Toy Review - Earthrise Micromasters

[nalops]

Wave 1 ended up going on clearance in most places so it's looking doubtful at the moment.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I bought the fire truck and police car dudes on a whim as I heard they were improving. I don't like them because of reasons.
While I like the fire truck, his little ball jointed hips keep popping off at the slightest touch. He does have a nice transformation and I like the big white skis he has adding to his stability.
The police car is slightly better than the racing car guys I bought earlier. It least now tabs aren't locking into one another in such an infuriating way. He is still a bit floppy and back heavy though so h doesn't like standing up.
Wepaon mode - I'm going to forget this exists - it's terrible.

So I guess since I metioned things that I saw as improvements, they are getting better. BUT I truly despised the firt lot I got so, that is not really a compliment. I'm only really keeping them to have more little vehicles to populate my base-bots.

Sadly the ones I really want (space shuttle dudes) are TTmall exclusive s and order closed a while ago

[GoktimusPrime]

These "dudes" have unique names, personalities, hopes and dreams.

The "Fire truck^engine dude" is either Red Hot or Wheel Blaze. Red Hot is called "Red Heat" in Siege for trademark reasons. Red Hot's Japanese G1 counterpart is "Fire" and Wheel Blaze was called "Wheel Breeze" in Japan.
The "Police car dude" is either Stakeout or Road Police. Stakeout's Japanese G1 counterpart is "Holy" and Road Police was a Japanese-exclusive G1 toy who combined with his teammates to form Six-Turbo.


Ah, Machine Men. Back when 'bots had classy names like Police Dude, Cycle Dude and Buggy Dude. It was a simpler time.

I'm not sure which fire engine and police car Micromasters you got. I'm curious to know if TakaraTOMY have used the Anglophone names or Japanese names for these characters. Under brand unification I suspect that they'd be using the Anglophone names, which seems a bit strange as I'd imagine a lot of collectors in Japan might not be as familiar with who the hell Stakeout is, but they'd know who Holy and Fire are (as they appeared throughout the Victory and Zone series). Having said that, Hasbro have also favoured Japanese names/personae where the Anglophone ones would make more sense; e.g. they released Overair instead of Airwave. Now the G1 toys are identical, but one difference is that Overair is an Autobot and Airwave is a Decepticon, so my Siege Overair toy comes with a tampographed Autobot insignia. I've since stuck a little Decepticon logo over that tampograph and repurposed that toy as Airwave in my collection (and so he stands on my Decepticon CHUG Micromaster shelf, not with the Autobots). But technically/officially speaking, that toy is the Autobot Overair, which mildly annoys me. I miss the days when Hasbro and TakaraTOMY would market their toys for their respective markets. e.g. Titans Return Powermaster Optimus Prime and Legends Ginrai (I have both toys as they represent entirely different characters; I'm so glad that they didn't just release one or the other). Similarly I bought both Titans Return Overlord (representing Hasbro's Overlord) and Legends Overlord (representing Takara's Overlord).

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

These "dudes" have unique names, personalities, hopes and dreams.

When they are not terrible toys, I will call them their names.
Turns out they are Readheat and Stakeout, which is what Japan calls them and my apologies as they are Siege figures as well, not Earthrise. so that sucks And so do they as toys

[GoktimusPrime]

When they are not terrible toys, I will call them their names.

燃やされちゃった！ sik burn!

I think the toys are fine, but the problem is that they're too expensive. They'd be better at half RRP, because they're not that much better than G1 Micromasters - and while the RRP of G1 Micromaster Patrols would be the same as these Siege/ER ones, the G1 sets came with four Micromasters, not two. So IMO we should either be getting four Micros per Patrol or two at half the price.

Although the Reject Shop is selling some Micromaster Patrols at half RRP - works out to be $5 per Micro.