Armada Overload

It's funny, in collecting, how one thing can easily lead to another. I first saw Overload over a decade ago, and thought it looked like crap. Like most of Armada, it seemed to be oversized, unnecessarily bulky, lacking in both detail and articulation... Basically, an easy pass.

I'd felt much the same about Jetfire, even after buying the Collectors' Club's usage of the mold as Astrotrain back when I first joined, and it was only more recently - having finally replaced my broken Armada Optimus Prime cab - that I rediscovered how cool that toy actually was, and set about tracking down Jetfire just so I could create the proper Jet Optimus (aka Superpants Optimus Prime), which then led me to reconsider Overload.

Since, throughout 2018, Overload - and the Energon repaint, Ultra Magnus - turned out to be ridiculously expensive on the secondary market (upwards of £100 boxed, or in the region of £50 loose and not necessarily complete), I decided to have a quick shuffle through The Spacebridge's tubs at TFNation 2018... £20 later, I walked away with this figure, missing only the missiles for his spring-loaded launchers.

Vehicle Mode:
TFWiki describes Overload's vehicle mode as a "carrier truck capable of carrying Jetfire in his vehicle mode". I'm not sure that's entirely accurate, but I'm not going to quibble. Part of the problem is that the 'vehicle' component is actually the Mini-Con Rollout, while Overload is a trailer that appears to be an armed and armoured mobile launch platform.

But, really, all that means is that he's a brick that doesn't do much in and of himself. Rollout pegs in at the front to pull him along, and Jetfire simply rests on top, held loosely in place by the protrusions from the rear... It's all a bit dull, really.

There's a fair bit of detail sculpted into the large chunks of red, burgundy, grey and black plastic - and it's worth noting that the difference in colour between the red and the burgundy is a lot more pronounced in the photos than in person. I was surprised to see photos of other versions of Overload where, for example, the protrusions at the rear appear to be the same shade of red as the bulk of the trailer, but also appear to be missing the burgundy paint applications (barely) visible on this one. Additionally, the sculpted cannons on the sides of the front - painted entirely black on mine, right up to the walls of the trailer - seem only to have a coating of burgundy paint on the outer surface, with the rest left bare. The discrepancy appears to be the difference between the US and UK/European releases, but I've not been able to find any clear explanation. Much of the paintwork is hidden away in this mode, but Jetfire's platform has a liberal coating of silver towards the back and blocks of yellow toward the front, with a silver-framed textured yellow panel on the sides, and strips of silver leading to non-functional Mini-Con ports toward the back.

In this form, all of Overload's weapons are sculpted detail - even the missile launchers are stowed - so there's really not a great deal to write about. I am a little unclear as to whether the two long-barrelled things on either side are meant to be folded out or down in this mode, but I'm guessing they need to be out as they have to be down for robot mode, and there'd be no point adding a hinge if it weren't intended to be used...

There's also a distinct lack of Mini-Con interactivity in this mode - I guess they assumed that the options available on both Optimus Prime and Jetfire would be sufficient for most kids.


Robot Mode:
I'd argue that Overload is a still disappointing brick, to be honest... His robot mode does virtually nothing, though there is a transformation sound effect when Rollout is first plugged in or detached. Like the vehicle mode, there's a fair bit of sculpted detail, but all of it is pretty chunky - there's no subtlety to this figure.

The entirety of Overload's Mini-Con partner, Rollout, plugs into Overload's vacant torso and the larger robot's head deploys from the top, making this toy almost a combination of the HeadMaster and Powermaster gimmicks from Generation 1, as well as the (physical) reverse of G1 Ultra Magnus in that the cab attaches to the front rather than the back of the larger robot (no surprise, then, that this mold was reused and repainted as Energon Ultra Magnus). As far as I know, in the Armada line, this particular form of Mini-Con interaction is unique to Overload. Cyclonus had a similar trick, whereby Crumplezone could become an alternate cockpit for his helicopter form, but he wasn't a required part of either mode.

