Death's Head
08-09-11, 07:12 PM
Still unconvinced by the Powercore Combiners? Icepick might be the one that makes you give the line a second look. As with most of the two pack PCC figures, Icepick is a great little figure. He does come with some questionable features, but in the main he represents one of the best figures the range has seen so far. Even his Minicon Targetmaster partner Chainclaw isn’t awful. Why, it’s almost like there’s been some actual thought put into the toy!
Icepick is some kind of half track snow plough thing. It’s not massively convincing, but looks hefty and brutal enough to cope with arctic (or indeed Antarctic) terrain. It’s a nice, chunky effort and as with all the other PCC two packs, a suprising amount of effort has gone into the design, with the toy being awash with grills, rivets, panels and sundry other details. There’s also a nice selection of paint apps, with whites, yellows, silvers and blacks jostling nicely with the turquoise chasis. I know I bang on about this a lot, but it still annoys me that stuff like this shows that Hasbro are perfectly capable of churning out quality product, and it’s a shame this level of attention, detail and paintwork isn’t present across all the various product ranges.
In this mode, Chainclaw can plug in for extra offensive capabilities. As with Icepick, Chainclaw also has some nice detailing, and thanks to a few splashes of paint, which isn’t lost amongst the clear plastics. Chainclaw is also one of the rarest of things: A Minicon that isn’t total crap. His rocket launcher mode opens up to form a nice chunky little fellow with fantastic Cy-Killesque clawed arms. He’s not massively articulated - just some movement at the hips, knees and shoulders - which works in his favour, giving him a stability that many other Minicons fail to have. This is in fairness because he just turns into a box, which probably tells you all you need to know about how to successfully engineer a Transformer of this size. Speaking of engineering, rather than have those arms simply flap about in his alt mode, they will clip to two posts on either side of his knees, giving his alt mode a bit of extra rigidity. I’ve spared Chainclaw the indignity of his Armour Mode, which basically looks like Wile E. Coyote after he’s run into a wall.
Transforming Icepick is a simple, but satisfying affair. The arms swing out from the back of the vehicle mode. His legs drop down from the chasis. The shovel thingy folds up against the windshield and you stand him up. Job done. As a figure, he is as hefty looking and weighty as he is in vehicle mode. However, there are some elements which are just, ridiculous. The huge clawed arms would be better if there were a bit more to them. As it is, Icepick does unfortunately look like he’s been involved in a horrific accident that involved the removal of both arms and temporary replacement with a couple of garden rakes. That these preposterous appendages just sort of dangle about and don’t really do much also harms his overall appearance. On top of this, Icepick has the further embarrassment of having Krystal Carrington’s shoulder pads (a nice Dynasty reference for you there, not that I’m showing my age at all...). The best I could do to rescue him, was to pose him in a slightly dramatic fashion which puts those big grabby rake hands to best effect. Pretty cool, I thought, and instantly made me overlook any perceived flaws I had.
The torso mode is a bit wretched, to be honest. One day, the PCC line will throw up a figure that works successfully in all three modes. Until then, we’re stuck with odd looking compromises like this. The shoulders are two far out, and the waist/thighs just look a bit too much like a smaller robot’s legs folded about (which they are, but there are better ways to do this). The head is also a bit naff. Yes, there’s an attempt to tap into his overall ‘Icy’ design by giving him a head sculpt somewhere between Jack Frost and Iceman, but rendered in translucent blue it looks like someone’s just plugged a fairy light on top of his shoulders.
Ignoring the minor questionable design points, Icepick is a good solid little guy with a superb Minicon and pretty cheap to boot at the moment, so if you must buy only one PCC two pack, make it this one. It’s better than Huffer.
663664665666
Icepick is some kind of half track snow plough thing. It’s not massively convincing, but looks hefty and brutal enough to cope with arctic (or indeed Antarctic) terrain. It’s a nice, chunky effort and as with all the other PCC two packs, a suprising amount of effort has gone into the design, with the toy being awash with grills, rivets, panels and sundry other details. There’s also a nice selection of paint apps, with whites, yellows, silvers and blacks jostling nicely with the turquoise chasis. I know I bang on about this a lot, but it still annoys me that stuff like this shows that Hasbro are perfectly capable of churning out quality product, and it’s a shame this level of attention, detail and paintwork isn’t present across all the various product ranges.
In this mode, Chainclaw can plug in for extra offensive capabilities. As with Icepick, Chainclaw also has some nice detailing, and thanks to a few splashes of paint, which isn’t lost amongst the clear plastics. Chainclaw is also one of the rarest of things: A Minicon that isn’t total crap. His rocket launcher mode opens up to form a nice chunky little fellow with fantastic Cy-Killesque clawed arms. He’s not massively articulated - just some movement at the hips, knees and shoulders - which works in his favour, giving him a stability that many other Minicons fail to have. This is in fairness because he just turns into a box, which probably tells you all you need to know about how to successfully engineer a Transformer of this size. Speaking of engineering, rather than have those arms simply flap about in his alt mode, they will clip to two posts on either side of his knees, giving his alt mode a bit of extra rigidity. I’ve spared Chainclaw the indignity of his Armour Mode, which basically looks like Wile E. Coyote after he’s run into a wall.
Transforming Icepick is a simple, but satisfying affair. The arms swing out from the back of the vehicle mode. His legs drop down from the chasis. The shovel thingy folds up against the windshield and you stand him up. Job done. As a figure, he is as hefty looking and weighty as he is in vehicle mode. However, there are some elements which are just, ridiculous. The huge clawed arms would be better if there were a bit more to them. As it is, Icepick does unfortunately look like he’s been involved in a horrific accident that involved the removal of both arms and temporary replacement with a couple of garden rakes. That these preposterous appendages just sort of dangle about and don’t really do much also harms his overall appearance. On top of this, Icepick has the further embarrassment of having Krystal Carrington’s shoulder pads (a nice Dynasty reference for you there, not that I’m showing my age at all...). The best I could do to rescue him, was to pose him in a slightly dramatic fashion which puts those big grabby rake hands to best effect. Pretty cool, I thought, and instantly made me overlook any perceived flaws I had.
The torso mode is a bit wretched, to be honest. One day, the PCC line will throw up a figure that works successfully in all three modes. Until then, we’re stuck with odd looking compromises like this. The shoulders are two far out, and the waist/thighs just look a bit too much like a smaller robot’s legs folded about (which they are, but there are better ways to do this). The head is also a bit naff. Yes, there’s an attempt to tap into his overall ‘Icy’ design by giving him a head sculpt somewhere between Jack Frost and Iceman, but rendered in translucent blue it looks like someone’s just plugged a fairy light on top of his shoulders.
Ignoring the minor questionable design points, Icepick is a good solid little guy with a superb Minicon and pretty cheap to boot at the moment, so if you must buy only one PCC two pack, make it this one. It’s better than Huffer.
663664665666