Toy Review - Siege Micromasters (Wave 2)

MICROMASTERS
Rescue Patrol: Red Heat & Barricade
Spy Patrol: Laserbeak and Ravage
Series - Siege
Size/class - Micromaster
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 2
Released here - February 2019
Approximate Size - 6cm
Allegiance - Autobot Rescue Patrol, Decepticon Spy Patrol
Alt-mode - fire engine, police car, panels
Main Features/Gimmicks - Cybertronian Omnifunctional Modular Battlefield Assault Technology System

I'll post photos later, but here are my thoughts on the toys...

RESCUE PATROL

Red Hot (aka Red Heat) is a retool and repaint of Siege Big Shot (aka Top Shot) and unfortunately he's inherited many of the drawbacks of that mould. This is a real shame as G1 Red Hot is honestly one of my favourite of the G1 Micromasters. The ladder isn't as well sculpted as there are no rungs sculpted onto it, but there are those zig-zag side struts so... it does look like a ladder from the sides but not from above. Weird. This is meant to be a Cybertronian mode so if they wanted to make it a long fire extinguishing apparatus rather than a ladder, that's fine, but then don't sculpt in those side struts. It looks like it can't decide whether it's a ladder or not. The ladder also causes the toy to be even more back heavy than Big Shot. The heel struts do help to a degree, but yeah, it's still prone to falling over backwards.

Barricade (aka Stakeout) is a whole new mould and is a nice enough representation of G1 Stakeout. It does pretty much what you expect it to do. It has "POLICE" written on the doors in Autobotese, which is weird as the car mode looks incredibly Earth-like. Yeah, it's officially meant to be Cybertronian police car... a really Earth-like looking Cybertronian police car! :rolleyes: I actually wish that they'd just written in English or Japanese or some human language. If you're going to make the vehicle mode look so Earthen then just go all the way. Now the colours have white on the bonnet and doors which does make it look less G1 accurate. I initially thought that it was to make the toy look more like G1 Holy, but on closer inspection it's not. If anything it's Holy's colours reversed, so... Unholy? :p

SPY PATROL

The weakest of all the Siege Micromaster Patrols. Objectively speaking they are both pretty rubbish toys. The only reason I got them is because of my G1 nostalgia bias, but bias aside these are pretty crap. Their alt modes aren't cassettes but just flat rectangular pizza boxes which apparently clip onto Siege Soundwave as armour panels. Universe/Henkei Ravage craps all over Siege Ravage -- if it were possible for me to buy Laserbeak separately without getting Ravage, I would have. And honestly, the only thing about Laserbeak that appeals to me is the head sculpt, which I must admit is a pretty lame reason to buy this set.

Overall: Rescue Patrol is as good as the other Siege Micromasters, so if you liked those then you'll enjoy these. The Spy Patrol is 5 flavours of rubbish, so unless you're a sadly devoted G1 fanboy like me, just avoid it. And if not, then why are you reading this review? You've probably already made up your mind to buy it. :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

if it were possible for me to buy Laserbeak separately without getting Ravage, I would have.

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Fair point, people are either going to buy this set because of Laserbeak or not buy it because of Ravage.
I bought it and I don't dislike Ravage as much as I thought I would. I've messed with him a few times now since I got him, but obviously Laserbeak is the real drawcard here.

I did some comparison shots last night between G1 (reissues), Masterpiece and Siege.

https://i.ibb.co/fvF8yvK/52743956-11...13538816-n.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/nRwvpKg/52945516-23...98241024-n.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/hMmwwXC/52729311-97...56411392-n.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tha_Phantom

https://i.ibb.co/fvF8yvK/52743956-11...13538816-n.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/nRwvpKg/52945516-23...98241024-n.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/hMmwwXC/52729311-97...56411392-n.jpg

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That Ravage reminds me of the one that came with TFP:BH Soundwave

Laserbeak looks like his S1:E1 incarnation which is kinda cool

I do just want Laserbeak (if anyone just wants Ravage).

