For no particular reason, I decided the vintage G1 toy(s) I went after this month was going to be another Micromaster Combiner set. I'll be picking all of them up, eventually, but this happened to be the set that I found complete and for a decent price, so I went for it. (I got my Drill Dasher from the same seller, because I was already paying for shipping, so why not.)

I had thought that it was going to really bother me to pay vintage aftermarket prices for all these tiny Micromasters, but in fact I've really been enjoying it. I was worried buying all these little nobody toys would be really anticlimactic, too, but I've found collecting them to be fun. I've stared longingly at pictures of these toys for years, but to actually hold them in my hands and marvel at the very retro aesthetic has filled me with joy.

Now, paying close to $200 a pop for each of the 1989 small Pretenders? That might end up being a different story. But, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it.

MELTDOWN and HALF-TRACK
"Ramming speed is the only way to travel!"

Meltdown and Half-Track are, I believe, the only Micromaster Combiners who can both separate into fully-functional and complete vehicles in their own right. (Sledge from the Constructor Squad can also pass for a vehicle by himself, but his partner Hammer cannot.) Together, they form an anti-aircraft vehicle that's a truck towing a tank, measuring about 3.25" in length. The vehicle is a rich purple with red windows, a grey-blue tank turret, and bright red cannons. Very Decepticon-esque.

Alone, Meltdown is a 1.5" truck resembling a Hummer H1. He reminds me a lot of the Mini-Con called Cliffjumper who came packaged with Armada Cheetor. Transforming him involves unfolding the rear of the vehicle like Swindle, and that's it. You're done. His arms can rotate 360 degrees, a comparative rarity for Micromasters, but there are little locking tabs meant to keep them in place for vehicle mode, so you kind of have to work around those. His arms are also monstrously huge, with the side doors and windows, as well as chunks of the front bumper, comprising their mass.

Meltdown stands at two inches in height, and is purple with a grey-blue body, magenta upper legs, and an orange painted face. (The advantage of being part of a Squad instead of a Patrol is that he gets to be gang-molded in three colors of plastic instead of just two.) He's got huge, chunky boots. He doesn't appear to be equipped with any weapons, so his name probably isn't a reference to his firepower. He probably got that name because of his personality.

Half-Track, meanwhile, is a cute little 1.5" tank with dual barrels, not dissimilar to Sidetrack from the Autobot Battle Patrol. The turret can rotate 360 degrees, and the dual cannons can swing up and over a full 180 degrees. Ironically, Half-Track himself is not a half-track vehicle, but can become one only when he connects to Meltdown. He might have gotten his name from General Halftrack, the bungling leader from the Beetle Bailey newspaper comic strip.

Half-Track transforms by extending his legs. Again, that's it. Well, and you swing back the little panel over his head, which has the Micromaster Combiner connector pegs. Also like Meltdown, he's got some enormously chunky arms. He and Meltdown shop at the same army surplus store. You can't see his hands at first glance, because they're tucked away inside the armor. He's purple with magenta upper legs and a black robot body, with a yellow-painted robot face.

It's nice that each of these guys can transform into something useful instead of just the front half or the incomplete butt-end of a bigger vehicle. And, honestly, their colors are great.

DIRECT-HIT and POWER PUNCH
"Strike hard and fear no one!"

Together, Direct-Hit and Power Punch form a long train-like eight-wheeled artillery vehicle, measuring some 3.25" in length. The vehicle is predominantly grey-blue, with white painted canopy windows and a magenta artillery pieces mounted at the rear. The cannon can pivot 90 degrees and point directly upwards, so they can drive between a full-sized Autobot's legs and shoot him in the crotch.

Alone, Direct-Hit could probably pass for a vehicle in his own right. The front section flips out to form the feet, and his head is supposed to slide up. It's very difficult to grasp at the tiny notch on the back of his head; I had to use a tool. In robot mode, he's very leggy, measuring 2.5" tall. Despite the different colors, his robot configuration is a lot like Constructicon Hook, even down to the off-center peg on his shoulder that could pass for an exhaust pipe. He's mostly a grey-blue with magenta upper legs, a purple body, and a black head with an orange-painted face.

