More than Meets the Eye (An Armada Perceptor Review)

Perceptor - the geeky Autobot scientist who transformed into a microscope, or that's what old school Transformers will remember him as.  In Armada though, the name has been retained for a trio of the most unlikely robots

Perceptor is the name given this time around to the merged form of three minicons - Grindor, High Wire and Sure Shock.  This is a far cry from the geeky scientist who used to bear the same name.

High Wire is a bicycle that transforms into a rather skinny robot.  The pedals of the cycle forms the feet of the robot and the front wheel forms the enlarged left hand.  In bicycle mode, the robot face is plainly visible under the headlights, which is a pity.  High Wire forms the Head and "back-extension" of Perceptor.  It uses the minicon socket to connect to Grindor to form Perceptor.

Grindor seems to be a rocket powered skateboard that transforms into a resonable robot with wings.  The transformation sequence is slightly atypical and is a pleasant surprise.  The robot form looks great, but the skateboard form is a bit oversized.  Grindor forms the arms, shoulders and torso of Perceptor.  It's a pity that the arms of Grindor aren't hidden in Perceptor but instead forms a rather horrid looking set of contraption hanging from the waist of Perceptor.

Sure Shock is a scooter that transforms rather simply to a robot with wheels as hands.  Unlike the other two, Sure Shock is bright orange instead of the navy and yellow and grey.  Like High Wire, Sure Shock's robot face is plainly visible in Scooter mode.  Sure Shock forms the feet of Perceptor in a transformation sequence that literally splits it down the middle.  The bright orange colour clashes mightily with the navy and grey and orange of the other two.

All three minicons attaches to the bigger Autobots and Decepticons, thanks to the minicon connectors.  However these connectors are located in rather unusual places.  In the case of High Wire, it's on the side of the bicycle to enable it to form Perceptor.  However the placement of this makes connecting to other spots a bit trickier than usual.  The connector for Sure Shock is located underneath the scooter, as is usual for most other vehicles.  However, it's located not in the middle of the scooter, but instead on one side, due to the fact that the scooter splits down the middle to form Perceptor.  I might have been better if there were two such connectors instead of only one.

A nice touch, and a throwaway to the past is that each of the three minicons has a minicon logo etched onto them.  These logos do not stand out, but they definitely aren't hidden.  The other thing that Hasbro forgot though was that none of the three had Tech Specs on the card.  Fans must have made a fuss and Hasbro made Tech Specs for Armada figures available at Hasbro's Official Transformer site.

As a toy on their own, it's not too bad, but the attempt to recycle old names that has no connection to these robots tends to cheapen the memory of the old toy and to invite comparison.  Does this Perceptor live up to its predecessor?  I would answer that question with another one: Does this Perceptor bear any resemblence to its predecessor?  The answer to both question is obvious.

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