Phil's Dual Targetmaster Reviews

[Philip Ayres]

Which ones couldn't you remember?

(most people got all six)

[Philip Ayres]

Landfill with Flintlock & Silencer

The Dual Targetmasters take the Targetmaster concept, established the previous year and put a twist on it. The Targetmaster figures this year are smaller, with a simplified transformation when compared to the previous years figures. However each Targetmaster has a 5mm hole on the top side of it allowing you to attach another Targetmaster to form a combined weapon. While the Decepticons have (mainly flying) Military vehicles, the Autobots finally stake a claim for the Construction vehicles. To my mind it makes sense for the peace loving Autobots to be Construction vehicles that build things. I suspect that the need for Decepticon carded toys turned the Constructicons evil in 1985. Finally 3 years later the Autobots get their own set of Construction toys.

Landfill comes with two Targetmasters. Like all the Autobot dual Targetmasters one is yellow and the other is blue. Neither have any articulation in robot mode.

The Blue Targetmaster is Flintlock. His robot mode has his 5mm peg in his chest and dual missile arrays mounted on his shoulders. He has a cream chest & arms, plus green lower legs and face. To transform him fold the dual gun barrels our from behind the legs.

The Yellow Targetmaster is Silencer. His robot mode again has a 5mm peg in his chest but this time he has cannons mounted on his shoulders. He had brown upper legs, lower arms, cannon fronts and face. To transform him into a weapon fold both his guns barrels out from behind his legs.

Landfill is a creamy beige tipper truck carrying a brown load in the tipper at the back, similar to how Wideload's tipper is also filled. Sadly the tipper bed won't tilt backwards. I always feel a vehicle that's got a function like this should be able to fulfil that function. There's a 5mm peg hole on either side of the tipper truck that you can use to mount the Targetmasters as side cannons.

Transformation: remove the Targetmasters. Split then tipper bed in two and fold out to the sides & forward so they're beside the cab. Fold the robot's legs down from under the tipper, fold the feet up from the bottom of the legs and stand. Fold the tipper bed halves down to the sides of the robot raising the head in the process. Turn the tipper bed's load round 180 degrees to reveal the robot's arms.

Landfill's robot mode carries over the same two colours. The beige is used for the feet, chest, shoulder pads and arms while the brown is used for the head and legs. The robot looks very wide on the body and arms which tapers away dramatically when you get down to the legs. The head's a decent sculpt but I'm not sure about the blue painted face which could do with another colour of paint to pick the eyes out so they could be seen. The arms raising at the shoulders is the only real articulation here. He's got 5mm peg holes in his hands which can be used for holding his Targetmasters individually or combined as either a quad cannon or dual barrelled gun with stock. The 5mm holes found in vehicle mode are hidden away here so there's nowhere else for the Targetmasters to go in this mode.

Landfill isn't the best dual Targetmaster toy on either side. He's not got the vehicle functionality of some of the toys, or the multiple points to attach his guns or the personality.

Landfill was sold in the USA & UK as a carded toy in 1988. He was not sold in Japan.

Future Repaints

An obvious one here. Swap the beige for green and brown for purple with the blue of Flintlock becoming purple and the yellow of Silencer becoming black to make a Constructicon Longhaul

[Philip Ayres]

Quickmix with Boomer & Ricochet

Quickmix is a red Autobot concrete mixer. The barrel, as well as the rear base of the vehicle, is white plastic. Sadly, unlike his predecessor Constructicon Mixmaster, his mixing barrel doesn't turn. One either side of the barrel there's a 5mm peg hole to accommodate one of his two Targetmasters. Even given this feature I think you could have still made a turning barrel, just with an immobile ring at this point. The wheels on this toy are smooth, unlike those on Landfill & Scoop giving this toy a slightly cheap look to it.

His two Targetmasters are:

Boomer, the blue Targetmaster, who has a gold gun on his right arm and a 5mm peg on his chest. I like the chest mounted pegs, you can pretend that they're cannons. He's got red painted highlights on waist & upper legs. His single gun barrel folds out from behind his legs to turn him into a gun.

The yellow Targetmaster is Ricochet. This is the only name to be used for a Targetmaster gun and a Targetmaster wielding robot. He too has his peg on his chest but features no obvious moulded weaponry. He has off white paint on his arms & lower legs with a blue painted midriff and face. He also has a single barrel on his weapons mode which again folds out from behind his legs.

