So, as of writing this it appears that TRU's are stocking the final PCC 2 pack waves and the usual clearance retails are stocking PCC wave 2 and on. Nothing new is planned and so PCC is quietly closing up shop.

 

I'll miss this line, as it had a lot of cool fan service peeps and a few really neat gimmicks. So let's get nostalgic for moment. What did PCC do right? What did it do wrong? What were your favorite PCC figures and what was a waste of cash.

I'll go:

 

The best parts of PCC were the two packs. Smolder with Chopster was awesome and all the wave two commanders were good. And Huffer was a lot of fun.

 

The wave 1 and 2 5 packs were mostly disasters. Bombshock was cool fan service, and I liked him a lot, but Skyburst, Double Clutch, and mudslinger were crap figs. I tossed the Rallybots leader in the trash myself and kept the drones for Huffer.

 

The Wave 3 repaints weren't much better as a lot of the 5 pack commanders were failures as two pack commanders. The 5 pack repaints had potential. It's a shame the repaint wave made it so hard to find wave 4, because the Dinobot and constructicon packs were cool but impossible to find.

 

The final 2 pack commanders were cool, but are only now showing up at retail in the states.

 

If they ever return to PCC I hope they use legend class transformers over spring loaded drones. Some of the drones were great, but some were really temperamental..

Doh.

What did they do right?

Some of the robots were cool

But I hate blue pegs

 

What did they do wrong?

I wish I could like the drones

But no robot modes

 

The Mini-Cons sucked

No play value on their own

Not "real" Mini-Cons

 

Ones from AEC

Transform into vehicles

Better play value

 

Also expensive

Thirty dollars for a set

Outside USA

 

I will not miss them

Their baby-blue connectors

I prefer CLASSICS!

I picked up Huffer today and I must say I really like the way he fits in with my C/U/G/RTS figures. True, his head/face doesn't look like Huffer, but he fits the bill. Glad I didn't pay full price for him, but for the $6, he's ok.

The whole drone thing was doomed to failure, but just the same I think the PCC line had potential. It just always seemed halfassed, and that was the problem. That said, the ideas were there, the execution is what sealed its doom. So here are my personal thoughts:

 

The good:

 

The 2-paks were pretty cool. The way the figures were laid out was much better than the 5-pak ones, IMHO since they interacted with the minicons much better.

 

Speaking of the minicons, these were some of the best minicons ever. I like the idea of them being a more jack-of-all-trades type of targetmaster that can enhance both the robot mode(s) and the vehicle mode of the commander. Tiny little vehicles that are out of scale with everything and have no real theme with the paired figure is just stupid.

 

Some of them were pretty decent homages to G1 combiners. The Constructicon set in particular was neat-o and I still have that one. I like that the steamroller and driller were different construction vehicles that have never been explored in past construction themes. The snowplow was a different take on the same old dumptruck. That orange thing was kinda dumb though, and I hate that Steamhammer is so damn tiny compared to every other commander.

 

 

The bad:

 

The repainted and swapped around drones were mismatched horribly. The protectobots in particular made no sense at all, and the one with Spastic or whatever his name was proved fairly idiotic as well. Had the line continued, they would have REALLY painted themselves into a wall with the dinobot and constructicon sets if they were to keep the pattern going.

 

Mudslinger was a dismal dissapointment for me. I really had my hopes up for that guy...Im a huge, HUGE fan of big tired 4x4s and especially of anything post-apocalyptic. So when they managed to sneak both themes together I was stoked from the initial pics. But they used the cheapest, flimsiest possible plastic on this guy, his vehicle mode was poorly designed (half GTP racer, half dodge ram knockoff), his robot mode was awful with its monkey arms that lacked any real articulation and his retarded gorilla faces. And he's the worst offender in terms of not being able to really use one of the minicons, especially in the combined mode. On top of that, he had that gawdy early '90s neon paint job paired with some rusty and dusty wasteland prowlers...wtf?

 

Not quite as bad was Icepick. I still like the guy a LOT. For one thing, Im a fan of halftracked snowcats, that spiky plow is money and I like that his combined head is kind of a giant yeti head carved out of 'ice'...thats just badass! He's kind of everything that Energon Snowcat SHOULD have been in terms of how he tf'd and how the bot mode was laid out (no giant beer gut)...but the damn arms! Really? I could live with the garden rake hands if only the forearms werent so spindly...and if all this sort of locked down in the combined mode.

