My G1 acquisitions of late have been partially dictated by the number of Detolf cabinets I own. I've only five of them for Transformers currently, so the 1984 toys get their own cabinet, 1985 gets one, and so do 1986 and 1987, but then all my toys from 1988, '89, and '90 get jammed together in the last one. You can cram a lot of Micromasters onto one shelf, you know? Eventually I'll have to spread them out, but for now, it's easy to throw more Micromasters in there without having to do a lot of rearranging.

So, my collecting style growing up was that I wanted at least one of each type of toy so I could experience the play pattern. I knew I couldn't afford the entire toy range with my allowance, but if I had like one or two Headmasters, at least one Targetmaster, one or two Pretenders, etc. I was pretty happy. When the Micromaster Combiners were released, I strongly hinted to my best friend at the time (hi, Paul!) that they would make a good birthday gift for me. So, I deliberately held off on buying any, thinking that he would eventually take the hint. And he never did. And then the G1 toy line, as you all know, ended with a whimper. (Makes sad Action Master noises.) So, I didn't own a single Micromaster Combiner until, like, last year!

OILER & SLIDE
"Whoever controls energy, controls destiny."

To me, these guys are the face of the Micromaster Combiners. They are the archetypical go-to example, and I'm not entirely sure whether it's just because of their prominence in the television commercials, or some other reason. But, If I had ever only gotten one set of Micromaster Combiners, I wanted it to be the Metro Squad, mainly because of Oiler and Slide.

Together, they assume the form of an oil tanker, and they do it so much better than Octane did in 1986. At about 3.25" in length, the vehicle has a blue cab with a white oil tank and a partially grey wheel base. The cab's painted windows are light grey, and the vehicle ostensibly rolls along on ten wheels, with eight of them functional and two faux wheels. But, at least they're painted black, so they blend in well, unlike some other Micromasters (coughRedHotcough).

When you separate them, the truck splits clean down the middle, and so the truck cab loses some of its wheels. It would be like if you chopped off G1 Optimus Prime's legs at the knees. Oiler is a little like Highjump in the way he's designed—the rear of the vehicle forms his legs (the instructions call them legs this time, unlike the Decepticon Constructor Squad instructions which designate the legs as a "robot standing platform"), the front of the vehicle flips back to form a backpack, and the sides of the vehicle swing down to form his stubby little arms. A cool design element is that the smokestacks for the truck end up mounted to his arms, so they look like little arm-mounted lasers.

As a robot, he's mostly blue with grey upper legs, and his body and robot head are a bright fluorescent yellow. He stands at about 1/75" in height.
He's a little more awkwardly-designed than a lot of Micromasters, with huge, gigantic boots that are formed from the entire sleeper cab section. Also, like Highjump, he has very limited arm movement. But, he's well-armed, which is more than you can say about a lot of Micromasters!

Slide, meanwhile, turns into robot mode after you unfold his legs and raise his arms. Eassy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. He's about 2.25" inches when he's in this form. He's got gigantic arms compared to most Micromasters—the entire wheel base forms each arm, and unlike a lot of early Micromasters with molded Nebulan-sized arms and fists on the insides of their armor panels, he's got huge fists sculpted into the ends of each wheel base. Like, Slag or Snarl didn't have fists this big. He's a bruiser. He punches things for a living, I'm sure.

His robot styling is almost entirely white in color, with some grey arms and upper legs, but that's pretty much it. His eyes and mask are painted blue, and he reminds me a little of Guzzle, but he really could have used some more color. They should have painted his robot chest or something. But, he can move his lower legs individually, which Oiler cannot. So, there's that.

POWER RUN & STRIKEDOWN

"Either you're an Autobot, or you're nothing."

Like all Micromaster Combiners, these guys only get one quote between the two of them, so I guess they must share one brain. It seems kind of racist, honestly. Like, obviously they're referring to the Decepticons, and they're proud of their Autobot heritage, but do they consider humans to be nothing? What about GoBots? What about Nebulans?

