Phil's
Armada Dualor,
Micron Legend Duster,
Galaxy Force Zapmap
and
Cybertron Ascentor
Review


Dualor

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.

Dualor is a little at odds with his team mates both of whom could be seen to be Construction machinery. Dualor is a tank, with a rotating turret on which are mounted a pair of gun barrels that reciprocate as the Dualor's gimmick is powered, Remarkably the turret which they're mounted on can rotate without affecting the gimmick. Points for Hasbro here. The tank is mainly grey with yellow gun barrels, robot feet, upper legs and waist/minicon socket.

He has one Minicon socket underneath the toy which enables it to be mounted on a character's or shoulder and used as a dual cannon. Yup, that's the sort of thing we want, more of that please.

TF: Turn the tank so the gun barrels face out over the shorter side of the tank. Pull down the front of the tank and fold the "feet" out. Fold the sides of the treads at the turret end out as arms.

Alternately you may wish to turn the robot's waist round to give a more socially acceptable waist piece and to turn the feet into heel spurs. Your choice.

Either way the robot's got joints at the hips & shoulders and a turning waist and head. He's the only member of the team with two normal arms with his weapon being carried on his back

Overall: Once again 2 decent modes, good gimmick, and great as an add on weapon. The Destruction team do some good box ticking.

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 !

Dualor is a Twin Cannon tank - a bit like Stryka - and has exactly the same reciprocating barrel gimmick, this time driven (like all the team) by a rubber wheel on his underside. The barrels don't have any elevation, though the Turret they're mounted on does swivel 360 degrees. Stick him on one end with the turret as his back, pull the legs down, flip out some feet and flip the arms up there's the Robot on the instruction, but I'd rotate him at the waist too to hide the Minicon socket on his pelvis (why do the cons have the sockets and robots pegs - is there some Mail/Female imagery going on and what does this say for Grindor ?) and give him solid lower legs. His head turns as well as the waist. The gearing for the gimmick is exposed in the cheat. "

In Japan Dualor is know as Duster 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 Dualor

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. These colour changes - especially the modifications to Drillbit - give the team a more unified feel to them and help bring out the military aspect in Dualor.

Dimension-X Duster

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) This results in Duster having a very off orange look to his tank mode - far too bright to be desert camouflage !

As with the other three first release Dimension-X sets these are quite hard to find.


White Duster

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 Duster

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. Green paint highlights are added.

Again another Military looking theme which suits Duster, but leaves Wheel looking odd because of the colours of one toy being mirrored on the other.


Space Galaxy Duster

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 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 Zapmap

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. Although Zapmap's form doesn't match the construction theme of his two colleagues and Megalo Convoy the colours perfectly match giving a complimentary feel to team & larger toy that is shared by few other Minicon teams (see also Dimension-X Air Military & Skywarp and Dimension-X Sea and Shockwave)

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


Cybertron Ascentor

The Destruction Team return as releases in Wave 2 of the Cybertron Minicon VS packs. Ascentor is an Autobot paired with Payload - a dark blue Decepticon repaint of Ransack 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.

Ascentor is effectively an inverse repaint of Dualor - Yellow becomes black and grey becomes yellow.

An attractive if inauthentic looking repaint.

My original Cybertron Minicon Wave 2 review agrees: "Ascentor is essentially an inverse Dualor. Looks good, though it easy to loose the detail in a bright yellow head on the robot."


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