Pictorial Review: Power Core Combiners Wave Two 2-Packs

Continuing on from yesterday's foray into the world of the mighty minimen that are Power Core Combiners, may I present to the Block the second batch of the 2-pack toys:

Icepick...

...Leadfoot...

...and Sledge. Wait, what?

Starting from the far North, we have Icepick, the second of the backwards-name crew. Icepick's partner Chainclaw is a missile turret and unlike some of the other Minicons, Chainclaw looks right at home up there and actually adds to an already tight vehicle mode. Icepicks colours and very good and I never would have thought silver and white would work, even the painted windows look fine and that snowplough looks vicious like a 'con should. Overall, he's fun, detailed and compact.

Chainclaw (below): Don't let him use the CLAMPS!

Think about this for a second; Chainclaw has no chains and no claws, whereas Icepick has tank treads and massive rake-hands, that has to be the wrong way round, surely? Regardless, Icepick's yeti-like proportions work against that pin-head to give odd balance to a monstrous bot mode. I love how the white sections look like armour over the darker blue skeleton and the snowplough becomes skirt armour.

Chainclaw just pops up on his shoulder, but I defy anyone to make Icepick actually grip anything, bless his little chupmunk cheeks. Doesn't he look like he's gone blue by holding his breath too long?

Leadfoot, sans Minicon so you can actually see the vehicle mode. Yep, that engine-gun combo is a little on the large side and obscures a lovely little futuristic race-car. He reminds me a little of Beast Machines Mirage and also the 1970s. The black cockpit removes any embarrassing 'visible driver head' and the paint apps are numerous and multicoloured. Rather spiffing!

Pinpoint here (below) is an actual race-driver...or maybe an astronaut?

What just happened? Leadfoot just became a dork-faced, fat-handed twat! Ok, so he's not all that bad, in fact the foibles are rather endearing and he has nice lightpiping for such a little dude. His hands are MASSIVE, but I like how they used the exhaust pipes for his fingers, I just wish they'd not multi-jointed the toe flaps because he tends to fall forward a lot.

Pinpoint looks like a totally stupid gun, but that's not his fault. Leadfoot's hands only have a hole in the palm to hold him, so big-hands strikes again!

Sledge has a really stupid name and an excellent construction vehicle/mining machine mode. Throttler may only tenuously hang on the back there, but being a drill he at least makes sense. He also has a chest join which allows the drill to spin! The circular saw blade dealie and poseable digger scoop add a lot to Sledge in this mode, he's a pretty creative use of space.

 Throttler (below) has a great name and a Minicon port for a head, so...

...Who's laughing now?

But in his robot mode, Sledge shines! He has a grumpy face with an opening mouth shield, clawed monster feet and a chunky, well armoured appearance. The scoop-halves over his shoulders actually add to the overall look and he's got several ways to wield little Throttler:

 Underslung arm drill punch or chest-spike charge? Oh the decisions...

I really have no complaints about Sledge, he's a total winner.

But that is only half the story! It's time to COMBINE!

As you can see, the torso modes have stepped up their game. Ice-pick has a ridiculously wide stance, but his "grabbin' mah boobs" hand placement actually fills in the torso very cleverly. Shame the Chainclaw looks like crap in his armour mode. The combined mode head looks like an Ice Giant and as such I am scared to ridicule it.

Where's mah horse? 

Leadfoot has a superb torso mode, utterly obscured again by crappy Pinpoint. The shoulder pipes and flux-capacitor visor look superb and the shoulder wheels really keep the theme of the character strong.

Middle-age droop? 

Sledge is again the best all-rounder, Throttler makes fantastic armour and the proportions are nice. The over-shoulder scoop parts remind me of RID Grimlock which is no bad thing and I do like the front-of-leg treads a lot.

The armour mode is actually good??

Let's break it back down to component parts:

Icepick and Chainclaw:

Brass Monkeys

Great colours

Compact, tidy alt. mode

Possibly the best Minicon so far

Interesting bot mode

Brass Balls

Cowboy w/full pants stance in combined mode

Can't hold Chainclaw in his hands

Stupid name reversal.

Leadfoot and Pinpoint:

Slicks

Good paint apps and several of them

Pinpoint has a good bot mode and head sculpt

Characterful torso mode

Blow outs

Pinpoint is annoying in every other mode

Can't hold pinpoint properly in his huge mitts

Torso mode chest sags forwards

Stupid foot-flaps

Sledge and Throttler:

Driller Killer

Alt mode has good play value

Bot mode is solid and fun

Lots of options for Throttler

Throttler is actually really neat

Video Nasty

Visible robot head in alt. mode

Alt. mode could hold together a touch better

Throttler looks silly hanging off the scoop.

The Bottom Line:

Wave two definitely improves upon wave one and makes me wonder how rapidly the designers improved this concept. With a little more work and refinement, PCC could have been even better than it was and it will be interesting to see what design elements are carried forward from this quirky line.

-Mattersmasher