Either way both look like huge improvements over the Titans Return versions and those were double the price for the pair.

I saw these today and the cassettes are tiny. Much smaller than I expected even with the comparison photos above. They look very poor value compared to the Micromasters in their size class.

Re the Spy Team - not the worst toy representations of either of those characters, but they would need to be *at most* $5 each (or $10 for the pack of 2) to make them worth the money to buy. I kinda feel the same way about the Rescue Patrol, but I’ve only seen those in package.

I find even $5 each hard to swallow, because I reckon that the other Siege Micromasters are really worth $5 each, really. I find the Spy Patrol to be inferior to the other Siege Micros so yeah... less than $5 each... maybe $3 each?

I showed them to a non-TF person this morning and told her that Ravage is meant to be a panther. She told me that he looks nothing like a panther. :p

Not sure if I just picked a bit of a bad pack, but both of my rescue patrol figures are very loose and needed some nail polish on their ball joints just to keep them in their sockets. The paint work and overall look is fantastic and they would be an awesome little present, but if the looseness of my figures is more common-spread, then I cannot really recommend.

Like any toys these days, the full RRP is not worth it, but at discount? Sure!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by i_amtrunks

Not sure if I just picked a bit of a bad pack, but both of my rescue patrol figures are very loose and needed some nail polish on their ball joints just to keep them in their sockets.

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My Stakeout is okay, but Red Hot was pretty bad in this regard.

Photos and further comments...

SPY PATROL

Laserbeak - alt mode comparison
https://i.ibb.co/qFcvdx2/SIEGE-laserbeak01.jpg
And there is no comparison. G1 Laserbeak is a cassette tape. Siege Laserbeak is flat-packed Ikea furniture. :rolleyes: Yeah, I get that they're meant to be armour panels for Soundwave, but the thing is that this makes Laserbeak and Ravage not much more than accessories for Soundwave, diminishing their stand alone playability as toys in their own right. I never had Soundwave in the 1980s - I didn't get my original G1 Soundwave until I found him for about $5 at a flea market in the mid 90s. So for a good decade I played with my Decepticon Cassettes without Soundwave (aside from occasionally borrowing a Soundwave from friends). The point I'm making is that the G1 Cassettes were perfectly enjoyable toys in their own right even without Soundwave. Obviously having Soundwave ramped up the play value, but the Cassettes still did have play value on their own. I'm really not getting it with the Siege Spy Patrol guys because ... well... they're not exactly robots in disguise and their alt modes have no other independent utility.

Laserbeak - robot mode comparison
https://i.ibb.co/8Brgs3f/SIEGE-laserbeak02.jpg
As mentioned before, the head is the real appeal on Siege Laserbeak, which is a pretty absurd reason to go buy this set (and yet I did it :p). As you can see from the inset screen shot, the head is the only part of this robot mode that resembles Laserbeak's Cybertronian robot mode in the G1 cartoon. The body is completely different. And it lacks any guns, so... no lasers... just beak? The return of the cheap looking "Hasblow grey" on both Laserbeak and Ravage isn't great either. In terms of value for money, adjusting for inflation a G1 Cassette would be roughly $15 today, so only about $5 above what these Siege Spies cost, and yet still infinitely superior value for money. This would be one of the few if not the first time I've seen CHUG figures and actually considered them to be vastly inferior to their G1 counterparts... despite being separated by over 35 years' worth of design and engineering. Toys released in 2019 ought not to be comparatively inferior to toys released in 1984.

Ravage - robot mode comparison with Henkei Jaguar
https://i.ibb.co/X80zwB9/SIEGE-ravage01.jpg
Again, just no comparison. The previous CHUG Ravage just blows Siege Ravage out of the water. And I would guesstimate the independent RRP to be about the same. CHUG Ravage came with Deluxe Class Hound. My Henkei Hound cost me about $30, so let's say that Hound on his own was worth $20, that would make Ravage worth about $10 - on par with what I paid for Siege Ravage. Henkei Ravage is giving me far more bang for my buck than Siege. Yesterday morning I showed a lay person Siege Ravage and told her that he's meant to be a panther, and she said, "I'm sorry but that does not look like a panther and I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me."

