Death's Head
19-09-11, 08:21 PM
The Battle Squad are one of my favourite Micromaster teams. Just look at them; there’s no mistaking the intent of these guys! They are the Decepticon Micromasters’ military muscle on the battlefield. Even their hilariously overwrought tech spec backs up their credentials; ‘When they band together with a cybernetic compressor, their firepower is incredible. Aided by their advanced visual tracking systems, they can annihilate anything in a three-mile radius. If an Autobot spacecraft vanishes from radar screens, the Battle Squad is usually the culprit.’ All six of the team feature a common colour palette of black, purple, magenta, light blue and red which makes them feel very tight as a unit.
Direct Hit and Power Punch are the sharpest looking ‘bots out of the group. They have superbly detailed robot modes and excellent head sculpts, coupled with slightly bulky, muscular looking bodies. Their combined form of a cannon transport does look a bit over long, but given the size of that barrel it doesn’t look too silly. One wonders whether the recoil from firing that thing would send Power Punch shooting backwards though.
Fireshot and Vanquish (how cool is that name?!) form a Blackbird SR71 spy plane. It suffers slightly from the usual Transformer problem of a very bulky underside comprised of barely concealed robot parts. The slightly larger nature of the alt mode means that it looks pretty good for a Micromaster though. Fireshot gets the best robot mode of the two. A nice headsculpt – fin, faceplate and angry looking eyes – coupled with powerful and bulky arms give him personality and intent. Only those tapered legs look a bit rubbish. Vanquish isn’t so bad, but forming the back half of the jet mode, he doesn’t look quite so impressive. Even less so when you notice that most of this just hangs off his back. The legs also look a little short in comparison to his torso and arms, but again some great detailing and sculpting just about overcome these problems.
Half Track and Meltdown form the anti-aircraft half track vehicle. It’s a funny looking thing, as it does look like two totally separate vehicles stuck together for the sake of it. This does also mean that the individual halves can function perfectly well without each other, which is something you can’t say about a lot of the combiner figures. Half Track is a slightly disappointing figure, if only because the designers have perhaps tried a little too hard to make his transformation a little different. The canons on his back get in the way of that ‘hood’ formed from the rear of the tank and his arms are just unimpressive, simian-like blocks. Again, some nice detailing stop Half Track looking like a totally lost cause. Meltdown, like Direct Hit and Power Punch, is a great looking little robot. A tough, well proportioned little fellow with a great sculpt and transformation.
The Battle Squad are easily one of the greatest combiner teams out of the range, and well worth a punt. Even if you’re not much of a Micromaster fan, these little guys might just do enough to convince you otherwise.
Direct Hit and Power Punch are the sharpest looking ‘bots out of the group. They have superbly detailed robot modes and excellent head sculpts, coupled with slightly bulky, muscular looking bodies. Their combined form of a cannon transport does look a bit over long, but given the size of that barrel it doesn’t look too silly. One wonders whether the recoil from firing that thing would send Power Punch shooting backwards though.
Fireshot and Vanquish (how cool is that name?!) form a Blackbird SR71 spy plane. It suffers slightly from the usual Transformer problem of a very bulky underside comprised of barely concealed robot parts. The slightly larger nature of the alt mode means that it looks pretty good for a Micromaster though. Fireshot gets the best robot mode of the two. A nice headsculpt – fin, faceplate and angry looking eyes – coupled with powerful and bulky arms give him personality and intent. Only those tapered legs look a bit rubbish. Vanquish isn’t so bad, but forming the back half of the jet mode, he doesn’t look quite so impressive. Even less so when you notice that most of this just hangs off his back. The legs also look a little short in comparison to his torso and arms, but again some great detailing and sculpting just about overcome these problems.
Half Track and Meltdown form the anti-aircraft half track vehicle. It’s a funny looking thing, as it does look like two totally separate vehicles stuck together for the sake of it. This does also mean that the individual halves can function perfectly well without each other, which is something you can’t say about a lot of the combiner figures. Half Track is a slightly disappointing figure, if only because the designers have perhaps tried a little too hard to make his transformation a little different. The canons on his back get in the way of that ‘hood’ formed from the rear of the tank and his arms are just unimpressive, simian-like blocks. Again, some nice detailing stop Half Track looking like a totally lost cause. Meltdown, like Direct Hit and Power Punch, is a great looking little robot. A tough, well proportioned little fellow with a great sculpt and transformation.
The Battle Squad are easily one of the greatest combiner teams out of the range, and well worth a punt. Even if you’re not much of a Micromaster fan, these little guys might just do enough to convince you otherwise.