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Zob's Retro Review: Micromaster Autobot Battle Patrol (1989)
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Zobovor
Jun 24, 2022, 3:18:05 PM6/24/22
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Military styled vehicles have never appealed to me quite as much as cool sports cars and sci-fi vehicles. I was prety selective about which Transformers toys I bought during the G1 days, and even moreso after the cartoon went off the air, and I was making purchasing decisions based entirely on aesthetics and not media characterization. Back in the day, the Battle Patrol just wasn't as interesting to me as other Micromasters who looked like tiny versions of early G1 characters. Also, I was unfamiliar with most of the vehicles they turned into, so that was points against them as well.
Technically, these guys did appear in a 1989 Marvel Comics in the UK, in a story where they were captured by Thunderwing and reverse-engineered in order to create Decepticon Micromasters, but they were never in the U.S. comic, so I always perceived them as non-media characters when I was growing up.
I've never handled any of these toys or seen them in person before, let alone owned them, so this is a brand new G1 experience for me. That's rare.
BIG SHOT
"One good shot is worth a hundred bad ones!"
Big Shot is a G6 Rhino, a self-propelled howitzer that iwas predominantly used in South Africa from 1988 onward. It was meant to be a heavy artillery vehicle with more mobility than a tank, hence the six wheels. The main turret looks like a battering ram, and reminds me of the Knight Rider demolition vehicle that destroyed K.I.T.T. in "Knight of the Juggernaut," but actually it's an artillery piece. His vehicle mode measures about 1.75" in length.
The vehicle mode is mostly brown, with a tank turret and a grey-colored artillery barrel. Only four of the six wheels work, but the faux wheels serve double duty as the peg joints for the robot arms, so at least there's some color contrast for the hubcap instead of being entirely black like the wheel. The turret can swivel 90 degrees in either direction (there's a block of plastic that prevents it from going further), and the barrel can pivot up and down.
His transformation is pretty much the same as Red Hot the fire engine, with the front of the vehicle flipping out to become the robot legs. The instructions say the tank turret can be "positioned for action," but they must mean in vehicle mode, because it cannot point forwards when he's a robot. The turret piece is frequently missing on second-hand samples, if eBay is any indication.
In robot mode he stands at two inches tall, with a huge mohawk on his helmet, which is flanked with a battery of tiny launchers on either shoulder. He's mostly tan in this form, with brown arms and lower legs, and blue paint on his face and pelvis. Unlike Red Hot, his rearmost wheels remain mounted to either side above his shoulders, and they don't move when he raises his arms.
Big Shot recently got a neo-G1 toy in the form of Topshot, sold in late 2018 as part of the Siege toy line.
FLAK
"Good luck is the residue of good planning."
Ew, gross. Good luck should be the result of good planning. Not residue. Residue is sticky and slimy. Get your residue out of my Micromasters.
Anyway, Flak is a Russian TOS-1 rocket launcher, developed by the Soviet Union in 1988. You can tell Hasbro was looking to branch out and introduce new types of vehicles to the Transformers toy line, given the sheer number of concept cars and experimental vehicles they worked into the Micromaster assortment. Many of the vehicle models used for the Micromasters were less than a year old when Hasbro produced their versions. Flak is army green with grey tank treads, and is a little over 1.5" in length. He rolls on three hidden wheels, two in the back and one in front.
Due to his unconventional tank design, Flak is unusual in that the tank turret becomes his robot legs (basically like the tank mode for Sixshot, which is arguably a very abstract tank) while the front of the chassis flips back to become a backpack and the remaining tank treads form the robot arms.
As a robot, he's a bit over two inches in height, mostly tan with green lower legs and grey arms, and red paint used for his robot face and pelvis. His robot head design reminds me a lot of Fizzle from 1988. His treaded arms can rotate just over 180 degrees, and the bottoms of his feet have not one, but two different peg holes to choose from (the contention is that the rocket launchers are on the bottom of his feet, so two rockets were simply left unloaded, creating the peg holes).
Flak also got a Siege toy in 2018, sold with Topshot in a two-pack. The other two team members never got updates.
SIDETRACK
"A battle that isn't worth winnin' isn't worth fightin'!"
