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interests / alt.toys.transformers / Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

SubjectAuthor
* Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Zobovor
+* Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Irrellius Spamticon
|+- Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Zobovor
|`* Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Zobovor
| +* Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Evil King Macrocranios
| |`- Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Zobovor
| `- Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Zobovor
+- Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Dave Van Domelen
`- Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)Joseph Bardsley

1
Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

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Subject: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Thu, 6 Jan 2022 02:45 UTC

So, it's been about two years now since I started hunting down vintage G1 toys. I do have a list of which toys I need (along with notes like what I can probably expect to pay, what parts the toy is supposed to come with, anything problematic to watch for like parts that tend to break, etc.) but I'm not going in any specific order. It's honestly been more fun for me to bounce around and do random keyword searches until I see something that's a great deal, or in truly exceptional condition, or something like that. I usually know when I've come across the right auction to bid on. It will just *speak* to me.

For no reason in particular, I started looking at the Micromaster Transports. I used to have Overload and Flattop, but they were among the toys I sold off when I reached adulthood. Nowadays, one of the Transports tends to go for around $40 or so. I was scolling through Erector auctions, a lot of which were either missing crane parts or had broken crane hooks. Then I came across this auction of the toy still in the packaging. Obviously, sealed vintage G1 units tend to go for many hundreds of dollars, and they're frankly beyond my budget. (I'd like to be able to buy a G1 toy once a month, not once a year.) This guy was selling it for $40.

I actually did a double-take. Surely there was something very badly wrong with the toy. It had to be a knockoff, or the card was covered in mold, or something crazy like that. But, nope. The seller said he'd gotten it in a estate sale from some elderly couple, and they evidently collected all sorts of random odds and ends. I guess they just had this toy sitting around in their attic or whatever for the last 30 years.

Now, I will say as a caveat that the bubble was cracked, and the seller demonstrated how you could pop the Micromaster component out of the packaging if you really wanted to. But, the toy itself is brand spanking new and unused. Which is astonishing to me. I mean, I'd end up paying $40 for this toy anyway, regardless, but to get to be the first person to handle it and transform it? That never happens. Not without spending many hundreds of dollars, anyway.

(I checked to see what else the seller had, and I got another good deal on something else, but we'll talk about that in a separate post.)

So, not only have I never owned this toy before, but I've never even handled him or seen him in person. All I've ever seen is grainy Hasbro catalog images and the occasional badly-lit online photo. I like this dude a lot. He didn't appeal to me much when I was a kid (I had chosen Overload and Flattop back in the day, and just never went back for the other two) but I have a high level of appreciation for the toy now.

So, the Micromaster component is a tiny yellow cab, described as a tractor on the package, that's about 1 3/4" in length. He's bright yellow with a red painted windshield and some light grey tanks on either side (which are obviously the robot arms). I'm not quite sure if he's meant to be able to function on his own like this. The trailer helps to complete his appearance, certainly. There's a weird juxtaposiiton here, since the crane itself looks like it should be massive and powerful, and yet he's this tiny little thing.

When he transforms to robot mode, the top of the vehicle ends up serving as his chest, and the legs swing forward from behind him, a bit like the original Blurr toy. But, since he's so tiny, there isn't a lot of real estate for clever hinges and things. His legs have this large, C-shaped cut-out to make room for the axle that connects his shoulders/wheels together. I'm honestly surprised at how little plastic there is. It's seriously like one millimeter wide. Granted, the legs move in tandem, so you have the strength of both legs working together at all times, but still. I wonder if there have been many, many broken Erectors over the years, because it seems awfully fragile. (Maybe this is the reason why I see so many Erector trailers on eBay without a Micromaster to accompany them!)

As a robot, he's just heckin' cute. Two inches tall, yellow with light grey upper legs and arms, and a red painted face. Not his nose, though. Just his face and eyes. Like Mixmaster. His arms enjoy a full 360-degree range of motion, which is unusual for a Micromaster, but he's not designed with upper leg articulation like many others. In fact, his knees can't bend in the proper direction at all. They can only bend backwards. More on this in a sec.

