Deluxe Unicron

Height: Head height 15cm

Articulation: 18 points total plus three additional: Swivel head; 4 points each arm - double jointed shoulder, pre-elbow swivel, hinge elbow; swivel waist; 4 points each leg - ball joint hip, mid-thigh swivel, hinge knee, hinge ankle; Swivel plus hinge in cannon, ball jointed small gun.

Colors: Molded yellow, light grey, brown, dark grey, French Grey, clear red; Painted silver, blue, grey, brown, red, yellow.

Accessories: Missile, Cyber Planet Key (Decepticon)

Release Data: Released early third quarter 2006 in North America at a MSRP of $9.99. This item is currently available. (July 19th, 2006)

Gallery: 23 Images.

Author: ExVee


There was a time with Transformers when certain things were considered impossible to ever have as toys, or ever have again. At least, toys like the majority of other Transformers. Sure, there might be bits of merchandise here and there, PVC figurines, statues and the like, but not real, transforming toys. You just accepted the fact that you would never have a transforming Arcee toy, no more toys like Micromasters, no Generation 1 toys on US store shelves again, Megatron would never be a gun again, and perhaps most importantly, Unicron would never be a transforming toy. Hmmmm... looks like those predictions were a bit off. Not only have all those beliefs been or are about to be overturned, but in Unicron's case, we're up to three transforming toys now. Where the first two shared the same mold and transformed into the well known planet mode, the third Unicron is entirely original, and much smaller!


Vehicle Mode

Having been destroyed, Unicron's essence must start over from scratch and slowly rebuild its body. The stage of restoration we're treated to in this toy shows Unicron as what the package calls a "Destroyer Tank". One can't quite say exactly how big Unicron is supposed to be, toy scale not withstanding, but since most of the Deluxe and higher figures appear scaled around their driver compartments, one could assume that were a fictional appearance ever to occur, this body would tower over everyone else as the original Unicron toy towers over the other Transformers. The tank mode features many details of the previous planet shells, such as the forward facing claws/mandibles, the round mouth behind the seeming cockpit, and the outward facing spikes that appear almost identical to Unicron's previous wings. Plus the vehicle mode has gently curved panels that give a subtle impression of being a portion of a shperical body.

There's a good amount of surface detailing on the side panels, but it's actually a bit too regular for me. It would seem more fitting to give Unicron much more random detailing, and then to not have it mirrored on the opposite side panel. This is of course meant to be a kind of tank, and it has the features to go along with that idea. There's a pair of small treads in front, with onesub-wheel each. I don't think they quite reach far enough down since on a smooth, flat surface there's a clear scraping sound where it seems some of the molded robot detailing underneath is dragging across the table. There's a turret structure up top, but due to the engineering of the Cyber Key gimmick is fixed facing forward. To cope slightly with that, the main cannon itself can be turned a short distance to the figure's left, and an even shorter distance to the right. It's also hinged to elevate slightly. A much smaller gun on the opposite side is ball jointed and has a good freedom of movement. The head is half-hidden in this mode, and appears perhaps as a sensor of some kind. Or maybe Unicron has a satellite dish. Finally, there's a pair of large drive wheels in the back under a pair of rocket engines. The wheels make this more like a half-track than a full out tank, but it's sure armed enough no matter what you want to call it. The overall shape, plus those rocket engines, also could imply some intent as a hovering vehicle, or other form of flying tank.

In all, this is a very suitable choice of vehicle mode for Unicron. It's hard to decide where to go from planet, but this is probably one of the best options anyone could have come up with short of just having him transform into his own head on spider legs. Granted, that would have been fun in its own way... Still, this vehicle mode retains enough elements recognizable from Unicron's planetary body to be instantly recognizable, and look just plain mean enough to fit Unicron very well.


Robot Mode

Firstly, the transformation is rather... fiddly. There's a definite order in which everything ahs to be transformed, but many adjustments need to be made before and after each step in order to get things set up correctly for the next step. The important thing to remember is that the arms absolutely have to be transformed before the legs are locked down. It's not as bad as it may sound, and you pretty much figure out exactly what you need to do after going back and forth a couple times.

