(JULY-2013) Armada Era Toys - Reviews and Favourites

[griffin]

Armada in 2002 was the beginning of a new era in Transformers, starting a long-term project from Hasbro, jointly with TakaraTomy in Japan.
It was a fully launched (or re-launching) of the brand, in all mediums - toys, cartoon, comic, and even a video game.
But with it came the era of the gimmick... in which each series that followed, had to focus on a binding element to sell it to the retailers (as well as the parents and kiddies).
For Armada, it was the Minicons, and the bonus features they would unlock in the bigger toys. With so many Minicons released during this series, and ever since, it is probably where the name of this series came from.

Details of this series can be read up here.


What are your Best and Worst toys of this Era?

What was your first one, and when?

What ones are you currently most looking for and why?

Show us some pics of your collection of the ones you have.

[millhouse]

Unicron.

Not only did it do a suitable job looking G1, but man, what a sweet toy! My cousin had one and I was jealous until I nabbed the Amazon version years later.

Awesome robot mode, reasonable planet mode, and just overall kickass.

[Lint]

What are your Best and Worst toys of this Era?

Best: Armada Demolishor - Simple, fun and respectable toon accuracy. A real Transformer.
Worst: Too much to choose from

What was your first one, and when?

Armada Sideways, probably about 4-5 years ago.

What ones are you currently most looking for and why?

Not actively seeking. However I'd love to check out Armada Starscream or Jetfire.

Show us some pics of your collection of the ones you have.

To come!


Overall I feel that Armada suffers unfairly from snowballing unpopularity for deciding to go with mostly new characters (I don't count G1 name borrowing), minicon gimmickry which seemed to copy the popular pokemon franchise at the time, the beginning of cost-cutting in materials and decos and post-humous stigma for being part of the Unicron Trilogy.

Poor/questionable design choices did hurt this line. For example Armada Wheeljack would have been one badass toy if he didn't have two gigantic sex toys masquerading as swords. Despite this I reckon toy engineering did generally improve in this era and there were some great minicon integrations such as Cyclonus. It is a real pity that minicon integration became a laughable affair post-Armada.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

What are your Best and Worst toys of this Era?

Super Con Optimus was sublime, as was Tidal Wave and I even had a soft spot for Thrust. I just love the way his minicon fits onto the back of his plane. A missile truck stashed on the back of a plane!?!? Crazy!

They FINALLY gave us a Unicron! Oh happy joy. That almost makes up for the Red Alerts (woo woo woo!)

What was your first one, and when?

Sideways. I've always loved the concept of the side-switching characters. Shame they didn't quite pull it off in the show. Can't remember when though...

What ones are you currently most looking for and why?

Hmm, not really looking for any more as such. I am looking forward to seeing them remade, ala Henkei Hotshot and Generations Starscream.

Show us some pics of your collection of the ones you have

D'oh. All boxed up and hidden away atm. I did have an old picture taken a while ago of my Minicons stashed precariously close to the edge of a shelf though. Oh how my wife hated that display!

[Trent]

This was the line that got me back into transformer collecting. I was walking through K-Mart when I spotted armada Starscream. Bought on the spot and still my favourite from that line. Super-pants Prime was cool in an unarticulated sort of way.

But as bad as this line could be *cough* Scavenger *cough*, it gave us Unicron. And he was decent!! He had articulation and could hold a few poses! And give you the finger with a flashing red hand! He alone makes the line memorable.

[GoktimusPrime]

Armada in 2002 was the beginning of a new era in Transformers, starting a long-term project from Hasbro, jointly with TakaraTomy in Japan.

Actually back then it was just Takara.

What are your Best and Worst toys of this Era?
Best = Shockwave
Worst = Scavenger

What was your first one, and when?
Smokescreen w/ Liftor and the Mini-Con Race Team.

What ones are you currently most looking for and why?
None.

Show us some pics of your collection of the ones you have.

[Deonasis]

What are your Best and Worst toys of this Era?
Best = Shockwave

Shockwave was Energon.


What are your Best and Worst toys of this Era?
I have not seen all the gimmicks but I imagine the amazement when Optimus's trailer automatically configures via INFRA RED!!! + his extra configurations with said trailer+Overload or Jetfire+Overload. Woah this toy was ambitious!
Best = Demolisher. I love the gritting face, show accuracy, transformation and his minicon interaction.
Worst = Smokescreen. The Happy Meal toy was too accurate for my comfort.

What was your first one, and when?
ML Megatron in 2009 I guess. He had a great look, heaps of interaction with mincons and a knife. After seeing how cool his 4 main paint variants looked online all together I decided to begin tracking them all down.

What ones are you currently most looking for and why?
The Armada mould I am most looking for is Lucky Draw Black Megatron. I guess the show toy I am most looking for is ML Starscream. Followed by any and all repaints of Demolisher, an Overload-Jetfire-Optimus, all Starsaber teams.. the list goes on but I am not in a position to buy any of them.

Show us some pics of your collection of the ones you have.
I only have ML Megatron, Galvatron, Megazarak and a Demolisher.

[Trent]

Shockwave was Energon.

The Tidal Wave mould was used as Shockwave by Takara.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Tidal_Wave_(Armada)#Armada

[griffin]

Yeah, but he used Hasbro names for all the rest, so if it was meant to be the JP version, he'd have put in the ML or JP prefix.

(the JP version is the nicer looking one though, with none of that "exorcist green vomit" on it)

[Lint]

The Tidal Wave mould was used as Shockwave by Takara.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Tidal_Wave_(Armada)#Armada

Japanese Tidal Wave (i.e Shockwave) has the toon-accurate deco and a much better colour scheme in general.