To transform Quickmix into robot mode, start by folding the rear wheel and base of the vehicle out to the sides and up to form the arms. Push the mixing barrel down locking it in place when it's whole length is horizontal. His head should pop out when you do this. Fold the front of the vehicle down & forward 180 degrees to form the lowers legs - the front grill will fold up to accommodate the upper legs. Stand with the underside of the vehicle facing you.

Quickmix's robot mode is mainly red with white arms and chest. The head is again, like Landfill, a great sculpt, and similarly ruined by some pale blue paint which hides the difference between the top of his face plate and his eyes. In theory his knees bend together as part of the TF but the only real articulation here is at the shoulders allowing the arms to raise. He's got 5mm peg holes in his hands to allow him to hold his guns (I mean you wouldn't be silly enough to make a toy like this who couldn't hold his guns in his hands would you?). He can either hold his guns in each hand or combine them into a dual barrelled gun or a large gun with stock.

Ignoring the non turning barrel and the smooth wheels, this isn't a bad toy. What happens to the mixing barrel is clever, much better than leaving it on the toy's back.

Quickmix was sold in the USA & UK as a carded toy in 1988. He was not sold in Japan.

Future Repaints

An obvious one here. Swap the red for green and white for purple with the blue of Boomer becoming purple and the yellow of Ricochet becoming black to make a Constructicon Mixmaster

[Philip Ayres]

Scoop with Holepunch & Tracer

I love front loading diggers. Scoop nearly came home with me the first day I saw him. He's got a bright orange body with a bright yellow shovel at the front attached to black arms that are hinged at the shovel, in the middle and where they meet the body of the vehicle. He's got all the movement I require from my digger toys :-) In front of the orange cab, with painted grey windows, is a 5mm peg hole, with another two found on the rear of the vehicle plus a pair on the sides of the vehicle, so you've got lots of choices how to attach his two Targetmasters. The one in front of the cab will allow you to forward mount a Targetmaster gun but will immobilise the hinge between the vehicle body & the shovel's arms.

The blue dual cannon is Holepunch. Fold the cannons back to turn him into a robot and stand on the rear of the gun with the underside facing you. He's got no moulded weapons in this mode but does have yellow paint on his chest and upper legs with gold paint on his face and waist. His 5mm peg is found between his lower legs with the corresponding 5mm hole (from the top of the gun mode) on the back of the figure behind it. Thank the lord that they're not mounted any higher on the lower body!

The yellow dual cannon is Tracer, who transforms and has the same peg & hole locations as Holepunch. He has a nicely sculpted helmet picked out in orange paint with his chest while his face is blue like his waist piece.

Each Targetmaster can be used individually or combined, with the peg of one fitting into the peghole on the other, to create a super weapon.

Transformation: Remove the Targetmasters. Raise the sides of the vehicle up. Fold the rear of the vehicle back 180 degrees to form the legs and stand with the underside of the vehicle facing you. Fold the front of the vehicle down 90 degrees. Fold the sides of the vehicle forward to form the arms, swinging the hands out from the bottom. Fold the vehicle's cab back revealing the head. Fold the shovel back over the head to form a backpack.

Orange continues to be the dominant colour on the robot mode, with yellow used for just the upper legs, hands and head. The head is another great sculpt and once again is ruined by paint, in this case white. I think he has a mouth, nose & visor but I'm not 100% sure. The major failing on the robot mode is the hands though. They're tiny, far too small to taker a 5mm peg hole, which means he can't hold his Targetmasters in his hands. They either have to be pegged into the side of his arms or mounted on the hole on the top of his chest in front of his face. There's two more 5mm holes, from the rear of the vehicle, on the front of his legs but they're not a lot of use in this mode. In theory his knees bend, and his hands bend down, but the only really useful articulation is his turning shoulders.

Despite the major failing with the hands, Scoop is a great toy with plenty of character and a great vehicle mode.

Scoop was sold in the USA & UK as a carded toy in 1988. He was not sold in Japan.

Hasbro obviously like the name because they used it the next year for a GI Joe figure.