Together, these guys form a white pasenger hovercraft with a black underside, similar in design and shape to Seaspray, but with one fan in the back instead of two. The vehicle is about 2.75" in length. It has gold-painted windows and a single visible fluorescent yellow control cabin. Perhaps the biggest oddity of the vehicle's design is that it has two working rear wheels but no front wheels to speak of. There is a single faux wheel in the center to help support it, but it doesn't roll or spin. This is especially problematic, given that this is a Micromaster Combiner that's expected to be able to combine with other vehicle halves to, presumably, still form a functional vehicle!

Power Run forms the front half of the vehicle. Alone, he's shaped like Seaspray's feet. You get him into robot mode by unfolding the nose of the craft to form his robot legs, swinging the sides up to form the arms, and flipping up that yellow control cabin, which is the robot head. Due to his design, his head sits way back on his body with respect to his arms, and it looks a bit odd.

As a robot, Power Run is about two inches tall, his arms and lower legs white with black painted parts, and his entire upper body and head sporting that bright yellow color. He has a gold-painted face and eyes, with (if we're being honest here) a goofy trapezoid-shaped helmet. Unlike Slide, he's got those molded Nebulan-sized arms on the inside of his armor.

Strikedown forms the rear half of the hovercraft. As a robot, he's 2.0" at the head, with his fan assembly bringing his total height closer to 2.25" overall. His robot mode ends up being a bit more ungainly, with a block of plastic serving as his legs. Weirdly, he's got what looks like sculpted toes, but they're on the back of the feet, so I guess they're his heels? No toes to speak of whatsoever. The rounded sides of the hovercraft form his arms, and they're monstrous compared to the rest of him. When you flip the engine piece up, so it rests behind his head, it shifts the positon of the arms down a bit to a more natural position. He still kind of reminds me of that McDonald's transformable toy that turns into a cheeseburger.

Like Power Run, his arms and legs are white with black-painted parts, while his body and head are blue. He has a light grey painted face, and the way he's sculpted looks like he's wearing a cowl, and reminds me of the cartoon version of Wheelie. It really is a good thing he's got those heel struts, though, because otherwise I don't think he'd be able to stand up at all.

WHEEL BLAZE & ROAD BURNER
"We're the coolest when things get hot."

What's interesting is that Wheel Blaze and Road Burner refer to themselves as a "we," but the quote for Fireshot and Vanquish is, "It's my duty to known the unknown!" suggesting they become a single entity with a single mind when they combine. Most curious. Further research is indicated.

Their on-package biography refers to this vehicle as a fire truck. It's bright neon yellow, which is an emergency vehicle color, but it doesn't have the capability to put out fires. There is an articulated cherry-picker bucket mounted to the rear of the vehicle, so I suppose they could rescue incredibly diminutive creatures in that bucket. I mean, a Micromaster is already the size of a Nebulan, so it's not like a person could fit inside that bucket. They could rescue, like, one apple. Or a handful of cherries, since it's a cherry-picker.

So, this vehicle has grey painted windows, and eight wheels (all functional this time). The bucket arm does not swivel, but can raise at the base and
also has a hinged joint at the mid-section.

Wheel Blaze forms the front of the truck. He's designed a lot like Stonecruncher, with the front of the truck opening up to become the legs during transformation, and the robot head permanently recessed within the back of the truck. He's got short, stubby little Terrorcon arms.

As a robot, he's exactly two inches in height, almost entirely bright yellow with grey upper legs, a blue head and torso, and a teal-painted face and eyes. Afer all these oddball-shaped robots with weird proportions, he's arguably got one of the most conventional designs of the team.

Wheel Blaze got a Siege toy in 2019, a redeco of the Micromaster Red Hot toy and no longer a Micromaster Combiner. Then they did a Galactic Odyssey Collection set of Micromasters, and produced a Micromaster Combiner that was a bright yellow fire truck, but I guess since Wheel Blaze already got a non-combining toy, this version was named Fireguard. But, an update is an update is an update, says I.

Road Burner is the rear half of the fire truck. Alone, he's a laughably weird-looking vehicle half, with no cockpit to speak of. When he transforms, he gets saddled with the awful sort of "robot standing platform" style legs that Oiler and Strikedown have got—just a big, square block of plastic.