General Information: Dead End Images:
Unicron Images:
Comparison images with screen captures from Transformers: The Movie:
Pictures for the sheer heck of it:
Kranix: "...my world was destroyed by Unicron." Okay, let's get this out of the way first. Oh my god! I'm reviewing UNICRON, people! UNICRON!!! By Primus' left toe, I can't believe it!!! This is so incredibly, undeniably, terribly AWESOME!!! *Ahem*
So it may come as a surprise to the uninitiated that this is the first time Unicron has ever taken on action figure form. It wasn't for the lack of trying. Back in the 80's, a Unicron prototype was developed for release on the scope of Fast forward to the late 90's, and Takara had developed a Unicron prototype that would have come out in that series, but it was thought that interest was not enough to justify the expenditure of making the toy.
Thank goodness someone finally said "Let's just make the big guy already!", and it took a joint effort between Takara and Hasbro known as "Armada" to get the job done. This Unicron was announced a while back, and you can see
Packaging:
The front of the box has a large cut away window, and is rectangular, not curved as much of the Armada line is. Unicron is positioned standing in robot mode, his arms out, one holding Dead End (his Mini-Con) in plantoid mode. The artwork on the Unicron packaging was done by Don Figueroa of Dreamwave Comics (and "War Within" fame). His dynamic style fits very well with the Dark God of the Transformers Universe.
He may be designed based on the original Unicron, but this Unicron is still part of the Armada line, and as such compatability with Mini-Cons is a must. In this case, Unicron has his very own Mini-Con: Dead End. Interesting note:
Planetoid Mode: Running down the sides of the planet are what appear to be small thrusters, presumably to help the little guy move on his own. He also has two yellow thrusters which may likely be his primary form of transportation. The front of Dead End is reminscent of Unicron himself. The top of the Mini-Con head (visible in this mode) looks like a circle (an open "mouth") and the horns on his head look similar to the claws that Unicron uses to grab at worlds. This is a nice piece of design continuity between the Mini-Con and its larger accompanying figure.
Dead End has a Powerlinx point at the center of the side opposite from the cannon. This is a regular Powerlinx point that can be attached to any Transformer. Also note that the side with his cannon swivels around, allowing you to aim the cannon Transformation to Robot Mode:
Robot Mode: While he does have some cool detailing on him including plenty of line cuts, he has no details for his fists, so you have to use your imagination a bit there. Dead End is cool, but that's not the main event - on to the big guy himself!
Robot Mode: If you count his horns, Unicron is a little over 16 inches (about 40 cm) tall and about 9.5 inches (about 24 cm) wide shoulder to shoulder. He is quite hefty when you pick him up, there is definitely a lot of bulk here, and you can feel the money you're paying. Unicron was designed with the original in mind, but also with some modern additions. The sculpt is rather extensive, so we'll just go from top to bottom:
Head: Press the gray button on the top of his head and Unicron's eyes light up red. They flash eight times before going dormant again. His head can turn despite being electronic, which was quite a relief!
Wings: The wings rest on fairly complicated hinges that hook into tabs in the space between Unicron's main body and his shoulders. They each splay out into two wing extensions, for a total of four wing extensions. These parts are light gray and extremely well detailed, choc full of tech detail and the familiar "circles" that were often shown as lights on the original Unicron's rings. Of course, you'll also notice a ton of Powerlinx points which he uses in planet mode, but can be used here too. There are twenty six of these on the ring altogether.
Arms: Unicron's hands bring back a feature last seen with Air Attack Optimus Primal: individually articulated fingers! Each finger (except for the thumb) bends at the knuckles and the middle of the finger! The hands can turn at the wrists allowing for some fantastic posing. His left hand is solid gray, but the right hand is translucent clear plastic. Why? Press the wrist in and the hand lights up! Like the eyes, the hand flashes red eight times and then goes dormant. This is meant to represent the great power Unicron derives from the Mini-Cons, and it looks really cool. Another thing to note, on each finger you'll find a semi-triangular detail sculpted on (but not painted), that's actually a detail that Unicron had in the movie!
