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interests / alt.toys.transformers / Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Race Car Patrol (1988)

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* Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Race Car Patrol (1988)Zobovor
`- Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Race Car Patrol (1988)Codigo Postal

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Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Race Car Patrol (1988)

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Subject: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Race Car Patrol (1988)
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Fri, 24 Dec 2021 01:37 UTC

The first of my Micromaster replacements arrived in the mail today. It's nice to own versions of these toys that are in good condition, and worth of putting on a display shelf, as opposed to the ones I customized years ago with permanent markers.

So, let's talk about Micromasters for a minute. Yes, obviously the goal was to capitalize off the success of Galoob's highly popular Micro Machines, but it goes deeper than that. Micromasters are obviously the natural evolution of the Headmasters and Targetmasters and Powermasters. After a couple of years of Hasbro selling us tiny Nebulans in exo-suits that turned into various robots' heads and guns and engines, the Micromasters were figures produced at the same scale, only now they turned into tiny vehicles. There was even a packaging blurb on the back of the cards that described the Micromasters as new technology "commissioned by the Powermasters," suggesting a strong link between the two.

With that said, it came as a surprise to me when the characters were depicted in fiction as tiny robots, and not Nebulans in transformable exo-suits. Sadly, by the time the Micromasters were introduced, the cartoon was off the air in the USA, and while some of them did pop up in Marvel Comics, it wasn't nearly as memorable a media role for them. Combined with the teams of four having to share a tech specs card, the individual Micromasters essentially got no personalities of their own. This was the point at which Transformers more or less became the GoBots... an interesting robot toy line, but no media to make you fall in love with the characters (or drive toy store purchases).

Still, I'm collecting all of G1, even the lesser characters who weren't featured heavily. Right now, I'm replacing the teams I had as a kid, but later I'll go after the ones I never owned.

AUTOBOT RACE CAR PATROL

The first batch of Micromasters was in fact released in late 1988, and I will fight anybody who argues differently. Initially, only the Autobot Race Car Patrol, Autobot Off Road Patrol, and Decepticon Air Strike Patrol were available.

I got the Race Car Patrol right before Christmas that year. I loved how cute and collectible they were, but there were aspects to their design that I disliked. The fragile pegs that connect their arms, just like Headmaster and Powermaster partners, concerned me. The lack of Autobot or Decepticon symbols anywhere on the toys also bugged me. Surely there was a way to find real estate for a tiny Battle Beast sized symbol on them somewhere? Still, I liked that they were reasonably well articulated, and the way they were all designed to sit down in order to interact with the larger playsets was surprisingly forward-thinking.

ROADHANDLER

Roadhandler is a bright red Pontiac Trans-Am Firebird, so essentially a tiny two-inch version of Windcharger. He relies partly on the tightness of his leg joints to stay transformed; like Windcharger, the legs tend to sag on played-with toys, and force the trunk to pop up a bit. The oversized hinge on his hood is super obvious, and is a characteristic trademark of many Micromasters.

He has what I would describe as the classic Micromaster transformation. Legs unfold, and the hood of the car flips backwards and ends up on his back. As a robot, he's just slightly over two inches in height, and is red with a yellow body and upper legs, and a painted blue face and pelvis. He's got a distinctive three-pronged helmet, with the side prongs jutting out to either side, a bit like Octane. He's a very good-looking Autobot. Roadhandler is arguably the Micromaster who got the most characterization in the comics, since he was the Patrol leader and spokesman, and he got a spotlight story in issue #55 (the infamous "Micromaster wrestling" issue).

FREE WHEELER

Free Wheeler's a little odd. He's yellow with red robot parts; he was gang-molded with Roadhandler, their parts being produced at the same time and then assembled to make two different characters.

As a vehicle he's a Lamborghini Countach with no spoiler, so basically a tiny version of Sunstreaker (sans engine). He's super cute, and his hood hinge is relatively unobtrusive (it's smaller than Roadhandler's, anyway). The connector pin that holds his knees in place is also the pin that holds his wheels on, so while this eliminates a secondary unsightly assembly pin near the trunk area, it also means that his rear passenger side tire has a hubcap that doesn't match the others (because it's the bent side of the assembly pin).

