Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 18, 2010 8:32:50 GMT
Transformers Metroplex
My first encounter with Metroplex was one day in Zodiac toys in Kingston. I went in and there were stacks of new Transformers. All the 1986 Minibots, the new futuristic cars & jets and Metroplex. I looked at it, thought it was huge and that I'd never own it no matter how great it looked. Twenty Four years later I'm on my third (maybe even fourth) Metroplex. Mine have a habit of meeting a bad end: see bellow!
When first released in 1986 Metroplex was one of the largest Transformer toys made. He comes packaged in robot mode with a whole pack of accessories several of which form robots of their own.
Like the name implies, Six Gun is made from Six Guns. The two largest weapons, a pair of red missile launchers shaped like guns which called "Anti-Matter Projectors" on the instructions, form the legs. Remove the missiles and peg the 5mm peg on the top of each gun into the base of the red tower. Attach the white tower top (two of the guns are on the ends of this) to the front of the tower as chest armour. The two largest black guns, "Ion Pulse Rifles" peg into the side of this as arms. Finally Six Gun has his own hand gun which pegs into the barrel of one of the arms. A tall thin robot with a visor and face plate Six Gun makes a good assistant for Metroplex. The only problem is it's not clear what mode he's meant to accompany as all the parts are utilised in at least one of the modes.
Scamper is a black car, about the size of one of the Stunticons. For some reason he has six wheels plus some attachments to the roof. The back of the car and rear wheels fold down under the car to stick out the front to form legs. The roof & windscreen fold back to form the robot's back. The roof attachments come off and peg into the robot's shoulders to form his arms which turn at the shoulders. He too has his own gun, an "Acetylene Pistol". I've never liked Scamper, feeling that the arms should be an integral part of the toy and not have to be removed during transformation. It's acceptable on Six Gun where the toys is made up of other parts but here it makes Scamper look like a cheap add on.
Slammer is formed by folding down the top of the side tower, laying it on it's back and pegging the mortar cannon into it. A nice add on, but with no robot mode and no wheels it's not much more than something that just sits there.
If you take Metroplex's in his natural state straight out of the box with no weapons, accessories, armour or hands attached then it's relatively easy to turn him into city mode. Shorten the arms and retract the aerial from his right shoulder. Why does the left aerial remove and the right retract ? Point his right arm up in the air with his left arm sliding round behind his back while pointing down. If it's visible, fold the Maser cannons on top of his shoulder sideways into the top of his left side of his body. Unfold the left side of the body to reveal a helipad. Fold the front of the robot legs, down 180 degrees to extend the legs under the toy. Fold the rear of the thighs out to the sides. The next step is to turn the waist 180 degrees. Be very careful doing this to an older Metroplex, over time the waist joints can seize up stopping this stage of the Transformation. Bend the legs towards you at the hips then fold the hips out and the knees in to the side to pose the city structure. Place the robot's knee pads over the end of the structure formed form the legs. Turn the head guns forward and lower the head. Open the door on the front of his right side of the chest and pull forwards to reveal a garage for Scamper's car mode. Fold down the front of the helipad to reveal a moulded missile array. The rear tower attaches behind the garage, with Slammer's base, once you've removed the turret and folded up the tower end, plugs into the top of Metroplex's left arm behind the Helipad. The red tower, Six Gun's body, fits into the two slots at the back of the helipad, with the tower top, Six Gun's chest, fitting over Six Gun's head.
Metroplex's city mode, mainly cast in white plastic, is more designed for vehicles than for robots with ramps, repair bays. Of particular note is the black ramp leading down from the garage along which Scamper can be pushed via a button in the roof of the garage. There's lots of guns all over the city including a pair either side of what would become the robot's head. I can see this bit being clear on the actual Metroplex city and Bluestreak sitting inside the head blasting Decepticons. About the only thing you can do with the smaller Transformer figures is and them behind the large red guns which can mount onto the robot's knee pads which in turn can be attached to the extended "roads" coming out of the base formed from the robot's legs. There's no jail cells, command centres or little rooms with windows for the smaller Transformers robots to sit in, unlike on future Transformers bases. It's important to mention that the smallest Transformers available to this point are the Minibots, tapes and combiner limbs all of which are significantly larger and less articulated than later small robots like the Nebulons (Headmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters etc), Micromasters and Legends. Fortress Maximus benefits from having smaller figures to work with and is himself larger so can work well with larger small figures.
