Phil's European G1 Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

I need a quick break from the Energon - mainly cos some of the toys I want to review next are about to come out again as part of the Botcon set this year.

So having overcome the writers block I'm going to round off my Universe updates by doing Whirl (Rotorstorm) and Soundwave (Stalker)

And maybe some of their friends too.

[Philip Ayres]

Rotorstorm

If you asked any UK Transformers fan which year was best for Transformers in the UK then I think 1992 would be an answer you'd hear quite a lot. 1992 was a bad year for me personally - car crashes, two timing girl friends, damaged backs and appendicitis featured (and that was just the first two weeks of February !) - which meant I spent more time at home in Kingston than at University. It's while out in Kingston trying to walk a bit one day that I first encountered the Predators and Turbomasters.

There aren't any other toys quite like the Predators & Turbomasters, which represent a back to basics approach for Transformers - Autobots are ground vehicles, Decepticons are jets. The exception are the two mega sized toys - and they are the first Mega sized toys - which features a flying Autobot - a Helicopter, more common as an Autobot than a Decepticon - and a ground based but military Decepticon - a tank.

Rotorstorm is the Autobot Helicopter, who is cast in varying shades of blue - we'll try and sort out what is what colour in the robot mode but most of the body is the palest blue used including the surround for the windshield which is painted silver. The windshield and rotor blades are cast in clear neon pink plastic - an odd shade that appears on all this year's toys. Of particular note on the windshield is an Autobot symbol moulded into the top. The rotors turn, but there is no mechanism to power them.

He comes with six of the yellow Turbomaster missiles - two mount on each landing ski (each missile has a slot in the side matching a notch on the ski, unlike the Predator missiles which have a hole matching a pin) - with the remaining two missiles mounting in the launchers either side of the rotor mount. These launchers can't be fired from here - there's a button behind the rotor mount which drops the launchers out to the sides exposing the triggers - previously flush with the rotor mount, now on top of the launcher - which allows the missiles to be fired. The launchers for the missile are quite powerful by the standards of Transformer missile launchers - probably due to them not having to be neutered for the US market.

Transformation - deploy the launchers, then remove the launchers themselves and fold the mechanism back up. Turn the rotor blades round so that they are together. Separate the tail in the middle and fold both halves forward till they are round the cockpit. Fold the undercarriage down so it's pointing out the back of the helicopter to form the robot legs. Fold the landing skis back round the legs and fold the feet up. Fold the cockpit down onto the chest. Stand. Fold the rear of the tail back behind the robot head. Fold the arms down to the sides. Place a launcher in each hand.

Rotorstorm's robot mode is quite tall, thin and straight up & down - we've got nothing sticking out the sides unless you leave the skis folded out. Most of the light blue is gone, what's left is round the shoulders and the chest. A darker grey/blue forms the upper limbs & feet and a darker blue form the forelimbs and head. The head is notable - the eyes are a clear pink lightpipe, the first time this gimmick is used on a Transformer toy is on the Predator & Turbomaster releases. As well as the missile launchers being used as hand weapons the rotor blades can be removed and used as a sword of sorts.

His articulation is in advance of many TFs of the time - his elbows bend, his arms fold out to the sides at the shoulders and the knee & hips bend. Unfortunately the knees are bolted together which limits the hip movement but the knees can still turn independently. It wouldn't take that much work with remoulding to make the knees independent and to make the shoulders turn which would bring the toy close to modern articulation standards.

Rotorstorm's not a bad toy and stands up significantly well today. A testament to his quality is that he was re-released 12 years later with a new paint scheme !

Sandstorm

Rotorstorm resurfaced five years later in Machine Wars, rechristened Sandstorm - G1 Sandstorm had a helicopter mode and both have related names. For this release the helicopter body - previously pale blue - becomes olive green with darker tiger strip camouflage. The grey blue for the upper limbs becomes a bronzey yellow, the darker blue of the lower limbs becomes a darker olive green and the clear pink becomes clear light blue. Gone is the silver paint.

Missing from this release are the missiles - if memory serves the launchers are also neutered so they can't fire any previously released Turbomaster missiles.

While not accurate to the G1 Sandstorm colour scheme this is reminiscent of it in places and makes a decent and realistic repaint of the earlier mould.

Whirl

Seven years later Rotorstorm is back again as Transformers Universe Whirl. I'd never owned the Rotorstorm mould before and for a 92 toy it's rather good. Looks like a helicopter, nice flip down weapon gimmick, decent looking robot mode with slightly limited articulation yes..... The light blue is swapped for a darker blue, the grey blue for beigey grey, the darker blue for grey and the pink translucent plastic becomes a fabulous clear yellow colour which looks great through the lightpipe in the head

Unlike the previous US release he has missiles. These aren't the Turbomaster missile, rather a new mould featuring a + shaped end with corresponding modification to the launchers - they won;t work with the original launchers on Rotorstorm or another Turbomaster toy. The missiles are moulded in burgundy, a popular colour in the Universe toys. They would have been nicer in transparent red - a little hobby horse of mine about missiles - I think missiles in transparent colours look more like laser blasts. The missiles don't include slots so can't be mounted on the existing missile storage points on the landing struts.

