Countdown Rocket BaseThe Rocket Base is by far the largest of the Micromaster bases issued in 1989. Essentially in it's Rocket Launch Pad mode it's a blue box - 22cm x 17cm x 8cm high - mounted on 4 moulded tracks - a pair on each of the longer slides - which each have a wheel mounted inside them to give the base mobility. Extending about 18 cm up from one end of the base - which we'll call the front - is a grey tower. From the top the tower's footprint looks like 3 sides of a square with the fourth side - the one pointing towards the back - open. On the front of the tower is a red platform that moves up & down the tower acting as a lift - the platform is just about large enough to take a Micromaster car but could do with a peg for a Micromaster figure to stand on. The major accessory included with the base is a 27cm high white rocket mounted on 4 large dark grey rocket engines. These lock round 4 circular pads sticking up from the launch base giving the rocket some sort of attachment to the base. About halfway up the rocket there's a door way that opens downwards - mount the rocket correctly on the pad and the door opens into the tower.
At this point it's worth doing a parts inventory for this toy:
1 blue scout vehicle
1 red gunner pod
1 red laser
1 red large double laser
1 white mechanical arm
3 black Micromaster base ramps
2 small black double lasers
1 large black ramp
1 black curved platform
1 grey helipad
As with many all older Transformers toys not all accessories are meant to be used with the alternate mode. The instructions indicate that the blue scout vehicle pegs - via one of the two 5mm pegs on the underside - onto the front of the base besides the tower. There's a 5mm peg hole in the top of the vehicle and into this pegs the laser (which let's be honest looks more like a radar dish). The red gunner pod - complete with a pair of linked, elevating guns - has a 5mm peg in the bottom which pegs into the back of the base. Both the scout vehicle & the gunner pod have space inside which allow a Micromaster to sit inside. The double laser pegs into the front of the base - 5mm peg on the laser - on the opposite side of the tower to the scout vehicle. Just behind the hole for the dual laser there's a small peg which you can stand a Micromaster on - it's the only one in this mode.
With a little common sense most of the rest of the accessories can be accomodated. The robot arm I generally place inside the tower reaching out towards the rocket. There's two 5mm peg holes in the side of the tower which my mind I thought were probably right for the two small black double lasers - indeed they look very good there. However looking at the box for the Rocket Bases's repaint an alternate positioning is suggested: on each of the longer sides of the base towards th back there's a black panel above the tracks. In the middle of each panel is a screw hole - which is 5mm in size. Put one black dual cannon on each side. That leaves the holes on the tower empty - since they're not used elsewhere they must have some purpose ? It turns out the spacing on them exactly matches two of the three 5mm pegs sticking out of the black platform. If you plug the two pegs that are furthest away from the curve of the platform into the holes in the tower then the platform curves round the rocket at a height that's just right for the rocket's door to fold out onto it. This adds two more pegs to the base mode allowing Micromasters to stand up on the tower.
This then leaves just the three Micromaster base ramps, the helipad - which is essentially a special Micromaster ramp - and the large black ramp. The black ramp does have a Micromaster base connector at on end and if you rest this end on the top of the box part of the the rocket base the ramp is flat till the point that it dips turning it into an access ramp for this mode. It'd be nice if it clipped onto something though. Indeed some more clips in this mode would allow you to attach all the base ramps and then connect the rocket base up to the rest of your Micromaster city which would be good as the rocket base would make a fine addition if you could connect it up. But no Micromaster base/battlestation can really use it's ramps in both modes which is sad. If they did you could have had a lever for making people use the same toy twice.
Although the rocket base didn't appear in Japan as a toy until later than it's western release it is designed to be used with a 1989 Transformers Victory toy.
Galaxy Shuttle (see a
gallery at Transformer@The Moon) has two engines at the rear that match the two most rear pads on the tower base. There's a picture of this in this gallery of
Thunder Dagwon the Brave remould of Galaxy Shuttle. Sadly the same isn't true for the Skystalker shuttle - wouldn't that have been awesome ? Incidentally the toy toy Thunder Dagwon is sitting on in that gallery is Fire Dagwon who also has Micromaster Ramp connectors. I want a Fire Dagwon. And Galaxy Shuttle.
Back to the rocket base and it's transformation. Remove all the accessories and the rocket. Stand with the front - the side nearest the tower - towards you. Fold the tower down towards you. Raise the top of the base up to form a wall at the rear. Fold the sides of the base out from the front so they turn into low walls at the rear of the base. Fold the sides of the tower down to extend the base at the front - it's very stiff on mine and sounds like they're going to crack any second.
It then turns into an excercise in attaching the accessories. The robot arm goes into the top of the short wall at the back on the left. The curved platform pegs into three holes at the front of the big wall. The large black ramp attaches to the side of the curved platform via a modified base connector, with the ramp running over the top and down an infeasibly steep slope behind the small wall on the right. The two dual lasers peg into either side of the middle rear wall. The scout vehicle pegs into the top of the middle rear wall. The red double laser pegs into the middle of the folded down tower base - there's two 5mm screw holes either side of this allowing you to attach other weapons. The gunner pod pegs into the front of the folded down tower.