In theory his transformation is similar to Roadhandler, but with lots of little changes. Since the wheels double as the knee hinge, his lower legs are positioned a bit farther forward than most Transformers. It makes him really back-heavy, and you almost have to raise his arms up to serve as a counter-balance. (Weirdly, he's the same height whether he's standing or on his knees.) His arms consist of the entire side window, side door, and a chunk of the hood, so they're huge and clunky. It's like having Red Alert's arms with Nightbeat's shoulders. One cool feature is that the remaining piece of the hood is just a flap that folds back, so unlike a lot of Micromasters, his head is entirely unencumbered in robot mode.

The metal connector pin that holds his front wheels in place is also the pin that holds his arms together. The upshot of this is that you can't just pop his arms off their flimsy plastic pegs and accidentally break them. The problem is that he requires fake front wheels and secondary wheels to achieve this. On my new copy, the wheels are so tight that they don't even roll. He's also got "MACAU" (his country of manufacture) stamped on his left shoulder in a really obvious spot. All in all, though, he's a neat little toy.

SWINDLER

Swindler, I guess, is the con-artist of the team (not to be confused with Swindle). He transforms into a grey DeLorean DMC, the same vehicle popularized by the Back to the Future movie series.

When I was a kid, I really wanted the Micromasters to be tiny versions of earlier G1 characters. Sometimes it worked really well (Tote was obviously Ironhide; Fixit was obviously Ratchet; Overload was clearly Optimus Prime) and sometimes it didn't work as well. When I didn't see an obvious connection, I forced one. I decided that Swindler was "really" Bluestreak, and I colored the toy with a blue permanent marker in order to strengthen the connection.

Some time later, when Blue-Jackal was posting to ATT, she mentioned often that one of the Transformers she most wanted to see was a Micromaster version of Optimal Optimus. I realized I had enough toys to make such a thing happen, and so I cut my original Swindler into pieces and used part of him to construct it. So, it's been a while since I've had this toy.

He's got the same leg transformation as Roadhandler, and he shares the same clunky arm design as Free Wheeler. Instead of the hood ending up on his back, though, it folds down to form his chest. (The Siege version of this character, released in 2019, was notably missing this aspect of his design.) As a robot, he's still predominantly grey, but with blue upper legs and body, and an orange-painted face. Another character with huge Nightbeat shoulders.

TAILSPIN

My original Tailspin also got chopped up to serve as various Micromaster Optimal Optimus parts, so it's nice to have the character in the collection again.

Tailspin is a Porsche 962 race car, the same type of vehicle as Triggerbot Backstreet. (It was designed as a replacement for the Porsche 956, the type of car GoBots Crasher turned into.) He's a beautiful vehicle, and one of the more attractive Micromasters in vehicle form.

Because his vehicle form is flat and aerodynamic, his robot mode isn't as clunky or bulky as some of the others. He's got better-proportioned boots than Free Wheeler, certainly. His legs unfold the same way as the others, but because of the placement of the hood hinge, the hood just sort of ends up mounted behind his head.

As a robot, he's blue with a grey body and red-painted details for his chest and pelvis and face (he's gang-molded with Swindler). He's got a battery of tiny missile launchers on either side of his head, like some of the small 1988 Targetmasters. His head sculpt is basically Optimus Prime with a mouth. Due to the way the kibble is arranged on his body, he's got a wider range of arm articulation than some (Roadhandler can only swing his arms up 90 degrees).

I tend to think of these guys as the definitive Micromaster team. They're the ones I usually think of when anybody mentioned Micromasters. I didn't come to love them because of any sort of media portrayal, but they were part of my childhood experience, and I'm fond of them for that reason alone.

