Phil's Micromaster Six-Team Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Operation Combination Digger

Digger is almost the oddball toy in this set. All the other 5 members of the SixBuilder team have a direct match to a Constructicon. Digger's a little odd. Yess he is Scavenger, a mounted excavator arm & cab, but instead of the tracked base we're used to with Scavenger (and every Excavator I've ever seen) it's mounted here on a truck not unlike the base of Hook. I suspect the reason for this is to make the arms of SixBuilder look similar because like Scavenger he forms the combined mode's right arm. Where many Micromasters are static in vehicle mode (bar the wheels obviously !) Digger's main colour is orange, the same plastic used the body & legs of Gran Arm & Treader. His cab rotates and the excavator arm - dark blue like Ironlift's crane arm and Crush-Bull's shovel - is hinged at the base and half way along.

Transform: Centre the Excavator arm & cab so the arm points forward. Fold the front of the vehicle down to form the legs. Stand. Fold out the arms. If you're reading these reviews in order I'll be copy & pasting this bit into Iron Lift's review later ;-).

Standard articulation for a Micromaster is present on the robot mode which isn't anything special lacking some of the extra moulding seen on other Sixteam members.

To form SixBuilder take Digger's robot mode and sit it down by bending forward at the waist. The top of the toy is then locked onto the shoulder - Digger is the right arm - and the right hand is attached. The hands can't be swapped round on SixBuilder, you're stuck with Digger as the right arm.

Digger's got an odd vehicle mode and a plain robot mode. But the vehicle mode is a construction vehicle (the first Autobot excavator ?) and has moving parts so he wins points for this.

Digger was sold in Japan in 1992 in the Operation Combination TF-01 SixBuilder set.

Micromaster Collection Digger

Digger returns in 2003 as toy number 2 in the Micromaster Collection release of SixBuilder where he's packed with the right fist & gun of SixBuilder.

Digger's Micromaster Collection form isn't too dissimilar to his original one: he swaps the original orange for yellow, red for orange and the blue for grey giving him decent construction vehicle colours. The supplied fist is and orangey yellow, mostly painted black, which is a vital clue in solving one of the mysteries concerning the fists on later releases of SixBuilder....

Micromaster Collection Destron Digger

Digger's Destron chase repaint *finally* puts him in colours resembling the G1 Constructicons. The green used here for most parts is a brighter shade than that used on the original Constructicons, while purple is used for the windows & Decepticon symbol. Chase Destron SixBuilder pieces were packed between 1 and 2 piece per box of 12 SixBuilder pieces - 2 complete sets in each. However due to the Constructicon homage this chase set was in demand more than the others for a long time.

Destron Digger comes with the chase version of the fist & gun that his Cybertron counterpart has.

Universe Scavenger

Digger's Universe version takes the name Scavenger despite their difference in vehicle mode. The used for the toy is less bright than that used for the Destron Sixbuilder release, closer the green of the original Constructicons. There's more paint applications - purple is used extensively on the body of the robot and the cab windows - while the excavator arm is cast in black. Personally I'd have preferred purple (as used on the original Constructicons) but other wise it looks good.

Scavenger comes with the gun & head for Sixbuilder. The gun is cast in green plastic - as are the waist & legs (supplied elsewhere) - and then painted black. Why both pieces weren't cast in purple (like the chest and feet) I don't know. The head is cast in the pale green plastic used for the Constructicons and extensively painted black & silver.

[Philip Ayres]

Operation Combination Iron Lift

Iron Lift is the SixBuilder team's version of the Constructicon Hook: A crane arm & cab turntable mounted on a truckbed. I find the name for this vehicle slightly odd - Gran Arm (Grand Arm) is used for the wheeled bulldozer and I can't help feeling that the names are slightly more appropriate when swapped. Here the vehicle is cast in white (as is Mixing's chest) and the crane arm in blue. Unlike the original Hook the crane arm doesn't extend but for some reason bends in the middle (?) while the small hook on the of the arm does bend.