It's possible to attach all four of the original Scramble City/Special Team base modes to Metroplex. Silverbolt's landing gear and the back of Onslaught's head clip into rectangular holes on the front of the "roads" while Motormaster and Hot Spot clip onto the sides of the repair bays to further extend the base and, if you're lucky enough to have the original Japanese versions, give Metroplex 3 more vehicle launchers. This compatibility between all four base modes and Metroplex points towards the entire Scramble City concept having been a non released design for Diaclone where all the robots were on the same side.
From base mode remove all the towers and accessories. Retract the garage ramp and fold the helipad up. Raise the robot head by pressing the trigger in his back, flip the top of his left body over to reveal the maser cannons and push the head back down. Slide his left arm round to the side of the body and point both arms backwards. Pull the aerial up from the top of his right arm and attach the second aerial to his left. Fold the parts of the city made from the robot's legs down under him and fold the thigh repair bays closed. Rotate the waist 180 degrees and rotate the legs forward at the hips. Peg the two "Ion Pulse Rifles" into the holes in the side of the shoulders. Peg the pair of "Anti-Matter Projectors" into holes on the folded out legs and clip the knee pads into the slots in the rear portion of the legs. Peg the double barrelled cannon into the base of rear tower so the guns on the cannon point up and peg onto the back of where the garage was.
Metroplex's mobile mode is as a wheeled battlestation. There's a little bit of an air craft carrier feel to this mode with the long stretched out body. Either way you wouldn't want all that fire power breathing down on you. There's a major variation to this mode: The original version of the toy had rubber wheels while the later version had solid plastic wheels.
From Battlestation mode remove the red Anti-Matter Projectors and knee pads. Fold the legs down under the robot and fold the lower part up to form the front of the robot legs. Fold the arms down to the sides, extend them and plug the fists in which in turn hold the Anti-Matter Projectors. Plug the knee pads in - they'll fall out but at least you've tried. Press the button on the back to extend the head and fold the head guns up to the sides.
Metroplex's robot mode was the largest single Transformer root done till this point. There's a good solid bulk to it, it's a nice chunky robot toy. It's articulation isn't bad for the day: the arms turn at the shoulders, the wrists turn because they're pegged in with a round peg, the waist turns and the hips swing forward, backwards and to the sides. He's well armed: holding the anti matter projector missile launchers, with the Ion Pulse Rifles on his shoulders, the cannons on the side of the head which can point up or forwards and the dual cannon on the top of his body. Like the base mode, Metroplex's robot mode can interact with the Scramble City/Special Team toys. This time however it's the limb vehicles that combine with his with each one taking the place of an Ion Pulse Rifle on his shoulder or attaching to his knee. Be careful because the Scramble City connectors inside his shoulders don't turn, you can't move the added on part independently of the limbs. I'm not sold on using any of the 1986 limb toys with him but the Seacon weapons modes make great add ons for the shoulders, albeit ones that would work better on a Decepticon version of this toy. Again there's a variation to this mode: the original had silver chromed thighs while later versions had silver stickers over white plastic. I believe that this variation is linked to the earlier one: so you'll find Metroplex version 1 with chrome thighs and rubber wheels while version 2 has stickered thighs and plastic wheels. See The Variations Quest for more details.
I feel I've been a bit harsh on Metroplex. The base mode is great, it's just that Transformer base modes were done so much better the very next year with Fortress Maximus who looms over Metroplex now in more ways than one. To this day the robot mode is still great. He's the first Transformer (well a shared honour with Ultra Magnus) to have proper shoulder cannons in the Ion Pulse Rifles. He's got a pair of great hand held weapons, the Anti-Matter Projectors that are missile launchers. Mine happily sits on the shelf in robot mode. But remember to turn the waist frequently so it doesn't get stuck!
Metroplex was sold in the USA & the UK during 1986 & 1986. In Japan he was named Metroflex and numbered C-70.
Metroplex's one release to date is in the Japanese Encore series as release number 12 in September 2008.