Upper body: This section doesn't just hark back to the movie design, it also has functionality! Lower the waist plate a bit and you can open up the mid-body panel for a Mini-Con to attack from! The primary divergance from previous Unicron designs are the big claws on either side of his head. In the movie we are led to believe that the horns on Unicron's robot head form the claws in planet mode, but that really doesn't work out well in real toy physics, thus the claws on his upper body. Really, they add a detail that is needed, without them that area would be fairly empty looking. Instead, they are nice and detailed with silver paint that gives some nice highlighting effects on the sculpted details (something I'm a huge fan of). Unicron's upper body has three Powerlinx points. One is on his back. Plug in a Mini-Con and his chest panels open and the missile inside his chest comes flying out and his eyes light up. It's really quite dramatic and reveals a whole new set of details on this toy. In the center is of course the huge cannon that the missile fires out of, but this is no plain jane projectile. The yellow missile is surrounded by three gray pieces which are meant to spread apart when the missile launches, creating a dramatic "cluster bomb" type effect. The cannon inside the chest is impressive too, made in dark gray plastic with a dark metallic red trim on the edge. The inside of Unicron's chest is gold with blue and metallic red details such as missile racks and blasters painted in. Some tubes and wires also run through Unicron's chest mechanism, adding a whole new layer of detail to this form. Unicron also has one Powerlinx point on each shoulder. They are somewhat hidden since the front and back of the shoulders raise up a bit, but look over head or at an angle and you'll see them. Each of these Powerlinx points are on a circular, turning platform, but not all Mini-Cons are small enough to turn properly on them, so pick and choose who Unicron will enslave carefully!
Lower body: Unicron's legs are also designs right out of the movie, but with some additions thrown in for added play. His upper legs are orange and designed with the same downward angle slope as the original Unicron. They even have similar detailing in the center with lines extending out to the sides. The knees also borrow visually from the movie model. His knees have rectangular sections that extend outward, in this case the rectangle's center is painted purple. His lower legs are gray with purple details. Most of the tech detail has been added on since the original Unicron's lower legs were pretty flat on detail. Unicron's huge clawed feet serve a double purpose. They help give the figure a sturdy base to stand on, and they hark back to the design of the animated Unicron's feet, which actually protruded in four directions. No complaints here though, one big clawed foot is good enough for this fan!
On the side of each lower leg are missile launchers with Powerlinx points on them. Attach a Mini-Con to the Powerlinx points and push forward to launch three missiles at once. Also, the front panels on Unicron's legs swing open (manually) to In robot mode, Unicron has thirty eight points of articulation. That of course, includes the fingers and thumb, but subtract those points and you're still have quite a lot of articulation happening in the rest of body. This is particularly nice to see since the stereotype for large robots such as this is a supreme lack of posability. Unicron bucks that stereotype and does it well. Unicron's robot mode has fun play value, is huge and uses very classic design cues while giving the toy updated details and abilities. The robot mode is extremely well done, a true marvel of design. Transformation to Planet Mode:
Planet Mode:
What's like the movie design? The ring around Unicron also looks like the one from the movie. While the movie one was orange/gold, this ringis gray, which works out well as it contrasts against the orange, purple and silver colors of the main body. The details are definitely there including the "balls" which would light up in Transformers: The Movie when Unicron would feed on a world. The designers added two parts to the ring, rectangular shaped parts on each side that are positioned horizontally in this mode. Although I'm not sure as to the exact purpose of these parts they do look very cool, adding a layer of detail to the toy. Much of the designs on the translucent purple parts of Unicron are lifted straight out of the movie. There's an amazing amount of lines and designs in the clear plastic, which work together to form a very textured appearance. You'll find silver parts which come up at sharp curves as well, these details are very similar to designs on the movie Unicron in planet mode as well. Of course, we also have the spikes on Unicron to consider. Whereas the movie Unicron had the spikes on the sides of the planet, here they wind up on the top. I really don't see any problem with this at all. The details are still there, they look great and the sides of Unicron are taken up by the ring connections and play functions anyhow. While Hasbro is advertising Unicron as having the ability to hold twenty six Mini-Cons in this mode (on the ring), I think they're selling themselves short. Technically Unicron can hold twenty nine Mini-Cons in this mode. Aside from the rings, you can attach Minis to his missile launchers, which still function as they do in robot mode and he has one unique Powerlinx point above his mouth, where Dead End can connect to in his planet mode and act as a cannon for Unicron. Unfortunately, this is one flaw in this run of Unicron toys (which I hope will be rectified in the future). Dead End fits into the Powerlinx point, but he doesn't hold securely in place. Essentially he just drops in but can fall out easily. A bit of nail polish in the Powerlinx point might solve this problem, but it's one I hope is taken care of at the manufacture level.
Early pictures of Unicron placed him at angles where it would seem he was extremely flat on one side with little or no curvature beyond the top to the mouth. But in reality, he is only flat enough on the back to rest on his back. The robot feet curve enough so that he does look like a pretty respectable sphere. The ring helps add to the round appearance Unicron is a toy that Transformers fans have rooted for, begged for, petitioned for and wanted since 1986. Hasbro and Takara have responded with a toy that has fun play features, awesome posability and most of all, a design obviously meant to make old and new fans alike happy. If you buy only one Transformer this year - make it Unicron! If you buy more than one Transformer this year, make sure one of them is Unicron!
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Unicron was first introduced in Transformers: The Movie in 1986. This titanic Transformer was an actual planet that transformed into a huge robot that could tear apart armies of Transformers without much effort. The legend of Unicron would grow as the comic book stories made him a more epic villain, one which was the arch enemy of
