Phil's Race Car Patrol Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Yup, I bought em to review em.

Did you know they were involved in Japanese base repaints ?

[Philip Ayres]

Freewheeler

Micromaster Freewheeler is a member of the Race Car Patrol. He's co-moulded with Roadhandler. The other two members of the team Swindler & Tailspin are co-moulded with each other. The Race Car Patrol was sold in Japan as part of the Transformers Zone line in 1990 where they were labelled the Race Car Patrol Team and numbered C-334. In this set Freewheeler is called Wheelrun.

Freewheeler's the most easily identifiable vehicle in this team. He's a yellow Lamborghini Countach. This automatically makes you think of G1 Sunstreaker , and right the way through this team we'll draw attention to which G1 Character they resemble. It's an easy game here that makes you think that maybe they were meant to be the original Autobots reborn....

TF: Fold the back of the car back to form the legs. Stand. Fold the bonnet back onto his legs.

The Sunstreaker analogy is spoilt a little in robot mode by introducing red on the upper legs, chest & head. The finished look is not unlike the later Motivator Flame . Typical Micromaster articulation: Turning shoulders and bending but linked hips & knees.

Adequate car robot, only spoilt by an over abundance of similar Micromasters later.

Deadwheeler

Freewheeler and Roadhandler are repainted in Japan to serve as the commanders for the Helicopter & ATV Micromaster bases replacing the Air Strike Patrol repaints they had originally. Freewheeler becomes Deadwheeler, the pilot of the Helicopter Skyhyper packed as Transformers Zone toy C-346.

The following colour swaps are used for this release:

Yellow becomes red
Red becomes black

This makes Deadwheeler into the Sideswipe to Freewheeler's Sunstreaker.

Don't bother looking for one. Skyhyper doesn't come cheap.

[Philip Ayres]

Roadhandler

Micromaster Roadhandler is a member of the Race Car Patrol. He's co-moulded with Freewheeler. The other two members of the team Swindler & Tailspin are co-moulded with each other. The Race Car Patrol was sold in Japan as part of the Transformers Zone line in 1990 where they were labelled the Race Car Patrol Team and numbered C-334. In this set Roadhandler keeps his original name unlike his team mates

Roadhandler is a red Pontiac Firebird Trans Am which I suppose makes him Windcharger (or the red version of Tracks that was later sold by e-Hobby as Roadrage). I'd always thought of him more as Sideswipe to the Freewheeler's Sunstreaker.

TF: Fold the back of the car back to form the legs. Stand. Fold the bonnet back onto his legs.

Robot mode reveals the missing yellow from his co-moulding on his upper legs, chest and head - complete with a Decepticon like crest and clashing bright blue faceplate. Typical Micromaster articulation: Turning shoulders and bending but linked hips & knees.

OK toy, nothing really special here, but nothing really wrong either.

Gunrunner

Freewheeler and Roadhandler are repainted in Japan to serve as the commanders for the Helicopter & ATV Micromaster bases replacing the Air Strike Patrol repaints they had originally. Roadhandler becomes Gunrunner, the driver of the ATV Landshaker packed as Transformers Zone toy C-345.

The following colour swaps are used for this release:

Yellow becomes red
Red becomes black

The colours here are very G2 Sideswipe

[blueshift]

It's worth noting that the Race Car Patrol are stylistically different - they have molded human-like arms which gives more weight to the idea that Micromasters were originally going to be more Nebulons rather than actual robots.

[Philip Ayres]

Swindler

Micromaster Swindler is a member of the Race Car Patrol. He's co-moulded with Tailspin . The other two members of the team Roadhandler & Freewheeler are co-moulded with each other. The Race Car Patrol was sold in Japan as part of the Transformers Zone line in 1990 where they were labelled the Race Car Patrol Team and numbered C-334. In this set Swinder is called Glorean.

Swindler is a grey DeLorean DMC-12. This is the same sort of car that appeared in the Back to the Future films. [url=http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Swindler>tfwiki.net[/url] suggests that the name of the Transformer might be a play on words due to the dubious business practices of DeLorean's founder. The grey car mode puts me in mind of the more silver Bluestreak.

TF: Fold the back of the car back to form the legs. Stand. Fold the bonnet forward to become his chest.

I like Micromasters without a flat chest - as many of them do - so Swindler is immediately in credit here. Revealed is a blue head and upper legs. Typical Micromaster articulation: Turning shoulders and bending but linked hips & knees.

Typical Micromaster car enlivened by a tweak to the typical TF.

Neither Swindler or his co-mould Tailspin have been repainted.

[Philip Ayres]

[url=http://www.tfu.info/1989/Autobot/Tailspin
/tailspin.htm]Tailspin[/url][/size][/b]

Micromaster Swindler is a member of the Race Car Patrol. He's co-moulded with Swindler. The other two members of the team Roadhandler & Freewheeler are co-moulded with each other. The Race Car Patrol was sold in Japan as part of the Transformers Zone line in 1990 where they were labelled the Race Car Patrol Team and numbered C-334. In this set Tailspin is called Spinchange.

Tailspin is a blue Porsche 962 racecar - the first use of this vehicle form in Transformers. Given the car's dominant colour I'm inclined to think of him as a Micromaster version of Tracks.

TF: Fold the back of the car back to form the legs. Stand. Fold the bonnet back onto his back.

Tailspin's got some lovely moulding on his robot mode with a bank of 3 moulded missiles each side of his head. Unfortunately the joint for the bonnet is high up on the back of the figure, behind the head, meaning that you can see a huge lump of car front hanging off (and above !) the head. Standard Micromaster articulation: Turning shoulders and bending but linked hips & knees.

Got a soft spot for Tailspin. Had a one armed junker for years and love the detail on the head.

Neither Tailspin or his co-mould Swindler have been repainted.

[Philip Ayres]

Graham's done some Micromaster Reviews and has reviewed this team:

www.the-hub.co.uk/race-car-patrol/