It seems like the redeco toys can be mostly divided into two categories. One is the obvious redeco that makes total sense for the character, especially if there's a heritage precedent (e.g. reselling a Prowl toy as Bluestreak). The other type is when a toy is clearly designed with one character in mind, and we get a weak redeco that doesn't really fit the new character, but it was a way to reuse the mold and amortize production costs (e.g. reselling Titans Return Chromedome in Getaway colors, or reselling Hardhead in Quake colors).

Then we have the Elita One/Minerva pairing, which doesn't fit into either of these categories. The toy doesn't seem to be specifically designed to represent one character or the other. Neither one seems to be the obvious redeco or predeco. The vehicle mode doesn't truly belong to either of them. They both just... exist.

Mark Maher of Hasbro mentioned recently on Instagram that they have, historically, tried to ensure the Walgreens exclusive characters are medics or scientists of some type. Looking back at the handful of them we've gotten, there does seem to be a pattern. Brainstorm? Sure. Power of the Primes Wreck-Gar? Well, sure, inasmuch as Junkions seem able to perform medical miracles. Red Alert? Hmm, maybe this is the true reason why Hasbro designated Red as a medic during Siege, so they could shoehorn him in as a Walgreens toy. Bluestreak? Well, he's a pacifist, at least. It's a stretch, but I guess it works. (Cloudraker/Wingspan? Sorry, there's no way.)

So, rather than remolding Elita's robot parts to make them match Minerva's design from the Masterforce series, they just, uh, didn't do that. In the Japanese cartoon, Minerva appeared as a super slender and highly feminine version of Nightbeat (huge shoulder towers, wheels in the forearms, louvered window panels on the fronts of the legs, etc.) An effort was made to color the toy like Minerva (red chest, blue coloring on the pelvis, etc.) but aside from the color mapping, and of course the new head sculpt, it doesn't particularly resemble the character. The toy's ability for the front fender sections to be positioned above the shoulders seems to have been specifically done with Minerva in mind.

The G1 Minerva/Nightbeat toy was a Porsche 959, though, and this toy looks nothing like that. It has some rounded curvature that is not entirely unPorschelike, but you can tell the vehicle wasn't designed with the specific intent to represent Minerva. Of course, it doesn't really seem to have been designed to represent Elita One, either, so honestly I'm at a loss as to why the vehicle mode looks the way it does. Either make Elita a Porsche or make Minerva a white-and-red version of Elita's car mode. But, don't give us this weird nonspecific vehicle that doesn't work for either character.

She comes with a light bar that Elita didn't get (it replaced the faux head piece for Elita that mounts on the roof). The Nightbeat gun is quite appropriate for Minerva, but the Elita rifle (in clear plastic this time; Mark Maher said it was deliberately left unpainted, and might be made of a type of clear energon we've never seen before) doesn't really fit the character.

I'm thankful that I didn't have to keep swinging by Walgreens week after week until they finally stocked this toy, which is how I ended up getting my hands on Bluestreak. So, it was nice to be able to order her from Hasbro Pusle and just have her shipped to my doorstep. But, she's more of a reimagining of the character than a proper homage. I'm not closely attached to any of the characters from Masterforce, but if they're going to do neo-G1 versions of the Japanese characters, it surprises me she's not a bit more accurate.

Zob (but, as always, they still got me to spend money on her, and at the end of the day I think that's the most important measurable metric here)