Transformers Zone Metrotitan
Metroplex was recoloured, renamed and cast as a Decepticon during Takara's 1990 Transformers Zone line.
Six Gun becomes Metroshot, swapping the red of his legs/"Anti-Matter Projectors" and the tower/torso & head for white and the white of the chest for blue.
Scamper becomes Metrotank with the black of the body, but not the arms, becoming red.
Slammer becomes Metrodash, now cast in blue.
An additional figure, Metrobomb, is also included. Metrobomb is a repaint of the Skystalker Micromaster robot with the purple chest swapped for black. To accommodate Metrobomb and to link in with the other Micromaster toys sold that year an additional ramp is included which clips onto the side of the repair bay occupying the slot previously occupied by Hotspot or Motormaster. The other end of this ramp is a standard Micromaster connector. Annoyingly there's no picture of this part on the TFU parts list for this toy but if you look at the base mode photo you can just about see it on the left. I've looked for a better photo of it but this appears to be the only picture on the internet. If you know otherwise, mail me at the address bellow.
Metrotitan's robot mode has the following colour swaps:
The black of the head, fists, garage front and fold down missile array becomes red.
The white of the kneepads, back of the legs, the arms and helicopter bay becomes blue.
The front of the legs and the garage shoulder are an off white, similar to, but possibly not identical, to the white used on the original.
The red of the head cannons plus the white of the aerials and upper legs becomes bright white.
The overall effect is to produce a night time version of Metrotitan similar to that produced with Fortress Maximus' repaint into Brave Maximus.
Metrotitan was sold in Japan in 1990 as Transformers Zone toy D-340, one of only two Destron (Decepticon) toys issued that year: the other is the D-341 Racetrack Patrol. These were the only Japanese evil Micromaster toys and the last Destron toys till Operation Combination in 1992. Metrotitan is another of the "don't even bother looking for me" Japanese releases, though a high quality Knock off version exists, albeit without Metrobomb, no great loss if you have Skystalker, and the Micromaster ramp connector, a huge loss if you're a Micromaster base fan. Now if someone made a reproduction of that part alone, I'd by several just to attach my Metroplex to Micromaster bases.
My first encounter with Metroplex was one day in Zodiac toys in Kingston. I went in and there were stacks of new Transformers. All the 1986 Minibots, the new futuristic cars & jets and Metroplex. I looked at it, thought it was huge and that I'd never own it no matter how great it looked. Twenty Four years later I'm on my third (maybe even fourth) Metroplex. Mine have a habit of meeting a bad end: see bellow!
When first released in 1986 Metroplex was one of the largest Transformer toys made. He comes packaged in robot mode with a whole pack of accessories several of which form robots of their own.
Like the name implies, Six Gun is made from Six Guns. The two largest weapons, a pair of red missile launchers shaped like guns which called "Anti-Matter Projectors" on the instructions, form the legs. Remove the missiles and peg the 5mm peg on the top of each gun into the base of the red tower. Attach the white tower top (two of the guns are on the ends of this) to the front of the tower as chest armour. The two largest black guns, "Ion Pulse Rifles" peg into the side of this as arms. Finally Six Gun has his own hand gun which pegs into the barrel of one of the arms. A tall thin robot with a visor and face plate Six Gun makes a good assistant for Metroplex. The only problem is it's not clear what mode he's meant to accompany as all the parts are utilised in at least one of the modes.
Scamper is a black car, about the size of one of the Stunticons. For some reason he has six wheels plus some attachments to the roof. The back of the car and rear wheels fold down under the car to stick out the front to form legs. The roof & windscreen fold back to form the robot's back. The roof attachments come off and peg into the robot's shoulders to form his arms which turn at the shoulders. He too has his own gun, an "Acetylene Pistol". I've never liked Scamper, feeling that the arms should be an integral part of the toy and not have to be removed during transformation. It's acceptable on Six Gun where the toys is made up of other parts but here it makes Scamper look like a cheap add on.
Slammer is formed by folding down the top of the side tower, laying it on it's back and pegging the mortar cannon into it. A nice add on, but with no robot mode and no wheels it's not much more than something that just sits there.
