Just got these in from BBTS today and a few thoughts and pictures of the set:




GIANT Minicons?! OH NOES!!!!

 

Deep Dive

Vehicle Mode



Colour scheme - Excellent. The dark grey is realistic and shows off the backround sculpting well, while the red areas provide a great visual highlight. The metallic blue is subtle, but provides a very nice look of water around the sides of the vehicle and catches the eye well in the right light.
Molding detail - Extensive. Lots of rivets, armor plates, towers and other mechanical sculpting. I especially like how the shape of the con tower resembles the robot head.
Kibble - The robot head is visible, but integrated well enough into the con tower. There's also a 'V' shaped gap in the top that's a little distracting.
Articulation - Nothing intentional, but the thrusters can be tilted down 90 degrees using the robot elbows.
Gimmicks - Minicon connector on the underside of the vehicle beneath the tower. Top of the tower is a hardpoint Minicon attachment peg.
Stability - No problems; holds together tightly.

Transformation - Pretty simple, but I like how the legs involve a rotation step, rather than just splitting the front of the sub.

Robot Mode



Colour scheme - Some purple revealed on the thighs and linking the arms to the body, setting up a good break between all the grey. The red on the chest and visor draws the eye towards the center of the body nicely. I like the placement of the metallic blue details in this form as well.
Molding detail - Fists are visible on the arms in 'big shoulders' mode, but otherwise no new sculpting.
Articulation and Poseability - Toes, knees, hips, shoulders and elbows all have joints. The figure can take on some decent poses, although 'big shoulders' mode shifts the center of gravity up a lot and makes the toy more prone to tipping in some stances.
Alternate transformations - Although the arms are in proportion in 'big shoulders' mode, I prefer going with the longer arms and leaving off the ridiculously big shoulder pads.
Gimmicks - None.
Stability - No problems.

 

Longarm

Vehicle Mode



Colour scheme - Very nice. It's a Constructicon homage, with slightly brighter green and purple; the shades used are just about identical to Steamhammer from the Energon line. The green washes out the sculpting a little, but there are lots of paint details. The black, red and silver applications add a lot of character to the toy. My only complaint is that the manipulator arms could use some silver.
Molding detail - Great. Lots of panels, doors, windows and other bits, a number of which are painted.
Kibble - None.
Articulation - The base of each manipulator arm rotates 360 degrees, although they can bump into each other a little. The hook (loop, actually) has a 90 degrees pivot, while the claw arm has a 120 degree pivot. Wheels slide on smooth surfaces.
Gimmicks - Minicon connector on the underside of the vehicle beneath the base of the claw arm.
Stability - The rear third of the vehicle doesn't connect tightly to the middle third and rotating the 'loop' arm can disrupt the vehicle a little.

Transformation - Simple, but a scheme that I can't recall being used on a Minicon before. Marks for originality.

Robot Mode



Colour scheme - Some extra navy blue on the thighs and red on the eyes and face plate. The painted details from vehicle mode provide neat accents on the chest, knees and toes. The arms don't really connect very well to the rest of the body, given the lack of purple on the rest of the figure.
Molding detail - Other than the face, nothing new from vehicle mode. I think the huge kneepads look awkward though.
Articulation and Poseability - Knees, hips, shoulders, arms have joints. One of the transformation joints can be used as a rough waist swivel. The right arm looks like it should have an elbow, but doesn't.
Gimmicks - None.
Stability - The chest halves don't clip together tightly and can be disrupted when moving the left arm or using the 'waist swivel'.

 

Overcast

Vehicle Mode



Colour scheme - Looks good. Could use a few more silver applications on the jet engines, but the navy, purple and silver work well together.
Molding detail - Great. Lots of panels, details on the jet engines and cut lines on the wings. Even the missiles have some nice sculpting.
Kibble - The top of the robot head and feet are visible, as they're a different colour than the rest of the plane, but it's not too bad.
Articulation - None.
Gimmicks - Minicon connector located on the underside of the cockpit. Much as I hate pressure-fired missiles, Overcast's launcher works quite well, firing a good couple of feet.
Stability - The launchers can come unclipped from beneath the wings, but it's not a frequent issue.