Here begins the copy & paste from Digger's review: To Transform: Centre the crane arm & cab so the arm points forward. Fold the front of the vehicle down to form the legs. Stand. Fold out the arms.

Standard articulation for a Micromaster is present on the robot mode which isn't anything special lacking some of the extra moulding seen on other Sixteam members. The revealed legs and body are both an orange colour the same as that used for Digger's vehicle mode.

To form SixBuilder take Iron Lift's robot mode and sit it down by bending forward at the waist. The top of the toy is then locked onto the shoulder - Iron Lift is the left arm - and the left hand is attached. The hands can't be swapped round on SixBuilder, you're stuck with Iron Lift as the left arm.

Iron Lift's design is resurrected wholesale years later to make the Minicon Longarm.

Iron Lift was sold in Japan in 1992 in the Operation Combination TF-01 SixBuilder set.

Micromaster Collection Iron Lift

Iron Lift is toy number 3 in the 2003 Micromaster Collection release of SixBuilder.

Iron Lift swaps the white for red while the orange becomes yellow and the blue of the crane arm becomes grey. The red would seem to be influenced by the Build Team member Build Cyclone/Hightower who was also a red crane.

He comes with the left fist for SixBuilder which is moulded in the same yellow plastic as the body for Treader (the truck), but with most of the yellow obscured by dark grey paint.

Micromaster Collection Destron Iron Lift

Iron Lift's Destron chase repaint puts him in colours resembling the G1 Constructicons. The green used here for most parts is a brighter shade than that used on the original Constructicons, while purple is used for the windows on both cabs. Chase Destron SixBuilder pieces were packed between 1 and 2 piece per box of 12 SixBuilder pieces - 2 complete sets in each. However due to the Constructicon homage this chase set was in demand more than the others for a long time.

Destron Iron Lift comes with the chase version of the left fist, but moulded in the same green as all the Micromasters in the set, that his Cybertron counterpart has.

Universe Hightower

Hightower is one of the Constructicon homages in the Universe Devastator set to be named differently for whatever reason - usually copyright ! He aught to be Hook, and everyone knows it. The green used for the toy is less bright than that used for the Destron SixBuilder release, closer the green of the original Constructicons. There's more paint applications - purple is used extensively on the body of the robot and the cab windows - while the crane arm is cast in black. Personally I'd have preferred purple (as used on the original Constructicons) but other wise it looks good.

Hightower comes with both of Devastator's fists. I look at these and see that they're mainly painted black with just the actual fist painted purple. Both colours are over the same green plastic as the rest of the toy. Examination of the earlier coloured SixBuilders shows that the fists are moulded on the same parts sprue as Treader/Longhaul so I can understand that they're moulded green. However on G1 Devastator both fists and lower arm attachments/launchers are purple. I feel the use of black here detracts from the combined Devastator toy and would be painting these PLUS SixBuilder's waist & gun, the shovel on Bonecruser, Scavenger's Excavator arm and Hightower's Crane Arm purple if my painting skills were up to it !

[Philip Ayres]

Operation Combination Gran Arm

Well for a start here there's some poor transliteration going on - Grand Arm would seem more sensible. Then, looking at the whole team, the Gran Arm name is perhaps more suitable to the crane (cranes have arms) where Iron Lift might have been better here.

Gran Arm is what I would have called a digger when I was younger, but am informed is a front end loader. It's a four wheeled vehicle with a shovel at the front that raises and lowers. He's the SixBuilder team's equivalent to Constructicon Scrapper except that he's a) red and b) forms the chest, not the leg, of the combined robot.

TF: Fold the shovel as far up & back as it will go. Fold the front of the vehicle down & forward. Stand. Fold the head up.

