Pictorial Review: Power Core Combiners Wave One 2-Packs

Love them or hate them, the Power Core Combiner (PCC) line was at least a fun gimmick, combining Minicons, Targetmasters and Combiner teams all into one line. Seeing as these guys are only tiny, I thought I'd cram them all into one review; Presenting...

...Smoulder...

...Searchlight...

...and Huffer.

Smoulder is a Decepticon fire...ambulance? I guess he's some kind of rapid response fire rescue vehicle which is a hilariously ironic twist. On his roof you will see his partner Chopster in his vehicle weapon mode. It's pretty good looking considering how weird a see-through gun-axe is on top of a car, so we'll accept that this is a line for kids and think nothing more of it.

Searchlight is the first of the backwards-named duos of PCC, seeing as his Minicon Backwind is a...um...searchlight. I honestly think that they bungled this a few times and this is the most glaring example. Anyway, he's a Chinook-style helicopter with a very search-and-rescue feel befitting of an Autobot. Note the asymmetrical number of blades on both rotors - unnecessary, but interesting.

And this is little Backwind in his rescue-pod mode, which, as is unusually common, has a chaingun. Hmmm.

 Huffer is the easiest to identify; a little, solid, unpretentious truck. That looks like a rubber duck. And doesn't give a fu...anyway, he's simple and satisfying, like a cheese sandwich.

On the back there is Caliburst who totally looks like a gun. Surprise! He is a gun! He doesn't really sit right on the back of the truck, but he's not too bad. Huffer seems to totally ignore him, though.

Chopster is German. I don't know why, but he just looks kind of like a little Deutsch boiled sweet. He also has miniguns for hands and axe blades for shins; he may not have more than a camera lens for a face, but don't mock him in a language he understands.

Backwind is a dumpy monkey-man who blinds himself with his own kneecaps. If it wasn't for the hook-hand and the gun-fist I would laugh at him a bit more. What's quite creepy is that you can see his skeleton inside all that translucent green; he's both cute and frightening.

Back down to Earth with the no-nonsense Caliburst; His shoulders are up by his ears, but he's definitely more human-shaped than the rest and that MASSIVE cannon is actually ball-jointed to his arm, making him the only one of the three with a recognisable face and two working upper-limbs! Give him a biscuit TO DESTROY.

Smoulder has shoulders. That's the first thing. The second is that he has a cool samurai style hat on. He's actually quite nifty if you ignore the enormous pylons that tower above him on either side. He just about gets away with it due to some excellent articulation and a smashing colour scheme.

Seachlight has a creepy skull-like face and some seriously beefy fists. You can remove the rotors if they annoy you, but for me they've never got in the way. He's let down by teeny-tiny feet and the way the shoulder joints don't clip into anything.

Huffer is just a squat block, purposeful and hefty if uninspiring. His fists are encased in a vehicle chunk, but the paint helps you ignore that. All in all, he looks like a minibot who can stand alone without gimmickry.

Chopster finally lives up to his name by becoming a massive f**k-off axe! A battleaxe, no less! Against the odds, this big, crazy thing actually works and looks really neat! The only problem is that it's so big that poor old Smoulder wobbles over sideways. Sadly this idea was not followed up on through the line as most of the mini-men just turn into guns.

Backwind is just a total joke, being unwieldy and  not even having the good grace to be central to the arm. This thing's just nonsense! I usually use him as a chest-mounted gun/grabby arm unit instead.

Caliburst is only capable of being a gun, so he stays boring and predictable in this underslung cannon mode, but at least it's not in the way and it does look cool. He may as well not transform at all though, he's 30% gun already, why not just do this all the time and save the hassle?

Now it's time to SUPERSIZE! Smoulder is up first and...oh...man that must ache a bit! His combiner head is amazing and has a re-breather and stellar lightpiping. Sadly the high-rise shoulders just look uncomfortable, though they make him super-wide with it. Chopster becomes a spiky armour panel with double guns and...a wang. Sorry.

Fairing better this time is Searchlight, bendy legs non-withstanding; He looks burly and has a properly heroic chin. Backwind makes a surprisingly good chestplate, but bloody hell does this big guy like to topple over! Unless you pose him like a hunched Granddad, Searchlight ends up on his back.

And finally we have Huffer with Motormaster's evilly scheming head. Huffer looks a little small in this mode, but I do like how his legs expand out and broaden his stance a little. Caliburst's gear-teeth make a swish chest armour, but the gun on the shoulder sets it off nicely. He may be one-trick, but it's not a bad look.

And there ends my round-up of PCC Wave 1! The limbs are from the Mudslinger with Destructicons set (always makes me think of catfood: Felix with Chicken and Turkey) and so may not be best matched colour or style-wise with the base figures, but give them that leeway and I think they're all winners. Here's how it breaks down:

Smoulder with Chopster:


Smokin'!
Tongue-in-cheek alt. mode
Characterful robot
Excellent duality in weapon modes
Decent combiner head

Damp Squib
Shoulders are painful to look at
Smoulder doesn't balance too well
Armour mode wang


Searchlight with Backwind:

Dazzling
Clever helicopter mode
Appropriate minicon vehicle pod
Interesting transformation
Adorable mini-bot

Vagazzling
Really crap robot gun
Doesn't lock together too well
Combined mode is unbalanced


Huffer with Caliburst:


Sniffing with UHU
Solid vehicle and robot
Weapons work well in both modes
Clever transformation joints for Torso mode
Good Armour mode

Running on fumes:
Caliburst is boring
A little short in combined mode

The Bottom Line:
Rather than rate these, I'll just say that despite the bad press, PCC is a fun little line with characterful bots and a whole bunch of gimmicks all at once. The swap 'n' change gimmick is the best and some of the minicons work really well with other figures, have fun and play!

-Mattersmasher