Zobovor wrote:
> By request!
I always wanted to hear why you hyped Skyhopper so much. I've had a broken one missing accessories forever but it never made an impression on me. It kind of looks looks like a tan goldfish bowl with a propeller on top.
> In the wake of an Autobot-Decepticon skirmish, the cowardly Pretender Starscream flies
> away as the Autobots return to base.
OR WAS IT ALL A TRAP!?! Starscream looks like he's confirming the Autobots are taking the bases inside before he turns and flies off.
> "Optimus, we've captured two of the Decepticons' vehicles!" announces Pretender Bumblebee,
> as he and Pretender Jazz are hauling two seemingly unoccupied and abandoned pieces of
> Decepticon technology
It's funny to me how Jazz and Bumblebee are pulling these bases inside using giant ropes. They kind of look like fire hoses. Such a primitive method for sentient robots. You'd think they'd have tractor beams or electric nets or something. Maybe this is a temp base or something without all the bells and whistles.
> —a space shuttle and a helicopter. "Look out—they're transforming into bases!" Powermaster
> Optimus Prime warns them, but it comes too late
Action Master Autobot security is just terrible. As transforming robots themselves they should have the common sense to suspect that anything made of metal with a Decepticon logo on it could possibly also be alive or at least a transforming threat somehow. I guess faster, stronger, more alive didn't carry over to smarter. How does anything catch these guy by surprise at this point?
> His vehicle is an oversized helicopter (not quite 10" in length) with an open canopy area,
> allowing him to pilot the craft by plugging his little foot-hole into the figure stand.
Helicopters are kind of a dumb mode in-universe but I can see how a bulbous shape like that is easier to design a base from than a skinnier fighter jet. It should have been a school bus! I still want a Decepticon school bus!
> Why does a Decepticon who turns into a jet need to fly a helicopter? Hmm, not sure.
I would imagine that in-universe there is no mass shifting, otherwise the whole micro schtick is pointless. So the larger helicopter would have served as a troop transport like Astrotrain did in the early days. At least if there was a cartoon that's how I'd imagine they'd utilize the vehicle mode of the base.
> (There is a removable sensor dish that remains mounted to the back fo the tail section in
> this mode, but it looks kind of dumb if you leave it on.)
I finally got a more complete Skyhopper recently and I kind of like the radar dish. I imagine he's flying up there with this down facing dish to facilitate Decepticon communications or wreak havoc on enemy transmissions or get free Wrestlemania 1989 and other PPV.
The main rotor blade is removable, and has a pinned connector peg so it will spin freely even when it's plugged in. The tail rotor is not removable, but can also spin as well.
> The helicopter's transformation into a base is probably the most satisfying and cool-looking
> of any of the G1 Micromaster base playsets.
It's also the most nerve wracking and panic inducing with 35 year old plastic and really tight joints, especially rotating that tail to make the tower. I think I'll never be transforming it back but I don't like the helicopter anyway.
> It really does look like a minature version of Trypticon!
Yes this really is the coolest thing about this set. It's the Wish version of Trypticon city as the kids would say nowadays.
> I would say Skyhopper is my favorite of the Micromaster playsets,
Yeah I think it's pretty neat even if the helicopter mode is a bit ugly and the pilot has just one of the most unappealing color schemes ever. We're never getting a masterpiece of this guy but if we do I hope it comes with fire hoses for towing.