Whirl was available with two recoloured Minicons: new versions of Gunbarrel (from the Air Military Team) and Makeshift (from the Emergency Team)...... which is possibly a mistake - from these two Minicon teams Prowl, the Police Car from the Emergency Team, should have come with him as Whirl is the only one of the Universe toys that the Minicon teams were repackaged with that can hold Prowl in his weapon mode. Which leads me on to a little moan ......

One of the best things about the Armada Beast was that they'd all been slightly remoulded to accommodate dead Minicon ports. Here there's no remoulding in sight. Now with the Beast Machines toys recycled in universe a minor bit of remoulding (especially for Stockade and Fireflight) could have replaced their spark crystals with Minicon hard points. Whirl's still got the old missile holders on his wings - not used for anything on this version as I mentioned above - which would be an ideal place to put hardpoints. I'm all for repackaging Minicons in different colours with older toys but a little work on the older toy can enhance it's play value with it's new counterparts a great deal.

Rant over.

Another decent repaint, Rotorstorm has been served well on the versions subsequent to his initial release.

[Philip Ayres]

Stalker

Stalker is the Decepticon Predator Mega sized opponent for Rotorstorm - see the Rotorstorm review for more on the Turbomasters & Predators. Like Rotorstorm he breaks ranks with the rest of his Predator kin by being land based as opposed to the aircraft modes used by the smaller jets and their leader Skyquake. Stalker does pick up on one of the other main Decepticon themes - he's a military vehicle, in this case a missile launcher. The bulk of the vehicle is sea green with pinkish purple missile mount & vehicle treads - the fixed treads themselves are painted grey and have small wheels mounted within with the covers being the moulded colour- with a white missile that has a black engine and clear green nose cone, the same colour as the clear plastic used on the other Predators.

There's a sea green radar dish that can be mounted in one of the larger holes on the rear tread covers - beside these are two smaller holes which can be used to mount Stalker's gold Predator missile launcher on. Stalker comes with five green Predator missiles - one for the launcher and two for mounting on each side of the vehicle. What's interesting is the vehicle has *three* missile mounting points on each side - two on the rear tread cover, one on the front.

The missile can elevate up & down and can be removed from it's launcher - it's held on by a 5mm peg. The rocket also serves as a Megavisor scope - place the engine to your eye and push the clear peg forward & up to lower into place a picture showing a schematic vehicle mode image of Rotorstorm. Alternately pulling back on the black peg opens a slot on the top of the missile which allows you to attach a Predator jet to display the Megavisor data that they carry. The jets can ride on top of Stalker in a combined mode or you can separate the missile from Stalker to act as a booster for the jet.

Transformation: Remove the missile. Fold the rear treads up and forwards from the back 90 degrees. Fold the arms out from behind the toy. Fold the missile mount back and down 180 degrees. Fold the head up from the back of the vehicle. Turn the vehicle over and open the doors between the front tracks on the underside. Fold the front of the vehicle down & forward from the middle to serve as the legs. Close the doors. Rotate 180 degrees at the waist. Fold the arms down at the shoulders. Remove the missile launcher and place into the hand. Place the missile launcher into the spare large shoulder peg hole.

Stalker's robot mode is a brick of the highest order: his arms rotate at the shoulders, the waist turns and essentially that's it. Rotating the shoulders back 90 degrees will let you slightly bend the arm in across the chest but no more than about 20 degrees of movement is possible. The legs bend a little at knees - more if the doors are open - and you can get a one leg pointing back pose out of him. When you see this you realise quite how good his compatriot Rotorstorm is in the articulation stakes ! I'm sure if we started again now we could easily get more leg and arm articulation. Revealed in this mode is the black of the upper legs (only just in the case of the arms !) waist with a pale green lightpiped visor on his faceplated head, which in some ways does resemble Soundwave and Optimus Prime in shape - in fact Stalker is down as the Predator communications expert so the resemblance to Soundwave may not be coincidental (and is certainly played on later !)

OK it's a brick. But it's a brick with a decent vehicle mode, good solid robot mode and a decent gimmick allowing it to operate with other toys. I say you need one.

Machine Wars Soundwave

Stalker returns in Machine Wars, this time changing his name to play up the resemblance to Soundwave. Sea green becomes silver grey, purple becomes burgundy and the clear green becomes clear blue. This version of the toy looses the Predator gun & smaller Predator missiles and modifies the larger missile to remove the built in Megavisor image though data images from the smaller planes should still be displayed using this toy.

