Like the other three 1986 Scramble City/Special Team leaders Motormaster has a base mode. Fold the top of the rear half of the trailer out to the sides - this would form the robot's arms and is incredibly stiff on both of my Motormasters: I've applied less force to a toy and broken it! Pulling up on the arms a little first may help. Fold the lower half of the sides on the rear half outwards too,placing the robot's arms flat on the floor. Fold a ramp out from the rear of the vehicle. (at this point it is possible to fold the sides of the vehicle back up and leave the ramp hanging behind the trailer) Interestingly, the Western instructions stop at this point, but there's more steps to the base mode. Fold the top of the front of the trailer back. Split the cab and the front of the trailer in two. Fold out to each side to form a wall with the ramp extending out of it. Fold the top of the front of the trailer back into it's original position.
Motormaster's base can then function as a stand alone unit or be linked to Trypticon or the connectors on the side of Metroplex's leg when Metroplex is in City mode. Motormaster is the only Scramble City leader in 1986 not to need additional parts to form his base mode. The car that forms Menasor's chest can roll down the ramp here but sadly it's not wide enough for the other Stunticons to use. The base mode, like Silverbolt and Onslaught's base modes, was originally designed to incorporate a launcher. See Scrambled City for details. This launcher can be found on early Japanese versions of Motormaster.
To Transform Motormaster to robot mode, start with the truck and, as per the base mode, fold the tops of the rear of the trailer out to the sides which reveals the head. Pulling them up first might help the transformation here but either way make sure they're pulled out to the sides at the end. Fold the top of the front of the trailer back to form the chest. Pull the front of the trailer forward, Separate the front of the trailer and the cab down the middle, then fold the cab up onto the front of the trailer to form the feet. Stand with the top of the trailer facing forward. Place the Cyclone gun and chromed swords into the 5mm peg holes in his hands.
Now for many years I've said that the Stunticons were one of my least favourite Special Teams/Scramble City combiners. Well if you've been reading my reviews in order you'll know I found the Stunticon limbs to be competent if unspectacular in all three modes. Unfortunately Motormaster's robot mode is where it all starts to go wrong. Motormaster's robot mode is nearly entirely made up of blocky, silver-grey rectangular pieces formed from folding bits of the trailer out: he's more blocky than any other Transformer. The only real break in this form and colourwise is the feet, formed from the cab which are HUGE compared to the rest of the leg projecting forward from the leg and rising up some distance towards the knee. Remember that the rear wheels on the flatbed are fixed? You don't even get the benefit of a robot being able to roll along on his feet! Motormaster almost looks better with the cab folded back behind the legs, but then he has no feet at all!
The next problem is the head. Set in a square surround, it's effectively a face in a box. Now this worked for Huffer, but here the box isn't delineated that well from the body. It's the same width and colour as the body and the top of the body is at the same height as the top of the arms. With the arms hung neutrally at the sides the top half of Motormaster looks like a big silver square joined to the silver lower legs by the small black lower legs.
Motormaster's weapons introduce two new colours to the toy: the long Cyclone gun is purple while the sword is chromed silver. I like chromed weapons, but I like sword done in clear plastic more - a nice purple here would be good and would have an added benefit when we come to form Menasor.... Both weapons can be held by Motormaster, the combined form of Menasor or any other Transformer toy with a 5mm peg hole hand.
Articulation is limited to the shoulders turning. Yes ok, the legs bend to the sides at the hips and knees but that isn't really a useful joint for posing the toy. So effectively the shoulders are it. They don't fold out to the sides like Hotspot & Onslaught, and the arms don't bend at the elbow like Silverbolt so Motormaster is very much the poor relation amongst the Special Team leaders and has the same effective articulation as the rest of the Stunticons.
Motormaster serves at the body for Menasor. From robot mode, fold the legs out to the sides at the hips and then in again at the knees. Fold the cab halves back behind the legs. Fold the arms straight down to the sides and push in. Place the waist plate on so the robot's upper legs are covered. The car, turned so the roof faces you and the ends point to the sides pegs onto the chest - the peg holes are at the top as the car is now facing you. The mask goes over his face. You can then attach the Stunticons as limbs and attach the hands & feet to them.
So. OK Truck, but could have been better with the trailer being articulated in relation to the flatbed and some storage space in the truck. Base mode OK, but probably hurts the robot mode which is,lets face it, probably as bad as you can get without not actually working.
Motormaster was released boxed in the US & UK in 1986 as Stunticon S5, and was also available in the Menasor giftset. In Japan he was numbered D-50 and also sold in the D-55 Menasor giftset. He was re-released in Europe in 1990 as a gold boxed European Classics toy. In the mid nineties a supply of the Chinese Menasor giftsets entered the UK and were available in toyshops over here.
Motormaster hasn't been remade many times since his initial appearance. However Legends Menasor and San Diego Comic Con 2006 Menasor are probably both attempt to do a new Motormaster without being able to use the name. You can also make a decent arguement that Robots in Disguise Scourge should have been called Motormaster, thus fixing the name for all the numerous black Optimus Prime repaints that followed.
However since it's the only existing repaint of Motormaster we can hold out hope that when a reissue of the Stunticons eventually comes along E-Hobby will provide us with this as an exclusive repaint.
Looking closely at the Stunticons each seems to align with an original Autobot quite easily. A repaint and you'd be there:
Deadend, the Porsche 928 = Windcharger
Breakdown, the Lamborghini = Sunstreaker
Wildrider, the Ferrari 308 GTB sports car = Wheeljack
Drag Strip, the Tyrrell P34 Six-Wheeler race car = Mirage
Motormaster, the Kenworth K100 Aerodyne sleeper truck = Huffer
Why Huffer for Motormaster and not the more obvious Optimus Prime? Because I feel Optimus Prime was going to be redone as Hotspot, who's got Prime's head, chest and would look so much more sensible with Prime's colours. Motormaster does share some features with Huffer, most notably the robot mode face set within a square surround.
Even if you don't subscribe to this theory, you should be able to see that it would be possible to get a set of Autobot repaints from the Stunticons. So paint the cab orange and the trailer blue and you've got a workable Huffer for a future repaint set.