Ahhh, a nice big toy with Minicon compatibility and a new Minicon.
Menasor is - like the other Giant Planet vehicles - a bit of construction machinery. Like Metroplex he in no way resembles any earth construction vehicle. The vehicle is vaguely symmetrical - there are two large treads at the rear connected to the main body of the vehicle. These extend forward into 2 pieces of drilling machinery - each supported by their own tread and connected to the main body. His right drill is smaller and is surrounded by a claw while the left drill is much larger. When the vehicle rolls along the floor the left drill spins. The centre of the vehicle is a large cab like structure - there's something on the top of it to looking like the bridge of a Star Destroyer - and the front of the centre is covered by a shovel arrangement. There are 2 Minicon posts on the rear treads and supporting structure, and another near the front. On the right arm the post releases the claws and extends & turns the drill. The left arm has a slot for a key - purple giant planet with lots of cogs on it - which activates a drilling noise.
The toy is coloured mainly in sea green which looks rather nice. The rear treads are sort of beige plastic, some detail and the right drill is Olive Green and the claw & left drill are clear blue. A rather spiffy colour scheme. Now while the Vehicle is similar to Cybertron Metroplex's in that it's a futuristic giant construction vehicle here it feel more realistic as every bit of the vehicle is doing something - both front arms do different things. All of Metroplex's gimmickry was concentrated in his staff.
He comes with Minicon Heavy Load - see separate review.
Menasor has an alternate vehicle mode - his assault and pacification configuration. Pull the green front sections out of the beige rear ones and raise them up to the sides, rotating the drill housing so the tops with their Minicon posts are still on top. Open up the shovel at the front of Menasor. Take Heavy Load and fold the shovel over his cab so it's level with the truck bed. Slide Heavy load into the gap in Menasor's shovel - there's a slot on either side of Menasor's shovel for 2 bits of plastic sticking out of Heavy Load's truck bed to slip into. Unfortunately getting Heavy load into both of them is a chore as the truck bed is slightly unstable.
To form Menasor's work mode (starting from his vehicle mode) detach the rear treads from the front drill arms and bend them back so the treads are at 90 degrees to the plane the vehicle is in and there's a V shaped bit of leg pointing up from the vehicle. Pull the drill arms to the side, open the shovel up, and bend the halves back to form his wings. Stand him on his rear treads and pose the arm.
Like Metroplex the work mode is essentially a shorter version of the main robot mode - here called the battle mode.
From the work mode unlock the hips from the sides of the waist, fold down under the waist and lock together. Spread the legs apart slightly, rotate at the thigh and straighten at the knee and ankle. Now while this mode gives the robot knees it does present a problem - the Minicon posts from the back of the vehicle are now on the inside of the leg which makes it difficult for him to stand up straight with his legs together. The robot doesn't have hands as such - the arms end in the drill and drill/claw. Maybe wouldn't have taken too much work to make the drills removable with hands underneath ? The robot's articulation is very good: he has joints at the wrists as would be, elbow, bicep, shoulders - fore & aft as well as out to the sides, his neck, hips - as per the shoulders, thigh, knee (reversed on Work mode), and fore & aft at the ankle.
The head for the toy is sort of an arrow pointing down with a crest where the shaft would be. The centre of the crest and the eyes are a blue plastic lightpipe - bonus marks as this is an easy and effective gimmick.
Effectively the only 2 usable hard points on the robot are the wrists since the rear vehicle ones are now inside the legs. This is a bit of a downer but at least the 2 remaining ones are located in a decent position. Right drill and claw can be extended, and there's a wheel on the top of the left arm to spin that drill. The wheel looks like it should power a Minicon cog gimmick when rolling along the floor but sadly it doesn't. Would have been a nice bonus for very little extra work.
The robot's chest is very similar to Energon Skorponok's in that it's shaped like a cab. In vehicle mode this is under the toy but I'm sure they'll be a few ingenious fan modes with the cab on top of the vehicle - I've found a couple today. The chest actually opens up to reveal a cavity which Heavy Load can slip into - is he in fact controlling the larger robot ? The chest is cast from the clear blue plastic - but heavily painted - however Heavy Load can see out. There's a pair of spikes on the chest - these may be guns for Heavy Load to fire.
So..... I sense Menasor may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially those who like their alt modes to be recognisable. In his defence here you can see a purpose to his alt mode. There's a couple of good gimmicks, and his Minicon partner is one of the better integrated ones working with a vehicle mode and the robot modes. I like him, he's appealing to me on a number of levels. Although I can see some room for improvements here and there - removable drills, Minicon points on the outside of the robot legs - the playability of the toy, it's integration with it's partner - especially the robot mode chest cabin - and it's very attractive and detailed colour scheme make me like it a lot. A good fun toy in my opinion.
Menasor was not sold in Galaxy Force in Japan despite appearing in the cartoon.