Missiles for Machine Wars Soundwave can be sourced from Machine Wars Starscream where they come in grey or green and are compatible with the original Predator missile launcher.

An authentic looking colour scheme for thevehicle , but one with little links to the character name.

Universe Soundwave

As I said before Soundwave (aka Euro Stalker) is a brick of the highest order. But this time he's a nice looking brick with the sight gimmick in tact. His own sight panel now shows an Autobot symbol in a crosshairs. I've only got one Predator jet to try with him but they combine together fine allowing him to display the jet's Megavisor data image. The colour scheme used on this toy swaps purple for sea green , grey for purple, yellow (? ? ? ? ? why ? ? ? ? ?) for black and uses a darker clear green. The yellow is really the only let down, especially on the head where black, purple or blue would have bought out the Soundwave resemblance as was obviously intended by the colours used on the rest of the toy. Again the smaller missiles and launcher are missing - though Universe King Atlas has a supply of the missiles in a bright yellow.

When I spoke about Rotorstorm I mentioned about remoulding his missile mounts to become Minicon pegs. Although Soundwave doesn't have a Minicon the same modifications to the toy would have improved it. Additionally Soundwave could sorely use having his fist holes enlarged to the standard 5mm size to allow him to use modern weapons and to hold his radar dish and missile in his hand.

Soundwave comes with Spacecase, a repaint of the G2 Cyberjet Spacecase.

Generally very decent but the yellow lets the side down I'm afraid.

[Philip Ayres]

Talon

As I outlined in the Rotorstorm review the Predators & Turbomasters are very much a back to basic approach for Transformers consisting of cars for Autobots and planes for Decepticons. But the small Predator jets are breaking new ground: They are the first range of small Decepticon jets. It's always bugged me that the Decepticons didn't have a small, pocket money sized version of their major form ! From the start there's been small Autobot cars - Minibots then Throttlebots but there's never been a range of small Decepticon jets before. When the combiners started up the Autobots got the planes. The first carded Decepticon planes were Needlenose and Windsweeper in 1988 followed by a pack of Micromasters.

Talon is an F16 jet, the form taken by the original Decepticon Jets Starscream, Thundercracker & Skywarp. He's mainly sea green/blue in colour so not hugely removed from Thundercracker's colour palate then. Like all the Predators he has a cockpit canopy moulded in clear yellow/green plastic and a grey fold down landing gear under the nose.

Under the plane he carries the data chip for the Megavisor gimmick for the larger Predator toys. Find the grey square behind the landing gear and fold it back 90 degrees. Locking this onto the larger toys (or by lowering the plastic picture down) reveals a picture of a schematic vehicle mode image of Thunder Clash

Talon comes with a gold Predator launcher and three missiles - one mounts under each wing while the other is for the launcher. While there's no official place to store the launcher in jet mode - would a hole under the nose have hurt ?- you can mount it into one of the robot's hands.

TF: Simple. Fold the landing gear down and the Megavisor data chip in. Pull back on the jet so the back forms the legs, fold the feet out the underside of the jet and fold the nose down. An identical TF is used for three of the Predator jets.

The robot has been moulded to closely resemble the robot modes of the G1 jets complete with the cockpit on the chest and the mechanically parts flanking it. The head resembles Optimus Prime & Soundwave - a popular head design - and like the other Predators & Turbomasters - is one of the first to use a lightpipe for the eyes in the same colour as the cockpit canopy. The articulation is pretty simple by today's standards and is essentially a brick apart from the shoulders which allow the arms to move from in the vertical pointing down to horizontal in front of him. Each arm has a small (less than 2mm) peg hole that allows them to hold the Predator missile launchers. The hole runs through both hands so he could hold a weapon top and bottom of both hands.

Talon was also available in Japan as Moon Jet in the Operation Combination TF-08 two-pack with Checker Road (Hurricane).

Overall: A modern fan might think it's a little simple but it's a decent smaller Decepticon jet - something severely lacking in Transformers at the time, and not much improved now, a reduction in size for a previously released vehicle with a new design feature, a decent launcher and a gimmick for interacting with larger toys. You can't go wrong really.

Possible Recolours

The time has probably passed for this mould to be recoloured. If it were around today it would have been out numerous times repainted as Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Sunstorm and Acid Storm (amongst others)

A modern re-release would almost certainly require a new launcher and weapon - the Predator launchers would fail US safety tests and indeed have been removed from every US recolour of Stalker & Skyquake. If a different weapon were included maybe the arm could be retooled to accommodate a 5mm peg hole - there's enough plastic there to take one - allowing it to hold most modern weapons.

[Philip Ayres]

Skydive

See the Rotorstorm, Stalker & Talon reviews for more on the Predators & Turbomasters in general.