With no television media characterizations, it was often the tech specs quotes alone that were the only things delineating a Micromaster's personality. Sidetrack leaves the "g's" off the ends of his gerunds, suggesting a lack of education, or an informality not shared with his teammates. He's not a complete yokel, though, since his quote is not "A battle that ain't worth winnin' ain't worth fightin'." How you do one thing is how you do everything, so I would surmise that he tends to do his duty, but he likes to cut corners.
Sidetrack is a Marder-1 Infantry Combat Vehicle, an anti-tank artillery weapon used by Germany during World War II. The scaling of the weapon elements on the Micromaster toy are a little skewed due to the toy's tiny size, though. He reminds me a bit of the PAC/RAT missile launcher vehicles from the G.I. Joe toy line. He's almost all tan in color, with a brown artillery mount and grey launchers and treads. (Unlike other Micromaster Patrols, who tend to pair off and share gang-molded colors only with each other, these guys seem to all share the same tan-colored parts.) He rolls on four wheels, tucked away and mostly hidden inside his tank treads.
Transforming him involves unfolding the front of the tank to become the robot legs, while a rear section swings down to become the robot chest. His arms are held in place with a metal bolt rather than being snap-on pieces, so he's arguably more sturdy than a lot of Micromasters whose arms could potentially break off at the peg.
As a robot, he's two inches tall at the head, almost entirely tan with a dark brown helmet and upper legs, and a red-painted face. Visually, he looks a lot like the Takara toy Dangar from Car Robots (not the Hasbro version named Armorhide, who was blue instead of tan). Aesthetically, I really like his robot mode, which is surprising considering how unconventional his vehicle mode is. He's a solid, good-looking Micromaster.
SUNRUNNER
"Rule the skies and the ground will bow before you."
This guy's quote makes him sound like a Decepticon. It has the same sinister connotations as Frenzy's "sow panic and surrender will bloom."
Sunrunner's vehicle mode is a Northrop-Grumman E-2 Super Fudd, an early warning turboprop aircraft used by the U.S. Navy in the 1960's, and normally equipped with a large radar dome designed to detect airborne vehicles and projectiles. Somebody at Hasbro might have decided the radar dome was too boring, so Sunrunner wears an artillery rack in its place. (It looks like it should be removable, but it's not.) His length is about 2.25", with the same wingspan measurement. He has two working landing gears but no nose gear to speak of, and the toy is supported by two plastic nubs near the front undercarriage.
To transform him, the tail section unfolds to become the robot legs, the wings tuck behind his back, and the nose folds down to become the robot chest, and his arms unfold. The non-working propeller blades end up on the tops of his shoulders for robot mode.
As a robot, he's about two inches in height. He's one of the only Micromasters with forearms unencumbered by armor or vehicle parts. His shoulders are frozen in place, but his arms can pivot at the elbow. He's tan with a army green torso and forearms and lower legs, with a red-painted face. His face reminds me a lot of Seaspray.
Overall, this particular set is not in especially high demand on the secondary market (I got my set for about $30 shipped). I tend to only talk about toys like Sunrunner when I rattle off lists of all the vintage G1 toys who haven't gotten updates yet. But, honestly, they're honestly cool little toys. I ignored them for a long time because military-themed toys aren't really my thing, but I actually like them a lot. There's something visceral and intangible about the vintage G1 designs that's innately appealing.
This was the last 1989 Micromaster Patrol that I needed, so now I need to work on the various Transports and Stations and Bases, as well as most of the Micromaster Combiners from 1990.
Zob (got the Autobot Air Patrol coming in a few days, too)
Technically, these guys did appear in a 1989 Marvel Comics in the UK, in a story where they were captured by Thunderwing and reverse-engineered in order to create Decepticon Micromasters, but they were never in the U.S. comic, so I always perceived them as non-media characters when I was growing up.
I've never handled any of these toys or seen them in person before, let alone owned them, so this is a brand new G1 experience for me. That's rare.
BIG SHOT
"One good shot is worth a hundred bad ones!"