Zob (finally got through the work week... and let me tell ya, it was the longest week of my life)

Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Race Car Patrol (1988)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Race Car Patrol (1988)
From: codigopo...@gmail.com (Codigo Postal)
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 by: Codigo Postal - Thu, 30 Dec 2021 23:07 UTC

On Friday, December 24, 2021 at 1:37:42 AM UTC, Zobovor wrote:
> The first of my Micromaster replacements arrived in the mail today. It's nice to own versions of these toys that are in good condition, and worth of putting on a display shelf, as opposed to the ones I customized years ago with permanent markers.
>
> So, let's talk about Micromasters for a minute. Yes, obviously the goal was to capitalize off the success of Galoob's highly popular Micro Machines, but it goes deeper than that. Micromasters are obviously the natural evolution of the Headmasters and Targetmasters and Powermasters. After a couple of years of Hasbro selling us tiny Nebulans in exo-suits that turned into various robots' heads and guns and engines, the Micromasters were figures produced at the same scale, only now they turned into tiny vehicles. There was even a packaging blurb on the back of the cards that described the Micromasters as new technology "commissioned by the Powermasters," suggesting a strong link between the two.
>
> With that said, it came as a surprise to me when the characters were depicted in fiction as tiny robots, and not Nebulans in transformable exo-suits.. Sadly, by the time the Micromasters were introduced, the cartoon was off the air in the USA, and while some of them did pop up in Marvel Comics, it wasn't nearly as memorable a media role for them. Combined with the teams of four having to share a tech specs card, the individual Micromasters essentially got no personalities of their own. This was the point at which Transformers more or less became the GoBots... an interesting robot toy line, but no media to make you fall in love with the characters (or drive toy store purchases).
>
> Still, I'm collecting all of G1, even the lesser characters who weren't featured heavily. Right now, I'm replacing the teams I had as a kid, but later I'll go after the ones I never owned.
>
> AUTOBOT RACE CAR PATROL
>
> The first batch of Micromasters was in fact released in late 1988, and I will fight anybody who argues differently. Initially, only the Autobot Race Car Patrol, Autobot Off Road Patrol, and Decepticon Air Strike Patrol were available.
>
> I got the Race Car Patrol right before Christmas that year. I loved how cute and collectible they were, but there were aspects to their design that I disliked. The fragile pegs that connect their arms, just like Headmaster and Powermaster partners, concerned me. The lack of Autobot or Decepticon symbols anywhere on the toys also bugged me. Surely there was a way to find real estate for a tiny Battle Beast sized symbol on them somewhere? Still, I liked that they were reasonably well articulated, and the way they were all designed to sit down in order to interact with the larger playsets was surprisingly forward-thinking.
>
> ROADHANDLER
>
> Roadhandler is a bright red Pontiac Trans-Am Firebird, so essentially a tiny two-inch version of Windcharger. He relies partly on the tightness of his leg joints to stay transformed; like Windcharger, the legs tend to sag on played-with toys, and force the trunk to pop up a bit. The oversized hinge on his hood is super obvious, and is a characteristic trademark of many Micromasters.
>
> He has what I would describe as the classic Micromaster transformation. Legs unfold, and the hood of the car flips backwards and ends up on his back.. As a robot, he's just slightly over two inches in height, and is red with a yellow body and upper legs, and a painted blue face and pelvis. He's got a distinctive three-pronged helmet, with the side prongs jutting out to either side, a bit like Octane. He's a very good-looking Autobot. Roadhandler is arguably the Micromaster who got the most characterization in the comics, since he was the Patrol leader and spokesman, and he got a spotlight story in issue #55 (the infamous "Micromaster wrestling" issue).
>
> FREE WHEELER
>
> Free Wheeler's a little odd. He's yellow with red robot parts; he was gang-molded with Roadhandler, their parts being produced at the same time and then assembled to make two different characters.
>
> As a vehicle he's a Lamborghini Countach with no spoiler, so basically a tiny version of Sunstreaker (sans engine). He's super cute, and his hood hinge is relatively unobtrusive (it's smaller than Roadhandler's, anyway). The connector pin that holds his knees in place is also the pin that holds his wheels on, so while this eliminates a secondary unsightly assembly pin near the trunk area, it also means that his rear passenger side tire has a hubcap that doesn't match the others (because it's the bent side of the assembly pin).