Future Repaints

An obvious one here. Swap the orange for green and yellow for purple with the blue of Holepunch becoming purple and the yellow of Tracer becoming black to make a Constructicon Scrapper

[Philip Ayres]

Quake with Tiptop & Heater

Quake is the Decepticon Dual Targetmaster tank. The tank's body is a burgundy purple with grey tracks & turret. If we used our standard tank test on Quake he's be an instant fail: His turret doesn't turn and his gun barrel doesn't elevate. But there's a little more to him than that. As the name insinuates he comes with two Targetmasters:

The purple single barrelled gun is Tiptop. His barrel is the longest of any of the dual Targetmasters: Why it is will shortly become apparent. To transform him into a robot fold the gun barrel back into the body of the weapon and stand on the front of the weapon. His robot mode has the 5mm peg used for holding him on it's chest (Chest cannon!) He's moulded with a set of six missiles in a box on each shoulder. Both arms and the waist are painted orange while the upper legs and face are a burgundy purple similar to the colour used on Quake.

The Black dual barrelled gun is Heater. Fold the twin barrels back behind the robot's legs and stand him up to reveal his robot mode. He again has a chest mounted peg, with blue upper legs and pointed shoulders and a red waist & face.

Unlike the other dual Targetmasters, Quake seems to only have one 5mm hole for attaching the guns to, meaning they have to be combined using the 5mm hole in the top of one of them in connection with the post on the other. However there is a second 5mm port and that's currently occupied by Quake's tank barrel. This piece can be removed (and then lost, as many of the Quakes on eBay testify) revealing a 5mm peg hole, set into the body of the tank rather than the turret, which allows the tank's gun barrel to be replaced by one of the Targetmasters. Now to my mind the gun barrel is one part too many. It's function is adequately served by the Targetmasters, especially Tiptop which makes a great tank gun barrel and would even better if he were coloured black. Indeed the only point that the instructions show the gun barrel is a side on picture of the tank mode, and even there it's not clear if it's the gun barrel or a Targetmaster. My thinking is the gun barrel is a late addition to the toy.

Transformation: Remove all Targetmasters and the tank barrel. Split the back of the tank in two and fold the treads forward, via a hinge on their front corner, until both sides of the tank point out the front of the tank as the robot's legs. Fold the feet down from the legs and stand with the underside of the tank facing forward. Split the turret in two and fold out to the sides to form the arms. Fold the hands out from the arms and peg in the Targetmasters as weapons.

Quake's robot mode is surprisingly large for so small a vehicle mode with it's height effectively being double the body's length. His chest features some Prime like window detailing and is dark blue, which doesn't sit 100% well with the burgundy purple, now used for his outer legs. His inner legs, arms and head are grey with an orange face. The arms turn at the shoulders and fold back a bit as part of the Transformation. In addition to the hands, he has a 5mm port on the outside of the right forearm, a useful home for the gun formed from the tank turret, and another one you can use for storing weapons in the middle of his back.

I like Quake, I think he's the best of the Dual Targetmasters with the ability to use the Targetmasters as different tank guns being a major selling point. The inclusion of the extra tank barrel and the lack of a second spare hole to attach weapons to in tank mode muddy the issue a little and make it less obvious that this is what you should be doing. And make it harder to find a complete one on eBay now!

Quake was sold in the USA & UK as a carded toy in 1988. He was not sold in Japan.

I've seen Sea Team Minicon Oceanglide pull the same transformation trick with the turret becoming the arms but still have a revolving turret. I await a new version of Quake with a revolving turret that incorporate a pivoting 5mm port for mounting a Targetmaster gun on.

Future Repaints

Two easy repaints here: in green as Brawl or all red with the guns changing colour as the Autobot Warpath.

[Philip Ayres]

Spinister with Hairsplitter & Singe

You have to love that name !

Spinister is the Decepticon Dual Targetmaster attack helicopter. I've stated (many times) how I associate the Autobots with cars and the Decepticons with planes. Now Helicopters, which are an airborne vehicle, you'd expect to slide towards the second of these two groupings. So in the run up to 1988 when Spinister came out, how many Autobot and how many Decepticon helicopters were there?

