Saturday 8 February 2014

Micromaster Small Transports

At least one of these has had a lot of popularity with 201's hall of fame nomination. Each of them except Flattop was a transport truck. I had most of them as a kid. I remember selling a couple of them at a yard sale.

First up, we have Erector, who was the one nominated in 2011. Mostly based on his name, while there were a few people that actually like the character. He's a builder not a fighter. The Micromaster has a unique transformation with the chest flipping around.



His vehicle with the trailer is a crane truck. The crane goes up and down, and turns 360 degrees.


He is the only one of the four that doesn't have a flying alt mode. His trailer turns into a base. 


The second Autobot is Overload. His bot mode resembles Optimus Prime. He is a tactical genius. 


His alt mode is a car carrier. The back end opens and you can drive Micromasters inside. It fits two comfortably


His trailer transforms into a jet. Pretty straightforward, there is a connection point inside so he is locked in there tightly.


First out of the two Decepticons, we have Roughstuff. His bot mode has a lot of junk in the trunk. It actually detracts from it somewhat imo. He's a trigger happy sniper that never aims according to his tech spec...which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.


His alt mode is a missile truck. Both missiles are removable, and them and the guns can go up or down. I really like the truck mode for the Micromaster, so I guess it kind of makes up for the weird looking bot mode. 


His trailer also turns into a jet. 


Lastly, Flattop. This figure doesn't make a lot of sense, and sticks out from the other three by not being a truck. I would have preferred a truck I think. He's the scourge of the seven seas, sinking everything. His bot mode is probably one of my least favorites from all the Micromasters. I can see where they were trying to go with it, but I think the colour break ups could have been done better to make him look less strange. 


His alt mode is a jet on an aircraft carrier. It actually is pretty good looking. I like that the front "landing gear" peg actually can peg into the carrier. 


The carrier's jet mode is actually pretty good. It really looks like a jet that could actually fly. There is retractable landing gear under the nose of the plane.


They were also released in Japan under the Zone banner with no changes except they were sold in boxes instead of on cards, and all four of them were Autobots. 




8 comments:

  1. These guys are a great set when put together. I don't have any yet but I do plan on getting them...sealed though.

    For me, Erector is the best figure having the best looking robot mode and the most functional base/"combining" mode.

    Nice post, I really enjoyed the pics.

    Cheers,
    Joe

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    1. Agreed, I've debated getting the Zone releases just to have them in boxes, but haven't made the jump lol. Erector does have the best looking bot mode of the three for sure

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  2. Great pics, and I think this may be the only post on the Internet about Erector that doesn't include jokes on his name. :D

    I was a kid in 1990 when these were new. Overload was one of my first Transformers, but since I was watching the original cartoon on VHS and reading old issues of the Marvel comic, I was more interested in the 1984-1985 crew. So I would use Overload as a stand-in for Optimus Prime. A lot of Micro Masters and other random transforming toys performed this duty.

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    1. I know a few other people that used him as a stand in for Prime. I was lucky to have most of the 84/85 crew, so they became cannon fodder lol. While I like the 84/85 figures, I would take a full run off 87+ figures over them any day. Maybe because they aren't as redone as the first three years? I don't know

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    2. All I know is that while the majority of my G1 collection is 84-86, I find something to love about each G1 year and plan to eventually have a full set. As a kid I pined after an Optimus or a Megatron just as much as Vroom or Countdown.

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    3. My 84-86 collection is done. I will eventually upgrade a few figures, but as it stands, I don't even need one accessory to finish the store releases, I need one of the Dashers and the Minispies to be 100% complete all releases there, 87 I need 4/5 of the 86 character TMs, 88 plus, I'm not doing so well on pretenders and actionmasters.

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  3. I actually have all four of these guys, and out of the four, Erector is actually my favorite, followed by Roughstuff. These guys are actually what I love the most about the Micromasters.

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    1. Nice! I love these guys, but I'd be lying if they were what I loved most about the Micros, The thing I love most about them is their diversity. So many different figures and playsets.

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