Some of the three-man groups from Armada (and all their subsequent redecos) had a third weapon mode as their gimmick. And I suppose you might also count the ones that had firing missiles as their gimmick.

 

I, however, will not.



Heavy Load (and Drill Bit) is (are) from a different time, when introducing new characters was as simple as just deciding to. Now when the incoherent crystal helicopter and friends show up, a big deal has to be made that they're visitors from the Rock Lords Pastiche Universe, but you won't actually learn anything about them. During Universe 2, though, which was also an anniversary line, Hasbro was just like "what do you mean you guys don't remember Heavy Load? You love Heavy Load!" and put him in the "classic series" with a full, and weirdly tragic bio, despite this just being an easy Cybertron repaint. I'm just going to pretend this is a Cybertron toy, because not talking about the design in the context of the Giant Planet is silly, and Quickmix is the worse deco anyway.



I'll get the little guy out of the way first. Drill Bit is also a redeco of Quickmix's buddy Stripmine, in Constructicon colors which is a tasteful enough nod. I also think his head kinda looks like G1 Scavenger but I doubt that was the intent when designing Stripmine as an Autobot in decidedly non-Constructicon colors. He's nicely sculpted all over but I particularly like the way his arms are all business, one with a Powerlinx peg and the other with the... drill bit. He makes the fairly rigid overall look work by having the legs and torso all similarly kind of long and straight. I feel like he kinda totters back and forth like an old wind-up robot to get places.



I think this is the only actual bona fide Minicon I own; the PCC buddies are kind of their own thing despite sharing the name, IMO. There are better Minicon alt modes, and worse ones. The orange is a great counterpart for the green, and I appreciate that it isn't the same green as Quickmix (Drill Bit is gangmolded with his partner's eyes/windows and his missile). The little pop-up sight is charming; the other arm has a little hook that pushes it up automatically when you brings the arms together. It's a cute transformation overall and there's sculpted detail aplenty. I'm willing to give this alt a little more of a pass because the entire Giant Planet thing is just being big stupid machinery like we have in the real world, it's not just some generic "Cybertronian" bullshit. The drill is almost assuredly also a cannon and this feels like a nice pairing with a cement mixer, maybe Drill Bit collects materials for Heavy Load to mix.



Of course, more broadly the Giant Planet toys specifically incorporate Minicons in a way the other Cybertron planets don't because it contributes to their theming-- having a little pack-in dude emphasizes the size of the main figures, who also have control stations for the Minicons to operate which emulates construction work. Though Cybertron was rife with Minicon packs, I've always thought that this specific idea was very elegant. In addition to that control station deal, Heavy Load can also just hold the drill mode as a gun if you want-- or maybe it's an in-scale hand drill.



But how about that Heavy Load guy, huh? Like his partner, and the rest of his (ancestral) Planet, he is also characterized by just being big and stupid simple. Cybertron really excels at not just grouping figures together around a theme, but actually translating that theme into both modes in a meaningful way. The construction guys feel bigger and heavier despite sharing the same size class structure as the other planets, and their theme and purpose is easily identifiable. This isn't a G1 Mixmaster hiding the drum, or the later ROTF Mixmaster fragmenting it, he's just lugging it around because that's his job. He's the cement guy.



If you haven't guessed it by now, the Cyber Key plug-in gimmick is the drum splitting to reveal a springloaded missile, which is operated with a separate button inside the drum. There's a lot of sculpted detail on that interior cannon that you'll only see about half the time. This whole arm has a lot of weird joints to accommodate the control station, the splitting drum, and the way it needs to fit into place for the alt mode, but this isn't really annoying because it looks about the same any way you pose it. It's just a big old cannon that gleefully takes the obvious route for what you do with the cement drum when it winds up on the arm. I like the look when it's closed up too, though, because frankly this guy looks like he could just club you to death with it if he wanted. He also comes with a simple blaster with some Powerlinx compatibility (combinable with Drill Bit if you want), which can be wielded normally, or pegged to his arm as seen here.



This figure's whole sculpt is really good, he's covered in pistons and hoses and wires and tubes and valves and all the stuff you'd see on big construction equipment just to keep the thing running. Cybertron was the king of asymmetrical sculpts and it works to great effect here. I like the head design a lot as well, it looks "heavy" but the face is thinner and more dynamic which almost makes it seem like he's wearing a helmet. The headset is a really genius addition that calls to mind the radios that equipment operators use, while still plausibly looking like just a bit of robot detailing at the same time. The colors are great on this figure too, I think this would have looked obnoxious in G1 Constructicon colors. The pale green and yellow, and the more orangey yellow for the lower half of the figure, feel appropriately constructionish without being just a bit much like Quickmix is to me. With the yellow "straps" on his chest and the legs being all yellow, it almost looks like he's wearing overalls which is very on brand.



