Phil's Micromaster Combiner Reviews

[The Doctor]

Hovercraft are cool.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

They are. Especially if they're the new Seaspray.

[Philip Ayres]

Wheel Blaze

Wheel Blaze is a neon yellow vehicle cab with a grey front grill,so is similar to the design for Moonrock who also has a front grill of a different colour.

Transform: Fold the front of the vehicle forward 180n degrees to form the legs. Stand with the underside of the vehicle facing you and raise the arms.

Like all the Metro Squad, Wheel Blaze has grey legs but this time he comes with a dark blue chest & head which clashes somewhat with the neon yellow of the rest of the toy. He has standard Micromaster articulation of bending but linked knees & hips and arms that turn at the shoulders, but the arms are so short and set so low that the "shoulder" is effectively the elbow.

Too bright!

Road Burner

Road Burner is again neon yellow, this time on a flat trailer on which is a crane arm with a cherry picker platform on the end. The crane arm elevates up to 90 degrees on the base but unlike Missile Master or Heave the arm doesn't turn at the base. There's a joint midway along the arm which allows the arm to fold upwards but that's a bit useless because the cherry picker is fixed at the end. Surely a joint under the arm towards the end so the Cherry Picker could always be upright would have been more useful.

Transform: Fold the front of the vehicle forward 90 degrees to form the legs. Stand with the under side of the vehicle facing you and raise the arms.

We have grey legs again on this robot mode, but the chest this time is white. His arms are much larger than his partners, probably bigger than any other Micromaster with almost the entire side of the vehicle forming the arm. Standard articulation here again.

Wheel Blaze & Road Burner Combined Mode

Plug the back Wheel Blaze into the front of Road Burner forming a truck with a defined cab at the front and a cherry picker at the back. The length of the truck doesn't seem so much of a problem on this toy because the cherry picker arm stretches down a sizeable proportion of the length of the combined vehicle. `````

Wheel Blaze & Road Burner were sold as part of the Metro Squad with Power run & Strikedown and Oiler & Slide .

In Japan Wheelblaze & Roadburner and were sold with two of their Metro Squad team mates Oiler & Slide in C-365 Fire Tanker W Team with Micro Trailer #5.

The remaining two members of the Metro Squad, Powerrun & Strikedown, were sold as part of C-366 Radar Hover W Team with Micro Trailer #6 and Barrage & Heave from the Astro Squad.

The four other members of the Astro Squad, Moonrock & Missile Master and Phaser & Blast Master, were sold as C-364 Shuttle Rocket W Team with Micro Trailer #4.

[Philip Ayres]

Oiler

Oiler is a blue tractor trailer cab. He's not really got a flatbed, like Optimus Prime has tucked under his trailer. Instead the cab extends back quite some way as far as the one pair of rear wheels.

Transform: Fold the rear of the cab back 90 degrees to form the lower legs & reveal the upper legs. Stand with the top of the vehicle facing you, Fold the front of the vehicle back to reveal the head. Fold the exhaust pipes down to form the arms.

Oiler's robot mode reveals the grey upper legs common to the whole team and a head cast in the same awful neon yellow as Wheel Blaze & Road Burner's vehicle modes. The exhaust pipes on the outside of the arms make great guns!

Slide

Slide is a white oil tank, mounted on six wheels. The front pair are moulded and non functional while the back two pairs move. He looks like something that could be towed by any vehicle and as such sort of works by himself.

TF: Turn the underside of the vehicle towards you with the front at the top. On each side fold out the grey panel linking the moulded front wheel and forward of the two turning back wheels to form the arms. Fold the back of the vehicle down 180 degrees to form the legs.

We get grey arms and upper legs on this otherwise all white robot.

A far better set of colour combination than his partner and the only Micromaster combiner to use just two colours. But surely the oil tanker would have been better named Oiler than the cab ? Nice trick with the arms locking the rest of the toy in place.

Oiler & Slide Combined Mode

Plug the rear end of Oiler into the front end of Slide forming a petrol tanker transport. The illusion of a flatbed passing under the tanker is created by placing Oiler's rear wheels close to the fake wheels at the front of Slide. The elongated cab doesn't work too well in this mode, you feel as if the tanker part should be reaching further forward.

But a not bad attempt!

Oiler & Slide were sold as part of the Metro Squad with Power run & Strikedown and Wheel Blaze & Road Burner .