More paintwork is visible in this mode - it does seem as though the vast majority of his paint applications were designed to make robot mode look more impressive - including a suspiciously Optimus Prime-style white stripe running across his body from arm to arm, taking in Rollout's patches of white along the way. The shoulders feature bright blue boxes and yellow-framed grey panels with raised Autobot insignias and black painted protrusions from the tops. The legs have large yellow textured panels at the tops of the thighs, strips of burgundy and the fixed knee and vast panels of silver on the shins and the tops of his feet. The hands have been cleverly designed such that the backs are cast in red plastic while the fingers are cast in grey, but this has the rather dodgy side effect of giving him massive grey panels on the insides of the wheels on his forearms.

Weapons-wise, Overload is a huge oddity. He's almost a living weapon, yet carries no armaments of his own. Rollout functions as a TargetMaster but, obviously, if he's forming Overload's core, he can't also be his hand-held weapon. Meanwhile, the spring-loaded missile launchers are on the robot's heels, and the integrated guns on the trailer are all pointing backwards. The best he can really offer is a set of missile pods concealed behind the chunky Autobot insignia panels on his shoulders... It's a shame these weren't given some kind of spring-loaded feature, but that could just have become another part to lose.

Rollout's head closes up into the back of Overload's, and the larger robot's head features chunky antennae on the sides, while the front is very deep-set with a massive, hammer-like brow and a huge, jutting chin. The silver-painted face looks suitably robotic - somewhat unusual with Armada toys, which tended to look a bit soft and squishy - with sunken cheeks and a large block of nose in the middle. The eyes are picked out in green and the only other paintwork is the three lines of yellow on his brow. It's one of the more striking Armada head sculpts, and fits the idea of Overload being a walking battle platform.


Megaweapon Mode:
When Optimus Prime combines with his trailer to make his Supermode, Overload can transform into an artillery pack to slot in behind his truck cab chest, with his missile launchers extending over Prime's shoulders. Rollout, meanwhile, can adopt his tertiary form as a TargetMaster weapon and, thanks to the use of his trailer hitch peg as a very long grip, he can easily be wielded in Prime's left hand, leaving the LED-powered right fist available for his light-piped handgun. Overload does get in the way of Prime's already limited articulation, but the over-shoulder cannons can be raised when necessary.

Even though Optimus Prime's Supermode has such a vast amount of space in his backpack area, I was more than a little surprised to see that Overload doesn't occupy all of that space - there's still a fairly large empty area just behind Prime's waist and before the lower of the two base mode platforms. The strangest part is that Overload's groin sits behind Prime's head, with his thighs sticking up into the air. It actually looks pretty good, overall, and it's worth noting that Rollout can attach elsewhere on Prime's body - or on the Megaweapon cannons - via the Mini-Con port on the underside of his cab. Alternatively, he can simply slot into the Overload chest cavity for storage.


Megaweapon mode also functions while Optimus is combined with Jetfire, but it's as unstable and difficult to balance as you'd imagine and I didn't want to push my luck with what little posing it's still capable of. Jet Optimus Prime tends to lean forward as standard, and the Overload Megaweapon makes him even more front-heavy, with only Jetfire's small feet and ratcheted ankles keeping him upright. Nevertheless, here are a few shots of Jet Optimus Prime Megaweapon, for the curious...


Mini-Con Partner Rollout:
Rollout looks kind of like a futuristic, armoured fire engine in his vehicle mode... though that may just be my association with red trucks. He's an odd-looking brick of a vehicle with a ball-jointed rod sticking out of his roof as a hitch for the Overload trailer. I'm not sure why the designer felt he needed armoured shades over his front windows as, without, he'd almost look as if he was supposed to be a Cybertronian Ironhide, which would have been quite fitting, I think.

The back end of the vehicle is a bit of a jumble because it's a mixture of jutting robot parts and concealed TargetMaster parts, but the cab area features quite a lot of detail, both on the front and the sides. The windows are all painted black, while the bumper's grey paint wraps around to the sides, ahead of the front wheels. The central section of the front, aside from the window shades, is painted white, with a pair of weapon ports in the middle - six missile tubes on the righthand side, two Gatling-style guns on the left - painted grey. Curiously, the sculpted headlights aren't painted, and continue the asymmetry of the front - one large lamp on the right, two smaller ones, set at an angle, on the left.