Another comparison
https://i.ibb.co/tPW2Lnz/SIEGE-ravage02.jpg
Something else awesome about Henkei Ravage that should impress people like shockNwave is the more realistic feline proportions of the robot mode. :) Siege Ravage is just some kind of boxy tailless quadruped. It doesn't even look like a cat, let alone a jaguar.

Comparison with G1 in robot mode
https://i.ibb.co/dDR13Yq/SIEGE-ravage03.jpg
Even the freakin' 1984-85 toy has a more realistic feline looking robot mode! :rolleyes:

Comparison in alt mode
https://i.ibb.co/7pt4r8g/SIEGE-ravage04.jpg
G1 and Henkei Ravage transform into cassette tapes. Siege Ravage transforms into rectangular roadkill. Okay, I get that it wouldn't make much sense for Cybertronians to have cassettes (although they all did transform into cassettes on Cybertron in G1, and a lot of the other Siege alt modes are shamelessly Earthlike anyway, so why stop there? :rolleyes:), but they could've made them transform into something more useful like a computer console or datapad (yeah, I know they did that with TR) etc. Again, this alt mode lacks independent utility and thus makes the toy suffer as an independent action figure. It really feels like it's just meant to be an accessory for Soundwave. The other Siege Micromasters transform into accessory modes too, but they're still nice independent figures despite that. I have no intention of using any of the other Siege Micromasters as Targetmaster weapons. It's a non-intrusive feature, but the fact is that they all work well as independent toys in their own right. Stakeout is a robot and a police car. The gun mode is nothing more than a bonus feature, whereas with the Spy Patrol it feels like their interactivity with Soundwave is far more needed for their value as toys. And any toy that lacks independent play value is in turn lacking as a toy.

Interactivity with G1 and MP Soundwave: G1 and Henkei
https://i.ibb.co/x2zjQTg/SIEGE-ravage05.jpg
G1 Ravage fits inside both G1 and MP Soundwave. Henkei Ravage is too thick to fit inside G1 Soundwave, but he does fit inside MP Soundwave. Obviously this is a coincidence, but the fact is that Henkei Ravage was designed to be the same size as a G1 cassette.

Interactivity with G1 and MP Soundwave: Siege
https://i.ibb.co/bWZ3j1d/SIEGE-soundwave00.jpg
Being smaller than G1 cassettes the Siege Spies do fit inside G1 and MP Soundwave, but they are far too small.

RESCUE PATROL

Comparison w/ G1 in vehicle mode
https://i.ibb.co/nCttNHx/SIEGE-micromasters-rescue.jpg

Comparison w/ G1 in robot mode
https://i.ibb.co/425pdjg/SIEGE-micromasters-rescue1.jpg

As mentioned before, the Siege Rescue Bots (heh) are fine - just as good as the Wave 1 Micromasters, so if you like those then grab 'em. Expensive for what they are considering that the G1 Micromaster Patrols, adjusted for inflation, cost about the same as the Siege Micromasters. Only that they gave us twice as many figures per patrol. So in terms of value for money the Siege Micromasters are only half as good as G1.

But out of this wave the Autobot Rescue Patrol are MUCH better than the Decepticon Spy Patrol. Their robot modes are fine (even if Red Hot has inherited Big Shot's drawbacks) and they have fully functional alt modes. Yeah, they have weapon modes but they're completely no needed to enjoy these toys in their own right. The white decos do make Stakeout look less G1 accurate, which is odd, but objectively it does help to break up all the black (which would otherwise look kinda bland), and they are realistic police car colours - so aside from G1 fanboy bias there's nothing really wrong with it.

As someone who really likes their Legends class cassette-bots (particularly the bird mould), I am still liking the Cybertronian Laserbeak. The $20 is a hard sell though.