But I'll reiterate that the Predators represent a back to basic approach for Transformers consisting of cars for Autobots and planes for Decepticons. But the small Predator jets are breaking new ground: They are the first range of small Decepticon jets. It's always bugged me that the Decepticons didn't have a small, pocket money sized version of their major form ! From the start there's been small Autobot cars - Minibots then Throttlebots but there's never been a range of small Decepticon jets before. When the combiners started up the Autobots got the planes. The first carded Decepticon planes were Needlenose and Windsweeper in 1988 followed by a pack of Micromasters.

Skydive is Northrop YF-23 Black Widow II fighter jet. He's purple in colour, so bang on the money for a Decepticon. Like all the Predators he has a cockpit canopy moulded in clear yellow/green plastic and a grey fold down landing gear under the nose.

Under the plane he carries the data chip for the Megavisor gimmick for the larger Predator toys. Find the grey square behind the landing gear and fold it back 90 degrees. Locking this onto the larger toys (or by lowering the plastic picture down) reveals a picture of all four smaller Turbomasters in car mode: Boss, Flash, Hurricane and Scorch. What's interesting about Boss is he's clearly painted red. Why ? Read the Boss review ;-0

Skydive comes with a gold Predator launcher and three missiles - one mounts under each wing while the other is for the launcher. While there's no official place to store the launcher in jet mode - would a hole under the nose have hurt ?- you can mount it into one of the robot's hands.

TF: Simple. Fold the landing gear down and the Megavisor data chip in. Pull back on the jet so the back forms the legs, fold the feet out the underside of the jet and fold the nose down. An identical TF is used for three of the Predator jets.

Like all the other Predators the robot has been moulded to resemble the robot modes of the G1 jets with the cockpit and nose down the centre of the chest. The head has a face and like the other Predators & Turbomasters is one of the first to use a lightpipe for the eyes in the same colour as the cockpit canopy. The top of the head has a V shaped crest. The articulation is pretty simple by today's standards and is essentially a brick apart from the shoulders which allow the arms to move from in the vertical pointing down to horizontal in front of him. Each arm has a small (less than 2mm) peg hole that allows them to hold the Predator missile launchers. The hole runs through both hands so he could hold a weapon top and bottom of both hands.

Skydive was also available in Japan as Dark Jet in the Operation Combination TF-06 two-pack with Spin Road (Flash)

Overall: A modern fan might think it's a little simple but it's a decent smaller Decepticon jet - something severely lacking in Transformers at the time, and not much improved now, a reduction in size for a previously released vehicle with a new design feature, a decent launcher and a gimmick for interacting with larger toys. You can't go wrong really.

Possible Recolours

The time has probably passed for this mould to be recoloured. But you could have repainted it in virtually any colour ! Although the toy has never been repainted the boxart has been used again for Machine Wars Thundercracker & Skywarp so maybe it would be nice to see repainted in those colours. The Japanese name also implies that a black version might look good !

A modern re-release would almost certainly require a new launcher and weapon - the Predator launchers would fail US safety tests and indeed have been removed from every US recolour of Stalker & Skyquake. If a different weapon were included maybe the arm could be retooled to accommodate a 5mm peg hole - there's enough plastic there to take one - allowing it to hold most modern weapons.

[blueshift]

Whilst you're on the Euro stuff, it might be interesting to note the Block Town recolours, that never came out:

tfwiki.net/wiki/Block_Town

[Philip Ayres]

Seen those before in the back of a Tomart. It's only relly the Predators & Turbomasters I'm interested in here though.

IIRC those cars and jets did come out in the US

[Philip Ayres]

Snare

See the Rotorstorm, Stalker & Talon reviews for more on the Predators & Turbomasters in general.

But I'll reiterate that the Predators represent a back to basic approach for Transformers consisting of cars for Autobots and planes for Decepticons. But the small Predator jets are breaking new ground: They are the first range of small Decepticon jets. It's always bugged me that the Decepticons didn't have a small, pocket money sized version of their major form ! From the start there's been small Autobot cars - Minibots then Throttlebots but there's never been a range of small Decepticon jets before. When the combiners started up the Autobots got the planes. The first carded Decepticon planes were Needlenose and Windsweeper in 1988 followed by a pack of Micromasters.

Snare is Grumman X-29 jet which is the inspiration for the GI Joe Conquest X-30 later becoming the vehicle mode for Cyberjet Spacecase and his legion of repaints. This style of jet features swept forward wings and unlike the Conquest has a single vertical tailfin. He's bright red in colour which , unlike the Autobot cars, detracts from his plane mode - maybe a camouflage green like Strafe might have been better. Like all the Predators he has a cockpit canopy moulded in clear yellow/green plastic and a grey fold down landing gear under the nose.