 

 

The ugly:

 

The neon blue connectors. Its been beaten into the ground left and right, but I have to bring it up. Black? Grey? Anyone????

 

Automorph gimmicks. These things sacrifiece SO much for this stupid gimmick. Who gives a sh!t if the thing automatically transforms when you pop it into the socket? They would barely stay attached and the final result was a mis-shapen brick of a limb that usualy barely resembled an arm or a leg as opppsed to a wrecked vehicle attached to a robot torso.

 

The solution:

 

Oh yes. Anyone can just sit around and bitch...but I never complain about anything without presenting a better idea.

 

The drone thing is kinda lame...yet if properly executed, it COULD have worked. First thing Id have 86'd is the autotransform b.s. If getting super articulated combined mode limbs meant having to live with drones instead of separate robots, Id have been ok with that. Obviously 5-man combiners would have been best and we've already seen how some of the 3rd party guys are addressing that. Another thing is, the drones were ridiculously out of scale with the commanders in some cases. That snub-nosed towtruck with Mudslinger comes to mind, as well as that POS that was Double Clutch. The way the Dinobot set was is just ok...although i hate beastformers.

 

Id have really put some time, thought and effort into how the drones were executed and done. All the drones were 4 separate pieces based on a common theme--repaints excluded. That works in some cases, but a little outside of the box thinking wouldve been nice. Examples: Double Clutch's commander should have been re-done entirely, but why not 2 other drone cars sized on the same scale as the commander that would separate into 4 limbs? Why not use the Huffer mold in a semi truck that has a cab and 2 small 'pup' trailers, each of which can separate and form 2 of the limbs? For the train fans: How about a steam engine that pulls 4 rail cars that each become a limb? Maybe a Jeep that pulls a trailer with 2 quads or jetskis each of which splits into 2 limbs and the trailer becomes a sword and shield? Maybe each drone could have a 3rd 'battle' mode kind of like the cars in the old M.A.S.K. series?

 

Id have made all the minicons in solid colors as opposed to the clear plastic. They wouldnt look like gummy bears, and they wouldnt be prone to fracturing. Although i do hope to see these minicons repopped, as well as new weapon/vehicle accessory minicons in the future. One idea I had was a minicon that would turn into a huge bullbar/skidplate for a Jeep. AND with a working winch like some of the Armada minicons had...

ill add my two cent....

 

the commanders themselves...most of them were actually pretty great....some of the best scouts ive seen bar revenge of the fallen..and a few of the energon combiner limbs......the ones that come to mind...steamhammer...bombshock..smolder...heavytread...undertow...the helicopter dude whos name i keep forgetting...all great scouts...hell on his own double clutch is a decent scout......

 

the drones...most of them are crap and the commanders look horrible with them attached....i can only think of three sets that look good with there limbs attached....

steamhammer

grimstone

bombshock...

 

the rest are horrible...now the menasor looking dude looks great with the drones from the double clutch set....i want to repaint them into an actual menasor soon......

 

for the most part though....this line was total fail....hasbro hasnt done decent combiners since energon.......

The drones had problems, but I've never got the "articulation" complaint. Outside Third Party product, combiner teams of 5 or more have always been bricks. At most you get some arm, hip, and knee positioning. The only combiner team to have elbow joints as far as I know was deveatator, but he was a brick otherwise.

 

I've always thought the line hit a crossroad with the first 2 5 packs. Bombshock was really good, with a few issues (stupid spring loaded swindle drone). Skyburst was an ugly pile. If mudslinger and double clutch had been more like bombshock and less like Skyburst, who knows how the line would have gone?

I think the articulation argument concerns there being no individual bot mode for the limbs. If they were only ever going to go from drone mode to limb mode the articulation should have been much better. G1 combiner articulation was sacrificed specifically for a bot mode for the limbs.

But I prefer to focus on the positive.

Sorry. Phone was acting weird. Managed to hit "post" before it froze up.

Anyway, Smolder, Icepick, Searchlight, Sledge, Leadfoot, and Huffer were all great 2 packs. I just picked up Undertow and he's cool too. The Combaticons, Constructicons, and Dinobots are all pure win, and I know this puts me in the minority but I liked the Rallybots too. I also hope Spastic and his drones see a release in my area as they look decent.

Minicons have always made more sense as weapons than as grossly out of scale vehicles, and a train team would've been epic!