Manic Ramblings and Delerious Ranting
re: Landmine, SkyHigh, Groundbreaker
12/14/96

  Just got these guys within the last week. My impressions:

LANDMINE:  Gods, this guy is skinny!  He's the slimmest of all the
Pretenders, I think.  Neither I nor my one Transformer buddy in my youth
got him, because we both thought he looked silly.  I've changed my mind,
now; I think he's pretty cool.  I love his vehicle mode!  It's just so... 
so...  *cute*.  The wheels don't roll very well, though, which is
annoying.  A rubber coating would help.  The joints on both of the
Landmines I got are very loose, and there's not much I can do about it
because of the way they're made.  The holes in his fists, the ones which
hold his gun, are on the sides of the fists, rather than the top.  I can't
imagine why they did it this way, but it means he can't hold his gun at
rest without smacking himself in the groin...  Shell, ordinary, pretty
boring.  In the comics (and on the prototypes from the catalogue) he had
blonde hair, and Waverider had brown, but the toys are reversed. 

SKYHIGH:  Just got him and Groundbreaker this morning.  SkyHigh has an
even worse case of bow legs than Iguanis does.  He doesn't have any knee
joints, and his head can't turn.  OTOH, his legs do fold up properly for
his helicopter mode, which is more than I could say for Splashdown,
Iguanis, and Bugly.  The 'copter mode is kinda neat, though he lacks a
tail fin -- I was expecting him to have one.  The blades, with huge scyths
on the end, are just awesome, definately the coolest of all the Pretender
weapons. Sky comes with another weapon, a arrow-head shaped thing that
looks very much like Tarantulus's grappling hook.  Anybody know if this is
supposed to be part of his vehicle form or not?  Shell: pretty cool for an
Autobot.  Has a giant eagle face on it, though it's hard to tell that that
is what it's supposed to be.  I wish they'd done it in green instead of
red.

GROUNDBREAKER:  Looks a lot like Bugly in robot mode, short and stout, but
his colors -- brown and beige -- are much nicer.  Head doesn't turn, no
knee joints, same as SkyHigh.  He's the only Pretender which actually
looks better in vehicle mode withOUT his weapon attached.  He's got a
nice, long "cockpit", much larger than the other Pretenders which usually
have cockpits that are too small (especially compared to their card art.)
Like Landmine, he doesn't roll very well.  Weapon isn't particularly cool,
though the shell's gun is awesome.  If you put one gun on top of him in
car mode, definately put the other one on as well.  Shell:  pretty cool,
orange with a giant tiger face on the front.  He's the only Pretender with
red hair.  :)  But my favorite 'bot shell is still Splashdown. 

   QUESTIONS for those who have these guys already:  Do any of SkyHigh's
weapons besides his 'copter blade attach to him in 'copter mode?
 
   And, does Groundbreaker come with any accessories besides a flat, light
beige double-barreled gun and a really big gun for the shell?