I should also mention the "work mode", which is another little thing the Giant Planet guys had to really hammer the theme home. These are alternate robot modes that I guess convey the character is hunkering down for work instead of optimizing for combat. I'm pretty sure this mold has the simplest one, it's literally just sliding the hips up into the torso, which also raises the shoulders. This is part of the transformation to vehicle mode anyway so it barely counts, but I like it more than the regular look and I've already sprinkled in some pics of this above. He's pretty well-articulated overall, his non-drum arm is a gorilla arm but I couldn't care less considering, again, the theme of this lineup of characters. He has ankle tilts made of transparent plastic which is like a form of the trolley problem for your average TFW user these days.



Lightpiping! Pretty inoffensive back kibble as far as how much room it takes up, but it does irk me a little that these two pieces don't peg in anywhere and just kinda fold back and hang out.



Have another comment about asymmetric detailing, and very good sculpt work. This is only visible on the back of the robot or underneath the vehicle, you won't see it that often, but it's there, because you used to get a lot more for your money.



And here, finally, is the teamwork. I like this a lot, it's a very simple feature but it adds a lot of character. The little control box thing up there has an opening panel that kind of leaves it like the bucket at the end of a firetruck ladder, and the whole bucket thing is hinged, and that opening panel has two little hinged pegs on it. The whole thing is weird and there are about a dozen ways you can arrange it and I honestly don't see the utility in all of it, so I might have this set up wrong anyway. But it works. The point is Drill Bit gets to feel important. Also, note that scoring/dirt/whatever deco on the back of the drum. I miss when gradient decos like that were a lot more common.



Alt mode is, as expected, grotesque and brutish. The yellow is a lot more prominent compared to the green now, which works well with all the squared, chunky details. Silver smokestacks and fuel tanks are nice touches too, and the transparent orange cab is great. The front wheels being absurdly oversized compared to the rear ones is a perfect detail. The transformation is really simple overall for a figure of this size.



I'm not really sure what the whole nose thing is about, maybe it's supposed to be a winch? At a glance I couldn't find any analogues on real cement mixers, so it might just be some more freakish Giant Planet detail. More of that nice mud gradient deco on the front, and it's awesome that the transparent ankle tilts double as front lights.



Drill Bit can still man his post in this mode. If you want, you can also transform him and use the Powerlinx peg with a port in the control booth, though I'm not really sure what purpose that serves. Also note the angle of the Decepticon logo on the drum here-- the entire drum can fully rotate (on a ratchet) without removing it from its locked in position. Of course, you can use the myriad joints on that drum arm to remove it, which means...



Speaks for itself. Great gimmick, seamless incorporation of one idea across two modes-- you really don't see stuff like that anymore, it's just all 5mm ports and pegs. Very little in the way of gimmicks that manifest in unique and fitting ways depending on the mode. Some of Cybertron's Key gimmicks are pretty weak, but on the whole they're a great anchor around which to play with the concept of a Transformer. Also, nominally his little gun becomes some tubing or a bumper on the back, but it can also peg into the roof as seen here to amp up the attack mode.



I like this pair a whole lot. They're simple, but there's a clear conceptual purpose behind that. A specific idea was being explored on the Giant Planet, and on each of the other planets in the Cybertron line. There really is no sense anymore of how modes inform each other or are informed by a certain aesthetic, it's all just media accuracy all the time. Good for people who like that, but it does mean that's the only influence on figures anymore. There's nothing left like the designers just sitting down and going "how do we design construction workers as transforming robots?" anymore. But hey, whenever G1 Quickmix gets a shrimpy new deluxe I'm sure Heavy Load will be his redeco (with Drill Bit and some random other Minicon as the Targetmaster redecos) in another multiversal time warp singularity supermassive black hole end of the universe 4-pack at Target, and then both versions can haunt eBay for $30 forever.

 

Great write up and a worthwhile addition to this ancient thread. I skipped this pair back then because I think we took stuff like this for granted. I kind of miss this era now. We get fan service now, but the figures of that era were truly well done IMO. Even the made up repaints which tended to outshine their base molds.

 

Huh, never noticed that his head is just that of a Jesta from Gundam Unicorn: RGM-96X Jesta

 

Its so funny you tagged me in this, i just got Cybertron Quickmix (wanted the autobot version) last month