This is the 22nd Micromaster combiner part I've reviewed and this is the first time there's anything interesting to say about the articulation. Yes it's Micromaster standard: bending, but linked, knees & hip and turning shoulders. But the arms can't raise forward more than 30 degrees because of the vehicle's front wheels hanging off his chest ! Revealed colour here includes the black of the legs - they're black on every version of the toy so I think they're moulded with the vehicle wheels - and the white of the arms & head just like the bodywork of Iron Lift's vehicle mode.

To form SixBuilder's chest take Gran Arm's robot mode, folding his head down and bending his legs forward at the waist. Fold the shovel down onto his back and place him into the cavity on the chest piece with the shovel pointing up

Adequate vehicle mode but the robot mode is hampered by the wheels hanging off the chest.

Gran Arm was sold in Japan in 1992 in the Operation Combination TF-01 SixBuilder set.

Micromaster Collection Gran Arm

Gran Arm returns in 2003 as toy numberer 4 in the SixBuilder Micromaster Collection. He swaps the red for an orangey yellow and the white for red. This may be a homage to the BuildBoy/Wedge robot - both are at the centre of their combined forms.

Gram Arm is packed with the blue chest of the combined robot and it's head which is painted black & silver over yellow plastic indicating that it, like SixBuilder's hands, are moulded on the same sprue as Treader.

Micromaster Collection Destron Gran Arm

Destron Gran Arm's chase repaint *finally* puts him in colours resembling the G1 Constructicons. The green used here for most parts is a brighter shade than that used on the original Constructicons, while purple is used for the windows & Decepticon symbol. Chase Destron SixBuilder pieces were packed between 1 and 2 piece per box of 12 SixBuilder pieces - 2 complete sets in each. However due to the Constructicon homage this chase set was in demand more than the others for a long time.

Destron Gran Arm comes with the chase version of the combined robot's chest & head that his Cybertron counterpart has.

Universe Buckethead

Oh dear. Buckethead. What an awful name ! What stopped Hasbro from using Scrapper for this Constructicon themed re-release ? Similar to the Destron Gran Arm the green used here is lighter and more purple paint is used for highlighting parts of the toy.

Buckethead is packed with just the chest of the combined robot.

[Philip Ayres]

Operation Combination Treader

Treader is the tipper lorry in the SixBuilder team - their equivalent of Longhaul in the Constructicons. Treader's bodywork in this original version is black, moulded on the same parts sprue as the hands & head of the combined robot. You can't tell this just from this version - all the wheels and the legs of Crush-Bull & Gran Arm are black too - but if you look at the reissue version as well you'll see that the head & Hands change moulded colour along with Treader's bodywork. This will cause problems later..... Sadly Treader is one of two members of the SixBuilder team with no moving vehicle parts so the truck bed doesn't tip back. Boo !

TF: stand with the underside of the vehicle facing you. Fold the arms up. Fold the front of the vehicle down to form the robot's chest. Fold the robot chest back and up. Fold the head up.

The Transformation gives you a Micromaster who's body at least looks very much like Constructicon Long Haul - both have a similar chest. It's not common for a Micromaster to have a piece of vehicle bodywork on their chest - many are just a plain robot chest complete with screw hole in the middle ! Treader's robot mode reveals an orange head, body & upper legs - plastic shared with Digger vehicle mode & Iron Lift's robot parts too. Standard Micromaster articulation is again, like Gran Arm, marred by the chest getting in the way of the arms and preventing them from raising properly.

Treader forms either leg of SixBuilder: plug the back of the vehicle into the appropriate foot and attach to the knee. His Constructicon counterpart was the body & back of Devastator.

OK Vehicle mode, better than average looking Micromaster robot, but minus points for the limit on the articulation.

Treader was sold in Japan in 1992 in the Operation Combination TF-01 SixBuilder set.

Micromaster Collection Treader

Treader returns as toy number 5 in the Micromaster Collection release of SixBuilder. Black becomes orange - as do the moulded colour of the head & hands of SixBuilder (not included with Treader) while his orange body colour becomes yellow.