In Japan Wheelblaze & Roadburner and were sold with two of their Metro Squad team mates Oiler & Slide in C-365 Fire Tanker W Team with Micro Trailer #5.

The remaining two members of the Metro Squad, Powerrun & Strikedown, were sold as part of C-366 Radar Hover W Team with Micro Trailer #6 and Barrage & Heave from the Astro Squad.

The four other members of the Astro Squad, Moonrock & Missile Master and Phaser & Blast Master, were sold as C-364 Shuttle Rocket W Team with Micro Trailer #4.

[Philip Ayres]

That's the Squads done. Now for the bases!

[Philip Ayres]

Blackout

Blackout forms the front of a blue plane. He's the nose of the jet together with a pair grey engines stretching back behind him to the sides. These can be folded forward to give a better looking vehicle that almost looks like it could operate by itself.

Transform: Rotate the end of the nose 180 degrees. Fold the back of the toy back 180 degrees to form the legs. Swing connecting structure the grey engines are attached to forward 180 degrees so the engines form the arms.

The robot mode exposes some black upper legs. Looking at the robot it's obviously designed by someone outside the regular Micromaster design team,it's completely different in feel. The shoulders don't lock in place and while the knees bend as part of the Transform, they bend the wrong way. Hips and arms move as per a normal Micromaster.

Definitely bellow par in robot mode.

Spaceshot

Spaceshot is the rear of the blue plane. He's pretty useless by himself.

Transform: Fold the front half of the jet forward 180 degrees to form the legs and stand with the underside of the toy facing you.

OK.... why do the wings turn and fold back/forwards? I suppose they could form heel spurs but there really isn't any point and they might as well be fixed. The face plate is painted a horrid detail absorbing neon green which in all honestly should never be used on a Transformer again. There's what looks like a moulded landing gear sticking out of his waist which isn't at all good. Standard Micromaster articulation applies.

Just so much that you look at and think "Why?"

Blackout & Spaceshot Combined Mode

Plug the back end of Blackout into the front end of Spaceshot with the grey engines slipping under the wings. This forms a nicely proportioned blue plane with swept back wings.

At least the combined mode is quite nice!

Blackout & Spaceshot were sold in 1990 with the Micromaster Anti-Aircraft base.

[Philip Ayres]

Full-Barrel

Full-Barrel is a truck cab with a box like container on the rear that is far too small to be a trailer. The cab is mainly blue with the box being grey, apart from the front quarter which is the same colour as the cab. He's got four wheels, two at the front and another pair approximately 2/3 of the way back which means a good proportion of the box is hanging off the rear.

Transform: Fold the grey box at the back down 90 degrees to form the lower legs. Stand with the underside facing you. Do not attempt while connected to Overflow - I did and it cost me Full-Barrel's connector peg.

He becomes a blocky Micromaster robot with a maroon chest and white arms & upper legs. He has the standard Micromaster articulation of turning shoulders and bending but linked hips & knees, but the arms are short and the shoulders low and the knees are enclosed in the grey box with just a small slot for the legs to extend out the top of. There's no reason at all for the back of the box to be closed off like this so I'm wondering why they did it..... and like Blackout & Spaceshot thinking that this pair may have been designed separately from the other Micromasters.

Overflow

Overflow is a grey box on wheels. That's it, you can't say anymore, there's little in the way of features on it and he's useless without something to tow him.

Transform: Fold the back of the vehicle up 90 degrees to form the legs. Stand with the underside of the vehicle facing you.

Overflow becomes a chunky blocky Micromaster with a blue chest and white upper legs. He's got standard Micromaster articulation and although the legs are enclosed above the knee like Full-Barrel there's more leg movement possible than on his partner.

Full-Barrel & Overflow Combined Mode

Plug the rear end of Overflow into the front of Full-Barrel to form a truck with trailer aping the original Optimus Prime and, indeed, the base they're supplied with. Unfortunately the wheel placement doesn't work nearly as well as on Oiler & Slide's Combined Mode making the cab's flatbed look too short and the extra set of wheels in the middle of the trailer look odd.

Full-Barrel and Overflow were sold with the Autobot Battlefield Headquarters in 1990. Full-Barrel & Overflow were not sold in Japan.

[Philip Ayres]

Thank the lord that's over. I was running out of things to say, they all merged together after a while. Those last two were poor.

[The Doctor]

I look forward to the bases!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

So do I! But first we have a little unfinished business with the Micromaster patrols to take care of.....