Review #64: Universe Micromaster Constructicons
Hello everybody! Yotsuya here. So far on Yotsuya's Reviews we've been looking at two different sets of Constructicons, with my past review of the Maketoys Giant Type-61 set, and Rated X's ongoing series of guest reviews looking at those offered by TFC Toys. (Both series of reviews can be found on this page here.)
Those are both third party offerings, however. Would you believe I'm about to take a look at an official version of the team? That's right! But don't expect anything big here... In fact, this shall rather be the opposite. For we are going to be taking a look at a Micromaster Constructicon team!
Before we get into the review, a few explanatory matters. First of all, what continuity do these fit into? Officially, they fall into the "Universe" continuity. This was a continuity that existed primarily from 2003 until 2005 (although the occasional toy still came out afterwards in Universe packaging) which consisted of a toy line largely made up of repainted molds, and an accompanying comic book series. (To add confusion for the lay person, there was a second toy line later called "Universe." This second toy line was not a continuation of the continuity established in the first, but rather it was a continuation of the "Classics" toy line, and would itself be later superseded by the Generations toy line.)
So, long story short (too late), officially the toys being reviewed today were part of this Universe continuity, and were not intended to be the same characters as the G1 Constructicons. But, you know what? In my collection, I say the heck with that! To me, they are a neat mini-version of the G1 Constructicon team!
So that brings us to, "What is a Micromaster?" Well, the answer to that is fairly simple. It is a really small Transformer. Not quite "Smallest Transforming Transformers" small, but they are probably the last size down you will find before you do get that small.
Micromasters were seen towards the tail end of the original G1 toy line. I had a few as a kid, and they were fun. They were tiny but still transformable figures that often came with little play sets for them to interact with that also transformed. Readers with long memories may remember that I've actually reviewed one Micromaster before, the Japanese exclusive Micromaster Hot Rod that came with Star Convoy. (In this case, one could argue that Star Convoy, with his Micromaster base mode, was the play set accessory for Hot Rod.)
In the Japanese Micromaster toy line, there were a few six member combiner teams. One of these was a set of six construction vehicles, but oddly enough, it was an Autobot team! This set, originally released in 1992, did get a few recolors released in Japan including a Decepticon one in green.
It wasn't until twelve years after the initial use of these molds that we finally got a U.S. release. In 2004, finally sporting the familiar green and purple coloring we all know and love, this set was released as six separate figures sold as an exclusive of the late and lamented KB Toys. And this 2004 domestic release is what we will be looking at today.
One final note before I get into the review proper. I did my best to take good photographs for this review, but they are quite small and can be difficult to photograph clearly! (And there was another big issue that interfered with the processing of the photos once taken, which may become more clear -- or perhaps more blurry -- in some notes I have presented after the end of the review.) Apologies if any of the photos are a bit blurry or otherwise not 100% up to snuff, but hopefully all of them are at least clear enough for you to see what you need to.
Those are both third party offerings, however. Would you believe I'm about to take a look at an official version of the team? That's right! But don't expect anything big here... In fact, this shall rather be the opposite. For we are going to be taking a look at a Micromaster Constructicon team!
Before we get into the review, a few explanatory matters. First of all, what continuity do these fit into? Officially, they fall into the "Universe" continuity. This was a continuity that existed primarily from 2003 until 2005 (although the occasional toy still came out afterwards in Universe packaging) which consisted of a toy line largely made up of repainted molds, and an accompanying comic book series. (To add confusion for the lay person, there was a second toy line later called "Universe." This second toy line was not a continuation of the continuity established in the first, but rather it was a continuation of the "Classics" toy line, and would itself be later superseded by the Generations toy line.)
So, long story short (too late), officially the toys being reviewed today were part of this Universe continuity, and were not intended to be the same characters as the G1 Constructicons. But, you know what? In my collection, I say the heck with that! To me, they are a neat mini-version of the G1 Constructicon team!
So that brings us to, "What is a Micromaster?" Well, the answer to that is fairly simple. It is a really small Transformer. Not quite "Smallest Transforming Transformers" small, but they are probably the last size down you will find before you do get that small.