His robot mode is a bit clumsy and blocky, with guns instead of hands, and very little articulation. The arms can swing a full 360° at the shoulder, but the legs are fixed aside from a fairly loose rotation at the hip. He doesn't have feet because his shins are the folded-up barrels of his TargetMaster form, but he does have substantial heel spurs to keep him standing. His kneecaps are painted yellow, but the only other paintwork visible in robot mode is on the front of his vehicle mode.

The head sculpt is one of the largest and most complex I've seen on a Mini-Con, reminding me a little of G1 Inferno, or perhaps Rumble/Frenzy, albeit without their visor. Cast in grey plastic, it has a splotch of blue paint over the top - which features two cylindrical protrusions from the middle and vent-like details either side - and his eyes are picked out in yellow. I don't recall many Armada Mini-Cons having proper faces...

TargetMaster mode is basically vehicle mode upside down, with the trailer hitch acting as a grip and the gun barrels flipped round from the underside. These are a little disappointing, as the hollow sections become visible and what little paintwork there is on this Mini-Con is obscured in this form. The gun barrels can be popped out and flipped over so the detailed/painted side is visible, but they'd then have to be swapped back for transformation.


I have to confess that, simple though he is, working without an instruction leaflet, Overload's transformation initially confused me, and I ended up having to search out a video review on YouTube to get the hang of it. It can't be called complex, yet it does feel needlessly convoluted considering the chunky brick vehicle mode and the chunky brick with arms robot mode, but the part that foxed me was how to switch the legs between the two modes when the arms and body do so little by way of transforming. Rollout is similarly simplistic, while his lower legs have a tendency to pop out from the hip rotation joing if they're not handled super-gently. His tertiary TargetMaster mode seems almost like an echo of Overload's Megaweapon form, making it seem almost as though the smaller robot should have been Overload, and the larger one just a powered suit for the Mini-Con. That's probably the most interesting aspect of the transformation: Overload's Mini-Con partner is an integral part of his robot mode, where most Mini-Cons would simply attach via Powerlinx points, unlocking features in the larger toys.

Armada generally wasn't known for great articulation, and Overload is a massive brick in any mode. In fact, it's one of the few toys on which the Mini-Con's articulation is functionally identical to the larger robot - 360° at the shoulders, upper thigh rotation... and the head does tilt, but really only for transformation. I have the feeling that Overload could have been made better now but, for a 15-year-old toy intended to represent power rather than grace or fluidity of motion, he's fairly decent... I just wish the head could have been made to rotate, and I guess hinged elbows shouldn't have been too much to ask for, even if his dual purpose made hinged knees impossible.

While I got Overload for a knock-down price, second hand and incomplete, I'm pretty happy with him. Some of the paintwork is a little scuffed and chipped, and he's not as fully-featured as the likes of Jetfire or Optimus Prime, but it's cool that he was designed to interact with both to this degree. He'd definitely benefit by having some sort of Reprolabels upgrade, but they don't appear to cover any figures in the Unicron Trilogy (anymore?).

I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't find a copy of this figure with his missiles, as they don't often turn up loose on eBay... but I'm not desperate to lay my hands on them, as he's going to be on display rather than being played with, and the launchers in some older toys eventually lost their ability to keep missiles clipped in place until triggered.

The strangest thing is that, originally, I'd been considering whether to get Overload or Energon Ultra Magnus... and now that I have Overload... I find I still kind of want Ultra Magnus. It's basically the same figure with a different paint job, and can be just as expensive as Overload on the secondary market (I've seen Ultra Magnus as low as about £70 boxed, but that's pretty rare). On the upside, the repaint does tend to come with the Space Mini-Con team as a bonus... Though it lacks any means of interacting with Energon Optimus Prime.