Phil's Micro Trailer Review

[Philip Ayres]

The Micro Trailer is a Transformers accesory sold with 14 Transforme toy sets during 1991 in Japan as part of the "Return of Convoy" line.

The trailer is a plastic container shaped like a truck with a small cab at the front and a large container at the rear. The trailer has no moving wheels - 8 are shown moulded into it's sides.

The rear door of the container folds down as a ramp revealing a space large enough to hold a Micromaster in vehicle mode. Pushing the Micromaster in causes a spring loaded platform to recess into the trailer. Pressing on a trigger - located at the bottom of the front of the Micro Trailer causes the ramp at the back of the trailer to lower and the vehicle within to be shot out at some speed.

Both Star Convoy & Grandus have space in them to store Micro Trailers. Star Convoy's are stored in his lower legs. When Star Convoy is in base or truck mode and the rear of the truck is folded down then the bright yellow knees for the robot mode can be pressed to activate the triggers on the trailer to launch the vehicles out of Star Convoy.

The Micro Trailers have four different sorts of connector on them:

The orange rear door of the trailer has mounted on it a hole and peg combination identical to those used on the Micromaster Combiners ("W" Teams in Japan). The height is at the right level to allow the Micromaster Combiners to attach to the trailer. In Theory another use for these connectors is to connect a pair of Micro Trailers back to back, but in practice the doors are recessed back fractionally too far for the peg & holes to safely meet.

On each side of the container section of the trailer there is one 5mm peg socket and one 5mm peg with a hollow centre - what would later be called a Powerlinx or Minicon post. A peg on one side is countered by a socket on the other - side on the peg is to your left and the socket to your right. This means the trailers can be connected side to side with each other. The hollow tipped peg can be used to mount Minicons on (not that this was remotely in the designers minds 20+ years before Armada & Micron Legend) while the 5mm peg allows weapons from other Micromaster toys to be mounted on the trailers. An aditional 5mm peg hole can be found in the middle of each side at the bottom to allow trailers to attach to Sky Garry in base mode.

At the front of the container section of the trailer there is a pair of attachments for a Micromaster base ramp. Having ransacked my Micromaster box for ramps, even the shortest ramp I can find has sufficent clearance to reach the ground over the cab. The level of the attachment for the ramp is slightly higher than on the four Micromaster stations.

Finally there's a square clip on the roof of the trailer to allow the trailers to be picked up by Sky Garry.

The additional pegs and sockets on the side of the transporter allow you to connect transporters side to side. The plugs may even match minicon pegs, but I have no minicons to hand to check. In addition there's 2 indentations at the front that look like they might connect to a micromaster base ramp. We never saw these in the west and yet one came with all 3 of the larger 1991 Japanese toys and the 12 team packs.

Toy Number	Microtrailer Number	Microtrailer Colour	Japanese Set name	Western Set Name	Micromasters
C-360	0	White	Sky Garry1	-	Shotbomber
C-361	1	White	Big Truck Team	Monster Truck Patrol	Big Hauler, Heavy Tread, Hydraulic and Slow Poke
C-362	2	White	Hot Rod Team	Hot Rod Patrol	Big Daddy, Greaser, Hubs & Trip-Up
C-363	3	White	Military Team	Military Patrol	Bombshock, Dropshot, Growl & Tracer
C-364	4	White	Shuttle Rocket W Team	Astro Squad	Phaser & Blastmaster
				Astro Squad	Moonrock & Missilemaster
C-365	5	White	Fire Tanker W Team	Metro Squad	Wheel Blaze & Roadbuner
				Metro Squad	Oiler & Slide
C-366	6	White	Radar Hover W Team	Metro Squad	Power Run & Strike Down
				Astro Squad	Barrage & Heave
C-367	7	White	Dump Shovel W Team	Construction Squad	Sledge & Hammer
				Construction Squad	Grit & Knockout
C-368	8	White	Crane Cannon W Team	Construction Squad	Stone Cruncher & Excavator
				Battle Squad	Direct Hit & Powerpunch
C-369	9	White	Jet Tank W Team	Battle Squad	Meltdown & Half-Track
				Battle Squad	Fireshot & Vanquish
C-372	-	Black	Star Convoy	-	Hot Rodimus
C-373	10	White	Rescue Patrol Team	Rescue Patrol	Fixit, Red Hot, Seawatch and Stakeout
C-374	11	White	Battle Patrol Team	Battle Patrol (Repaint)	Gun Lift (Big Shot), Powerbomb (Flak), Sidetrack (Sidetrack) & Sunrunner (Sunrunner)
C-375	12	White	Super Car Patrol Team	Race Track Patrol (Repaint)	Black Heat (Black Jack), Deadhour (Detour), Gingham (Hyperdrive) & Road Hugger (Road Hugger)

1 - There is a Brave recolour of Sky Garry called Death GarryGun. This toy features 3 black Micro Trailers numbered 1 to 3. All these trailers have had their launcher gimmick neutered.

The trailers add a little extra functionality to the Micromasters and some more variety to your Micromaster city.

[legios]

I must admit that I didn't realise that there was so much connectivity in the Micromaster Trailers. I knew that they could be carried by Skygarry and Deathgarry obviously but I didn't realise they could all link up, or that they had connectivity to the Micro-bases.

I always had a fondness for the idea, as something to add a bit more play value to the Micromaster teams but they have gone up a bit in my estimation now.

Karl

[Philip Ayres]

This has been written in advance of me reviewing another toy with MM trailers .....

I missed out that there's designed storage space in Star Convoy & Grandus. SC is built do that the robot's knees can act as triggers for the stored trailers when he's in truck or robot mode.

[The Doctor]

I have a fondness for the trailers. Not amazing on their own, but when used with MM's do add a certain fun factor.

-Ralph