Micromasters were seen towards the tail end of the original G1 toy line. I had a few as a kid, and they were fun. They were tiny but still transformable figures that often came with little play sets for them to interact with that also transformed. Readers with long memories may remember that I've actually reviewed one Micromaster before, the Japanese exclusive Micromaster Hot Rod that came with Star Convoy. (In this case, one could argue that Star Convoy, with his Micromaster base mode, was the play set accessory for Hot Rod.)
In the Japanese Micromaster toy line, there were a few six member combiner teams. One of these was a set of six construction vehicles, but oddly enough, it was an Autobot team! This set, originally released in 1992, did get a few recolors released in Japan including a Decepticon one in green.
It wasn't until twelve years after the initial use of these molds that we finally got a U.S. release. In 2004, finally sporting the familiar green and purple coloring we all know and love, this set was released as six separate figures sold as an exclusive of the late and lamented KB Toys. And this 2004 domestic release is what we will be looking at today.
One final note before I get into the review proper. I did my best to take good photographs for this review, but they are quite small and can be difficult to photograph clearly! (And there was another big issue that interfered with the processing of the photos once taken, which may become more clear -- or perhaps more blurry -- in some notes I have presented after the end of the review.) Apologies if any of the photos are a bit blurry or otherwise not 100% up to snuff, but hopefully all of them are at least clear enough for you to see what you need to.
Well, we shall start things off alphabetically with Bonecrusher.
Like his original G1 equivalent, he is a bulldozer. He is the only one in this version of the Constructions to have a treaded vehicle mode, and they are nicely detailed little treads with wheels embedded underneath for him to roll on. His blade has a bit of articulation in it, being able to move up and down a bit where it connects with the rest of the vehicle mode. Reprolabels add nice detail to him in this mode, including the usual yellow and black striped detail one expects to find on any G1-inspired Constructicon toys. |
Transformation to robot mode is simple, as will be the case with all of the figures in this set. His only articulation is in the shoulders, which can come forward a bit.
His robot mode doesn't bear much of a resemblance to his G1 equivalent, aside from being a purple and green robot who obviously transforms into a construction vehicle. This lack of fidelity to G1 appearance will be common within this set, but I cannot bring myself to be overly bothered by it. After all, it is a tiny and transformable Constructicon! That by itself is cool enough for me!
His robot mode doesn't bear much of a resemblance to his G1 equivalent, aside from being a purple and green robot who obviously transforms into a construction vehicle. This lack of fidelity to G1 appearance will be common within this set, but I cannot bring myself to be overly bothered by it. After all, it is a tiny and transformable Constructicon! That by itself is cool enough for me!
Next up is Hook, although in the Universe continuity, he goes by the name of Hightower. Eh, whatever, I guess you get two members of the cast of Police Academy for the price of one! But whatever this toy's official name is, to me he is Hook.
His vehicle mode is actually nicely reminiscent, although far from identical, to his G1 toy. It features nice articulation for the crane arm, with a rotating turret and movement in the arm itself at the base, the mid point, and where the hook hangs from the arm. His vehicle mode Reprolabels may seem attached poorly, because they do not get placed on a nice flat surface. A small sticker over plastic with rigged detailing may seem like a recipe for lost stickers. But I've had this guy stickered up for a number of years, some of that time casually thrown into a box and tossed into storage, yet the stickers have remained nicely intact. |
These stickers can appear slightly ugly when viewed from angles where the fact that they are not on a flat surface is more obvious. In these photos, this will be most visible when we get to robot mode and you see his back view photo. Fortunately, on most standard sized computer screens, these photos should be appearing much larger then the actual size of the toy. This ugly non-flatness is much less apparent in real life, where one tends to look at things at a 1:1 scale.
Hook sports three pairs of wheels, but as is not uncommon on very small Transformers with three pairs of wheels, the center set is just a dummy pair. They are raised slightly and they don't actually rotate. At least they match well in size and color, although being hollow in the middle rather then having a hubcap is a bit of a give away. Still, I've seen much worse as far as fake wheels on Transformers go.
Hook sports three pairs of wheels, but as is not uncommon on very small Transformers with three pairs of wheels, the center set is just a dummy pair. They are raised slightly and they don't actually rotate. At least they match well in size and color, although being hollow in the middle rather then having a hubcap is a bit of a give away. Still, I've seen much worse as far as fake wheels on Transformers go.
