Dave's Knockoff Rant:

     Giant Micromaster Set

     Found this set for $1.99 today in another sweep of Odd Lots, the same
store that has the Fire Dug-Off and the mixed-breed bird/train robo.  The
vehicles are mainly white and yellow, and it's on the same generic Gundam
art ripoff card as the bird/train thing.

CAPSULE

     Shoddy construction, but reasonably faithful reproductions otherwise,
including a few extra features not found in the original Micromasters.
Easily worth two bucks if you're interested in the harder-to-find Micros.
Two of them are actually Sixwing components.

RANT

     On the bubble card are three vehicles: a 6" (15cm) long space shuttle,
another 3" (8cm) shuttle and a 3.5" (9cm) B-1 bomber.  These are all knockoff
Micromaster combiners or combiner elements.

     Large Shuttle: This is a giant knockoff of the space shuttle combiner
from the Astro Squad, Phaser and Blast Master.  I suspect the heads may have
been remolded as well.  The front half becomes a 3.5" (9cm) tall copy of
Phaser, with stubby legs and arms, and a big nosecone hanging off the back.
It's all made of so-so yellow or blue plastic, and the white and black paint
on the shuttle parts is dinged and flaking.  Well, I guess some of the white
parts are white plastic.  The rear half becomes the larger 4.25" (10.5cm)
Blast Master, who has a flip-up head and removable fuel pods on the wings
which become hand weapons.  
     Both robots have silver accents on their mostly yellow bodies, and about
as much poseability as you'd expect from a Micromaster.  Fortunately, the hip
and arm joints are pretty stiff, so they can hold their limited poses.
     In combined vehicle mode, several of the joints are loose and flop
around, so while it'll stand there on its wheels, it'll flop apart if you try
to push it along on the surprisingly free (for a knockoff) wheels.  The paint
job is poor and there's a lot of flash to carve off.

     Small Shuttle: This is a slightly enlarged knockoff of Sixwing component
Raker (as in Moonraker).  Sixwing is one of the Micromaster Combiners
released only in Japan, where six Micromasters merge (along with a fair
amount of combiner kibble) into a "giant" robot about as tall as a Mega Beast
Wars figure.  This toy has a pretty clever transformation, which brings the
shuttle's nosecone down to be the robot's chest.  Unfortunately, it holds
together with pegs and slots rather than pins, so pieces tend to fall off
during transformation.  The arms are made of soft enough plastic that they
pop off regularly.  The robot mode is just shy of 3" (7.5cm) tall, and is the
smallest of the lot.
     Raker also has bad painting and a lot of flash, plus the aforementioned
problem with losing bits (I should be able to fix that part, tho).  I THINK
he forms the right arm of Sixwing.

     B-1 Bomber: As far as I can tell, Missile-Run forms Sixwing's chest, and
this knockoff looks to have been blown up to a slightly larger multiple than
Raker was.  The toy has so many clunky joints that I would never have guessed
it was a B-1 without having a visual reference to confirm that it was
supposed to be Missile-Run.  Made of the same slightly cheesy plastic as the
others, this one has a really scattered color scheme between the yellow and
white.  Also, because the robot hips are incredibly loose, the plane mode
flops in half easily.
     In robot mode, it would stand 3.5" (9cm) tall, but it has feet that
don't extend back far enough to maintain balance, so it falls over every time
(due to floppy hips, it can't be balanced in a position where it doesn't
fall, guess I should wedge some goo in there).  There's a few mysterious bits
which probably hook to combiner kibble.
     In bomber mode, it has totally locked wheels.  The wheels need to have
their axle holes enlarged a little, because the screws hold better in the
wheels than in the legs they attach the wheels to.  And, of course, it flops
apart.  This might be a worthwhile painting and general improvement job.  The
plastic seems tough enough to take a little modification.  Hrm, lemme just
try to tighten the hips with a pliers...okay, that helped.  He can stand in
robot mode now.  He has to lean forward a bit, but it works.  Still a tad
loose in jet mode.

     So, there you have it.  Two bucks for a handful of enlarged
Micromasters, two of which you're not likely to see for less than $50 as part
of a set.  Not too bad a deal, regardless of the shoddy construction.

     Dave Van Domelen, will give these babies a working over tomorrow during
the homecoming game....