I would say the robotmode has fewer overall details that scream 'Unicron' than the vehicle mode. Instead, the robot mode has a few really major design elements to leave no question of the toy's identity. Most importantly is the head. The general shape is a complete match to any Unicron that's come before, but the coloring may be different, depending which previous representation you compare to. For reference, this toy basically adheres to the Armada coloring. A recolor in the Energon scheme could be interesting, though...  Anyway, the head has differences in detail from the others, actually appearing more like the Unicron head included with some shipments of the currently available Primus toy. Both feature a much more skull-like appearance in the face, as well as a darker coloring for the areas of grey. Some extra bits of paint to bring out this detailing would have been of great benefit, but missing them doesn't kill the toy. The head uses the clear red plastic found in the missile and a few other spots to allow the lightpiping effect. Unfortunately, the plastic seems slightly too dense to transmit the light very well, and the glow ends up being pretty weak. It's a shame, since what would be more fitting than Unicron's eyes having a bright red shine rather than a dull glow? Anyway, besides the "mouth" now in the middle of the torso, Unicron features the familiar shoulder design, the same that Megatron stole and calls "Unicron Armor" in Cybertron. My preferred line of thinking for that is that this represents Unicron after having gone and beat up Megatron and taken back his parts.

Otherwise, the robot mode features are not really specific to Unicron, but have that skinny, angular appearance that gives the general evil look quite proper for Unicron. The wing-spikes are removeable, and meant to be held as hand weapons. The packaging shows all four being used at once as sort of pincer weapons, but in practice I can't really get that to work. I suspect some kind of change occured before things got to final production, since the shorter spikes won't even fit under the hands as shown. Instead I just leave those attached to the legs and use the longer pieces by themselves. I've been told that some Unicrons have problem joint tolerances. For the most part this isn't a big deal since the majority of the joints are held togetehr with screws. It's a simple matter to tighten those up and you're set. The problem is the large ball joints in the hips. Even my example which turned out pretty well has somewhat loose hips. It can stand with them this way, but it's not the ideal strength. Fixing these is more difficult, and generally involves use of some glue or another. I don't really recommend doing that unless you're familiar with the techniques needed to not glue the joint together, but if you have a bad case, there's not a lot of options.


Cyber Key Power!

This is among the more unimpressive Key gimmicks I've seen, possibly equal with Hot Shot's Cyber Key powered spoiler. The worst part is that it compromises the whole design of the torso. The key slot is in the back, above the wheels, and it pushes forward a small three barrel gun and opens the "mouth" doors on the chest. The gimmick is unimpressive, and it results in the entire torso being one large, unchanged block that doesn't transform in the least. I accept that the internal space is a bit limited in a Deluxe size toy, but this is still pretty bad. A different gimmick could have resulted in a little better looking robot mode and maybe even less of a gimmick let down.


Accessories

The missile is your regular spring launched projectile. The cannon fires it with a good bit of force, and it looks okay left stored in the cannon. The Cyber Key is a standard Decepticon/Planet X key, and features the only Decepticon symbol to be found on this toy. The key code is dgt3, for whoever is interested. It can't be stored in the key slot without activating the gimmick, however.


Closing Remarks

Good chance this will be the last Unicron toy for a long while. The upcoming Classics line has its slots filled for the life of the line, and I figure it's a very low chance of Unicron being attached to the movie, even if just in toy form. This is a very good representation of Unicron in a completely new way, and you know how I love innovation in my toys. Just for the effort of designing a non-planet Unicron, I have to applaud Hasbro. That the execution turned out as well as it did is just reminder of how excellent modern Transformers are. This toy may be a little hard to find, but if you see one, I'd say go for it, even with the potential joint problems. Odds are yours will be good enough that it needs no repair at all. This isn't one to let slip by. Given the little issues here and there, I can't rightly give Unicron the Excellent rating I'd really like to, but I think it has no trouble qualifying for Very Good.


ExVeeBrawn, 07/19/2006