Moving on to robot mode. As with Bonecrusher, the only articulation is in the arms which can be pivoted forward. Well, I suppose the hook's articulation could also still be counted as well, if you wish. The hook arm can fold up on his back, but this makes for a bit of a back heavy figure. I prefer to leave the arm extended and touching the ground for extra support. Hook sports a single Reprolabel on his chest for some added G1-ish detail.
Next up is Long Haul, who of this group is probably closest in appearance to his G1 equivalent. This is much helped by the Reprolabels that add detail to the interior of his bed, and a nice big faction symbol on his hood.
He even retains his nice G1-ishness in robot mode, although his legs don't transform in quite the same way so you loose the detail of the stickers in his bed. He does however get some knee stickers with some random detail on them to help spruce up his robot mode. (Looking now at G1 Mixmaster on the TF Wiki, they rather look like the stickers on his knees! So I suppose I goofed, putting them on Long Haul. I'll blame Reprolabels for the lack of any clear images on their website for this set to aid in sticker placement. If the stickers were still fresh, I might have tried to swap them upon this realization, but I fear that ship has long sailed. Ah, well. They don't look bad here.) |
One unfortunate thing about his otherwise nifty robot mode is that his bumper is so large that it blocks his arm articulation. They can still be moved forward, but not nearly as much as one might hope.
Still, over all this is a nice little Long Haul!
Still, over all this is a nice little Long Haul!
Next up is Mixmaster, although like Hook he suffered a name change. Here, he is officially known as Quickmix. Unless his mixing drum is full of delicious chocolate milk, however, I shall continue to refer to him as Mixmaster.
I suppose Hasbro decided to avoid the whole toy accurate green drum / cartoon accurate purple drum debate by just making the mixing drum on this toy silver. Either other color would have been simple enough, as the toy is cast in green plastic and they were already using purple paint on other parts of the toy. Still, the silver looks good on him and, even as someone who is typically in the "green drum" camp, having it a different color on a toy this small helps greatly to make it stand out. Mixmaster has a fake middle pair of wheels much like Hook did, but since they were already using silver paint on him for his mixing drum, they were able to paint his hub caps making them match the rest of his wheels almost perfectly. |
Like most of his fellows, he gains some yellow and black striped detailing thanks to some Reprolabels.
His robot mode isn't too bad, especially since Mixmaster is supposed to have a somewhat hooded head, anyway. Of course, normally his hood is supposed to be the rear of his vehicle while his feet are made from his vehicle's cab, where here it is rather the opposite.
Reprolabels give him a few extra splashes of color to help liven his robot mode up a bit. (The detail might have been more G1-like if not for the aforementioned mix-up with Long Haul's stickers, but such is life.)
As with everyone else thus far, the only articulation is in the arms, which can be moved forward.
Reprolabels give him a few extra splashes of color to help liven his robot mode up a bit. (The detail might have been more G1-like if not for the aforementioned mix-up with Long Haul's stickers, but such is life.)
As with everyone else thus far, the only articulation is in the arms, which can be moved forward.
Moving on now to Scavanger. Like his original G1 equivalent, he is a powered shovel. But the body of his vehicle is quite different from what it once was. Still, it works nicely for him.
Scavanger in this iteration is not too dissimilar to Hook in vehicle mode. The body is shaped somewhat differently, the control cabin is on the opposite side of the turret, and of course the arm on the turret ends with a hook rather then a shovel. But on a basic level, these two have much in common including near identical transformations. Again Reprolabels brings yellow and black striping to the vehicle mode. |
And again, a simple transformation brings us to robot mode. As may sound quite familiar at this point, his only articulation is in the shoulders which can come forward about 90 degrees. The shovel can fold up on his back, but it like Hook with his crane arm, this tends to make Scavanger a bit back heavy. Leaving it extended so that it touches the floor negates this, and in fact greatly adds to his stability.
An additional Reprolabel is visible in robot mode adding a red stripe above his head.
An additional Reprolabel is visible in robot mode adding a red stripe above his head.
And now for the final member of the team, and if you are going by G1 continuity the team's leader, Scraper. Scrapper has also suffered a name change for this toy, his a rather indignant one: Buckethead. (If he retains leadership of the team in the Universe continuity I could not say, as there seems to be little information beyond their names available for the individual members of this team.)