For some reason, his head and face design were swapped with Power Punch on the box art on the 1990 packaging.

Power Punch probably can't serve as a vehicle on his own, especially since he doesn't have a cockpit to speak of. He's just sort of a rectangular box with an artillery piece on top. To transform him, you pull his legs out. This ain't rocket science, folks. Unlike the others, his legs are fused together and cannot move individually. Also, his arms are very short. His shoulder joints are also mounted way back on his body, so his arms appear to get even shorter when you raise them up. He's grey-blue with a black robot torso, magenta upper legs, and a yellow painted face.

Direct-Hit and Power Punch got an update in 2020 as part of the Siege toy line, the first Micromaster Combiners to make the jump to neo-G1 (and were eventually sold in redeco colors as a slightly less accurate Missile Master/Moonrock and Wheel Blaze/Roadburner).

FIRESHOT and VANQUISH
"It's my duty to know the unknown!"

Why do Fireshot and Vanquish refer to themselves as a single entity? If they're sharing a quote, shouldn't it read, "It's OUR job to know the unknown"? Do the two of them share one mind, and it's divided between two bodies? Or is one of them speaking as a representative for the pair, and the other doesn't get to have a say? Also, exactly *how* can you known the unknown?
Is it not, by its very definition, unknowable? So many unanswered questions.

Well, where most of the Micromaster Combiners tend to be ground vehicles, Fireshot and Vanquish mix it up by combining into an aircraft. Specifically, they're an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane (similar to the Night Raven from the G.I. Joe toy line), though there's a lot of undercarriage junk goin' on. Part of it is to put the robot-mode parts somewhere, but part of it is necessary to lift the jet halves up to the proper height so that they can combine freely with other vehicle halves. The three-inch-long jet is a four-wheeled vehicle, with two in the front and two in the back. It's black with a visible magenta-colored hinge.

Fireshot is the front half of the jet. To transform him, the jet nose folds up to form a heel strut, with the front section of the jet becoming the robot legs. The sections to which the wheels are attached unfold to become the arms, which are mounted to the twin engine intakes. His head flips out, and he's got a massive mohawk that acually assists in grasping the head and flipping it out. He's got black arms and lower legs, a purple body, magenta upper legs, and a grey-blue robot head with red-painted face. At two inches in height, he's a little ungainly, with very skinny legs. Like Hot Rod and Silverbolt, he can only move his arms at the elbows.

Vanquish is the rear half of the jet. His legs are entirely undercarriage parts, so they just unfold, and have no vehicle kibble at all except for the wheels attached to them. The arms are the same way—no extraneous vehicular parts. He reminds me of the Nebulan partner for a Headmaster. He's built like Spasma, only with jet parts on his back. As a robot, he's two inches tall.
He's got a black backpack and lower legs, magenta upper legs, purple arms, and a blue body with a white painted face. It's almost too many colors at once.

These guys have a really cool, unified color scheme. If the grey-blue color had been a little more of a turquoise color, then a couple of these guys would look a lot like Seacon Overbite.

These guys seem to go for about $70-$90 at the moment; I got my set for $60, which I was pretty happy about. Yes, it's a lot of money for some really tiny Transformers, but it's also only ten bucks per Micromaster, so there's that. Still need the Astro Squad, the Metro Squad, plus the Combiner Transports and Combiner Bases. I'm getting there.

I now have 19 Micromasters on my computer desk (recent Patrols/Squads plus an extra Bombshock), and I clearly need to set up some kind of G1 display shelving so I can finally put them somewhere proper.

Zob (not looking forward to paying IKEA over $100 on delivery fees just to get my Detolf shelves shipped to me, but I'll probably end up doing just that)