Toy Review - Siege Micromasters (Wave 2)

[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. 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? 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. 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!

[Tha_Phantom]

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.

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.

[Autocon]

Im sure the kids love them either way!

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

[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.

[GoktimusPrime]

Im sure the kids love them either way!

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

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.

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.

[Maruten]

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.

[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.

Found Rescue Patrol.

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!

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?

[GoktimusPrime]

Maybe leave them MISB?

That doesn't improve them!