Death's Head
18-09-11, 07:14 PM
Launching in 1989, the Micromasters were an indication that all was not well in the Transformers franchise as it was the first time the line caved into a trend. At the time, Galoob’s Micro Machines had just launched and were a massive hit. Hasbro followed suit by minimising their Transformers. Although disappointingly following a trend, rather than setting it, the Micromasters are a great bunch of toys, and thanks to their smaller scale, the addition of various bases and playsets let you build a proper city for the figures, something that even Fortress Maximus had struggled to do for the larger toys.
The first team I ever saw were the Off Road Patrol. I was a bit suspicious of them at first, not recognising them as ‘proper’ Transformers, but they were quite cool little figures. The team comprised Powertrain (the long nose cab), Tote (the red minivan), High Jump (the 4wd Landrover type) and Mudslinger (the monster truck). The transformations are pretty simplistic, as you can imagine in something of this size, and largely follow the same pattern of flipping out the rear of the vheicle to form the legs and swing the arms out from the sides.
Powertrain is perhaps the weakest member of the group, simply because his shoulders are in the ‘wrong’ place. His arms dangle over his head, making him look like he’s had some kind of terrible accident. There’s a sop to making the transformation interesting by rotating the cab through 180 degrees, which is a slightly superfluous addition, but seems to be there to show that these are ‘proper’ Transformers. Despite the gangly arms, Powertrain is a nicely detailed figure and has a decent enough alt mode. Like many six wheeled Micromasters, only four of the wheels are able to move. Here its likely to be a cost cutting manoeuvre rather than a need to double as a shoulder joint as they do on some other figures.
Mudslinger represents the pinnacle of monster truck Transformers within the Micromasters line. The later Monster Truck Patrol struggled to improve on Mudslinger’s template. Despite having to work with those huge wheels, Mudslinger carries off the bulk of his alt mode very well in robot mode. There’s a neat engineering touch with having half of his rear wheels static to facilitate movement in the arms.
Tote represents the first and (possibly) last time something interesting was done with the ‘legs from the front/back, arms from the sides’ sequence. There’s additional jointing which makes the various pieces extend a few millimetres before rotating out of the way to reveal the robot mode. This stops the alt mode being ruined by huge joints – something which affects a huge proportion of the Micromaster line.
High Jump again represents an imaginative transformation sequence for such a tiny figure, with the rear axle swinging out of the way to allow the feet to move out. The front folds underneath the vehicle to reveal the head and the arms drop down from the sides.
All four figures are nicely detailed, but as with all Micromasters, the metal joints and screws are highly prone to rust and corrosion over time. A baffling occurrence when Transformers toys produced some years early show no signs of such corrosion. One can only assume that this is due to sourcing cheaper parts during a period of decline for the Transformers as a whole.
747748749750
The first team I ever saw were the Off Road Patrol. I was a bit suspicious of them at first, not recognising them as ‘proper’ Transformers, but they were quite cool little figures. The team comprised Powertrain (the long nose cab), Tote (the red minivan), High Jump (the 4wd Landrover type) and Mudslinger (the monster truck). The transformations are pretty simplistic, as you can imagine in something of this size, and largely follow the same pattern of flipping out the rear of the vheicle to form the legs and swing the arms out from the sides.
Powertrain is perhaps the weakest member of the group, simply because his shoulders are in the ‘wrong’ place. His arms dangle over his head, making him look like he’s had some kind of terrible accident. There’s a sop to making the transformation interesting by rotating the cab through 180 degrees, which is a slightly superfluous addition, but seems to be there to show that these are ‘proper’ Transformers. Despite the gangly arms, Powertrain is a nicely detailed figure and has a decent enough alt mode. Like many six wheeled Micromasters, only four of the wheels are able to move. Here its likely to be a cost cutting manoeuvre rather than a need to double as a shoulder joint as they do on some other figures.
Mudslinger represents the pinnacle of monster truck Transformers within the Micromasters line. The later Monster Truck Patrol struggled to improve on Mudslinger’s template. Despite having to work with those huge wheels, Mudslinger carries off the bulk of his alt mode very well in robot mode. There’s a neat engineering touch with having half of his rear wheels static to facilitate movement in the arms.
Tote represents the first and (possibly) last time something interesting was done with the ‘legs from the front/back, arms from the sides’ sequence. There’s additional jointing which makes the various pieces extend a few millimetres before rotating out of the way to reveal the robot mode. This stops the alt mode being ruined by huge joints – something which affects a huge proportion of the Micromaster line.
High Jump again represents an imaginative transformation sequence for such a tiny figure, with the rear axle swinging out of the way to allow the feet to move out. The front folds underneath the vehicle to reveal the head and the arms drop down from the sides.
All four figures are nicely detailed, but as with all Micromasters, the metal joints and screws are highly prone to rust and corrosion over time. A baffling occurrence when Transformers toys produced some years early show no signs of such corrosion. One can only assume that this is due to sourcing cheaper parts during a period of decline for the Transformers as a whole.
747748749750