The trailer, meanwhile, is like a sort of construction crane platform, with a large, articulated boom arm and hook. The boom arm attaches via peg so it can rotate, and the crane arm can pivot up and down. The instructions also explain how Erector can ditch the trailer and carry just the crane arm assembly. It looks preposterously big when he's toting it around, but I guess it's nice to have options! When he's towing the trailer, the completed vehicle is about five inches in length.

Where Overload and Flattop had accessories that transformed into vehicles for them to sit inside of and ride around in, Erector's is designed to unfold into a battle platform that he can stand on top of and man. It reverses direction so that the front of the trailer forms the back of the battle platform, and the sides swing out (reminds me of the trailer for Action Master Optimus Prime, or G2 Laser Prime), a gunner station swings up, and a pair of guns flip out. The crane arm also opens up to reveal a gun battery, which can plug into the front of the battle platform.

This is the official configuration, but I think there's also a secondary configuration that wasn't in the instructions. (There are only a few panels of instructions on the back of the card, so one supposes there simply wasn't room to depict this one.) Erector is designed to sit, and the trailer hitch on the back of his legs corresponds to a mount that isn't used in either official mode. If you seat him instead of stand him up, then you can close up the side panels around him and tuck the gunner station down so that it holds him in like a seatbelt. Now he can roll into battle aboard his own personal craft. In this configuration, he fits snugly against the yellow panel behind him as if it were a seat, and I can't imagine for a second that this wasn't intended. I'm sure I would have figured all this out in 1989, but I'm a little late to the party.

I know that a lot of Transformers toys are based around the idea of looking like a specific make and model of Earth-style vehicle, but I'd forgotten how fun toys like this can be. Only one of its configurations is semi-familiar and the other two are sheer fantasy, but doesn't that make sense? He's from an alien world, so of course their technology isn't going to look exactly like ours. No matter what mode he's in, the toy has a really familiar, blocky aesthetic that I simply love.

Also, the fact that this is a pristine, minty toy is amazing. All his joints are tight, his paint is perfect, and there's not a single scratch on him.. Not a spot of rust on the pins anywhere. There are tiny little pieces of flash (extra plastic) still on the crane hook! They say you can't travel back in time, but I think I must have stepped through a dimensional rift and ended up in 1989, because that's the only way I can account for being the first person to touch this toy since it was packaged.

So, anyway. I'm probably more excited about this than I have any business being. This is a very old and very unremarkable toy for probably hundreds or thousands of fans. But, it's brand new to me, and I'm delighted.

Zob (has already lost two pounds on my diet, so congratulate me)

Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)
From: Ob1ken...@att.net (Irrellius Spamticon)
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 by: Irrellius Spamticon - Thu, 6 Jan 2022 15:04 UTC

On Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at 8:45:09 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> So, it's been about two years now since I started hunting down vintage G1 toys. I do have a list of which toys I need (along with notes like what I can probably expect to pay, what parts the toy is supposed to come with, anything problematic to watch for like parts that tend to break, etc.) but I'm not going in any specific order. It's honestly been more fun for me to bounce around and do random keyword searches until I see something that's a great deal, or in truly exceptional condition, or something like that. I usually know when I've come across the right auction to bid on. It will just *speak* to me.
>
> For no reason in particular, I started looking at the Micromaster Transports. I used to have Overload and Flattop, but they were among the toys I sold off when I reached adulthood. Nowadays, one of the Transports tends to go for around $40 or so. I was scolling through Erector auctions, a lot of which were either missing crane parts or had broken crane hooks. Then I came across this auction of the toy still in the packaging. Obviously, sealed vintage G1 units tend to go for many hundreds of dollars, and they're frankly beyond my budget. (I'd like to be able to buy a G1 toy once a month, not once a year.) This guy was selling it for $40.
>
> I actually did a double-take. Surely there was something very badly wrong with the toy. It had to be a knockoff, or the card was covered in mold, or something crazy like that. But, nope. The seller said he'd gotten it in a estate sale from some elderly couple, and they evidently collected all sorts of random odds and ends. I guess they just had this toy sitting around in their attic or whatever for the last 30 years.
>
> Now, I will say as a caveat that the bubble was cracked, and the seller demonstrated how you could pop the Micromaster component out of the packaging if you really wanted to. But, the toy itself is brand spanking new and unused. Which is astonishing to me. I mean, I'd end up paying $40 for this toy anyway, regardless, but to get to be the first person to handle it and transform it? That never happens. Not without spending many hundreds of dollars, anyway.
>
> (I checked to see what else the seller had, and I got another good deal on something else, but we'll talk about that in a separate post.)
>
> So, not only have I never owned this toy before, but I've never even handled him or seen him in person. All I've ever seen is grainy Hasbro catalog images and the occasional badly-lit online photo. I like this dude a lot. He didn't appeal to me much when I was a kid (I had chosen Overload and Flattop back in the day, and just never went back for the other two) but I have a high level of appreciation for the toy now.
>
> So, the Micromaster component is a tiny yellow cab, described as a tractor on the package, that's about 1 3/4" in length. He's bright yellow with a red painted windshield and some light grey tanks on either side (which are obviously the robot arms). I'm not quite sure if he's meant to be able to function on his own like this. The trailer helps to complete his appearance, certainly. There's a weird juxtaposiiton here, since the crane itself looks like it should be massive and powerful, and yet he's this tiny little thing.
>
> When he transforms to robot mode, the top of the vehicle ends up serving as his chest, and the legs swing forward from behind him, a bit like the original Blurr toy. But, since he's so tiny, there isn't a lot of real estate for clever hinges and things. His legs have this large, C-shaped cut-out to make room for the axle that connects his shoulders/wheels together. I'm honestly surprised at how little plastic there is. It's seriously like one millimeter wide. Granted, the legs move in tandem, so you have the strength of both legs working together at all times, but still. I wonder if there have been many, many broken Erectors over the years, because it seems awfully fragile. (Maybe this is the reason why I see so many Erector trailers on eBay without a Micromaster to accompany them!)
>
> As a robot, he's just heckin' cute. Two inches tall, yellow with light grey upper legs and arms, and a red painted face. Not his nose, though. Just his face and eyes. Like Mixmaster. His arms enjoy a full 360-degree range of motion, which is unusual for a Micromaster, but he's not designed with upper leg articulation like many others. In fact, his knees can't bend in the proper direction at all. They can only bend backwards. More on this in a sec.
>
> The trailer, meanwhile, is like a sort of construction crane platform, with a large, articulated boom arm and hook. The boom arm attaches via peg so it can rotate, and the crane arm can pivot up and down. The instructions also explain how Erector can ditch the trailer and carry just the crane arm assembly. It looks preposterously big when he's toting it around, but I guess it's nice to have options! When he's towing the trailer, the completed vehicle is about five inches in length.
>
> Where Overload and Flattop had accessories that transformed into vehicles for them to sit inside of and ride around in, Erector's is designed to unfold into a battle platform that he can stand on top of and man. It reverses direction so that the front of the trailer forms the back of the battle platform, and the sides swing out (reminds me of the trailer for Action Master Optimus Prime, or G2 Laser Prime), a gunner station swings up, and a pair of guns flip out. The crane arm also opens up to reveal a gun battery, which can plug into the front of the battle platform.
>
> This is the official configuration, but I think there's also a secondary configuration that wasn't in the instructions. (There are only a few panels of instructions on the back of the card, so one supposes there simply wasn't room to depict this one.) Erector is designed to sit, and the trailer hitch on the back of his legs corresponds to a mount that isn't used in either official mode. If you seat him instead of stand him up, then you can close up the side panels around him and tuck the gunner station down so that it holds him in like a seatbelt. Now he can roll into battle aboard his own personal craft. In this configuration, he fits snugly against the yellow panel behind him as if it were a seat, and I can't imagine for a second that this wasn't intended. I'm sure I would have figured all this out in 1989, but I'm a little late to the party.
>
> I know that a lot of Transformers toys are based around the idea of looking like a specific make and model of Earth-style vehicle, but I'd forgotten how fun toys like this can be. Only one of its configurations is semi-familiar and the other two are sheer fantasy, but doesn't that make sense? He's from an alien world, so of course their technology isn't going to look exactly like ours. No matter what mode he's in, the toy has a really familiar, blocky aesthetic that I simply love.
>
> Also, the fact that this is a pristine, minty toy is amazing. All his joints are tight, his paint is perfect, and there's not a single scratch on him. Not a spot of rust on the pins anywhere. There are tiny little pieces of flash (extra plastic) still on the crane hook! They say you can't travel back in time, but I think I must have stepped through a dimensional rift and ended up in 1989, because that's the only way I can account for being the first person to touch this toy since it was packaged.
>
> So, anyway. I'm probably more excited about this than I have any business being. This is a very old and very unremarkable toy for probably hundreds or thousands of fans. But, it's brand new to me, and I'm delighted.
>
>
> Zob (has already lost two pounds on my diet, so congratulate me)
I've ended up with 3 complete Erector sets (pun not originally intended but it is after review) , if I knew you needed one I would have sent one. There's not really anything that happens to this guy, short of a possible rusting screws. I've only seen one that looked like it's been played with in 10 or so I've seen over the years. We've had a $30 pricetag one for a year now, and nobody was interested so I was going to drop it to $25 today since we got a ton of G1 boxed Autobot cars and Coneheads we need the display case space for. I still have Skystalkers selling for $30 missing the rear gun. I didn't think the Micromaster bases had gone up that much.