He doesn't actually have any visible Reprolabels in vehicle mode, but no worries! We will see some after he is transformed. |
Like Bonecrusher, he has a bit of articulation in that his shovel can move up or down at the point at where it attaches to the rest of his vehicle mode.
Unfortunately, his vehicle mode ends up coming off a bit bland and uninteresting looking. Perhaps a bit more purple paint, to give him some windows somewhere to approximate a control cabin, could have helped? As it is, while he does have a bit of molded detail and a little bit of color, over all he just kind of looks like a green blob with a shovel attached.
Unfortunately, his vehicle mode ends up coming off a bit bland and uninteresting looking. Perhaps a bit more purple paint, to give him some windows somewhere to approximate a control cabin, could have helped? As it is, while he does have a bit of molded detail and a little bit of color, over all he just kind of looks like a green blob with a shovel attached.
Scrapper's robot mode has something rather unfortunate about it, as well. At first glance, it isn't too bad. He's a nice looking robot, and even has some rather nifty Reprolabels to help spruce his appearance up! But then we get to his arms...
Scrapper has a problem similar to Long Haul's, but worse. Rather then a bit of bumper, Scrapper has his front wheels and their axil blocking his forward arm movement! It not only severely limits his articulation, it also looks pretty bad, too.
Scrapper has a problem similar to Long Haul's, but worse. Rather then a bit of bumper, Scrapper has his front wheels and their axil blocking his forward arm movement! It not only severely limits his articulation, it also looks pretty bad, too.
On his own, this Scrapper is rather a disappointment. However, when taken as one member in a team of six, the other five of which I am pretty happy with... well, I suppose five out of six is pretty good!
And as a group, they do look good all together in either mode. Even Scrapper is elevated by the presence of his fellows. |
Now the Constructicons wouldn't be the Constructicons if they couldn't merge to form the mighty Devastator! Can you do that with these six little guys? Well, if you're actually asking that, you must have a bad short term memory! After all, at the beginning of this article, I did mention Micromaster combiner teams! So yes, they can!
There is a bit of a catch, however. In order to combine, they need to use a bit of combiner kibble. And by a bit, I mean a lot. And by a lot, I mean you're probably looking at a 50/50 ratio of the individual team members and the kibble used. To form Devastator, you need feet, fists, a head, an upper body shell, and a piece that forms the waist and upper legs. Also as an extra piece is a gun for Devastator. All in all, it is quite an impressive amount of extra pieces! So, is there no use for all of them when not using them to form Devastator? Do you just have to toss them aside? |
Well no, they are not completely without use. If you'd like, you can peg all of the extra pieces together to form a super kibble-tastic jet!
You can even use a Micromaster figure to pilot the jet. The cavity in what will be Devastator's chest can hold one Micromaster figure standing in it to pilot the jet. There is even a little peg in it which many Micromasters can plug onto. (Although due to the needs of what is necessary to form the gestalt, only two of the Constructicon Micromasters, Bonecrusher and Scrapper, have the necessary peg hole under their feet.) |
A different bit of the kibble came with each one of the figures. Bonecrusher came with the waist and upper legs. Hook (Hightower) came with the fists. Long Haul came with one of the feet. Mixmaster (Quickmix) came with the other foot. Scavanger came with the head and gun. And finally, Scrapper (Buckethead) came with the chest. For the most part, this meant that figures came with pieces they directly interacted with to form the gestalt mode. So, shall we finally take a look at the combined form?
Anyway, take everything and put it all together, and you get the mighty Devastator! Or, I suppose, a tiny facsimile thereof. So yeah, a tiny, mighty Devastator!
He's definitely not a carbon copy of G1, so if you expect that you shall be disappointed. His head sculpt is entirely wrong. Also, many of his components end up in the wrong place. Scavanger ends up in about the right place as the right arm, and Mixmaster as the right leg. But beyond that, no one is where you are used to them being. Hook becomes the left arm, but that sort of makes a vague sense as at least the crane arm still ends up over the left shoulder -- only pointed out, rather then backwards. Long Haul becomes the right leg. Scrapper, formerly the right leg, actually ends up in a position more befitting his station as the leader of the group: he is now Devastator's chest. Finally, there is Bonecrusher... Poor Bonecrusher... Well, there's no better way to say this then to paraphrase a reoccurring line from Voltron: "And I'll form the arse!" As you may have already noticed when looking at the kibble-jet, there are some additional Reprolabels for the gestalt form, as well. He gets yellow and black striping on his feet, and some chrome detailing on his crotch and waist. The wings on his chest plate get some nice G1-esque stickers as well, aided by some stickers on the bottom of Scrapper's shovel. |
He doesn't have much in the way of articulation, and what he does have seems to be there mainly because of things that are attached via a peg anyway, or through transformation joints. The head can spin 360 degrees, the arms can spin forward or backwards at the shoulder (although they will bump into the chest shield), and the arms can raise up at the shoulders by about 90 degrees. And that is it. There is nothing else in the arms, and absolutely no articulation from the waist down.