Big Shot is a G6 Rhino, a self-propelled howitzer that iwas predominantly used in South Africa from 1988 onward. It was meant to be a heavy artillery vehicle with more mobility than a tank, hence the six wheels. The main turret looks like a battering ram, and reminds me of the Knight Rider demolition vehicle that destroyed K.I.T.T. in "Knight of the Juggernaut," but actually it's an artillery piece. His vehicle mode measures about 1.75" in length.
The vehicle mode is mostly brown, with a tank turret and a grey-colored artillery barrel. Only four of the six wheels work, but the faux wheels serve double duty as the peg joints for the robot arms, so at least there's some color contrast for the hubcap instead of being entirely black like the wheel. The turret can swivel 90 degrees in either direction (there's a block of plastic that prevents it from going further), and the barrel can pivot up and down.
His transformation is pretty much the same as Red Hot the fire engine, with the front of the vehicle flipping out to become the robot legs. The instructions say the tank turret can be "positioned for action," but they must mean in vehicle mode, because it cannot point forwards when he's a robot. The turret piece is frequently missing on second-hand samples, if eBay is any indication.
In robot mode he stands at two inches tall, with a huge mohawk on his helmet, which is flanked with a battery of tiny launchers on either shoulder. He's mostly tan in this form, with brown arms and lower legs, and blue paint on his face and pelvis. Unlike Red Hot, his rearmost wheels remain mounted to either side above his shoulders, and they don't move when he raises his arms.
Big Shot recently got a neo-G1 toy in the form of Topshot, sold in late 2018 as part of the Siege toy line.
FLAK
"Good luck is the residue of good planning."
Ew, gross. Good luck should be the result of good planning. Not residue. Residue is sticky and slimy. Get your residue out of my Micromasters.
Anyway, Flak is a Russian TOS-1 rocket launcher, developed by the Soviet Union in 1988. You can tell Hasbro was looking to branch out and introduce new types of vehicles to the Transformers toy line, given the sheer number of concept cars and experimental vehicles they worked into the Micromaster assortment. Many of the vehicle models used for the Micromasters were less than a year old when Hasbro produced their versions. Flak is army green with grey tank treads, and is a little over 1.5" in length. He rolls on three hidden wheels, two in the back and one in front.
Due to his unconventional tank design, Flak is unusual in that the tank turret becomes his robot legs (basically like the tank mode for Sixshot, which is arguably a very abstract tank) while the front of the chassis flips back to become a backpack and the remaining tank treads form the robot arms.
As a robot, he's a bit over two inches in height, mostly tan with green lower legs and grey arms, and red paint used for his robot face and pelvis. His robot head design reminds me a lot of Fizzle from 1988. His treaded arms can rotate just over 180 degrees, and the bottoms of his feet have not one, but two different peg holes to choose from (the contention is that the rocket launchers are on the bottom of his feet, so two rockets were simply left unloaded, creating the peg holes).
Flak also got a Siege toy in 2018, sold with Topshot in a two-pack. The other two team members never got updates.
SIDETRACK
"A battle that isn't worth winnin' isn't worth fightin'!"
With no television media characterizations, it was often the tech specs quotes alone that were the only things delineating a Micromaster's personality. Sidetrack leaves the "g's" off the ends of his gerunds, suggesting a lack of education, or an informality not shared with his teammates. He's not a complete yokel, though, since his quote is not "A battle that ain't worth winnin' ain't worth fightin'." How you do one thing is how you do everything, so I would surmise that he tends to do his duty, but he likes to cut corners.
Sidetrack is a Marder-1 Infantry Combat Vehicle, an anti-tank artillery weapon used by Germany during World War II. The scaling of the weapon elements on the Micromaster toy are a little skewed due to the toy's tiny size, though. He reminds me a bit of the PAC/RAT missile launcher vehicles from the G.I. Joe toy line. He's almost all tan in color, with a brown artillery mount and grey launchers and treads. (Unlike other Micromaster Patrols, who tend to pair off and share gang-molded colors only with each other, these guys seem to all share the same tan-colored parts.) He rolls on four wheels, tucked away and mostly hidden inside his tank treads.
Transforming him involves unfolding the front of the tank to become the robot legs, while a rear section swings down to become the robot chest. His arms are held in place with a metal bolt rather than being snap-on pieces, so he's arguably more sturdy than a lot of Micromasters whose arms could potentially break off at the peg.