Under the plane he carries the data chip for the Megavisor gimmick for the larger Predator toys. Find the grey square behind the landing gear and fold it back 90 degrees. Locking this onto the larger toys (or by lowering the plastic picture down) reveals a picture of Turbomaster Boss in robot mode - quite appropriate as he was packed with Boss in his Japanese vs pack.

Snare comes with a gold Predator launcher and three missiles - one mounts under each wing while the other is for the launcher. While there's no official place to store the launcher in jet mode - would a hole under the nose have hurt ?- you can mount it into one of the robot's hands.

TF: Simple. Fold the landing gear down and the Megavisor data chip in. Pull back on the underside of jet so the back of the underside forms the legs, fold the feet out the underside of the jet and fold the nose down. An identical TF is used for three of the Predator jets.

Like all the other Predators the robot has been moulded to resemble the robot modes of the G1 jets with the cockpit and nose down the centre of the chest. The head has a faceplate and like the other Predators & Turbomasters is one of the first to use a lightpipe for the eyes in the same colour as the cockpit canopy. The articulation is pretty simple by today's standards and is essentially a brick apart from the shoulders which allow the arms to move. Each arm has a small (less than 2mm) peg hole that allows them to hold the Predator missile launchers. The hole runs through both hands so he could hold a weapon top and bottom of both hands.

Overall: A modern fan might think it's a little simple but it's a decent smaller Decepticon jet - something severely lacking in Transformers at the time, and not much improved now, a reduction in size for a previously released vehicle with a new design feature, a decent launcher and a gimmick for interacting with larger toys. It's main drawback is that the red doesn't suit the vehicle mode too well, and is a rare example of it not being that good for the robot either - a better colour is needed for a Decepticon.

Snare was also available in Japan as Flare Jet in the Operation Combination TF-09 two-pack with Mach Road (Boss)

Possible Recolours

The time has probably passed for this mould to be recoloured. But a better choice of colour - purple, black, grey or green - might help the mould.

A modern re-release would almost certainly require a new launcher and weapon - the Predator launchers would fail US safety tests and indeed have been removed from every US recolour of Stalker & Skyquake. If a different weapon were included maybe the arm could be retooled to accommodate a 5mm peg hole - there's enough plastic there to take one - allowing it to hold most modern weapons.

[Philip Ayres]

Now I've had more time to think on it I believe that Snare may be the victim of yet another Hasbro painting error at the factory (see also: Sideswipe & Sunstreaker, Universe Ransack and many others)

I think he should be blue/grey.

[Philip Ayres]

Falcon

See the Rotorstorm, Stalker & Talon reviews for more on the Predators & Turbomasters in general.

But I'll reiterate that the Predators represent a back to basic approach for Transformers consisting of cars for Autobots and planes for Decepticons. But the small Predator jets are breaking new ground: They are the first range of small Decepticon jets. It's always bugged me that the Decepticons didn't have a small, pocket money sized version of their major form ! From the start there's been small Autobot cars - Minibots then Throttlebots but there's never been a range of small Decepticon jets before. When the combiners started up the Autobots got the planes. The first carded Decepticon planes were Needlenose and Windsweeper in 1988 followed by a pack of Micromasters.

Falcon is Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk stealth jet which I think is the first time the actual Stealth jet has been a Transformer vehicle mode - several concepts and Blackbirds have been used before. Like all the Predators he has a cockpit canopy moulded in clear yellow/green plastic and a grey fold down landing gear under the nose.

Under the plane he carries the data chip for the Megavisor gimmick for the larger Predator toys. Find the grey square behind the landing gear and fold it back 90 degrees. Locking this onto the larger toys (or by lowering the plastic picture down) reveals a targeting image.

Falcon comes with a gold Predator launcher and three missiles - one mounts under each wing while the other is for the launcher. While there's no official place to store the launcher in jet mode - would a hole under the nose have hurt ?- you can mount it into one of the robot's hands.

TF: Simple, but slightly different from the other Predator jets. Fold the landing gear up and the Megavisor data chip in. Fold the legs forward from under the jet so they stick out the nose. Fold the nose down onto the underside of the back of the jet.

Like all the other Predators the robot has been moulded to resemble the robot modes of the G1 jets with the cockpit and nose down the centre of the chest. The use of this design gives four different jets a very unified appearance despite their different jet modes. All also have the black arms & feet (the other three have black upper legs too where they extend - Falcon's fold out and are painted blue) The head - again moulded in black like the other three - has a gold face (another common feature - the face or faceplate is gold on all four) and like the other Predators & Turbomasters is one of the first to use a lightpipe for the eyes, which is the same colour as the cockpit canopy. The articulation is one up on the other Predators - as well as the shoulders which allow the arms to move we have some forward movement at the hips as part of the TF. Each arm has a small (less than 2mm) peg hole that allows them to hold the Predator missile launchers. The hole runs through both hands so he could hold a weapon top and bottom of both hands.

