Toy Review - Siege Micromasters (Wave 2)

[GoktimusPrime]

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! 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?

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.

[Tha_Phantom]

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

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.

[BigTransformerTrev]

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

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

[Paulbot]

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.

[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.

[M-bot]

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.