Name: Battle Patrol
Series: Generation 1
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Rapid Deployment Strike Force
Components: Big Shot, Flak, Sidetrack & Sunrunner
Big Shot
TANK MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 5cm Width: 2.5cm
Firstly, Big Shot is more of a missile launcher truck thing than a tank, but I don't know the name of this vehicle. He's a brown six-wheeled armoured truck thing with a beige turret on top at the rear. There's a giant grey cannon sticking out the front of this turret, that actually hangs out over the front of the vehicle. His front and rear wheels are black plastic and roll, the middle set are painted on and do not roll. The turret rotates 360° and the cannon lifts up, to the point it can actually fold over the turret. There's no real reason for this - a turret that turns right around necessitates only a barrel that can raise 90 degrees. The transform needs it to lift only about 30°. I guess it made it easier to engineer. Bonus, I guess.
Despite the identity crisis, this a pretty cool little vehicle. The moulded detail is pretty good for a Micromaster - he has a hatch and lots of panels and stuff. The play value is more than most Micromasters and the desert colour scheme works.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold the front out to form the legs. Stand him up, lift up his arms.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 5.5cm Width: 2.5cm
The brown and beige persists into this mode with the addition of blue paint. His chest, head and thighs are beige, arms and feet brown. His groin and face are blue. The colour scheme works without being anything special. The non-functional central wheels are now his shoulder joints - the pegs on his shoulders attach inside the tyres. The rear wheels sit above his shoulders out to the sides of his head. Oh, and he has a mohawk. Poseability is limited to lifting the arms up at the shoulders (up to just above horizontal), swivelling the knees and hips. The knees are joined, but you can independently pose the lower legs. Oh, and the giant cannon hanging off his back helps him stabilise, giving you some action pose options which would otherwise topple over. Move this cannon out of the way, his hips move far enough he can sit down (:
OVERALL
A solid if unspectacular Micromaster. Big Shot is a good toy, and has the most play value of this set. And he has a mohawk! 8/10
Flak
MISSILE TANK MODE
Height: 3cm Length: 4.5cm Width: 2.5cm
An army green missile rack tank with grey treads. The rear sections of the treads are grey plastic, the front parts are painted. The top is entirely green, which is realistic enough for a military vehicle. There are ten holes in two rows on his rack. The middle two are the holes all Micromasters have in the feet for no apparent reason, while the rest have little rounded bumps inside holes of the same shape - simulating missile tips (although way too blunt). The moulding is pretty good - Flak also has a hatch, and again there's a fair bit of effort put into making sure this isn't a small green lump. I've always liked this mode, it looks nice and powerful, and can roll on wheels hidden under the treads.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold the missile rack back and down, stand him up and fold the tank's front section down to reveal the head.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 5.5cm Width: 2.5cm
The monochrome green gives way here. He's got a beige chest, as well as a beige head and beige thighs. His arms are grey, and have the rear halves of the treads on the outside. His lower legs are green, being the missile racks. His groin and face are red. His head looks heavily armoured, and the treads on the outside of his arms look like blast shields or something. Flak's one tough looking Micromaster. His arms lift as far as pointing up, his knees and hips swing - like Big Shot, Flak can sit down.
OVERALL
A cool vehicle mode and a tough little robot mode, Flak's quite cool. Mine has loose hips which means he leans back a little, and it's a rivet running though the swivel, so I can't tighten it. Still, with a good vehicle mode and a decent robot mode, Flak's a good Micromaster. 7.5/10
Sidetrack
TANK MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 4.5cm Width: 2.5cm
A beige tank with grey treads, Sidetrack has a brown tower with two grey barrels mounted on each side. The tower does not rotate, although it is a separate piece to the brown plate at it's base. The barrels do move - you can swing them up and right over so they point backwards, but they're a single piece so if one moves, the other's going with it. The treads are painted on, in a slightly darker shade of grey than the plastic used for the barrels. He can roll on wheels hidden under the treads. This mode impresses me less than the other artillery modes in this Patrol, the lack of a turret doesn't sit right, it'd be nice if the cannon tower could rotate. Still, it's better than a lot of later Micromasters.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold the front out to form the feet, fold the rear edge down to form the chest. I prefer to point the cannons on his back upwards, but it doesn't make that much of a difference. Position the arms and you're done.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 5.5cm Width: 2.5cm
Predominantly beige, in fact Sidetrack is the only member of this set who retains the same dominant colour in both modes. Anyway, so his chest, arms and lower legs are beige, his head, groin and thighs brown. His lower legs are big wide boots, as is sometimes the case with Micromasters. This isn't all together bad, but with them being beige and the thighs a dark brown, it's really noticeable. His face is painted red, and he has sunglasses.... well, a visor that looks like sunglasses The rear sections of the treads are on his arms, and dominate the actual arms moulded on the insides of the arm sections. Being darker than the arms which are the base beige, these treads really dominate the arms themselves.
The poseability on Sidetrack is about average for a Micromaster. His arms rotate at the shoulders, although having said that they have huge pillars on top of the shoulders (think Ultra Magnus but the arms are one piece), although it's really a case of limbs being badly positioned. Anyway, he's also got swivels on his hip and knee joints. His knees have a rivet though them, forcing his hips to move together, although his knees swivel independently. Oh, and like his team mates, Sidetrack can sit down (:
OVERALL
Probably the weakest of a good set, Sidetrack has his problems, but he's still a decent Micromaster - 6/10
Sunrunner
BOMBER MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 5.5cm Width: 6cm
A beige bomber plane with a green gun-emplacement thing on it's back, Sunrunner's vehicle mode is the black sheep of this group. He's got propeller engines on each wing and a red window on his cockpit. It's actually fairly unusual for TF planes to be bombers - the fighter models are far more common - so Sunrunner's somewhat novel. Tailwind is the only other Micromaster bomber that springs to mind, in fact.
Sunrunner has rear wheels on his underside a notch under each wing in place of a front wheel. While he doesn't roll all that well, he looks as if he can thanks to the obvious rear wheels. If nothing else it creates the illusion of a plane on the tarmac when he's resting on a table or something. There's no play value in this mode, but then it's a bomber. They fly slowly and drop bombs...
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Fold the wingtips up onto his fuselage, fold the rear section down to form his feet. Stand him up, fold the forearms down and the plane nose down to form his chest.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 5.5cm Width: 3cm
The beige is joints by lots more of that olive green in this mode. The sides of the torso, forearms and thighs are green, the rest beige. Oh, and like most of his team mates his face is painted red. His paint scheme doesn't really follow the standard of Micromasters, it's refreshingly different.
Sunrunner's arms bend at the elbows - they can be straight down or have his forearms forward. His knees and hips swing, but his knees are joint. He can almost sit down, but the plane nose on his chest gets in the way slightly. Sunrunner's biggest drawback in this mode is that his forearms fall off quite easily, and being so small are easy to lose.
OVERALL
Innovative for a Micromaster, Sunrunner's biggest downside is the ease at which parts can fall off and go missing. Still, he's a nice little Micromaster. He doesn't have the detail in sculpting of the rest of this set, but then planes tend to be smoother than tanks anyway. 6.5/10
VARIATIONS
There were two variations on this set released in Japan.
THE PATROL OVERALL
One of the better Micromaster Patrols, perhaps the best thing about this set is that it has no dud members. Flak & Big Shot are cool, Sidetrack and Sunrunner are also nice, although to a lesser extent. The colours work well, the play value is better than a lot of Micromasters, and they have good level of detail for Micromasters - 7/10
Want more on this set? Read Goktimus Prime's Sidetrack Profile
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