Overall: A modern fan might think it's a little simple but it's a decent smaller Decepticon jet - something severely lacking in Transformers at the time, and not much improved now, a reduction in size for a previously released vehicle with a new design feature, a decent launcher and a gimmick for interacting with larger toys. He's a little different from the other three and adds a little variety to the line.

Falcon was also available in Japan as Shadow Jet in the Operation Combination TF-07 two-pack with Fire Road (Scorch)

Possible Recolours

The time has probably passed for this mould to be recoloured. But Falcon's card art was recoloured to serve as the art for Machine Wars Megatron & Megaplex - maybe these two colour schemes could be used on a repaint ?

A modern re-release would almost certainly require a new launcher and weapon - the Predator launchers would fail US safety tests and indeed have been removed from every US recolour of Stalker & Skyquake. If a different weapon were included maybe the arm could be retooled to accommodate a 5mm peg hole - there's enough plastic there to take one - allowing it to hold most modern weapons.

[Philip Ayres]

I've owned all four Predator jets over time. OK all I have here at the moment is a damaged Skydive and a Predator launcher with no handle, but I thought I knew enough to review them.

I've just dug Generations out for some info on the Turbomasters. It appears to show the other three Predators - Talon, Snare & Falcon - in jet mode with the missile launcher mounted under the cockpit. Can this be done ? Would someone test it for me please ?

[Jaymz]

Apr 12, 2009 16:13:28 GMT Philip Ayres said:

It appears to show the other three Predators - Talon, Snare & Falcon - in jet mode with the missile launcher mounted under the cockpit. Can this be done ? Would someone test it for me please ?

I don't have access to the toys at the moment, but pictures on transformertoys.co.uk show 3 of them with the rocket launcher mounted underneath in jet mode:

Falcon
Skydive
Snare
Talon

They also have pics of KOs of those jets with different colour schemes.

Also, I used to have all of the instruction scans, but computer is currently dead. Did find Falcon's on the old laptop though:
Falcon Instructions

See 2nd panel!

[Bogatan]

While my ocd has mostly focused on Thunderclash and Hyperdrive one of the things I have noticed and love is that the Turbomasters and Predators are the most uniform of teams ever made. While other groups like the Dinobots, Constructicons and Insecticons have all shared an almost identical colour scheme, the turbomasters and predators share secondary colours that uniform while they all get to look unique. I know I've mentioned this in my Hyperdrive thread but I think its worth repeating here.

Turbomasters have a dark blue head and mould allowing upper arms and legs. Windows are transparent red as are the eyes. All have silver faces except Thunderclash, a sign of seniority?

Predators replace the blue with black and more often than not the whole arm is black. The red is replaced by green. All have gold/bronze faces and also come with the same missile launcher.

And of course they share common missiles. I only owned Snare when they were released, with Rotorstorm a few years later, then Machine Wars Prime the year after and a loose Skyquake around the same time but the more of them I get the more I appriciate the work that went in to them.

I recently got Pyro and found he to shares most of the Turbomaster features, the only big departure is the amount of black, Turbomasters came with no black besides one or two having black wheels.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Boss

For me Turbomasters Cars don't present as much attraction as the Predator Jets. The Predators are breaking new ground by *finally* giving the Decepticons smaller jets whereas the Turbomasters are just another set of smaller Autobot cars - though to be fair they're larger than the Minibots and Throttlebots and getting on for the size of some smaller G1 cars from the first two years

I'll summarise what's common to all four of the smaller Turbomasters before we start:

* All come with a missile launcher and three yellow missiles - one in the weapon while the other two mount on the car/robot via a slit in the side of the missile
* All have pink clear plastic forming their windscreens, front headlights, part of their missile launcher and a lightpipe powering the eyes.
* All have hidden robot parts cast in blue - this colour is also used to form most of the rest of the launcher with the exception of the trigger & a ring around the barrel which are the colour of the rest of the vehicle.
* All have silver faces.

I'm going to start with Boss, mainly because I've got something to really say about this toy.

Boss is a blue (tending to grey) sports car with a large turbine on the front formed from the missile launcher - think 80's/90's Batmobile and you won't be far off. There's a spoiler at the rear of the vehicle into which the missiles plug. The turbine at the front pivots up and the missile can be fired forward. He's the only Turbomaster to mount his missile at the front of the car.

TF: Remove the launcher from the front of the car - it's held in by two pins that extend out the sides of the launcher. Fold the rear of the car back & down to form the legs which face downwards. Rotate at the waist 180 degrees so the legs face up. Bend down the sides of the front of the car which would have been next to the missile launcher. Rotate the chest panel 180 degrees so the windscreen points toward the feet. Fold the head out from within the back - using a lever to help you might be a good idea - and place the launcher in his hands.