As a robot, he's two inches tall at the head, almost entirely tan with a dark brown helmet and upper legs, and a red-painted face. Visually, he looks a lot like the Takara toy Dangar from Car Robots (not the Hasbro version named Armorhide, who was blue instead of tan). Aesthetically, I really like his robot mode, which is surprising considering how unconventional his vehicle mode is. He's a solid, good-looking Micromaster.
SUNRUNNER
"Rule the skies and the ground will bow before you."
This guy's quote makes him sound like a Decepticon. It has the same sinister connotations as Frenzy's "sow panic and surrender will bloom."
Sunrunner's vehicle mode is a Northrop-Grumman E-2 Super Fudd, an early warning turboprop aircraft used by the U.S. Navy in the 1960's, and normally equipped with a large radar dome designed to detect airborne vehicles and projectiles. Somebody at Hasbro might have decided the radar dome was too boring, so Sunrunner wears an artillery rack in its place. (It looks like it should be removable, but it's not.) His length is about 2.25", with the same wingspan measurement. He has two working landing gears but no nose gear to speak of, and the toy is supported by two plastic nubs near the front undercarriage.
To transform him, the tail section unfolds to become the robot legs, the wings tuck behind his back, and the nose folds down to become the robot chest, and his arms unfold. The non-working propeller blades end up on the tops of his shoulders for robot mode.
As a robot, he's about two inches in height. He's one of the only Micromasters with forearms unencumbered by armor or vehicle parts. His shoulders are frozen in place, but his arms can pivot at the elbow. He's tan with a army green torso and forearms and lower legs, with a red-painted face. His face reminds me a lot of Seaspray.
Overall, this particular set is not in especially high demand on the secondary market (I got my set for about $30 shipped). I tend to only talk about toys like Sunrunner when I rattle off lists of all the vintage G1 toys who haven't gotten updates yet. But, honestly, they're honestly cool little toys. I ignored them for a long time because military-themed toys aren't really my thing, but I actually like them a lot. There's something visceral and intangible about the vintage G1 designs that's innately appealing.
This was the last 1989 Micromaster Patrol that I needed, so now I need to work on the various Transports and Stations and Bases, as well as most of the Micromaster Combiners from 1990.
Zob (got the Autobot Air Patrol coming in a few days, too)
Evil King Macrocranios
Jul 2, 2022, 12:46:21 PM7/2/22
to
I find it incredibly coincidental that the majority of these toys are desert camo style tan and brown color schemes (and also Autobots). Prior to this, Transformers that turned into tanks and jet fighters had color schemes that were all over the place and these types of vehicles were majority Decepticons. Then here in '89 all of a sudden it's desert camo military Autobots. It's as if Hasbro was proactively trying to normalize the concept of desert warfare in particular and military vehicles as 'good guys' before the US actually went to war in the Gulf.
Codigo Postal
Jul 5, 2022, 10:54:30 PM7/5/22
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On Saturday, July 2, 2022 at 12:46:21 PM UTC-4, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:
> I find it incredibly coincidental that the majority of these toys are desert camo style tan and brown color schemes (and also Autobots). Prior to this, Transformers that turned into tanks and jet fighters had color schemes that were all over the place and these types of vehicles were majority Decepticons. Then here in '89 all of a sudden it's desert camo military Autobots. It's as if Hasbro was proactively trying to normalize the concept of desert warfare in particular and military vehicles as 'good guys' before the US actually went to war in the Gulf.
Suddenly that MAGA Jazz doesn't seem like a one-off...
> I find it incredibly coincidental that the majority of these toys are desert camo style tan and brown color schemes (and also Autobots). Prior to this, Transformers that turned into tanks and jet fighters had color schemes that were all over the place and these types of vehicles were majority Decepticons. Then here in '89 all of a sudden it's desert camo military Autobots. It's as if Hasbro was proactively trying to normalize the concept of desert warfare in particular and military vehicles as 'good guys' before the US actually went to war in the Gulf.