Gok, I think you're being a bit too harsh on these guys. The line is called War For Cybertron after all, not War For Earth. :p
Ravage shouldn't look like a panther and the alt modes shouldn't look like cassettes - I just think of them as Cybertronian data packs.
You could also justify Ravage's bulkiness by thinking of it as armour.

I'm going to get roasted for this post aren't I? :rolleyes:

Lazerbeak is totally amazing, and a joy to transform (almost identical to the G1 cassette). Ravage (and I love all Ravages) is the toy only a parent could love. He's difficult to transform, and mine kept leaving shavings of plastic (maybe it was a qc issue, but one of the joints on the leg would scrape and take little shavings off).

I resent that the missiles aren't straight (angled upwards) and while I will add him to the collection he's not nearly as good as the Generations iteration, or the MP, or the original.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paulbot

I saw these today and the cassettes are tiny. Much smaller than I expected even with the comparison photos above. They look very poor value compared to the Micromasters in their size class.

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The Cassette pack is indeed way over priced. I saw them yesterday, and next to the Battlemaster Blowpipe pack that was next to it, it had the same amount of plastic for twice the price.
Blowpipe looked to be a little bigger than Laserbeak, while his gun barrel and yellow fireblast were about the size of Ravage.
I thought I took a photo of the two packs next to each other, but only have this one... which even shows Pteraxadon having about as much bulk as the two Decepticons combined...
http://toycollectors.com.au/2019tm03.jpg

The Micromasters seem a little expensive at $10 each, considering that quite a few Botbots and some Tiny Changers are the same size, but cost $5 each... it will make it difficult to buy these two, particularly if they are the more sought after pack and sell out faster.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tha_Phantom

Gok, I think you're being a bit too harsh on these guys. The line is called War For Cybertron after all, not War For Earth. :p
Ravage shouldn't look like a panther and the alt modes shouldn't look like cassettes - I just think of them as Cybertronian data packs.
You could also justify Ravage's bulkiness by thinking of it as armour.

I'm going to get roasted for this post aren't I? :rolleyes:

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That is the gimmick of this particular Generations series... none of them have Earth modes (yet)... so assigning them Earthen animal modes or even alt-modes, is inaccurate (even if it is officially done by Hasbro somewhere... if they still had bios or functions). The cartoon and comics may have tried to explain the existence of non-humanoid "animal" forms in various ways over the years, but really it comes down to the fact that it is an alien race, and having most take on a biped form like us humans is just something that Takara (and then Hasbro) needed to do to make the toyline sell. We even saw in the first episode of the original cartoon, Laserbeak appeared to be more of a jet with a moveable nose/cockpit (like Beast Machines Jetstorm), rather than a bird. And Ravage could be no different to the 4-legged spider-tanks we've had since the Unicron Trilogy, which were often their alt-modes, but why can't it also be the "primary mode" for some Cybertronians.
Or go back to Gen1 with Skylinx, who also never had a biped primary mode, but I don't think we ever saw his Cybertronian alt-mode to see how that would have changed the look of his pre-Earth primary mode (the bird and/or lynx).

I would've preferred the more jet-like Cybertronian robot mode that Laserbeak had in the G1 cartoon! And a more tank like or even humanoid robot mode for Ravage? Sure. But to me this is another case of Siege being able to decide if it's Cybertronian or Terran. Laserbeak's head is like his Cybertronian form, but the body resembles a bird. Ravage transforms into some vague tailless quadruped creature. And again with many of the other Siege TFs... Swindler is an extremely DeLorean looking Cybertronian car and Sideswipe is a very Lamborghini-looking alien vehicle. He looks even more Lamborghini-like than Universe/Henkei Sideswipe! Yes, we know the legal reasons why, but if this is meant to be a Cybertronian mode then why does he need to resemble a Lamborghini at all? :confused: Optimus Prime is still a Freightliner-esque CoE truck cab. Why couldn't he be that armoured vehicle that we saw in the G1 comics?