The resulting robot reveals the darker blue robot parts mentioned above including one of the very best paint for plastic matches I've ever seen with the section of upper arm revealed having been painted over blue plastic. The head is a very familiar visored form with antennae to each side. If this isn't bringing a particular G1 character to mind well see bellow..... The arms raise at the shoulders till they are pointing out in front of him. If you examine the hands it appears as if the fist moulding is upside down and on the wrong arm.

Boss was sold in Japan as Mach Road in the Operation Combination TF-09 VS pack with Flare Jet (Snare)

I think Boss has been the victim of one of Hasbro's periodic muck ups at the factory

1) The name by itself implies leadership.
2) Skydive's Megavisor data slide shows Boss in red
3) Snare - his VS partner - looks bad in red.
4) That head sculpt .....

I think Boss aught to be Optimus Prime. Swap the light blue for red and he's a dead ringer. Stick the light blue onto Snare and he looks better as a jet. Confronted by a factory muck up Hasbro did the best they could and gave him a new name. Sillier things have happened (See Sideswipe/Sunstreaker and Universe Ransack amongst others). So what I'm after now is for someone to custom me one up !

Overall: Decent as it is, even better if they'd have got the colours right !

Future Repaints

The obvious Optimus Prime one outlined above would look even better if you chuck in swapping the clear pink for clear blue. Then you're into a whole world of Ultra Magnus and Scourge/Nemesis Prime colours. Come to think of it Scourge/Nemesis Prime would look rather decent since the vehicle mode would be even more like the Batmobile.Bundle em all up with the G1 jet repaints of Predator Talon and you've got a winning convention set I think.

[Philip Ayres]

Prototype Boss with the hands the right way up

[Bogatan]

I've been thinking for weeks how much Boss reminds me of the Bat Optimus Primal.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Yeah I can see that. I think you'll agree the evidence is pretty conclusive

[Bogatan]

I can see it, but according to the translated interviews in the new TF book the entire 92 line was designed by one person meaning he also did Thunderclash which fits the leader bot role better and the Hyperdrive design which is clearly meant to be Optimus Prime like. I suppose he could have envisaged the line like some kind of prequel series with a young optimus prime or Boss was intended as the equvilant of Optimus Minor or a Hot Rod like future Prime. Or it was just a way of sneaking a Prime into the line possibly after Hyperdrive was cancelled.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Either way I now want a Boss in red !

[Philip Ayres]

Flash

For me Turbomasters Cars don't present as much attraction as the Predator Jets. The Predators are breaking new ground by *finally* giving the Decepticons smaller jets whereas the Turbomasters are just another set of smaller Autobot cars - though to be fair they're larger than the Minibots and Throttlebots and getting on for the size of some smaller G1 cars from the first two years

I'll summarise what's common to all four of the smaller Turbomasters before we start:

* All come with a missile launcher and three yellow missiles - one in the weapon while the other two mount on the car/robot via a slit in the side of the missile
* All have pink clear plastic forming their windscreens, front headlights, part of their missile launcher and a lightpipe powering the eyes - also common to both larger Turbomasters.
* All have hidden robot parts cast in blue - this colour is also used to form most of the rest of the launcher with the exception of the trigger & a ring around the barrel which are the colour of the rest of the vehicle - this colour is also used on both larger Turbomastesrs.
* All have silver faces.

Flash is a red sportscar - the front and passenger compartment are similar to Sideswipe whereas the sides have the same set of horizontal flats as seen on Action Master Wheeljack's Turboracer. The back of the car is flat - almost pickup truck style, except for two (painted) blue fins that stick up. There's a peg hole on this flatbed into which his Turbomaster launcher can be plugged so it faces forward, Two more small fins, this time in red, point out the side of the car for you to mount two of his yellow turbomaster missiles on. The passenger compartment and doors are moulded in clear pink plastic with red paint over the top - another very good match with the plastic - see Boss.

TF: remove the missile launcher. Fold the back of the car back 180 degrees to form the lower legs and fold the front of the car forward 90 degrees. Stand. Pull each door out to the sides and back, then fold forward 90 degrees. Fold the arms down from inside the doors and fold the head up.

Like all the other Turbomasters his articulation is a little limited with the arms swinging up to the side (as part of the TF) and bending at the elbows. The head has a face and a V shaped crest with an additional crest out of the top of the head in the pink plastic that forms the lightpipe. Most of the toy continues to be red save the upper limb, body and head which are the blue common to the other Turbomasters.

Perfectly adequate toy for the time, and probably the best of the four small Turbomasters.

Flash is one of a small number of Transformer toys to share his name with a GI Joe figure. He's not the only one released in 1992 to do so.