Zobovor
Jul 5, 2022, 11:44:22 PM7/5/22
to
On Saturday, July 2, 2022 at 10:46:21 AM UTC-6, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:
> I find it incredibly coincidental that the majority of these toys are desert camo style tan and brown color schemes (and also Autobots). Prior to this, Transformers that turned into tanks and jet fighters had color schemes that were all over the place and these types of vehicles were majority Decepticons. Then here in '89 all of a sudden it's desert camo military Autobots. It's as if Hasbro was proactively trying to normalize the concept of desert warfare in particular and military vehicles as 'good guys' before the US actually went to war in the Gulf.
It's a clever theory, though I'm not sure the timeline holds up. Hasbro would have had to know a year in advance about the Gulf War, which seems improbable. But, the Battle Patrol sure became relevant in a hurry, didn't they?
> I find it incredibly coincidental that the majority of these toys are desert camo style tan and brown color schemes (and also Autobots). Prior to this, Transformers that turned into tanks and jet fighters had color schemes that were all over the place and these types of vehicles were majority Decepticons. Then here in '89 all of a sudden it's desert camo military Autobots. It's as if Hasbro was proactively trying to normalize the concept of desert warfare in particular and military vehicles as 'good guys' before the US actually went to war in the Gulf.
I feel like there are probably two factors at play. One is the way Hasbro tended to treat G.I. Joe and specifically the way they colored the vehicles. Earth colors like green and tan and brown seemed to be reserved for the good guys, while a lot of Cobra vehicles were blue or black or grey. The Battle Patrol reads, visually, as a group of tiny little G.I. Joe vehicles.
At the same time, though, by the time the Micromasters rolled around, there really didn't seem to be a strong division between the types of vehicles we got. There was a lot of brand confusion. Both good guys and bad guys were cars, planes, whatever. You sure can't tell just by looking at these toys which ones are Autobots and which ones are Decepticons. And, since none of the individual Micromasters had faction symbols (except for the ones that came with playsets and had consumer-applied stickers), that muddied the waters even more.
I think at least a few of the Micromasters were obviously designed for a specific faction (it's hard to imagine that the Rescue Patrol was ever considered anything but an Autobot team) but if the Battle Patrol had been colored black and purple and had been marketed as Decepticons, I don't think anybody would have batted an eye. Most of the Patrols and Squads could have been placed on the opposite side of the war, and it wouldn't have seemed at all out of place.
Zob (couldn't sleep last night due to fireworks, and tonight is shaping up to be the same way)
Evil King Macrocranios
Jul 8, 2022, 1:22:37 AM7/8/22
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On Tuesday, July 5, 2022 , Zobovor wrote:
> It's a clever theory, though I'm not sure the timeline holds up. Hasbro would have had to know a year in advance about the Gulf War, which seems improbable.
> But, the Battle Patrol sure became relevant in a hurry, didn't they?
I like to imagine deep in the Pentagon in 1988 at the conspiracy of war meetings where Ronald Reagan and Colin Powell and George Bush and Margaret Thatcher are discussing how they're going to go to war with Iraq in a few years there in the corner is Alan Hassenfeld whose job it is pro-war propaganda for kids. So he's like the toy arm of the military industrial complex. And Bush turns to Hassenfeld and says, "Hey Hasenfeld, it's gonna be a desert war so I need GI Joe to ride around in tan tanks and shit like that by 1989". And Alan's like, "No way, dude, Tiger Force and Python Patrol are selling like hotcakes. How about we meet in the middle and you put some tiger stripes on the Humvees or chrome all your stealth fighters, Mr. President?" And Bush is like, "If you want the US government to continue secretly subsidizing your GI Joe toys which don't actually sell for shit, you will have Sargent Slaughter in desert warfare action pants with boxart showing him crashing a beige Humvee into the Saddam Hussein WMD factory playset!" And Hassenfeld is like, "Look, George, the best I can do is Micromasters."
> It's a clever theory, though I'm not sure the timeline holds up. Hasbro would have had to know a year in advance about the Gulf War, which seems improbable.
> But, the Battle Patrol sure became relevant in a hurry, didn't they?
Codigo Postal
Jul 9, 2022, 12:45:16 PM7/9/22
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