There are then five Micromaster ramp connectors remaining - two at the front, one at each side very close to the front and one at the front of the rear left wall. These aren't like the ones on other bases, which were two indented holes, these are more like an extruded U shaped (from the side) bar which the ramp connects into. You've got three standard Micromaster ramps to connect to these plus the helipad - a platform raised on four legs - which has a small moulded on ramp sticking straight out of it's side ending in a Micromaster base ramp's connector. Two of the other sides of the helipad - opposite the connector platform and to the right of it - also have the connectors found on the rest of the base for ramps so you can attach extra ramps (or Helipads) to the ramp. Unfortunately the only toy the ramp will connect directly onto is the rocket base - maybe it would have been better designed as a platform with 4 ramp connectors round the edge with the need for a ramp to link it to anything ?
The rocket also transforms to become part of the base: fold the grey engine out to each side so they're pointing away from each other. From each engine half raise up a flap revealing the storage space within just big enough for one Micromaster car. Fold the door down so it sticks out at a right angle. Fold the white dual laser out from inside the rocket. The folded out door ramp is at the right height for the ramp connectors round the base but doesn't have a connector itself which is an unfortunate oversight.
The repaint bellow suggests an alternate transformation for the rocket into a second space vehicle: from base mode fold the engines down so they point back but are still separated. While not on the original Transformers instructions this is a nice little extra !
The base itself is a series of platforms - light grey at the front (from the tower) merging into dark grey at the back with a recessed control pit complete with two foot pegs and 5 computer stations. Two more footpegs are on the black platform mounted on the front of the rear wall into which is moulded another two computer stations. On the front of each blue rear wall is a grey platform. As I've said earlier at the left end of front of the left platform is a Micromaster ramp connector. I think a corresponding connector on the right end of the front of the right wall would have been useful as well as a connector on the outer facing edge of each of these platforms.
Which does rather nicely lead me onto my concluding thoughts. The rocket launch pad is great, but an internal compartment or two plus some connectors for Micromaster ramps would have been useful. The base mode - while having a lot of parts - doesn't feel to be the step up from what you get with Skystalker & Skyhopper: the transformation is simple with the time being taken pegging everything it. You expect it to do something - I'm eyeing up that exposed box at the base of the tower and thinking "you could have got a lights & sound module in there". There's no moving parts in the base mode - no lift, no launcher. There's just something a bit lacking about it for the size of toy it is.
The Rocket Base first appears in Japan in the Victory cartoon where it was called the Shuttle Base and serves as the launch pad for Galaxy Shuttle. The toy was sold in Japan in 1990 in the Transformers: Zone line where it was numbered C-330 and packed with Moon Radar (Micromaster Countdown) and the Micromaster Rocket Base and the Rescue Patrol Team.
The rocket base was never repainted in the Transformers toyline.
Microman LED Powers Rocket BaseEleven years after it's initial western release the rocket base *did* return as part of the 2000 Microman line - hey we've got both of Transformers close relatives Microman and Brave in the same review. It's not the only two Transformers toy used for Microman this year: The
Microbikes are repaints of Generation 2
Road Pig and
Road Rocket (The Microbikes themselves have
limited edition repaints) while the
Microtrailer is a repaint of
Action Master Optimus Prime's Trailer (Is AM Prime moulded with his trailer ? Did they produce a load with this toy and repaint it for the
New Year Convoy set ?) (The Trailer also gets a couple of limited edition repaints - I can't find pictures of these I'm afraid)
This release of the rocket base looses the Countdown Micromaster it had in the west (and the Rescue Patrol team the Japanese version had) and instead gains a LED Powers Microman figure. I don't have any of these but I do have the Magne Powers figures from the previous year. They can sit in the scout vehicle, gunner pod and rocket just fine and I assume the LED powers figures also have the peg holes to use the Micromaster foot pegs on the base. Interestingly the Microman figures also fit just fine in other Micromaster vehicles - they're great in Groundshaker and Skyhopper (better than the Micromasters) and nearly fit in Skystalker's shuttle pod.
This release is essentially a colour swap exercise:
Blue - the base & scout vehicle - becomes black.
Red - the add on parts - becomes off white.
Light grey - the tower & base wall platforms - becomes off white.
Dark grey - the rocket engines and base command pit - becomes clear smoked black.
White - the rocket - becomes silver.
Black - the sides of the base - stays the same.
Black - all the weapons, ramps and platforms - becomes gold.
And if that last one hasn't sent you screaming for the hills then it should ! This toy has a massive Gold Plastic Syndrome Alert against it ! Yes all the parts that need to be pulled in and out are made of the notorious gold plastic that breaks/snaps/crumbles away to dust as soon as you look at it ! Fine for the first year or so but then..... Have a look on eBay: None there, because they've all broken.
Micro Rocket base has a limited edition repaint: Gold Rocket Base which is limited to 50 pieces as a prize in a competition. I'm assuming this is a gold plated version rather than a GPS nightmare !