Just parted together a really good condition Flattop because someone brought in the Micromaster and missile, and we had the aircraft carrier. Just need 1 more missile. Also put together the Off-Road Patrol, and almost had a Race-car patrol until I noticed Roadhandler's arm was glued. Unfortunately our Tracer and Blazemaster are missing their rotors. Just like all of them. I've got a gallon bag full of incomplete patrols and I am contemplating just putting them at $5 per loose bot.

Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2022 17:55:23 -0000 (UTC)
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 by: Dave Van Domelen - Thu, 6 Jan 2022 17:55 UTC

G1 Erector is awesome, yes.

Dave Van Domelen, Erector of the Holy Roman Empire?

Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Thu, 6 Jan 2022 23:22 UTC

On Thursday, January 6, 2022 at 8:04:16 AM UTC-7, Ob1k...@att.net wrote:

> I've ended up with 3 complete Erector sets (pun not originally intended but it is after review)

Oh, I was actually going to say something about the name, and I forgot. The name Erector is *clearly* a cheeky reference to the old Erector sets. The brand would have been owned by either Ideal or Tyco (not sure which) at the time that the Micromasters were released, and honestly I'm not sure how Hasbro got away with it. We know that there were both Hasbro Transformers and Tonka GoBots on the shelf at the same time who shared the same names (Warpath, Blaster) so maybe they just didn't care about defending trademarks as much back in the 1980's.

> Unfortunately our Tracer and Blazemaster are missing their rotors. Just like all of them.

Ah, that's too bad. Thank you for checking. Something tells me those two guys are going to end up being very difficult, or very expensive, to find complete.

> I've got a gallon bag full of incomplete patrols and I am contemplating just putting them at $5 per loose bot.

Hmm. I imagine I'll be buying entire sets, for the most part. Five bucks a pop ain't a bad price. Good luck selling them. I think either you're in the market for Micromasters, or you're not. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground.

Zob (replaced the plastic fasttrack clips on all the endcaps in my department today, and boy are my arms tired)

Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

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 by: Zobovor - Sun, 6 Mar 2022 12:31 UTC

On Thursday, January 6, 2022 at 8:04:16 AM UTC-7, Ob1k...@att.net wrote:

> Unfortunately our Tracer and Blazemaster are missing their rotors. Just like all of them.

I actually saw an auction this week for a Decepticon Military Patrol, with a complete Tracer. It's the first one I've seen. It sat at like $60 for a few days and then I started watching the auction when it had a few minutes to go. I was contemplating bidding around $88 or so (I like weird numbers) when it suddenly jumped up to like $147.50, at which point I politely bowed out. I mean, I'm buying a house. I can't just be throwing money around right now.

However, there was a set back in January that only sold for $100, so I wonder which price is more typical. Tracer rotor blades are so uncommon that it's difficult to accurately price them. But, I'm getting the distinct feeling that he and Blaze Master are going to be my white whales when it comes to finishing off G1.