Flash was also available in Japan as Spin Road in the Operation Combination TF-06 two-pack with Dark Jet (Skydive)

[Philip Ayres]

Scorch

Scorch is a pickup truck - very similar to the Toyota Hilux which serves as the basis for both Trailbreaker & Hoist. In fact in the Diaclone line there's a yellow version of Trailbreaker which looks quite similar to Scorch - see www.diaclone.net/orid/dia040/index.html His Turbomaster engine sits in the space on top of his flatbed at the back of the truck - with it removed he looks better than several of the Turbomasters, but the flatbed is a little short for most pickups. The weapon tilts upwards slightly, so can be fired in vehicle mode, and has the pink rim at the back making it look like someone's stuck a dirty big rocket on him (which may be the intention for the Turbomaster Subgroup) Scorch's two spare missiles are stored on tabs above the rear wheel arches.

TF remove the weapon and set aside for later. Fold the flatbed back 180 degrees to form the lower legs and feet. Turn over &stand. Fold the front wheels down so they and the attached pieces of plastic stick out the front of the robot. Fold them back so they are beside the cab windows. Fold the cab and bonnet forward 90 degrees. Fold the bonnet down. Fold the head up from the back through the top of the cab. Fold the forearms down.

The Trailbreaker resemblance continues in robot mode with the cab and bonnet in the same configuration as can be found on the older toy. The head isn't dissimilar with a large visor - lightpiped in pink - but what it reminded me of the most was Armada Red Alert. With Wheeljack's ears. Articulation is a little lacking - the knees bend together as part of the TF and the elbows bend. The biggest problem I have with this toy are the shoulders - we have the body of the toy and then the arm is connected to the body by a strut running down to the hip. At no point is this strut anchored anywhere to the toy and especially not at the shoulder itself which creates a visible gap and as the hinge at the hip wears it means the arms flop about somewhat especially the one laden down with the gun.

And yet somehow the toy has character. I'm not sure quite what it is, possibly the Trailbreakerness showing through, but I like him loads.

Scorch was released in some European countries as Dragon - see www.cobraislandtoys.com/tf/1992/scorch.html for a picture of the tech spec featuring this name - and as Fireroad in Japan as part of the Operation Combination TF-07 2 pack with Shadowjet (Falcon)

[Philip Ayres]

While we're on the subject of European names....

Rotorstorm was also known as Storm & Tempete, Skyquake was Crash, Thunderclash appeared as TONNERRE, Hurricane was Tempest & Vortex and Boss was Blizzard.

Some of those aren't bad alternate names.

[The Doctor]

I vaguely recall Clench having another name in Operation: Combination but I'm jiggered if I can remember it. Or was it, Skyquake. One of the two of them was the villain.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Clench is Colossus and Pyro is Spark iirc.

[The Doctor]

Spark! I think that was the name of the main baddie.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Hurricane

`Hurricane is a white Le Mans style racer. I had a matchbox version of this when I was younger and it's the only car that I had that would go round the loop on my racing set. The Transformers version has a clear pink windscreen & headlights and two yellow Turbomasters missiles mounted either side of a large blue engine which itself acts as a missile launcher for a third missile.

Transformation: Unpeg the engine. Fold the rear of the vehicle back 180 degrees to form the legs. Pull the sides of the vehicle out to form the arms. Fold the front of the vehicle forward 180 degrees to form the chest. Fold the head up from the car window. Place the Turbomaster engine in his hand as a missile launcher.

Most of Hurricane's robot mode is white like the car but we've got some more of the blue revealed on the upper limbs and head. The head is lightpiped - a new innovation for 1992 - with the same pink plastic as the car's windscreen. At this point Hasbro are starting to improve the articulation on their toys so even though he's still a brick he's a brick with arms that turn at the shoulders and bend at the elbows.

Of the four Turbomaster cars he's probably the least interesting. But lightpipes, proper moving arms and decently sprung missile launchers were quite a revolution for the time.

Hurricane was sold in Europe in 1992 & 1993 where in some countries he was known as Blizzard. In Japan he was sold in 1992's Operation Combination toyline where he was named Checker Road and available with Moon Jet (Predators Talon) in the set numbered TF-08.

[Bogatan]

May 3, 2009 22:05:49 GMT Philip Ayres said:

While we're on the subject of European names....

Rotorstorm was also known as Storm & Tempete, Skyquake was Crash, Thunderclash appeared as TONNERRE, Hurricane was Tempest & Vortex and Boss was Blizzard.

Some of those aren't bad alternate names.

Thunderclash was also known as Eagle.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

I got some of those wrong:

Boss = Tempest
Hurricane = Blizzard
Flash = Dragon

[Philip Ayres]

No I didn't. TFwiki.net got them wrong.

For the record:

Boss = Blizzard
Scorch = Dragon
Hurricane = Tempest

For proof see the relevant entries at www.cobraislandtoys.com/tf/1992.html

[The Doctor]

I had no idea these had different names other than Clench and Pyro.

-Ralph