Siege Micromasters - a misstep?

[Maruten]

I think the Siege Micromasters are brilliant, and the stars of the line. I was a big fan of them as a kid so nostalgia is a factor for me certainly. But I definitely don't mourn for the characters we might have seen in their place - I think the Micromasters are far more interesting.

[BigTransformerTrev]

My only problem with the Micromasters is the quality of some of the toys. The legs in particular come off waaay too easily

Also some of the combined weapons modes are crap. Look at the 3 wave 1 pairs. The Air Strike Patrol made a cool sword, the Battle Patrol made at least a half decent blaster. But the Race Car patrol had an absolutely shite weapons mode and most of the ones since haven't been much better.

I don't think its an obscurity thing since so many other obscure characters have been released, and done quite well, in recent years. Hasbro just needs to figure out how to make a toys legs stay on

[Trent]

I was super excited when they were announced. I love Micromasters and my son and I really enjoy playing together with the G1 stuff I have.

But the Siege versions are absolute poo. The joints on all of mine are way too tight. Enough to make transformation impossible for my son.

I’d rather spend the money in G1 sets.

[TaZZerath]

I was super excited initially, but only for the Battle and Air Strike Patrols. The other vehicles..... eh. I have the Battle Patrol but the Air Strike eludes me and the shelves all have Wave 2's with nary a Wave 1 to be seen (though after reading through these posts I can see why)

[Dimi194]

I've only got Ravage and Laserbeak to go with Soundwave, and as additions to him I think the little guys are really nice.
However, aside from that, I don't really enjoy them-they're too small and limited, and the weapon modes suck compared to the battle masters; I didn't pick up the titan masters/prime masters for the same reason.
As such, would have prefered proper legends class figures for sure.

[Tha_Phantom]

I haven't felt compelled to get many micromasters, but here are my thoughts on the few I have.

I really liked Laserbeak and Ravage (yeah yeah cue the fat jokes ), but they're fun for what they are. I've transformed them numerous times, which is a good indication I like a toy. I even went so far as to get a second set to display sealed. People have complained Ravage doesn't look enough like a jaguar, but he's not supposed to, so I don't count that as a fair criticism.

Storm Cloud and Visper I have to admit I didn't know who they were prior to Siege, but I really liked the look of the combined sword mode as it reminded me of Armada Star Saber so I picked them up. The combined mode is very nice and it's how I display them, but the transformation is quote annoying due to parts popping off. The bot and jet modes don't look bad, but switching between either one is unpleasant.

Beyond that the only other Micromasters I've felt compelled to get were Irontread and Wheel Blaze and that's ONLY because I had the original G1s as a kid. Objectively, I think they're pretty weak figures. Sure, they have knees now, but in a lot of other ways the G1 versions are just nicer. For example, something as simple as back kibble is done better on the original Ironworks toy than on Irontread, I know people are going to say I'm being nitpicky and who looks at figures from the back, but if the issue was already solved, why undo it?

On a side note, have to give a shout out to GoktimusPrime for splitting the Micromaster 10 pack with me!

[Dan]

I was a bit too old to get into G1 Micromasters (in other words was no longer getting toys for gifts and was spending my spare cash on uni life) but I did admire them from afar. They had amazing detail when compared to larger toys from the mid-80s and stood as a collection unto themselves, complete with combiners, transports and bases. They never looked like they should be displayed or played with other Transformers, and that's my problem with the new ones. They are just tacked onto a collection they don't really fit (spy patrols aside). I reckon a simple re-release of the original range would appeal to kids even today.

As an aside, one larger toy they would look good with is the proposed Unicron, if it ever happens.

[KELPIE]

I agree, it was a shame to lose the traditional legends line, especially as the last few waves were some of the best legends toys ever. There were many more figures I could see fitting in there and filling out the gaps.

That said, I was really excited to get the Micromasters. Then I saw them... two packs and leaving out some favourites like Mudslinger, Tailspin, Nightflight, Tailwind and Sunrunner. At least Flak was in the bunch.

But okay, I'm still on board. Then I got them... they were cheap fiddly and couldn't be transformed without falling apart in my hands. That's with me being one of the more gentle operators.

Since then apart from the cassettes (who aren't Micromasters), it's been mostly a bunch of repaints.

So I'm not impressed. I will likely keep buying any new characters if made but I'm not excited by them and may be selective.

[Tilarta]

Here's a comparison of G1 Micromasters to Siege Micromasters:

As I said before, a very nice scale matching.

However, with these guys, the weapon modes are particularly ludicrous:

If I'd been designing these toys, I'd have added some extra stuff to make them more gunlike, vaguely akin to Targetmasters with detachable kibble.
Red Heat is the only one who comes close to being an actual gun, because his ladder extension looks almost like a gun barrel.

[Jellico]

I was a bit too old to get into G1 Micromasters (in other words was no longer getting toys for gifts and was spending my spare cash on uni life) but I did admire them from afar. They had amazing detail when compared to larger toys from the mid-80s and stood as a collection unto themselves, complete with combiners, transports and bases. They never looked like they should be displayed or played with other Transformers, and that's my problem with the new ones. They are just tacked onto a collection they don't really fit (spy patrols aside). I reckon a simple re-release of the original range would appeal to kids even today.

As an aside, one larger toy they would look good with is the proposed Unicron, if it ever happens.

The competition (gimmick they were aping) was Micro Machines. They had to look good to compete.