Phil's
Armada & Energon Rollout,
Energon Ultra Magnus Knockout,
Micron Legend Magnus
and
Botcon Apelinq
Review

Overload & Rollout has an odd relationship with the UK - he's one of the few toys that was definitely released over here that almost no-one has seen. The only place that ever seemed to have them was Woolworths for a few brief weeks in 2003 when they had an offer on. I'm not sure I know anyone who saw more than one. The UK release differs from the US version in that it's packaged in the earlier Armada box rather than the Powerlinx battles packaging seen in the US. I *believe* he shipped in a case with Skywarp, but I'm not 100% sure as Hasbro UK was doing a lot of one character Voyager cases at the time (a sure fire line killer) and Skywarp - who I think sold with him, I know I bought them on the same day from the Abingdon Woolworths - was seen solid cased being clearanced at the Entertainer.

Any references to Optimus Prime and Jetfire refer to the Armada versions.

Rollout

Overload's Minicon, Rollout, forms a Truck Cab dwarfed by the massive trailer which he can tow. Rollout is a six wheeled cab - two at the front, four at the rear. Given the number of illustrated windows at the front his actual size would be quite large so heaven knows what that would make the size of Overload.

Rollout's prime roll is to form part of Overload - no other Minicon is so integral to their larger partner. Take Rollout, fold down the front of the truck, flip out the entire head mechanism, fold up the front and slot the minicon into Overload's chest cavity - triggering the G1 cartoon transforming sound - to form Overload's head and chest.

He also has a robot mode: (TF from vehicle) Fold the underside of the rear down to form legs, pull the trailer hitch up slightly and fold the halves of the top of the rear out to the sides and forward to form arms. Fold the trailer hitch down to become the back. Fold up the smaller head from the back of the larger head.

The resulting robot - a very large minicon, probably bigger than most Spychangers - has shoulders that move fore and aft, and some turn outwards at the hips. He's also got a base to command !

Here all the colours are revealed with the majority of the body being bright red and the head, arms and guns on the front of the legs being grey.

TF to gun mode: If this isn't enough of an odd on for Prime take Rollout, convert to truck mode, turn over, and flip a pair of Gun Barrels out from the rear of the truck to convert Rollout into a double cannon which can be held by the trailer hitch.

So we have a truck minicon who's also a head and a target master which combines with a trailer to form a robot.

Energon Knock Out

Here's your colour change guide for them - it's an interesting guide to what bits of the originally same coloured toy were on what sprue together, and this has to be born in mind when making a repaint and changing the plastic colour: the majority of Rollout's body and Overload's shoulders goes from Red to White. Overload's waist, missile, gun/smokestack things and the blast panels at the end of the Magnus all go from Red to Black (I think we knew these bits were from the same sprue from the Burgundy used on the Japanese Overload [ http://kenkon.com/collection/act145/ ]). Overload and Rollout's heads, the inner forearms and hands, and upper legs all go from a Dark Grey to a Pale Grey - not the same as the Pale Grey as on the enclosed Space Team Minicons - and the black on the wheels, feet and arms stays the same.

The minicons does a sort of inner Magnus robot impersonation, but a little too much grey.

Minicon Gun mode doesn't really work too well in white.

Minicons are interchangeable between both versions - so you can have a Red chested Magnus or a White chested Overload. Feet are interchangeable too - Overload looks great with Magnus' boots on.

Released in the US this was an insanely hard to find limited run toy. So it came as quite a surprise when it was widely released in the UK. So widely that it got clearanced big time !

Costco Overload

This version takes Overload and repaints it yellow package with a repainted Optimus Prime. The yellow is a nice construction machinery colour and works well on this toy. Given that the Op it's packaged with resembles Clench, and that the 3rd part of this team - Jetfire - is recoloured as Astrotrain - it might of been nice if this set had been made Decepticon.

Crystal Magnus

A Japanese exclusive packaged with Final Battle Optimus Prime. The majority of the red and grey parts in this toy are molded in clear coloured plastic. I find it odd that certain bits - the trailer hitch/gun handle - isn't. It looks nice but it's a very expensive set.

Ape-Linq

A convention exclusive with remolded giant robot head - looks like Optimus Primal. The red used here is much darker and the grey becomes closer to black apart from the robot arms and the guns which become white.

Email Philip