A Clickbaiting Mad Max: Fury Road Tie-in Review: Power Core Combiners Mudslinger and Destructicon Drones

Well, Mad Max: Fury Road is out on Blu-ray, and I liked it a lot. I think most people did. It's looking to be the best action movie of 2015, which is no mean feat. Did anyone think we'd be talking about a Mad Max film more than John Wick or Ant-Man? And that it would be both awesome and kinda feminist? No, we didn't. So, I thought I'd mark the event by finding the most Mad Max transformer I could, and review it. Your first thought would probably be the Junkions, but they are bikes and overtly comical. The Mad Max films can be funny, buts not their main selling point, and the setting favours 70's cars. Instead, I'm gonna look at Mudslinger and the Destructicon Drones, whom for reasons that shall become obvious almost immediately, are very Mad Max. But are they any good? Well, kinda, maybe, <indecisive noise>, not really.

The Destructicon Drones

Like I said, this set is very Mad Max. They are all road vehicles, often looking a bit random and salvaged. The colours are still a little bright, but if your average road warrior knew what paint was, these tones wouldn't be that much of a surprise. They all have Mini-Con posts, roll well, and two have decorative weapons. Unfortunately, as early drones, the limbs either have a tolerance issue, or don't look like limbs. Another thing to bear in mind is that the previous owner attempted to paint the blue PCC connectors black(1), and that hasn't worked.

The Armored Junker Drone is the one which best fits today's theme, being largely brown and gunmetal in colours, with a huge great ram on the front. It doesn't do much more than roll, but is completely inoffensive and quite cool to look at. This drone does look like something salvaged and weaponised at least twice. Leg mode is decent, but the foot doesn't secure that well.

I'm not immediately aware of any there being any big trucks with four rocket engines in the Mad Max canon, but if there isn't any, there damn well should be. The Armored Truck Drone is, again, a nice vehicle that fits the theme very well indeed, but doesn't do much beyond roll. Its leg mode isn't the most convincing one ever, and is the one most likely to cause trouble in combined mode due to tolerance issues.

Cast mainly in warboy white, the Dune Buggy Drone looks the part, if only for its flaming Decepticon badge. Its also one of the more ramshackle looking vehicles, with a detailed interior and a gun on top. I would have prefered brown to be the main colour, but its nice. The arm mode isn't brilliant though. While there is technically a wrist, the automorph is actually something of a shell former too. Most of the distinctive vehicle bits end up as a shoulder pad, with all the alleged arm bits springing out underneath.

Something of the odd one out, the Heavy Hauler Drone would have been great had it used the same colours as the Armored Junker. Whereas the Dune Buggy breaks up the white with other colours, this is very monochrome, and doesn't look that good even if we forget today's theme. On the plus side, it does have an articulated tow hook, a flip-up mini-con post, and some decorative bombs. The arm mode isn't brilliant, but as it features two big claws, it doesn't count as a negative in the context of the set.

Mudslinger

This guy has one obvious problem, the lime green, achieved via plastic and slightly mismatched paint. This colour doesn't fit the theme, and even if I wasn't looking for road warrior vehicles, I'd be commenting that Mudslinger and the Destructicons look like toys from two different sets. There's also the line wide problem with the PCC connectors being really obvious. That said, by himself, Mudslinger isn't bad, and a monster truck suits Mad Max like a cat suits the internet. This monster truck mode is quite nice, rolling very well and immediately provoking fantasies of crushing cars. There's lots in the way of engine gubbins and shock absorbers, highlighted either by paint or by use of plastic colours, although the lights were omitted. Things become less pleasing when you look at the back, seeing the PCC connectors, and a cavity where the robot bits are. The supercharger also forms the head, and once seen, it cannot be unseen. Play value is this form mainly comes from the aforementioned fantasies, although there is an off-centre mini-con post to round things off. There's not a great deal to be said about a mode that seeks only to be a truck, but it does enough.

Converting between forms has a shellforming element to it for the legs, and works best going from truck to robot mode. I find it fiddly going the other way, and getting things flush is an annoyance, although there is cleverness is using a mini-con post as part of the spine. Once in robot mode, we start to enter marmite territory, as Mudslinger has a very distinctive appearance. He has a big angry face, which wears the supercharger intake like a beret. He's proportioned like an ape, with the wheels increasing his apparent bulk further. The colours are also more varied, that green still being present, but much more broken up. Sadly, the lower legs are hollow, but that's as bad as he gets. Basically, the guy looks like an asskicker, but a clumsy one. His articulation adds to that impression, and at this point it becomes necessary to discuss the design flaw associated with this set. The thigh swivel is based around a peg that's too big for its slot, prompting reports of breakages, especially in combined mode. My example seems okay so far, but his not exactly nimble either. The arms have four joints, but are restricted at the shoulder. His legs also have a very tight universal hip, and a much lighter knee. The head is on a swivel, and he doesn't really have ankles. Total joint count is seventeen, but is not as good as it sounds, and like all PCC commanders, he doesn't have a hand weapon. As robot modes go, I've seen many worse, but this is unrefined.

Super Mode
The combined form of this set, not to put too fine a point on it, is as ugly as sin. Ugly can be a virtue, don't tell me it wasn't for the regular robot form, however this is a more generalised mess of a mode. The obvious problem is of course that lime green, but there's also birthing hips, with the aforementioned breakage problem, and an almost two dimensional appearance to the mode. All the mass in the torso is being used to make the toy seem wide, but not deep. This wasn't an uncommon design traitamongst PCC combiners, but its more noticeable here thanks to that almost luminous green. The head for its mode is also less than a looker. The designers seem to have wanted to go a new direction for the sculpt, something which worked for many of these toys, but I will always remember it described as an “ugly matrix”(2). The neck joint is at an angle too. His drone limbs are not a visual plus either, as mentioned. Functionally, this mode is middle of the line stuff. Articulation is typical, 14 points if you count the little extra in the dune buggy drone. There is a a total of six mini-con posts in variously useful places, with the torso notably having one on the back. Its not actually a bad mode, but design decisions don't really do it any favours.

Conclusion
A few weeks back, I did a review of one of the highlights of the Power Core Combiners. Today, I've reviewed inadvertently one of its more mediocre examples. Mudslinger is on his own a fairly decent scout, some distance from excellent, but interesting enough. He is after all a monster truck that transforms into a gorilla wearing an engine for a hat. That's worth at least a look. The Destructicon drones meanwhile represent altmodes of a style that are quite uncommon in the brand, not unique, but the road warrior well is not visited often. However, putting them together sadly demonstrates all the common complaints of PCC toys. Mismatched colours, ugly combined modes, design flaws; these are all present. Crankcase has merit in spite of the combining gimmick, not because of it, and this a real shame. This makes for a hard set to recommend, even under the auspices of a themed clickbait review. When Takaratomy got around to releasing it as Roadmaster, they gave it a much more unified and rusty colour scheme, only marred by the use of purple. I would be inclined to recommend that, but its not easily found, and the hips were not fixed. Mind you, if ugly, post-apocalyptic vehicles and monster trucks are your thing, there's something to enjoy here. I just wish it was shiny and chrome.

Foot notes

1. Which is completely understandable. BTW, hi Mike.
2. Although it could become Mecha Immortan Joe, if you were creatively inclined and felt like kitbashing.