Hot Shot) and upper legs are a
sparkly black (little metallic inclusions), and he has black paint on his
pelvis (the hubcap rims are gold).  Where Hot Shot is blue-gray, Rod Shot is
that sparkly black.  Rod Shot's taillights are silver, his face and forehead
are light gray (which is an error, the forehead is supposed to be red and may
be in later shipments), he has silver paint apps on his shins, bronze chest
straps, gold headlights, and yellow Hot Rod-style flames on his hood.  I am
told that early shipments had the old sloppy-style Autobot insignia, but mine
is nice and neat with clean yellow lines between the red parts.  The windoes
in car mode are the same metallic blue on both, and the engine mount and
front grille are silver.
     Jolt has sparkly black thighs and rotor, silver face, black windows, and
is otherwise yellow.  There is no paint on Jolt's shoulders, and no paint on
the sparkly black engineblock gun.
     Rod Shot has two significant remoldings.  The first is the head, which
has a new face and has the visor molded solid into it.  The new face has
smaller eyes, a narrower nose, a closed mouth and simple lines down from the
eyes instead of Hot Shot's weird ladder patterns.  The visor also has a notch
cut into the top.
     The other remold isn't as obvious.  On Hot Shot, pulling down the
hardpoint on his back caused the launcher to flip up and rotate around in a
single motion.  Now it only flips up, you have to pull the hardpoint down a
second time to get it to rotate and fire.  This is nice.
     Rod Shot still has somewhat limited posing in the arms, but the hips
hold a bit better than on my Hot Shot.
     It's worth noting that Hot Shot's yellow and red are slightly lighter
than Rod Shot's.  The difference in reds is more visible, especially if you
swap Jolts.  
     While careful examination shows that Rod Shot's plastic doesn't feel any
different than Hot Shot's, it looks a lot better.  Most of that is because
really light plastic looks bad with unpainted panel lines (something they
apparently recognized with Powerlinx Cyclonus, since they paint-washed his
lines). 
     This not only evokes Hot Rod, it's a better Hot Rod than the original
toy, in my opinion.  Definitely worth picking up.  And people seem to agree
with my assessment, given how many stores I went to that had the other
Powerlinx figures but not this one.


AUTOBOT: CHEETOR
MINI-CON: CLIFFJUMPER (Ransack recolor)

     Another chrome-less Transmetal repaint job.  This oen has a mostly
purple torso, legs mostly sparkly black and blue-gray, blue-gray tail, green
eyes with red slits.  There's red paint details on the back, orange on the
legs.  There's also some orange joint bits visible in the beast mode.  
     His side panels are sparkly black and the thruster arms that fold out
from them are blue-gray.  The thrusters themselves have been replaced by
orange hardpoints that can be pulled out and then spun to keep them from
going back in.  Only a Mini-Con with its connector at the rear of the vehicle
and facing rearward will work well on these, which pretty much limits it to
the Ransack mold (used for Cliffjumper) and Sky Blast.
     Robot mode is really marred by the decision to go with orange for the
accent color.  The orange upper arms/shoulders, orange face and splashes of
orange on the chest really look fugly against the purple, black and
blue-gray of the rest of the toy.
     Cliffjumper is almost all purple in vehicle mode (see review of Ransack:
http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Armada/MiniCon3), with black wheels and
spare tire, silver windows, orange headlights and hook, green spotlights.  In
robot mode, his shoulders. thighs and chest gears are orange, and his visor
is green.  At least on mine, the suspension springs on the front wheels are a
little better, and the toy can roll freely on the table without engaging the
gear wheel (unlike my Ransack, which can't).
     I'm tempted to do some paint detailing on Cheetor's beast face and turn
him into a Powercat (see http://www.k-state.edu).  }->
     It's a good mold, and aside from the orange bits they didn't really mess
it up.  Worth picking up if you didn't already have the original (or the Fox
Kids recolor, or the Ravage remold).

     Dave Van Domelen, notes Rod Shot's instructions still refer to Hot
Shot's mold.