Why does nobody sell reproduction rotor blades for these two? I would accept fake rotor blades if it meant my helicopters didn't have to be naked. All the poor, naked Tracers on eBay all look so sad. They're just like pathetic little black submarines.

Zob (nearly everything I own is in boxes right now and it's driving me nuts)

Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)
From: evil.kin...@gmail.com (Evil King Macrocranios)
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 by: Evil King Macrocrani - Sun, 6 Mar 2022 23:13 UTC

On Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 4:31:46 AM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> It sat at like $60 for a few days and then I started watching the auction when it had a few minutes to go. I was contemplating bidding around $88 or so (I like weird numbers) when it suddenly jumped up to like $147.50, at which point I politely bowed out.

I know it feels like the bidding got all crazy at the very end, but really that auction was over two days prior when the bidder with 73 feedback who eventually won placed their bid. Even that no feedback last minute sniper couldn't outbid Mr. 73 feedback. I think we dwell a bit too much on what seems to be last minute sniping but really, the only thing that matters is if we took our shot and tried our best. I like to know that even if I do lose I bid as close as I could to what was unreasonable and made that winning guy pay.

The other day I had an auction end in a sniping war and my phone froze up as I was getting my last minute bid in. When it finally unfroze all I saw was that I lost and the end price was well over what I would have bid. I was unsure if my bid got in on time because my phone kept locking up so I couldn't even check the bid history. For some reason it mattered to me even though I lost to know that my losing bid went through. For a moment in time until I could check the bid history I was devastated not just from losing but by the possibility that my bid wasn't even entered. Then my phone finally unfroze and I checked the history and saw my not-high-enough bid really did get in. I still lost but I felt a lot better for having tried. It was weird how my mood swung so sharply like that from when I thought I was a loser that didn't bid to the more acceptable 'tried but failed'.
> However, there was a set back in January that only sold for $100, so I wonder which price is more typical. Tracer rotor blades are so uncommon that it's difficult to accurately price them.

Well there's a lot right now with six micromasters including a complete Tracer and it's got a BIN of $110.

> But, I'm getting the distinct feeling that he and Blaze Master are going to be my white whales when it comes to finishing off G1.

I kinda thought that in today's market a complete Skyhammer, Roadblock, or Thunderwing would be tougher than these little micromaster guys and you've overcome those obstacles already.

> Why does nobody sell reproduction rotor blades for these two? I would accept fake rotor blades if it meant my helicopters didn't have to be naked. All the poor, naked Tracers on eBay all look so sad. They're just like pathetic little black submarines.

Probably because at that size and thickness the plastic used in 3d printers is too brittle? I don't know. Also, possibly there's not much demand. Unless they redo Tracer in a modern line which puts a secondary market spotlight on the vintage toy I think most indie printers or third party add on set makers are unaware of the need.

> I mean, I'm buying a house. I can't just be throwing money around right now.

I say never be complete. </Tyler Durden> You could also just be happy with what you have and not buy anything ever again. Our self created definitions of what constitutes a complete collection are totally arbitrary anyway.

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Subject: Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)
From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Tue, 8 Mar 2022 02:28 UTC

On Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 4:13:28 PM UTC-7, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:

> The other day I had an auction end in a sniping war and my phone froze up as I was getting my last minute bid in.

I would lose my mind if that happened to me!

> I kinda thought that in today's market a complete Skyhammer, Roadblock, or Thunderwing would be tougher than these little micromaster guys and you've overcome those obstacles already.

True story. Skyhammer was one of the toys I had the most apprehension over trying to acquire. Something tells me the hardest G1 toy to complete is going to be somebody totally random who isn't even on my radar. Like, watch it become impossible to find the green gun for Deluxe Insecticon Venom, or something like that.

> Probably because at that size and thickness the plastic used in 3d printers is too brittle? I don't know. Also, possibly there's not much demand. Unless they redo Tracer in a modern line which puts a secondary market spotlight on the vintage toy I think most indie printers or third party add on set makers are unaware of the need.

I was honestly unaware of Tracer and Blaze Master's rotor blades being so rare until I started actively hunting for the toys. You'd think I would have known, given how many Tonka GoBots are the exact same way (Cop-Tur, Wrong Way, Twin Spin, etc.) But, you'd think the people who already do reproduction parts would have sussed it out. They seem to understand the need for Targetmaster partners and Monster Pretender guns, anyway.

