The Transformers: Micromaster

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The name or term "Micromaster" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Micromaster (disambiguation).


This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.

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 molds originally created for Victory, Return of Convoy, and Operation Combination.

Story

The Micromaster story was told through six short prose excerpts, included in the pack-in fliers. Initially believed to be set in a parallel universe, Takara's 2007 Generation 1 timeline established that the storyline explicitly took place in the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity. Specifically, the story occurs in the early 1980s, prior to the awakening of the Autobots and Decepticons aboard the Ark.

Micromaster chapters:

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 redeco'd 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.

Not Raiden.

Liner Team (2002)

  • Sixliner
    • Team leader D-Go the diesel engine
    • Alan the TGV Express train
    • Joe the Super Hitachi train
    • Leaf the Tohoku bullet train
    • Night the EF66 "Blue" train
    • Spark Tokaido 100 line bullet train

The combiner kibble forms three mini-rigs when Sixliner is separated: the Giga-Techvolt weapon, the Gripper probe, and the Wingard vehicle.


Not Guard City.

Turbo Team (2002)

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 Trypticon.

Wing Team (2003)

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 Bob the Builder.

Build Team (2003)

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 Sixliner.

Train Team (2003)

  • Sixtrain
    • Team leader Desire the Tokaido "Nozomi" bullet train
    • Atlan the TGV-A Express train
    • Converter the freight engine
    • Raise the "Asagiri" Special Express train
    • San D-Go the diesel engine
    • Windy the Yamagata "Tsubasa" bullet train

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".


Multiforce (2003)

The Multiforce are the anomalous members of the Micromaster toyline, as the characters are not actually Micromasters, and are instead branded as "DX Micromasters" 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".

Notes

  • This is actually the first time that the Micromasters were actually called "Micromasters" in Japan; during the original series, they were referred to as "Microtransformers". Whether this is a reflection on their different origin in this series (having evolved from non-transforming Cyberdroids rather than coming from the colony world Micro) or just the folks at Takara forgetting the old name is unknown.
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