The Transformers: Micromaster

Japanese G1 continuity « Micromaster » Toyline Prose

The Transformers: Micromaster (トランスフォーマーマイクロマスター Toransufōmā Maikuromasutā) was a small line of Transformers released by Takara which ran from 2002 to 2003. It consisted entirely of reissues and redecos of (mostly) Micromaster molds originally created for Victory, Return of Convoy, and Operation Combination.

Fiction

The Micromaster story was told through six short prose excerpts with illustrations by G-2 author Hidetsugu Yoshioka, included in the pack-in fliers. It occurs in the early 1980s of the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity, prior to the awakening of the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark, and stars the Autobot and Decepticon Micromasters who would go on to feature in the Operation Combination storyline (set some fifty-odd years later).

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Toys

Released in six separate waves, each wave comprising an entire team, the Micromaster toys came in small, "blindpacked" boxes sold in cases of 12 (each case included two copies of each figure). Unlike normal blindpacked toys, buyers were actually able to identify which figures they were purchasing through a small cutaway circle in the box-front, which revealed a small portion of the instruction sheet within, marked with a number between 1-6 (the boxes themselves noted which number corresponded to which figure). The first five waves were reissues of the combining Micromaster teams from the Return of Convoy and Operation Combination toylines, while the sixth was a reissue of Victory's Multiforce. Each team was redecoed from the original figures to different extents (some received entirely new color schemes, while others remained the same), but all of them featured new tampographs and paint applications instead of stickers.

From the second wave onward, in every case of 12 figures, two figures were available in a rare "chase" coloration, usually representing the team's transformed or powered-up state, as featured in the storyline.

Liner Team (May 2002) Sixliner 1 — D-Go (diesel engine) 2 — Alan (TGV Express train) 3 — Spark (Tokaido 100 line bullet train) 4 — Leaf (Tohoku bullet train) 5 — Joe (Super Hitachi train) 6 — Night (EF66 "Blue" train) The combiner kibble forms three mini-rigs when Sixliner is separated: the Giga-Techvolt weapon, the Gripper probe, and the Wingard vehicle.

Not Raiden.

Turbo Team (September 2002) Sixturbo 1 — Road Police (Acura NSX police car) 2 — Glide (motorcycle) 3 — Circuit (F-1 race car) 4 — Neo-Wheel (Lamborghini Diablo) 5 — Discharge (fire truck) 6 — Sireen (ambulance) The combiner kibble forms the Falcon Wing jet when Sixturbo is separated. The chase edition of the Turbo Team cast the characters in solid black plastic, representing their "Reverse Evolution" forms from the second part of the prose storyline. Together, all six members formed "Reverse Evolution Sixturbo".

Not Guard City.

Wing Team (February 2003) Sixwing 1 — Chain Gun (AH-64 Apache helicopter) 2 — Missile Run (B-1 bomber plane) 3 — Raker (Space Shuttle) 4 — Supersonic (Concorde jet) 5 — Flanker (Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" jet) 6 — Falcon (F-16 Fighting Falcon jet) The combiner kibble forms the Sky Sweeper jet when Sixwing is separated. The chase edition of the Wing Team render the team in solid white plastic with purple Autobot symbols, representing the "Berserker" form as seen in the third part of the prose storyline. Together, all six members formed "Berserker Sixwing".

Not Trypticon.

Build Team (March 2003) Sixbuilder / Decepticon Sixbuilder 1 — Crush-Bull / Bonecrusher (bulldozer) 2 — Digger / Scavenger (power shovel) 3 — Iron Lift / Gren (hook-crane) 4 — Gran Arm / Scrapper (payloader) 5 — Treader / Long Haul (dump truck) 6 — Mixing / Mixmaster (cement mixer) The combiner kibble forms the Beat Jet when Sixbuilder is separated. The Build Team's chase variant is the exception to the rule, representing not an altered version of the team, but different characters: the team's Decepticon counterparts, who are colored in the familiar purple-and-green hues of the Constructicons. Only "Mixmaster" is named in the fourth part of the storyline; the other names listed here are conjectural (yet pretty obvious).

Not Bob the Builder.

Train Team (July 24, 2003) Sixtrain 1 — Desire (Tokaido "Nozomi" bullet train) 2 — Atlan (TGV-A Express train) 3 — Raise ("Asagiri" Special Express train) 4 — San D-Go (diesel engine) 5 — Windy (Yamagata "Tsubasa" bullet train) 6 — Converter (freight engine) The combiner kibble forms three mini-rigs when Sixliner is separated, but unlike Sixliner's mini-rigs, these three have gone unnamed. The chase edition of the Train Team depicts the six Autobots in solid red, representing their unimaginatively-named "Red Mode" from the fifth part of the storyline. As you might imagine, together, they form "Sixtrain Red Mode".

Not Sixliner.

Multiforce (December 25, 2003) Landcross 1 — Wing (jet) 2 — Waver (hydrofoil) 3 — Dash (sports car) 4 — Tacker (half-track) 5 — Mach (Space Shuttle) 6 — Tackle (camper truck) The Multiforce are the anomalous members of the Micromaster toyline, as the characters were not previously Micromasters, and are therefore redefined as "DX Micromasters," whatever that means, on-package. Their variant edition casts them in solid black plastic, in the "Stealth Mode" featured in the final chapter of the prose storyline. Together, they form "Landcross Stealth Mode".

Not Super Scramble.

Notes

• This line marks the first use of "Micromaster" within the Japanese Generation 1 continuity and Japanese Generation 1-related toylines in general. Up until this point, the term "Micro Transformer" was used—even in the one-shot 1996 Micro Transformers: American Rescue Team toyline, which doesn't have any fiction, factions, or even proper names for any of the figures, other than the overall team.

External links

• Archive of Micromaster translations by Doug Dlin:

• Complete "omnibus" of Dlin's Micromaster translations at Cosmic Rust