> I say never be complete. </Tyler Durden> You could also just be happy with what you have and not buy anything ever again. Our self created definitions of what constitutes a complete collection are totally arbitrary anyway.

I do need to remind myself on occasion that I have a pretty great collection of plastic robots. A lot of the toys they're coming out with now are so phenomenal, though, that it would be hard for me to not buy any of them. They're finally getting Transformers right in a way that they just couldn't be bothered to do ten years ago. I own so many toys that are unacceptable half-assed G1 tributes. But, I bought them at the time because I thought they were the closest thing we were ever likely to get. Now that the bar has been raised, my standards... well, my standards have always been absurdly high, but at least now there's a much more realistic chance of them being met.

With that said, I'm not sure how much of Tyler Durden's advice to take at face value. He had some great things to say about materialism and consumerism. But he also peed in restaurant food and blew up buildings. Hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Zob (probably doesn't need a Time Warrior to consider my collection complete)

Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)

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Subject: Re: Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Transport Erector (1989)
From: joe.bard...@gmail.com (Joseph Bardsley)
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 by: Joseph Bardsley - Wed, 9 Mar 2022 02:34 UTC

On Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at 6:45:09 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> So, it's been about two years now since I started hunting down vintage G1 toys. I do have a list of which toys I need (along with notes like what I can probably expect to pay, what parts the toy is supposed to come with, anything problematic to watch for like parts that tend to break, etc.) but I'm not going in any specific order. It's honestly been more fun for me to bounce around and do random keyword searches until I see something that's a great deal, or in truly exceptional condition, or something like that. I usually know when I've come across the right auction to bid on. It will just *speak* to me.
>
> For no reason in particular, I started looking at the Micromaster Transports. I used to have Overload and Flattop, but they were among the toys I sold off when I reached adulthood. Nowadays, one of the Transports tends to go for around $40 or so. I was scolling through Erector auctions, a lot of which were either missing crane parts or had broken crane hooks. Then I came across this auction of the toy still in the packaging. Obviously, sealed vintage G1 units tend to go for many hundreds of dollars, and they're frankly beyond my budget. (I'd like to be able to buy a G1 toy once a month, not once a year.) This guy was selling it for $40.
>
> I actually did a double-take. Surely there was something very badly wrong with the toy. It had to be a knockoff, or the card was covered in mold, or something crazy like that. But, nope. The seller said he'd gotten it in a estate sale from some elderly couple, and they evidently collected all sorts of random odds and ends. I guess they just had this toy sitting around in their attic or whatever for the last 30 years.
>
> Now, I will say as a caveat that the bubble was cracked, and the seller demonstrated how you could pop the Micromaster component out of the packaging if you really wanted to. But, the toy itself is brand spanking new and unused. Which is astonishing to me. I mean, I'd end up paying $40 for this toy anyway, regardless, but to get to be the first person to handle it and transform it? That never happens. Not without spending many hundreds of dollars, anyway.
>
> (I checked to see what else the seller had, and I got another good deal on something else, but we'll talk about that in a separate post.)
>
> So, not only have I never owned this toy before, but I've never even handled him or seen him in person. All I've ever seen is grainy Hasbro catalog images and the occasional badly-lit online photo. I like this dude a lot. He didn't appeal to me much when I was a kid (I had chosen Overload and Flattop back in the day, and just never went back for the other two) but I have a high level of appreciation for the toy now.
>
> So, the Micromaster component is a tiny yellow cab, described as a tractor on the package, that's about 1 3/4" in length. He's bright yellow with a red painted windshield and some light grey tanks on either side (which are obviously the robot arms). I'm not quite sure if he's meant to be able to function on his own like this. The trailer helps to complete his appearance, certainly. There's a weird juxtaposiiton here, since the crane itself looks like it should be massive and powerful, and yet he's this tiny little thing.
>
