Classic Mini-cons wave 2: Predator Attack, Dirt Digger, and Clear Skys teams

"Predator Attack Team"

Snarl: Beast mode is a nice looking tiger sculpt, but has almost zero articulation. His jaw can open and his tail moves, but that's it. Bot mode can swing arms (If you want to call them arms) and he has a waist swivel. Pretty quirky figure, but hard to balance. He'll be staying in tiger mode.

Overbite: Very cool looking wolf. In beast mode he has waist articulation, hind leg movement, and tail movement. Bot mode has knees, leg movement, waist swivel, and arm movement. Pretty nice figure.

Dreadwing: Beast bird mode has a huge wing-span for a mini-con. He can rotate wing tips and move legs. Bot mode is very quirky. Has arm movement, and leg movement. The robot head is too loose and likes to flip backwards to the wrong position. Still I think this is my fav of these beasts.

"Dirt Digger Team"

Dirt Rocket: Very cool motorcycle mode. He has arm movement, and leg movement. Too bad they forgot to give him feet. This guy can't stand upright worth a crap. Bot mode gets an "F" grade.

Oil Slick: I love the vehicle mode, kind of reminds me of the Dukes of Hazard car. Bot mode looks cool, and I love the flip out saw and grappler. He has arm and leg articulation. Sadly, he also is very hard to balance. This seems to be a running theme for Classics mini-cons...

Grindor: This guy just flat-out rocks! Vehicle mode looks very cool. A black 4X4 / monster truck with nice green flame details. The transformation is very inventive and he has leg and arm movement. On the packaging they forgot to flip out his head, which is actually a pretty cool sculpted head. One of my fav mini-cons ever, and definitely the clear cut winner of wave 2.

"Clear Skys Team"

Nightscream: Dragon mode is very nicely sculpted and reminds me of something out of a Spyro videogame. Has moving jaw, tail, and wings. Bot mode is very strange looking, but at least he can stand up and balance. He has arm, knee and leg movement.

Thunderwing: Very cool and solid jet mode, with wings you can fold in and out. The transformation is kind of neat, but the bot mode only ends up with arm movement, no leg movement. Still he looks pretty cool.

Steel Wing: Nice bomber type aircraft. Interesting transformation, but legs like to pop off alot. He has some leg and arm articulation. Also has retractible fists which is kind of cool for a mini-con sized figure. Bot mode does kind of look like a stick figure wearing clown shoes, but I still like him.

Seems like most of these only have cool Alt modes. Grindor sounds awesome, though.

Grindor = <3

dude your on a roll!

waiting for the 2nd beast team. and the bike guy.

Just got these teams today.

I disagree about Dirt Rocket. He is not that hard to stand. Also if you spin his legs around opposite of the instructions, he balances a lot easier.

Tiger bot mode is horrid.

Dragon bot mode grows on you.

Oil Slick is hard to stand in bot mode (I agree on this one). But again a lot easier to stand if you reverse the legs from the instructions (just don't do the spin the waist step).

Steelwing is fantastic, and I was blown away that he had retractable fists with a tiny slide lever. Amazing. Love his transformation too. His face could have been painted better than just slapping on some black paint though. Can't see where his eyes were supposed to be.

Thunderwing is really cool. Not bothered by the lack of leg articulation on a Minicon. These days I am just glad if they can stand.

Favorites :

Grindor (by far and away the best Minicon ever).

Dreadwing (amazing bird mode and cool bot mode with good stability)

Steelwing (Fantastic transformation, and both modes are solid).

Found 'em today at Target...

Clear Skies Team

Steel Wind - Somewhat awkward name, but great figure in all modes and neat transformation. Clever inclusion of hands and glad to see he wasn't stuck with cheaty 'gunhands'.

Thunderwing - Nice jet, but I'd rather his thruster/robot head locked into place somehow. Articulation is limited and the arms are a bit odd-looking, but at least they added sculpted hands. Not terrible, but my least favorite of the team.

Nightscream - Excellent little Minicon. The flanks aren't entirely stable in beast mode, but the dragon has a lot of poseability and looks cool. I actually like the robot mode a lot, as it has good articulation and a unique aesthetic from the beast mode. The left arm is a little annoying. My favorite of the team.

Predator Attack Team - So, are they predators that attack things, or do they attack predators? Anyway...

Snarl - Decent beast mode, if mostly immobile (aside from the tail and 'leg-lifting action'), but this has to be the worst robot form in a long time. The 'head arm' isn't that bad, but he's immobile below the waist and has a big piece of tiger ass glued to his left shoulder. It's possible to turn one of the tiger legs down for a rough gripping claw, but there's no way that section looks even close to an actual arm. The gun in the mouth is a nice touch, but this is easily the worst member of the team and worst of this set of nine.