IMHO the previous Generations WFC and FOC lines did a better job in terms of giving characters more alien-looking Cybertronian alt modes. Many of the Siege vehicle modes don't look alien to me at all, they just look like generic Earth vehicles, which is the standard for CHUG alt modes anyway. Sticking the word "POLICE" in Autobot text on the sides of what otherwise looks like a very Earthen police car doesn't make it Cybertronian. :p Look, I'm happy to get a lot of the Siege toys that I've been buying but I personally do not see any of these are Cybertronian vehicles. Yeah, I know that they're officially meant to be, but I can't suspend disbelief because they look too Earthen. I just see them as Earth modes and I personally cannot unsee it.

e.g. I was happy to get WFC Megatron - it's Megatron in his Cybertronian form. Cool. I've seen/handled Siege Megatron which to me, looks like another Earth-tank Megatron like Combiner Wars, Titans Return etc. I'm perfectly happy with my CW Megatron so skip skippedy skip! WFC Megatron got my money because it covered a concept that didn't already exist in my collection. Siege Megatron doesn't.

Voice inside my head: You're skipping Siege Megatron and yet you blew your money on 2 different types of Cyberverse Megatron.

What? Shut up, me! :p :o :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I would've preferred the more jet-like Cybertronian robot mode that Laserbeak had in the G1 cartoon! And a more tank like or even humanoid robot mode for Ravage? Sure. But to me this is another case of Siege being able to decide if it's Cybertronian or Terran.

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Yes, I agree Siege doesn't know what it wants to be. However, my criticism is that it doesn't look Cybertronian enough, rather than not looking Terran enough.

Im sure the kids love them either way! :D

These are way to expensive for what you get. I will buy them on sale

I'll be getting the rescue team if I ever find them (still looking for the wave 1 Micromasters).

They look fine and my only gripe is I would have liked them (all of them) to have elbow joints.

Hoping they complete the teams they released and bonus points if we get Mudslinger from the Off-Road Patrol team.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Autocon

Im sure the kids love them either way! :D

These are way to expensive for what you get. I will buy them on sale

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I was gonna say, this would be even more expensive for kids. For us G1ers one of the great things about Micromasters was just how inexpensive they were. We were able to amass considerably sizeable collections in relatively short periods of time using just our pocket money. Even after adjusting for inflation, these new Micromasters work out to be about the same price as the G1 Micromaster Patrols, but with half the number of figures so they are effectively twice the price of the G1 Micromasters.

In 1989 I was able to collect all of the Micromasters - they were that inexpensive. You can see in this photo taken in 1989 several Micromasters down the bottom left corner -- I had all of them but the others were out of shot.
https://i.ibb.co/68RGQsG/g1-1989.jpg
If I were a kid today I would only be able to collect half as many figures with the equivalent amount of pocket money. Granted there are fewer Micromasters to collect atm, but then there's the rest of Siege that I'd want to collect too. The whole idea of Micromasters was to make Transformers more affordable since we were entering what Paul Keating would call in the following year, "the recession we had to have." Downsizing Transformers to make them cheaper to produce but then still charging a premium price kinda defeats the whole point of making Micromasters in the first place. :o

My Stakeout is fine, but Red Heat is ridiculously floppy and loose even by Siege Micromaster standards. Will have to fatten up the ball joints because out of the box he doesn't even come close to being able to hold a standing pose.

Ravage is... not as good as Laserbeak. But I absolutely love Laserbeak. I hope they redeco these a bunch and also give us some other molds in the same family. Can't wait to get Soundwave.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KELPIE

I'll be getting the rescue team if I ever find them (still looking for the wave 1 Micromasters).

They look fine and my only gripe is I would have liked them (all of them) to have elbow joints.

Hoping they complete the teams they released and bonus points if we get Mudslinger from the Off-Road Patrol team.

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Found Rescue Patrol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by i_amtrunks

Not sure if I just picked a bit of a bad pack, but both of my rescue patrol figures are very loose and needed some nail polish on their ball joints just to keep them in their sockets. The paint work and overall look is fantastic and they would be an awesome little present, but if the looseness of my figures is more common-spread, then I cannot really recommend.

Like any toys these days, the full RRP is not worth it, but at discount? Sure!