> When he transforms to robot mode, the top of the vehicle ends up serving as his chest, and the legs swing forward from behind him, a bit like the original Blurr toy. But, since he's so tiny, there isn't a lot of real estate for clever hinges and things. His legs have this large, C-shaped cut-out to make room for the axle that connects his shoulders/wheels together. I'm honestly surprised at how little plastic there is. It's seriously like one millimeter wide. Granted, the legs move in tandem, so you have the strength of both legs working together at all times, but still. I wonder if there have been many, many broken Erectors over the years, because it seems awfully fragile. (Maybe this is the reason why I see so many Erector trailers on eBay without a Micromaster to accompany them!)
>
> As a robot, he's just heckin' cute. Two inches tall, yellow with light grey upper legs and arms, and a red painted face. Not his nose, though. Just his face and eyes. Like Mixmaster. His arms enjoy a full 360-degree range of motion, which is unusual for a Micromaster, but he's not designed with upper leg articulation like many others. In fact, his knees can't bend in the proper direction at all. They can only bend backwards. More on this in a sec.
>
> The trailer, meanwhile, is like a sort of construction crane platform, with a large, articulated boom arm and hook. The boom arm attaches via peg so it can rotate, and the crane arm can pivot up and down. The instructions also explain how Erector can ditch the trailer and carry just the crane arm assembly. It looks preposterously big when he's toting it around, but I guess it's nice to have options! When he's towing the trailer, the completed vehicle is about five inches in length.
>
> Where Overload and Flattop had accessories that transformed into vehicles for them to sit inside of and ride around in, Erector's is designed to unfold into a battle platform that he can stand on top of and man. It reverses direction so that the front of the trailer forms the back of the battle platform, and the sides swing out (reminds me of the trailer for Action Master Optimus Prime, or G2 Laser Prime), a gunner station swings up, and a pair of guns flip out. The crane arm also opens up to reveal a gun battery, which can plug into the front of the battle platform.
>
> This is the official configuration, but I think there's also a secondary configuration that wasn't in the instructions. (There are only a few panels of instructions on the back of the card, so one supposes there simply wasn't room to depict this one.) Erector is designed to sit, and the trailer hitch on the back of his legs corresponds to a mount that isn't used in either official mode. If you seat him instead of stand him up, then you can close up the side panels around him and tuck the gunner station down so that it holds him in like a seatbelt. Now he can roll into battle aboard his own personal craft. In this configuration, he fits snugly against the yellow panel behind him as if it were a seat, and I can't imagine for a second that this wasn't intended. I'm sure I would have figured all this out in 1989, but I'm a little late to the party.
>
> I know that a lot of Transformers toys are based around the idea of looking like a specific make and model of Earth-style vehicle, but I'd forgotten how fun toys like this can be. Only one of its configurations is semi-familiar and the other two are sheer fantasy, but doesn't that make sense? He's from an alien world, so of course their technology isn't going to look exactly like ours. No matter what mode he's in, the toy has a really familiar, blocky aesthetic that I simply love.
>
> Also, the fact that this is a pristine, minty toy is amazing. All his joints are tight, his paint is perfect, and there's not a single scratch on him. Not a spot of rust on the pins anywhere. There are tiny little pieces of flash (extra plastic) still on the crane hook! They say you can't travel back in time, but I think I must have stepped through a dimensional rift and ended up in 1989, because that's the only way I can account for being the first person to touch this toy since it was packaged.
>
> So, anyway. I'm probably more excited about this than I have any business being. This is a very old and very unremarkable toy for probably hundreds or thousands of fans. But, it's brand new to me, and I'm delighted.
>
>
> Zob (has already lost two pounds on my diet, so congratulate me)

Erector is one of my favorites, too! I love these fantastical vehicles, and how modular and blocky he is. :) Nice find, Zob!

Joseph

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From: zmf...@aol.com (Zobovor)
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 by: Zobovor - Sun, 8 May 2022 03:18 UTC

On Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 5:31:46 AM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:

> Tracer rotor blades are so uncommon that it's difficult to accurately price them. But, I'm getting the distinct feeling that he and Blaze Master are going to be my white whales when it comes to finishing off G1.

Finally won a Tracer auction today WITH helicopter blades for $42! So happy. I even got Dropshot and Bombshock. No Growl, but I can pick him up separately.

Zob (there are zero eBay auctions right now with a complete Blaze Master, though, so he's still going to be a problem)

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