Micromaster Collection Treader comes with SixBuilder's right foot, cast in blue plastic.

Micromaster Collection Destron Treader

Treader's Destron chase repaint *finally* puts him in colours resembling the G1 Constructicons. The green used here for most parts is a brighter shade than that used on the original Constructicons, while purple is used for the windows & Decepticon symbol. Chase Destron SixBuilder pieces were packed between 1 and 2 piece per box of 12 SixBuilder pieces - 2 complete sets in each. However due to the Constructicon homage this chase set was in demand more than the others for a long time.

Destron Treader comes with the chase version of the combined robot's right foot that his Cybertron counterpart has.

Universe Longhaul

Treader gets the Longhaul name for his Universe release adopting a colour scheme closer the original Constructicon release with a paler green and more purple detailing on the windows, vehicle front and robot head which then gets a silver faceplate.

Although the hands and head of the combined version aren't included with this toy they once again change colour in relation to the colour of the vehicle mode for the toy, both becomes the same pale green colour, but both are heavily painted. The head is black with a silver face - quite right - but the hands are purple with black forearms. Why not paint those black too to match the forearms/missile launchers on original Devastator ?

Longhaul is sold with the right foot of Devastator.

[The Doctor]

I really do like Longhaul. He's nice and cute, albeit evil.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Operation Combination Mixing

Mixing is the concrete mixer in the SixBuilder team - their Mixmaster. Is Mixmaster the only Transformer concrete mixer whose barrel turns ? Mixing's doesn't sadly, making him one of two toys in this set with no moving parts.

TF: Stand on the rear of the vehicle with the underside facing you. Pull up & back on the cab to extend the legs. Fold the arms out.

Mixing's robot mode has the standard Micromaster articulation of turning shoulders and bending but linked together hips & knees. YES ! Last one of these don't need to describe the Micromaster Articulation again for a long time !

Mixing's vehicle mode becomes one of the legs - traditionally the left but he can be swapped with Treader to form the right - with the front of the vehicle clipping into the knee and the back onto a peg on the foot.

Mixing was sold in Japan in 1992 in the Operation Combination TF-01 SixBuilder set.

Micromaster Collection Mixing

Mixing was re-released in 2003 as part of the Six Builder Micromaster Collection where he was toy Number Six (I am not a number, I am a free Micromaster !)

His green plastic is swapped for a more aqua blue green then his legs, head and chest become red with the latter taking a layer of grey paint.

Mixing came with SixBuilder's left foot.

Micromaster Collection Destron Mixing

Mixing's Destron chase repaint *finally* puts him in colours resembling the G1 Constructicons. The green used here for most parts is a brighter shade than that used on the original Constructicons, while purple is used for the windows & Decepticon symbol. Chase Destron SixBuilder pieces were packed between 1 and 2 piece per box of 12 SixBuilder pieces - 2 complete sets in each. However due to the Constructicon homage this chase set was in demand more than the others for a long time.

Destron Mixing comes with the chase version of the combined robot's left foot that his Cybertron counterpart has.

Universe Quickmix

QUICKMIX ? ? ? ? ? Oh come on. Quickmix is an Autobot concrete mixer. What stopped them getting the MixMaster name ?

The pale green vehicle body has purple paint on the windows with the drum painted silver. Transforming to robot mode reveals more purple & black paint on the robot parts.

"Quickmix" comes with Devastator's left foot.

[Philip Ayres]

Operation Combination Sixbuilder

SixBuilder was sold in Japan in 1992 as Operation Combination gift set TF-01.

It's obvious that there's an intentional Devastator homage here both in the general theme and individual vehicles which all map easily to an orignal Constructicon. OK the "Scavenger" counterpart is on a 6 wheeled lorry base (like Hook) rather than treads but ...

