G1 Landmine

Robot Mode: Landmine is one of the first wave of Pretender figures, meaning his robot mode is a very spindly and thin figure with decent posability and some nice detailing. Purely from a robot-mode point of view Landmine is looking pretty fine. He can be armed with his laser cannon, but sadly can't hold the big sword he comes with. That weapon is reserved for when he suits up in his Pretender shell. The shell is a human in heavy battle armour with the lower half of his face hidden. He comes with a helmet, a belt, and the aformentioned weapons. The shell's posability is limited to the arms twisting at the shoulders, but it has nice detailing and doesn't look half-bad.

Alternate Mode: This is where the Pretender figures really suffer, because the prerequisite of fitting inside the shell pretty much nixes any complex transformations in the butt. Landmine folds in half and becomes a 'mining vehicle'. The vehicle looks decent from some angles, but more like a folded robot in most. It looks a bit better when you mount his big gun on top, but sadly I'm missing that one. You can pretty much forget this mode.

Missing Parts: I'm missing the big laser gun that goes on top of Landmine's vehicle mode or can be held by either the robot or the shell.

Remarks: I never much liked the Pretender gimmick when it first came out and my opinion did not improve when I started collecting again as an adult. Then I saw the Japanese Masterforce series where the Pretenders played a big role and now... well, I still don't really like how they translated it for the toys, but the idea as such isn't bad. Plus, Landmine was the only first wave Pretender I had as a kid and I used his robot form as a model for some of my self-drawn comic books back in the day, so he gets a nostalgia bonus. All in all he is the best figure he can be considering the limitations of the Pretender gimmick, so I'll call him average.

Rating: C