Autobots:

1985: Whirl
1986: Blades, Springer & Sandstorm
1987: Highbrow
1998: Sky High

Total = 6

Decepticons:

1986: (a year later than the Autobots !) Vortex
1987: Battletrap (well half of him anyway)
1988: Spinister

Total = 3

The Autobots considerably outnumber the Decepticons by two to one. It's a similar story after 1988 during Generation 1:

Autobots:

1989: Crossblades
1990: Over-Run (he rides in one), Action Master Bumblebee (he's got a helicopter backpack) & Blazemaster.
In Japan we have Tracer (the Cybertron version of the Decepticon Micromaster) and Skyhyper piloted by Deadwheeler
1991: Elite Action Master Windmill
1992: Rotorstorm in Europe while in Japan we had Guard City's Fly-up.

Total = 10

Decepticons
1989: Skyhopper and in Japan Blue Bacchus the Crossblades remould & repaint.
1990: The original Decepticon Micromaster Tracer
1991: Elite Action Master Turbomaster 1992: Battle Gaea's Targethawk

Total = 5

Two to One again, and thus 16-8 over the entire line! So the Autobots have their grip on the helicopter as their Airborne mode.

Spinister is a little multicoloured with a sea green nose complete with blue painted cockpit, purple engines and undercarriage, black side wings, pink tail and grey rotors & wheels. He comes with two Targetmasters which, in a change to the norm, attach to two pegs under the wings using the 5mm holes in the top of the weapons mode to give the impression of built in weapons systems, a little like how the Targetmasters serve as tank gun barrels for Quake.

Singe is the Black Targetmaster who, like his companion, is a dual barrelled gun. Fold the gun barrels back onto the body of the gun behind what's revealed to be the robot's head when you stand it on it's rear. This is another dual TM with it's peg and corresonding socket toward the bottom of the robot mode between the lower legs, and as I said the last time thank the lord that they're not any higher. He's got grey arms & waist/belt with pale blue upper legs and face. Mounted on one shoulder are twin gun barrels while on the other is a 7 chambered missile launcher.

The purple Targetmaster is Hairsplitter is also a dual barrelled gun. The gun barrel fold back behind the feet in robot mode with the 5mm peg for holding him becoming a chest cannon while the corresponding hole is on the robot's back. He's got a gun moulded onto his right arm. Both arms and upper legs are blue while the waist and face are grey. If you fold Hairsplitter's guns back as heel spurs and plug the peg on Singe's legs into the hole in Hairsplitter's back it looks like he's giving Singe a piggy back ride.

Transformation: Remove the Targetmasters under the wing. Swing one blade of the main rotors slightly off centre to form a v shape pointing towards the rear of the helicopter. Fold the wings up. Fold the nose forward 180 degrees to form the robot's legs. Stand with the underside of the helicopter facing you and fold the rotor blades together behind the legs. Turn the body and tail of the helicopter through 180 degrees at the robot's waist. Fold the tail down onto the robot's back. Turn the head round and fold the hands down from under the arms.

Spinister's robot mode adds more colour into the mix! He's got a sea green lower half with the lower legs formed from the cockpit covered in the pale blue paint used for the canopy. This also shows up on the face trying to obscure the moulded detail which consists of a faceplate with side vents and eyes. The head is moulded in black plastic as are the hands. The chest is shocking pink while the arms are purple. He's the articulation king of the dual Targetmasters with knees that bend (not useful with no hip movement), a waist and head that turn and turning shoulders. His hands have 5mm peg holes allowing him to hold the Targetmasters either individually or combined to form a super weapon. When not in use the Targetmasters can be stored on the pegs on the side of the waist that were formerly under his wings.

A decent vehicle mode with good integration of the Targetmasters into the design and a good robot mode with a decent level of articulation for the time.

Spinister was sold in the USA & UK as a carded toy in 1988. He was not sold in Japan.

Future Repaints

How about an all grey version as the Combaticon Brawl or all in light blue as the Deluxe Autobot Wrecker Whirl.

[Philip Ayres]

Needlenose with Sunbeam & Zigzag

Needlenose and his fellow 1988 toy Windsweeper share a unique honour. In the *fifth* year of the Transformers toyline they are the first carded Decepticon jet toys. Due to being there during the early stages of the toyline I associate the Decepticons with Jet Planes (and the Autobots with cars) and find it astonishing that it took so long to get a pocket money version of the main Decepticon form took so long to produce.