The team consists of:

Crush-bull (Green Bulldozer)
Digger (Wheeled Orange Excavator)
Iron Lift (White Crane)
Gran Arm (Red Bulldozer)
Treader (Black Lorry)
Mixing (Green Concrete Mixer)

For those sensing a homage in the colours to the origial Diaclone version of Devastator: I'm afraid not. In that line the Bulldozer, Excavator & Digger were yellow, the Crane & Concrete Mixer is either red or blue (but the same colour in each set), Dump Truck is Red

Here's how the coloured plastics are used through the toys. Some colours are listed more than once because we know the parts are on different Sprues:

Green: Crush-Bull & Mixing's bodies
Orange: Digger's vehicle and Iron Lift & Treader's robot bodies
Red: Digger's robot body & Gran Arm's vehicle mode
White: Iron Lift's vehicle mode, Gran Arm's Robot Arms and Mixing's chest & upper legs
Black (1): Treader's Body and SixBuilder's Hands & Head
Black (2): vehicle wheels and Gran Arm & Crush-Bull's Upper Legs
Black (3): Gun & Upper Legs
Blue (1): Digger's excavator arm, Iron Lift's Crane Arm, Crush Bull's shovel & all four 5mm ports
Blue (2): Chest & feet

To combine the toy start by taking Gran Arm's robot mode, folding his head down and bending his legs forward at the waist. Fold the shovel down onto his back and place him into the cavity on the chest piece with the shovel pointing up. Lock the chest and wasit/leg sections together. Fold Crash Bull's head down, then bend his knees back 90 degree and his waist back about 30 degrees. Peg him onto the waist - he fits perfectly in the cutout section - with the shovel going into the small of Sixbuilder's back. Digger & Ironlift's robot modes are then sat down by bending forward at the waist. The top of each toy is then locked onto the shoulder - Digger is the right arm, Ironlift the left - and the apropriate hand attached. The hands can't be swapped round. Treader & Mixing's vehicle mode then become the legs - Treader is the right leg, Mixing is the left but they can be swapped - with the front of the vehicle clipping into the knee and the back onto a peg on the foot.

The three new six team combiners moulds introduced in 1992 all feature body parts that combine to form an aircraft when not being used to make the combined robot. Most of the body parts are the same for all three newer Sixteam toys: The chest & feet are moulded together in one colour (blue for Sixbuilder) while the legs & gun are another (black). The head & hands are moulded new for each toy but each features a 5mm peg hole (again black). To combine the pieces take the waist & legs and lock them onto the chest unit. The gun goes between the where the knees would be on the combined robot, the fists lock onto where the robot's shoulders would be then the feet peg onto the fists. The robot's head is then put onto the back of the plane upside down. The resulting vehicle is about the same size as one of the Micromaster Transports, and one Micromaster figure can stand in the middle of the chest cavity using it as a cockpit. It's not the best Transformers plane but well done for doing something with all those left over bits when SixBuilder's in it's robot/vehicles mode.

Micromaster Collection Sixbuilder

SixBuilder returned in 2003 as a Micromaster Collection toy. All six Micromasters were sold seperately & numbered, each packed with one or more parts of the combined robot:

1 Crush-bull with waist & upper legs
2 Digger with right fist & gun
3 Iron Lift with with left fist
4 Gran Arm with chest & head
5 Treader with right foot
6 Mixing with left foot

There's a lot of colour swapping for this release:

Green becomes an aqua blue green: Crush-Bull & Mixing's bodies
Orange becomes yellow: Digger's vehicle and Iron Lift & Treader's robot bodies
Red becomes orange: Digger's robot body & Gran Arm's vehicle mode
White becomes red: Iron Lift's vehicle mode, Gran Arm's Robot Arms and Mixing's chest & upper legs
Black (1) becomes orangey yellow: Treader's Body and SixBuilder's Hands & Head
Black (2) stays the same: vehicle wheels and Gran Arm & Crush-Bull's Upper Legs
Black (3) stays the same: Gun & Upper Legs
Blue (1) becomes grey: Digger's excavator arm, Iron Lift's Crane Arm, Crush Bull's shovel & all four 5mm ports
Blue (2) stays the same: Chest & feet

The overall effect here is to make a combined robot that's a vague homage to Car Robots' Build King/ Robots in Disguise Landfill. We get an orange central component, a yellow truck limb, a red crane limb and another limb in green. It's a loose homage but you can see what they're aiming for here.