Transformation - Again, pretty simple and not a very creative or unique conversion scheme.

Robot Mode



Colour scheme - Some extra purple on the thighs and chest and a bit of red on the visor. Looks fairly good, but the arms could use some silver.
Molding detail - Not much change from the vehicle mode. Overcast is probably the robot mode I like the least of the three members of this team as there's a lot of vehicle kibble and it looks ungainly, particularly the legs and chest.
Articulation and Poseability - Toes, knees, hips, neck and shoulders have joints. The knees and chest kind of get in the way of each other and the arms can only take on so many positions, but it's still capable of a few dynamic stances.
Gimmicks - Launchers still function in this form.
Stability - No problems.
Alternate transformations - As shown, the legs can be left together with the toes down and Overcast can use a 'hover mode' reminiscent of BM Obsidian.

 

Overall

I really like this set. All three figures are solid and look great. The transformations aren't that special, for the most part, but that's a minor issue. I'd say...

Aesthetic (Vehicle Mode): Deep Dive > Longarm > Overcast
Aesthetic (Robot Mode): Longarm > Deep Dive > Overcast
Functionality: Deep Dive > Overcast > Longarm
Overall: Deep Dive > Longarm > Overcast

 

Cool, great review. I'm looking forward to these three.
Have you considered adding your thoughts to the main review section?

 

That's the plan, actually. Most of my time lately has been consumed with studying for my qualifying exams and I haven't really had the time to do complete, comprehensive reviews of anything for the articles section. These short ones for the 'feedback' section only take about 1/2 hour, so they were a good break from studying at the end of the day (I'm probably going to be taking some of the format of these over to my longer reviews, TBH). But, now that exams are done, I'm going to be returning to full reviews again (I get this feeling that, as a 'Content Guy', I should probably contribute some actual 'content' every so often   ).

 

Overcast's chest has a nice fiddly bit you've missed in your pictures: The nose folds down on a hinge - allowing you to flip the head up which you've done. But the other end of the hinge folds up so the nose is in front of the face and from there you can fold the nose cone down at the first hinge again to form the chest

 

these are great. my faves the submarine guy, the green guy is cool too, especially for the devastator homage.

i initially did not expect to like the plane guy, but even he's okay-ish.

but submarine dude rawks.

 

FINALLY found these little bastards this afternoon, and just got them out of the package. Minicons are fun anyway but these guys are golden IMO. Deep Dive is my favorite mainly because it so damn different from any other minicon with it's alt mode. Long arm is pretty cool too, I love the headsculpt and the poseability is good for a minicon. Overcast is my least favorite due to the wonky proportions, but it's still leaps and bounds ahead of first generation Minicons like Crosswise, Rook, Swindle etc.

I'm just giddy I finally have the new mold Minicons

solid A

 

Just got them 2 days ago, and I think they're golden, IMO they top what I consider one of the best teams--the Emergency team minicons. Plus, I forget to mention that this team is eevillllllllllllllll, so extra bonus points. 

Now all Hasbro has to do is release some beast minicons and I think they'll dethrone the Giant Planet minicons as my favorite molds to date....

 

yes, hasbro, beast minicons, please.

preferably some dinos and some pachyderms.

 

Saw them yesterday, but couldn't get myself to buy the set. I don't like Minicons who don't turn into weapons. IMO, all Minicons should be triplechangers.

 

As he stated.

 

Yup. Packaging and instructions got it wrong somehow. I love it (got it tonight), just as fun as LOC Jetfire.

 

This is a kick ass set. I hope the next set of new minicon molds are as good as or even better than these.. This get a solid A from me as well.

 

Those are so cool. Can't wait to find them. Deep Dive is awesome. One of the many mini-con designs I wish they'd saved for a bigger toy!

 

Picked them up and these are definitely my favorite minicons. Especially Deep-dive and the Jet. I too transformed the Jet wrong until I saw Remy's gallery, now he looks so much better! 

 

yeah a real submarine tf would indeed be killer, and I don't mean a sub that looks more like a shark than a sub  

 

Were these in the Cybertron cartoon?   
I've got up to episode 43 at cartoon network.com.I'm waiting to get Quickmix then watch the rest.