Overbite - Decent enough in both modes, although the arms are somewhat awkward to manuever in robot form. Nice aesthetic, but I'll probably leave him in beast mode to serve Classics Megatron as 'Ravage'.

Dreadwing - Excellent beast mode with a massive wingspan and great aesthetic all around; he's going to be spending most of his time perched on Classics Megatron's shoulder subbing for Laserbeak. The transformation is unique and actually gives a robot mode with decent poseability. My favorite of this team and this wave.

Dirt Digger Team

Dirt Rocket - Nice vehicle and interesting, if largely immobile robot mode. The figure's way too back-heavy to stand properly in robot form the way they have it transformed, so I agree with chuckcjc: Rotate the legs 180 degrees. This will bring the front wheel halves to the front of the shins and improve the weight distribution. Probably the worst of this team, but not due to any serious problems; the other two figures are just really good.

Grindor - Interesting, his face looks a little like C-Crumplezone. Anyway, the vehicle mode is great and I like the unique transformation. Robot mode is very nice with no real flaws. Doesn't look as good as Oil Sick, though.

Oil Slick - I love the car mode and the robot mode looks really bad-ass, especially the flip-out hands. My only complaint is that the figure tends to fall over in some poses due to the spaces in the heels. I like the aesthetic better than Grindor's, but the standing issue brings the two to about the same level.

I agree about Dirt Rocket - reverse his legs, and his instability goes away immediately. Not to mention that the placement of the sockets to his hip joints look like butt cheeks, and if you don't reverse his legs, he looks like Mel Brooks in Spaceballs...


"How come no one ever told me my ass was this big??"

I actually stumbled across these guys today while looking for skywarp in target. here's my quick thoughts:

this wave is definitely better overall than the first wave of minicons. the dirt digger team (great premise by the way...they dig up dirt on their foes) is aces all around. even the little bike guy, who DOES stand up with his feet pointing the way they're supposed to.

the clear sky team is neat, but nightscream is the ugliest robot mode I have seen in quite a while. horrible. I wish I didn't own him. I don't understand why or how the blue jet could have his legs be in the opposite direction as they are on the back of the package. I just really don't see how this could've happened.

and finally, the predator attack. love them, except, as said above, snarl's left arm sucks. it's the waist down part of the tiger. wtf. overall, though, I'd give the entire wave a 7.

I'm pretty sure that the helicopter mini-con from the first wave also had impossibly backwards legs on his packaging

Looks like they saved the better of the Minicon Teams for the second wave.

The Predator Attack Team is aestetically similar to the Dinobots though, so they aren't that visually great except for Dreadwing who looks really cool in both modes. Snarl and Overbite look pretty menacing in beast mode, but their robot mode, especially Snarl's tiger mode leaves a little to be desired.

The Clear Skies Team is honestly pretty strange with a Dragon in the mix...but while I thought Nightscream would be the weakest of the bunch, it was surprisingly fairly solid, especially in Dragon mode. The robot mode is skinny, but it held together better than I thought. Steel Wind is the weakest, since it had MASSIVE feet and has to bend it's knees backward to keep its weight centered enough to stand. I don't mind the turbine arms (I loved it with the Energon Aerialbot limbs) but it makes for very disproportionate, stubby arms. Thunderwing has a killer jet mode and a decent robot mode...it has some balancing issues as well, but not nearly as bad as Steel Wind

My favorite of the three has to be the Dirt Digger Team. I had to get out Armada Night beat (Sideswipe's Minicon for those who weren't into Armada) to show it what how a motorcycle minicon should look. Dirt Rocket's motorcycle mode just screams 'high gear' to me...very streamlines and solid. Actually it reminds me of one of those Micro Machines motorcycles from when I was a kid The robot mode definitely isn't without faults, the legs have balance issues, but other than that it's a decently articulated great looking Minicon. Grindor didn't appeal to me all that much in initial photos, but I was very wrong. Badass monster truck mode and a great robot mode with an AWESOME head sculpt. Reminds me of Cybertron Cumplezone. Definitelt fits the bruiser look. I'm renaming it gravedigger so it doesn't have such a retarded name. Oil Slick has a great car mode, and a VERY cool robot mode with the awesome addition of flip out weapon hands. It definitely had balance issues since it had thin feet (from front to back), but once you find the sweet spot it'll stay put

Overall, I have to say I was impressed. After the first wave of Classics Minicons I was pretty disappointed but knew I'd buy the second wave since I do love Minicons...they're collectable, and relatively cheap! The biggest flaw with most of these guys is their tendancy to fall over, but I was very happy to see some innovative transformations, as well as some alt modes we've never seen before.

I'll round out the second wave of minicon teams to a solid B

Check out Grimlock_13's Attempt at Funnies if you dare! (Updated 11/20/09 with Comic #532!!)