If you take Metroplex's in his natural state straight out of the box with no weapons, accessories, armour or hands attached then it's relatively easy to turn him into city mode. Shorten the arms and retract the aerial from his right shoulder. Why does the left aerial remove and the right retract ? Point his right arm up in the air with his left arm sliding round behind his back while pointing down. If it's visible, fold the Maser cannons on top of his shoulder sideways into the top of his left side of his body. Unfold the left side of the body to reveal a helipad. Fold the front of the robot legs, down 180 degrees to extend the legs under the toy. Fold the rear of the thighs out to the sides. The next step is to turn the waist 180 degrees. Be very careful doing this to an older Metroplex, over time the waist joints can seize up stopping this stage of the Transformation. Bend the legs towards you at the hips then fold the hips out and the knees in to the side to pose the city structure. Place the robot's knee pads over the end of the structure formed form the legs. Turn the head guns forward and lower the head. Open the door on the front of his right side of the chest and pull forwards to reveal a garage for Scamper's car mode. Fold down the front of the helipad to reveal a moulded missile array. The rear tower attaches behind the garage, with Slammer's base, once you've removed the turret and folded up the tower end, plugs into the top of Metroplex's left arm behind the Helipad. The red tower, Six Gun's body, fits into the two slots at the back of the helipad, with the tower top, Six Gun's chest, fitting over Six Gun's head.
Metroplex's city mode, mainly cast in white plastic, is more designed for vehicles than for robots with ramps, repair bays. Of particular note is the black ramp leading down from the garage along which Scamper can be pushed via a button in the roof of the garage. There's lots of guns all over the city including a pair either side of what would become the robot's head. I can see this bit being clear on the actual Metroplex city and Bluestreak sitting inside the head blasting Decepticons. About the only thing you can do with the smaller Transformer figures is and them behind the large red guns which can mount onto the robot's knee pads which in turn can be attached to the extended "roads" coming out of the base formed from the robot's legs. There's no jail cells, command centres or little rooms with windows for the smaller Transformers robots to sit in, unlike on future Transformers bases. It's important to mention that the smallest Transformers available to this point are the Minibots, tapes and combiner limbs all of which are significantly larger and less articulated than later small robots like the Nebulons (Headmasters, Targetmasters, Powermasters etc), Micromasters and Legends. Fortress Maximus benefits from having smaller figures to work with and is himself larger so can work well with larger small figures.
It's possible to attach all four of the original Scramble City/Special Team base modes to Metroplex. Silverbolt's landing gear and the back of Onslaught's head clip into rectangular holes on the front of the "roads" while Motormaster and Hot Spot clip onto the sides of the repair bays to further extend the base and, if you're lucky enough to have the original Japanese versions, give Metroplex 3 more vehicle launchers. This compatibility between all four base modes and Metroplex points towards the entire Scramble City concept having been a non released design for Diaclone where all the robots were on the same side.
From base mode remove all the towers and accessories. Retract the garage ramp and fold the helipad up. Raise the robot head by pressing the trigger in his back, flip the top of his left body over to reveal the maser cannons and push the head back down. Slide his left arm round to the side of the body and point both arms backwards. Pull the aerial up from the top of his right arm and attach the second aerial to his left. Fold the parts of the city made from the robot's legs down under him and fold the thigh repair bays closed. Rotate the waist 180 degrees and rotate the legs forward at the hips. Peg the two "Ion Pulse Rifles" into the holes in the side of the shoulders. Peg the pair of "Anti-Matter Projectors" into holes on the folded out legs and clip the knee pads into the slots in the rear portion of the legs. Peg the double barrelled cannon into the base of rear tower so the guns on the cannon point up and peg onto the back of where the garage was.
Metroplex's mobile mode is as a wheeled battlestation. There's a little bit of an air craft carrier feel to this mode with the long stretched out body. Either way you wouldn't want all that fire power breathing down on you. There's a major variation to this mode: The original version of the toy had rubber wheels while the later version had solid plastic wheels.
From Battlestation mode remove the red Anti-Matter Projectors and knee pads. Fold the legs down under the robot and fold the lower part up to form the front of the robot legs. Fold the arms down to the sides, extend them and plug the fists in which in turn hold the Anti-Matter Projectors. Plug the knee pads in - they'll fall out but at least you've tried. Press the button on the back to extend the head and fold the head guns up to the sides.