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Mine are terrible, I cannot pose them without their legs falling off, let alone transform them. Which is a real shame because I thought these would be perfect fiddle material but that won't be the case :(

I'm now hesitant for the rest of the Micromasters, as much as I like the look of them this set just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Maybe leave them MISB?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KELPIE

Maybe leave them MISB?

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That doesn't improve them! :D :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Paulbot

I saw these today and the cassettes are tiny. Much smaller than I expected even with the comparison photos above. They look very poor value compared to the Micromasters in their size class.

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These are a very big step up in price since a few years ago. They are very simple, have little parts counts and simple paint. It was only a few years ago we were getting Legion class commanders for 15 to $20 and they were of a high standard in every respect compared to these and the battle masters.
even the smaller Legion class had higher parts counts and more involved engineering for between $6 and $8. I'd like to get these, but I'll definitely be waiting for mid year sales.

Ravage is pure & utter garbage, with Lazerbeak (:p) being the star of the set.
As for the Micro's, I've always had a soft spot for the little guys, so I may consider picking them up in the near future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

That doesn't improve them! :D :)

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Maybe not, however it stops them from falling to pieces when I look at them.

Got Laserbeak and Ravage from Target, admitedly only for Laserbeak.

Ravage is absolute crap, and is tiny, par the course with all the Ravage toys as of late. He kind of resembles the Bumblebee design, which may have been the source here. Very big thighs/shoulders.

Laserbeak is Laserbeak, and is average. I bought him to have a Cybertronian Laserbeak with the visor eyes, and he does that fine. It’s a bit unfair to expect greatness from a bird that comes from a rectangle based on a specific cartoon appearance to be very intricate or impressive, so he is just fine for his purpose.

Folding out the wings kind of give you a trick of the eye/feel the way they fold, with it feeling like the G1 two-part extending wings even though there is only one piece and one joint.

Mediocre at best, get it if you can justify $20 for a small visored Laserbeak like I did.

I havent got the Decepticons yet but I got the Autobot pair and their joints are even worse than the Wave 1 ones :(

Also what is their combined weapon mode supposed to be? Stakeout doesn't even have anything remotely resembling blasters in his feet which make up the front of the gun :confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

Also what is their combined weapon mode supposed to be? Stakeout doesn't even have anything remotely resembling blasters in his feet which make up the front of the gun :confused:

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Didn't you read the instructions, it's a Salvage Blaster :p
In the grand scheme of transforming weapons I don't see this as being much worse than the crap we saw in the Armada era as well as the of the Prime Trilogy (lookin at you Titan/Prime Masters!)

I picked these guys up yesterday from Big W. Had to pass on a couple with clearly poor paint apps in box.

Overall I like both Red Heat and Stakeout. They're adequately deco'd quite micromastery and scale really well with the likes of Generations Metroplex and TR Trypticon. I havent encountered floppy joint problems like others here but these are the tiniest ball joints I have seen on a transformer so I am not surprised.

But like everyone has said the biggest problem with these guys is the pricing.

Picked up the spy patrol today and I have to say I like them. Laserbeak is kind of nifty fun and Ravage, while looking bad has a nice enough transformation.

It's justa a shame they don't transform into anything. I notice the packagin says they are drone armour. Meh.

By far and away the worst thing with these guys is the price though, I felt ripped off with Roadhandler and Swindler! These guys... YEEEEESH! Words cannot express the shame I feel.
(But I did really want Laserbeake for some reason). Kinda wish he had his rounded wings from the first epiosde of the cartoon.

Direct-Hit and Power Punch
https://i.ibb.co/3RjpGGV/SIEGE-direc...werpunch01.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/LPHcKCX/SIEGE-direc...werpunch02.jpg

Comparison with G1...
https://i.ibb.co/999xqpS/SIEGE-direc...werpunch03.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/yWt8hQb/SIEGE-direc...erpunch03a.jpg

Better than previous Siege Micromasters but I'm still unconvinced that they're worth the standard asking price for Siege Micromasters.