>
> In theory his transformation is similar to Roadhandler, but with lots of little changes. Since the wheels double as the knee hinge, his lower legs are positioned a bit farther forward than most Transformers. It makes him really back-heavy, and you almost have to raise his arms up to serve as a counter-balance. (Weirdly, he's the same height whether he's standing or on his knees.) His arms consist of the entire side window, side door, and a chunk of the hood, so they're huge and clunky. It's like having Red Alert's arms with Nightbeat's shoulders. One cool feature is that the remaining piece of the hood is just a flap that folds back, so unlike a lot of Micromasters, his head is entirely unencumbered in robot mode.
>
> The metal connector pin that holds his front wheels in place is also the pin that holds his arms together. The upshot of this is that you can't just pop his arms off their flimsy plastic pegs and accidentally break them. The problem is that he requires fake front wheels and secondary wheels to achieve this. On my new copy, the wheels are so tight that they don't even roll. He's also got "MACAU" (his country of manufacture) stamped on his left shoulder in a really obvious spot. All in all, though, he's a neat little toy.
>
> SWINDLER
>
> Swindler, I guess, is the con-artist of the team (not to be confused with Swindle). He transforms into a grey DeLorean DMC, the same vehicle popularized by the Back to the Future movie series.
>
> When I was a kid, I really wanted the Micromasters to be tiny versions of earlier G1 characters. Sometimes it worked really well (Tote was obviously Ironhide; Fixit was obviously Ratchet; Overload was clearly Optimus Prime) and sometimes it didn't work as well. When I didn't see an obvious connection, I forced one. I decided that Swindler was "really" Bluestreak, and I colored the toy with a blue permanent marker in order to strengthen the connection.
>
> Some time later, when Blue-Jackal was posting to ATT, she mentioned often that one of the Transformers she most wanted to see was a Micromaster version of Optimal Optimus. I realized I had enough toys to make such a thing happen, and so I cut my original Swindler into pieces and used part of him to construct it. So, it's been a while since I've had this toy.
>
> He's got the same leg transformation as Roadhandler, and he shares the same clunky arm design as Free Wheeler. Instead of the hood ending up on his back, though, it folds down to form his chest. (The Siege version of this character, released in 2019, was notably missing this aspect of his design.) As a robot, he's still predominantly grey, but with blue upper legs and body, and an orange-painted face. Another character with huge Nightbeat shoulders.
>
> TAILSPIN
>
> My original Tailspin also got chopped up to serve as various Micromaster Optimal Optimus parts, so it's nice to have the character in the collection again.
>
> Tailspin is a Porsche 962 race car, the same type of vehicle as Triggerbot Backstreet. (It was designed as a replacement for the Porsche 956, the type of car GoBots Crasher turned into.) He's a beautiful vehicle, and one of the more attractive Micromasters in vehicle form.
>
> Because his vehicle form is flat and aerodynamic, his robot mode isn't as clunky or bulky as some of the others. He's got better-proportioned boots than Free Wheeler, certainly. His legs unfold the same way as the others, but because of the placement of the hood hinge, the hood just sort of ends up mounted behind his head.
>
> As a robot, he's blue with a grey body and red-painted details for his chest and pelvis and face (he's gang-molded with Swindler). He's got a battery of tiny missile launchers on either side of his head, like some of the small 1988 Targetmasters. His head sculpt is basically Optimus Prime with a mouth. Due to the way the kibble is arranged on his body, he's got a wider range of arm articulation than some (Roadhandler can only swing his arms up 90 degrees).
>
> I tend to think of these guys as the definitive Micromaster team. They're the ones I usually think of when anybody mentioned Micromasters. I didn't come to love them because of any sort of media portrayal, but they were part of my childhood experience, and I'm fond of them for that reason alone.
>
>
> Zob (finally got through the work week... and let me tell ya, it was the longest week of my life)

Great review series of the Micros.

I got the new WfC incarnations of Roadhandler and Swindler, and I was not impressed. Their transformations are stiff and unpleasant, with legs that have a tendency to pop off.


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