Destron Sixbuilder

It would be fair to say that the chase repaints for the Micromaster Collection SixTeams didn't spark everyone's imaginations. But SixBuilder's chase repaint *everyone* wanted. It was Destron, and it was green. We got the SixBuilder team as Devastator. For every box of 12 SixBuilder Micromasters - 2 complete combined robots per box - 1 or 2 of the second set of Micromasters in the box were exchanged for their Destron chase Micromasters. All chase Micromasters come with the same combined robot part as the normal Micromaster, albeit in chase colours.

Destron SixBuilder is formed from the Six Micromaster Collection toys listed bellow. I've listed here with what would be their Constructicon names, but they still go by the names they had in their two previous Cybertron versions. This is explained in the back story. (Allegedly !)

1 Crush-bull (Bonecrusher) with waist & upper legs
2 Digger (Scavenger) with right fist & gun
3 Iron Lift (Hook) with left fist
4 Gran Arm (Scrapper) with chest & head
5 Treader (Longhaul) with right foot
6 Mixing (Mixmaster) with left foot

Most parts are now moulded in a bright green plastic - the TFU pictures give it a yellow tinge which isn't there in real life - with little in the way of paint applications - just Crush-Bull's tracks, all the cab windows and Decepticon symbols in purple. The parts that were numbered Black (2) & Black (3) above (The wheel, the gun & the legs) both remain black, while the parts that were Blue (2) (Feet & chest) become purple. I'm not sure why Black (3) wasn't purple too to match the original Devastator, but the green hands are perhaps more forgiveable as no other new paint applications are used to make this toy.

This isn't quite a G1 Devastator with various bits of the colour being off but I love it.

Devastator

The Universe release of SixBuilder is named Devastator and is made by combining the following toys which were each sold with one or more parts of the combined robot which weren't always the same as the parts sold with their Destron chase counterparts. Three of the toys get the appropriate Constructicon names but the other three gets different ones - for these I've also listed the correct (!) name.

1 Bonecrusher (Crush-bull) with waist & upper legs
2 Scavenger (Digger) with gun & head
3 Hightower (Iron Lift) with left & right fists - should be Hook
4 Buckethead (Gran Arm) with chest - should be Scrapper
5 Longhaul (Treader) with right foot
6 Quickmix (Mixing) with left foot - should be Mixmaster

The Universe release of SixBuilder was something of a surprise. For a long while it was thought that Takara exclusives couldn't be released in the west.... Then the Energon command Ravage repaint came out, almost exactly the same as the Takara version. Devastator isn't quite the same a Micromaster Collection SixBuilder: the green is flatter, closer the green of the original Constructicons, there's more paint applications too. Waist, hands and gun moulded in green - with gun & hands painted mainly black - why not purple ? Answer (as we've already indicated): Hands & head (look inside the hole for the neck post) are on the same parts sprue as the main colour used for Treader. The waist & gun are separate sheets used on all the SixCombiners so are independent to the rest of the toy so there's no excuse there for not moulding them in purple. But the hands are painted anyway - the fists are purple but the wrists (what would be the missile launchers on the Constructicons) are black. If you're painting a part why paint it black instead of purple ? I feel the use of black here detracts from the combined Devastator toy and would be painting these PLUS SixBuilder's waist & gun, the shovel on Bonecrusher, Scavenger's Excavator arm and Hightower's Crane Arm purple if my painting skills were up to it !

Even given all this it's a pretty spiffy release and there's no reason not to own it.