Metroplex's robot mode was the largest single Transformer root done till this point. There's a good solid bulk to it, it's a nice chunky robot toy. It's articulation isn't bad for the day: the arms turn at the shoulders, the wrists turn because they're pegged in with a round peg, the waist turns and the hips swing forward, backwards and to the sides. He's well armed: holding the anti matter projector missile launchers, with the Ion Pulse Rifles on his shoulders, the cannons on the side of the head which can point up or forwards and the dual cannon on the top of his body. Like the base mode, Metroplex's robot mode can interact with the Scramble City/Special Team toys. This time however it's the limb vehicles that combine with his with each one taking the place of an Ion Pulse Rifle on his shoulder or attaching to his knee. Be careful because the Scramble City connectors inside his shoulders don't turn, you can't move the added on part independently of the limbs. I'm not sold on using any of the 1986 limb toys with him but the Seacon weapons modes make great add ons for the shoulders, albeit ones that would work better on a Decepticon version of this toy. Again there's a variation to this mode: the original had silver chromed thighs while later versions had silver stickers over white plastic. I believe that this variation is linked to the earlier one: so you'll find Metroplex version 1 with chrome thighs and rubber wheels while version 2 has stickered thighs and plastic wheels. See The Variations Quest for more details.
I feel I've been a bit harsh on Metroplex. The base mode is great, it's just that Transformer base modes were done so much better the very next year with Fortress Maximus who looms over Metroplex now in more ways than one. To this day the robot mode is still great. He's the first Transformer (well a shared honour with Ultra Magnus) to have proper shoulder cannons in the Ion Pulse Rifles. He's got a pair of great hand held weapons, the Anti-Matter Projectors that are missile launchers. Mine happily sits on the shelf in robot mode. But remember to turn the waist frequently so it doesn't get stuck!
Metroplex was sold in the USA & the UK during 1986 & 1986. In Japan he was named Metroflex and numbered C-70.
Metroplex's one release to date is in the Japanese Encore series as release number 12 in September 2008.
Transformers Zone Metrotitan
Metroplex was recoloured, renamed and cast as a Decepticon during Takara's 1990 Transformers Zone line.
Six Gun becomes Metroshot, swapping the red of his legs/"Anti-Matter Projectors" and the tower/torso & head for white and the white of the chest for blue.
Scamper becomes Metrotank with the black of the body, but not the arms, becoming red.
Slammer becomes Metrodash, now cast in blue.
An additional figure, Metrobomb, is also included. Metrobomb is a repaint of the Skystalker Micromaster robot with the purple chest swapped for black. To accommodate Metrobomb and to link in with the other Micromaster toys sold that year an additional ramp is included which clips onto the side of the repair bay occupying the slot previously occupied by Hotspot or Motormaster. The other end of this ramp is a standard Micromaster connector. Annoyingly there's no picture of this part on the TFU parts list for this toy but if you look at the base mode photo you can just about see it on the left. I've looked for a better photo of it but this appears to be the only picture on the internet. If you know otherwise, mail me at the address bellow.
Metrotitan's robot mode has the following colour swaps:
The black of the head, fists, garage front and fold down missile array becomes red.
The white of the kneepads, back of the legs, the arms and helicopter bay becomes blue.
The front of the legs and the garage shoulder are an off white, similar to, but possibly not identical, to the white used on the original.
The red of the head cannons plus the white of the aerials and upper legs becomes bright white.
The overall effect is to produce a night time version of Metrotitan similar to that produced with Fortress Maximus' repaint into Brave Maximus.
Metrotitan was sold in Japan in 1990 as Transformers Zone toy D-340, one of only two Destron (Decepticon) toys issued that year: the other is the D-341 Racetrack Patrol. These were the only Japanese evil Micromaster toys and the last Destron toys till Operation Combination in 1992. Metrotitan is another of the "don't even bother looking for me" Japanese releases, though a high quality Knock off version exists, albeit without Metrobomb, no great loss if you have Skystalker, and the Micromaster ramp connector, a huge loss if you're a Micromaster base fan. Now if someone made a reproduction of that part alone, I'd by several just to attach my Metroplex to Micromaster bases.
