Phil's
Armada Drillbit,
Micron Legend Crush,
Galaxy Force Gritbit
and
Cybertron Monocle Review


Drillbit

The Destruction team all involve moving parts powered by a gear arrangement. The vehicle can be rolled along on a flat surface using a small rubber wheel to power the gimmick causing movement. Alternately they can be clipped onto the underside of Cyclonus where an exposed gear wheel meshes with Cyclonus' blade mechanism to cause the parts to move when you use the trigger to turn Cyclonus' blades. The intention was that other toys should have this gimmick - Hoist obviously was planned to have it and I have my suspicions about Overload too. Incidentally after the Minicons peg & socket connectors and the clip under the jets for Swindle/Thunderclash this makes the third method of attaching a Minicon to a larger toy.

Drillbit is indeed as the name implies a drilling vehicle - not quite the drill tank that we're used to seeing. The cab - in orange as are the tracks and drill - is at the front of the vehicle with the drill behind it. The vehicle thus has to reverse to use the drill. The mechanism between cab and drill is grey with two yellow supports to either side.

He has one Minicon socket underneath the toy which enables it to be mounted on a character's forearm and used as a Drill. Megatron's a good toy to demonstrate this with and he can be paired nicely with Buzzsaw on the other arm.

TF: Fold the treads down under the vehicle as legs and fold the feet out. Fold the drill to one side as an arm and fold the exhaust pipe over the cab round to form the other. Swing round the cylinder on the cab roof to reveal the robot's face.

Like Buzzsaw we have a robot using his tracks for legs and with the mechanised gimmick forming one arm. The other is as I said above the exhaust pipe and looks tinsy like he's had his real arm chopped off ! He bends at ankle, hip & shoulder and his head turns.

Overall: 2 decent modes, good gimmick, great as an add on weapon.

From, the original Destruction Team review: "Onto the Destruction team - hehehe, moving parts. I've mounted them all on Megs in Robot mode - Today Megatron is modelling the latest in Minicon accessories and they all look great as added weapons - Dualor and Wreckage (from the Military team) as almost twin double barrelled cannons on each shoulder, Buzzsaw & Drill Bit on each wrist. You know looking at Drill Bit I'm suddenly struck by how much better Twin Twist would have been if his drills had revolved !

Drill Bit: What is the obsession with TF Drill stuff ? Gotta love em though and this is the first one for a few years (BWII Galvatron) Nice looking vehicle with a good variation in colour, orange Cab on one end and a drill on the other. The drill folds to one side of the cab, the exhaust to the other. There's a grey thing on the roof which revolves to form the head - hmm, seemed to have ended up with a robot on tracks here hehehe - fold the legs down and flip out the feet. 'rayyy ! We've got a robot with a drill for an arm :-) "

In Japan Drillbit is know as Crush who appears with the rest of the Destruction team in pack numbered MM-04, and also in giftset MS-04 with Sandstorm (Cyclonus).


Onto the repaints - the Destruction team are the Minicon repaint kings having more than any other team does without having a remould !


Road Wrecker Drillbit

The Road Wrecker team was for several years the only western repaint of the Destruction team. For this release yellow becomes light grey and the grey becomes green. The orange which is unique to Drillbit becomes green as well. These colour changes - especially the modifications to Drillbit - give the team a more unified almost military feel to them.

Dimension-X Crush

During Micron Legend limited edition repaints of the Minicon teams were released under the Dimension-X label but within the Micron Legend numbering system. The Dimension-X Destruction team are numbered MM-09. For this released grey becomes a copper colour and the yellow becomes a pale blue/green (the sort of colour copper goes when it oxidises) Crush's unique orange becomes a darker version of the green used elsewhere in the team, again helping to unify them somewhat. As with the other three first release Dimension-X sets these are quite hard to find.

White Crush

The White Destruction team were an exclusive to the "TF Station" affiliated stores and were given away during a promotion in the "Golden Week" holiday. All parts of this toy are cast in white plastic giving them a unique look. The intention was you would then paint the toy according to your own imagination & preferences.

Under Groove Crush

The Under Groove Destruction team members were give aways exclusive to the Ito Yokado store. Grey becomes a pale olive green and yellow becomes brown on this release. Blue paint highlights are added. The orange on Crush becomes a red pink. This works better than the colours scheme for Wheel.

Space Galaxy Crush

The Space Galaxy Destruction team were an exclusive to the Justco store where one of the team was packaged in with Supermode Convoy (Optimus Prime). So you needed to buy *three* of the Superbase Prime toy to own this team !

Grey becomes black and yellow & orange becomes grey for this release. So not only are they rare, they're also effectively a black variant which is always popular !

Good going Takara !


Megalo Gritbit

The Megalo Destruction team were also a TF Station exclusive, but issued in 2005 during Galaxy Force (Cybertron) to celebrate the release of Megalo Convoy (Metroplex). Grey becomes white, and yellow becomes blue with some red paint applications and black painted tracks. Gritbit's cab becomes blue. These colours perfectly match Megalo Convoy and the forms for these Minicons compliment him too so they make a perfect match for each other.

These are one of the few Japanese Minicon exclusives I've ever been tempted to try and collect.


Cybertron Monocle

The Destruction Team return as releases in Wave 2 of the Cybertron Minicon VS packs. Monocle is an Autobot paired with Scattorbrain - a dark grey/black Decepticon repaint of Iceberg from the Adventure team. Both Adventure and Destruction teams are referred to as Exploration Team on their members Bio sheets - I'll call them Decepticon Exploration team and Autobot Exploration Team.

Monocle's tracks & drill arm become a light grey with most of the rest of the toy cast in yellow giving it a construction feel. You get the feeling that if JCB made a piece of heavy duty drilling machinery this is what it would look like !.

Nice repaint.

From the Cybertron Minicon wave 2 review: "Monocle exchanges Drillbit's orange for a yellow.... and looks all the better because of it. It creates a look that's standardised across the entire team, and should go well with Cybertron Buzzsaw - I've not got him to hand, but it seems closeish to the colour used on his minicon Crumplezone. Sadly he's a Decepticon, these are Autobots and my GF Buzzsaw has his gear mounted the wrong way for it to be of use ! Having got hold of Buzzsaw when packing the Christmas decorations away I can tell you that they are indeed close, but scrutiny will tell them apart, "


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