To the left, a size comparison of Devastator with a standard DVD case. All in all, he stands about the height of a modern day Voyager Class figure.
So anyway, Devastator and the figures that make him up are barely articulated bricks with for the most part poor resemblance to their G1 equivalents, and that involve the use of an obscene amount of kibble to form the gestalt. But you know what? This set is awesome! I highly recommend it! I cannot help but to love these little guys. Especially with the Reprolabels on him, he looks good! And even without the perfect resemblance, you still look at him and think to yourself, "Devastator!" If you want a gestalt team that is practically pocket sized and that you can fiddle with without fear of destroying it, this guy is the perfect Devastator to sit on your desk. And, of course, at least when he was new, he would not destroy your wallet to acquire him! |
(Sadly, a check of eBay at the time of this writing shows that that is not necessarily still true, with individual figures ranging from about $13.00 loose with accessories, to about $28.00 still sealed on the card! There's a few cheaper without accessories, but of course you kind of need those if you hope to form Devastator! But maybe with some luck and some patience, if you're interested in this set you may be able to find it for a more comfortable price.)
Review added 26 August 2014 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcomed!
Review added 26 August 2014 by Yotsuya. Comments are welcomed!
Hello! Before you click away, Yotsuya here again with a few quick extra notes!
First, this is the first review to go online at my website since the epic failure of the Yotsuya's Reviews "Buy Me a Toy!" Kickstarter. I'd like to thank the two backers that I did have, Michael James Prevost and Vernon Moffitt. Thanks a bunch, you two! Your intended support, although ultimately futile, is appreciated!
So, is this the end for Yotsuya's Reviews on Kickstarter? Eh, for now. But as a wise movie title once said to Sean Connery, "Never Say Never Again." So maybe someday, if the right mood strikes me, I'll give it another go. Certainly nothing to loose by trying, eh? But if I do try again, don't expect it to happen right away.
Secondly, I fear my personal computer has gone kaput. How kaput? About this kaput:
First, this is the first review to go online at my website since the epic failure of the Yotsuya's Reviews "Buy Me a Toy!" Kickstarter. I'd like to thank the two backers that I did have, Michael James Prevost and Vernon Moffitt. Thanks a bunch, you two! Your intended support, although ultimately futile, is appreciated!
So, is this the end for Yotsuya's Reviews on Kickstarter? Eh, for now. But as a wise movie title once said to Sean Connery, "Never Say Never Again." So maybe someday, if the right mood strikes me, I'll give it another go. Certainly nothing to loose by trying, eh? But if I do try again, don't expect it to happen right away.
Secondly, I fear my personal computer has gone kaput. How kaput? About this kaput:
Alas, that isn't my camera being out of focus, that is actually what my computer screen looks like right now! As you can imagine, it makes it rather difficult to use!
Most of this review has been put together using borrowed time on other people's computers, but this is not something I can rely upon regularly. I do have a new computer on order. (On the bright side, it looks to be quite a nice one! On the not so bright side, very much not an expense I needed right now!) But it is not expected to arrive until next week, and then I should imagine I shall be spending a bit of time setting it up just as I'd like it and breaking it in. I just felt this was worth mentioning, as it will mean that there will likely be a delay before the next review. Fear not, however! I'll be back! |
Well, that about wraps it up then. See you hopefully sometime in mid September! With any luck, by then I'll have more from Rated X on his Hercules review, and I'm sure I'll have some more stuff of my own. Until then, my friends! Hmm... I should come up with a spiffy catch phrase. (Any suggestions? Leave me a comment.) But for now, I'll just steal one: "Be geek, be proud, palm in your face!"