Embarrassingly I can never remember Needlenose exists. I know that there's 3 Decepticon Targetmasters and that the other two are Quake & Spinister but Needlenose just escapes my mind. Thinking this was a common problem I surveyed The Hub Forum and discovered that it wasn't and everyone else remembered Needlenose due to something he did in the comics which I had completely forgotten about. Heck the only Dual Targetmaster comic appearance I can remember is Spinister's guest spot in the Dreamwave Armada series.

Needlenose is F-16XL variant of the F-16 Fighting Falcon (thank you tfwiki.net). He's got a blue nose, with painted red cockpit canopy, and a blue tail which can fold to one side, a quite unnecessary feature as it doesn't need to do that during the Transformation and is attached so loosely it can easily come off and be lost. The body of the jet and it's wings are grey while the undercarriage is the same dark blue as the nose with lilac engine outlets. There's two darker grey wheels mounted under the engines at the rear of the jet and a fold down landing gear with moving wheel (both the darker grey) that folds down form the body. There's a screw hole in the middle of the plane which is slightly too big to take a 5mm peg. On a toy that uses 5mm pegged weapons that's a big fail point. Instead the two Targetmasters, like Spinister's attach to pegs on the underside of the wings. The weapons integration doesn't work so well here as it does on Spinister and Quake but you can see they're aiming for something like the missile pods on the original Decepticon jets. I wonder if this is what they're getting at with Armada Thrust's Mini-con posts under his wings? Must try him with some of the Dual Targetmasters since no Mini-cons will fit.

Needlenose has two Targetmaster partners:

The purple single barrelled gun is Sunbeam To transform him into a robot fold the gun barrel back into the body of the weapon and stand on the front of the weapon. His robot mode has the 5mm peg usedfor holding him on it's chest (Chest cannon!) He's moulded holding a gun on his fixed left arm. Both arms and the face are painted red while the lower legs and waist are grey. He holds a gun on his left arm while a 4 port missile array is attached along the side of his right leg.

The black dual barrelled gun is Zigzag. His barrels fold behind the back of the robot mode with the peg & corresponding hole in the reverse being found towards the robot's feet. He has yellow legs and arms and a grey waist/belt and face. He doesn't have any moulded artillery instead carrying a swords in his right hand and a shield on his left arm.

Transformation: remove the Targetmasters and fold the landing gear away. Fold the nosecone onto the jet's back. Fold the sides of the undercarriage forward to form legs. Fold the engine outlets down as feet. Stand with the underside facing you. Fold each arm out to the sides from within the body - there's a tab you can sneak your finger nail under to lift with - then fold down at the shoulders - it may be easier to rotate the arms at the shoulders first - and fold the hands out. Raise the helmet up to reveal his eyes.

Hasbro: Ban faces painted greeny yellow. It looks awful. See also Fangry, Flamefeather and Ruckus: All 1988 Decepticons like Needlenose. There's a lot of grey still on this mode on the wings, chest, head and upper legs with the lower legs & waist being dark blue, the arms lilac and the helmet dark grey. Don't fold the helmet too far back as it gives him a massive forehead, instead position it just over his eyes. He can hold the Targetmasters in either hand individually or combined into a super weapon or store them on the pegs on the front of his wings. Although Spinister is he overall articulation king for the Dual Targetmasters, Needlenose has the best arms which turn at the shoulders as well as raising out to the sides.

Lots to like here.

Needlenose was sold with his Targetmaster partners in the west as a carded toys during 1988. he was not available in Japan and has been neither reissued or recoloured.

[primenova]

I for got about Quake because had a knockoff toy of him.

[Shockprowl]

Some great toys here. I had Quake and Scoop, and wanted Spinister. I particularly liked Spinister's and Scoop's characters/techspecs (in my battles, Quake had an obession to defeat Scoop, which he never did 'cos Scoop had the smarts). With Scoop's dedication to calm thinking, I thought of him as the Prowl of the digger world! Quake was a fab toy, great transformation. And Scoop lives on in my collection- But not in G1 form, no no, CYBERTRON LANDMINE IS SCOOP!!!! He is! Totaly! LOOK AT HIM!!!!!!!!!! (No Targetmasters, sadly, but he does have those spinny bits in his tires).

[The Doctor]

Picked up Spinister at AA and love him.

I did not know these chaps were not sold in Japan. I wonder why.

-Ralph