I never really understood the need for Minicons outside the Unicron Trilogy. But after reading Transformers Exodus and their term for what a Minicon is, I realized Minicons were basically always part of the Transformers universe. Headmaster Targetmaster Powermaster Micromaster Minicons So do you find your self referring to Hedmasters (and other master technology) as sub-factions within the Minicons race? Much like how The Autobots have sub-factions such as the Dinobots and Monsterbots? I catch myself doing that a lot now, I find it a whole lot simpler that way.
Well since Minicons expanded beyond Unicron, I considered Minicon as the term for any small bot that can be used to augment a bigger one. Then Retroactively encompassing the targetmasters etc.
The American ones wouldn't, but the superior Japanese ones probably would. That said, the Minicons in Exodus are clearly just that universe's cassettes. So would the G1 cassettes also count? What about other teensy TFs like the live-action Wheelie, Frenzy, and Scalpel?
That's probably why for me. I only saw the Japanese version of the 'Masters a few years ago so my only frame of reference for these figures since back when they first came out were the American cartoon and the US/UK comics. For me MicroMasters are a certain kind of small Transformer, 'Masters have little Nebulans or humans as the small 'robot', and Mini-Cons are small robots that power up normal Transformers. That's how it's been established for the majority of my TF life so that's just the norm for me. Dunno if I prefer the Japanese version of 'Masters or not so it's not enough to override my longtime exposure to how they were portayed in Western TF media.
Yeah I like the Japanese version of "master-tech" over the US version which way WAY too complicated LOL! It's much easer to envision a small robot wanting more power as opposed to two beings sharing one mind. But I think now Minicons are more than just "power-ups" for Transformers. They are also assist-bots (cassettes) and weapons (Powercore Combiners/Targetmasters).
I've been calling Micromasters, Mini-cons since Armada. The US Head/Target/Powermasters were Nebulons. They were organic and not from Cybertron so I don't count them as such. That doesn't mean that Mini-cons can't be Head/Target/Powermasters as there already have been some made. As far as Soundwave's minions, I dislike calling them Mini-cons retroactively. I prefer the Deployer term that has been also used. Even tho the Beast Machine Deployers were just big Targetmasters, they do fit in with how Soundwave used his tapebots.
^Agreed. Minicons are annoying little shits of robots, whereas Head/Target/Powermasters were Nebulans or humans, so they are totally different.
I considered them all minicons. when armada had minicons that transformed into headmasters,targetmasters,breastplates & so forth. micromasters became minicons. I like to enviosion in the fiction that they all come from planet micro headmasters minicons: sideways 2 minicons headmasters,energon omega supreme's headmaster minicon. Targetmaster minicons: there were so many in armada: megatrons,deluxe primes. breastplate TF victory minicons: tidalwaves minicon.
^ Yeah just my point, a lot of the new Minicons now do the same thing old school "mini-bots" did in the past. And outside of Godmasters & Headmasters J.R. they were all robots and not human like American's Master-Tech. I do aggree on the Soundwave comment though I can't help to call them Minicons by accident sometimes Even if you listen to the WTF@TFW podcast I heard some of the crew refer to some of the Headrobot customs as Minicon Headmasters etc. I thought it was just me for a while, now I see I'm not the only one doing it >_<
Here's my take on it. In the Armada comic, the Minicons were in settlements that were separate from the rest of the TFs. It was never explained where they came from. I just took it, that G1 Micromasters had crossed over to the Armada-verse (where they were branded Mini-cons) to escape some calamity from the TFs in G1-verse. The Armada TFs (Megatron, specifically) then started poking holes into them for their more enhanced / efficient power (the reason why G1 TFs downsized) to boost Armada TFs. Given this horror, many Minicons jumped back to the G1-verse, but their name stuck. Soon other small robots were blanketly called Minicons as a derogatory term. This is a more complex origin, that we won't see in current fiction, because it draws too much on the past, and it's much easier to "forget" the -masters, and explain to kids.
One question that has been answered thanks to Minicons. Is why do Transformers have cockpits on Cybertron? That's because Minicons ride in normal size Transformers as mentioned in the Exodus book, I didn't think of that as much of a spoiler lol! But yeah most time Transformers "look" like they have cockpits but truly it's just there for design, depending on what version of the character your looking at.
Technically, it said they had cockpits as a throwback to the old days when the Quints were in charge, and presumably rode around in them.
I learned of Micromasters after first being introduced to Mini-cons in Armada, so I just consider Mini-cons as more useful versions of Micromasters (since mini-cons can attach and power up Transformers with the powerlinx pegs whereas micromasters don't do diddily squat really). I also go for a "squares and rectangles" approach towards Mini-cons and *masters: All mini-cons are some kind of *master (mostly bonus powermasters to supercharge TF's) while not all *masters can be considered mini-cons.
In my personal little universe they're only 'Minicons' if they augment the abilities of larger TFs. Overall I just see them as Micromasters with a special ability.
I always thought that the Minicons were the small G1 Autobot figures. Example, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Brawn, Huffer, Gears, Windcharger, etc'. Are they considered Minicons, or are they called Minibots, or what?
Those are mini bots but that concept was never worked into the fiction. Toy wise they basically were Minicons lol!
