Phil's
Armada Jetstorm,
Micron Legend Mach & Mad,
Energon & Superlink Scattor,
Micron Booster Quantum
and
Cybertron Thrust
Review


Jetstorm

Original Air Defence team review "I'll come clean straight off - I can't build the star sabre. The peg on Jetstorm won't fit far enough into the hole on Sonar (James, yours any better ?) They all have a lot of clear parts, mainly on the robot form. All 3 have some nice intricate TFs, all worth it just for seeing how small they can build TFs... "

Jetstorm is a member of the Air Defence team and forms the middle of the Star Saber. He's a Concorde like jet, mainly cast in clear plastic with the nose & tail in blue plastic. Some of the undercarriage is cast in grey and this will form his upper arms and all of his legs in robot mode. Under his nose is a fold down landing gear.

He has one minicon port and that's on the middle of his underside. This enables you to mount him on a larger toy's arm and pretend he's a blade of some sort

TF: Fold the nose back. Turn the aircraft over. Unpeg the legs from the back of the jet and fold down. Bring the lower legs under the upper legs and twist each in 90 degrees at the knee. Swing the arms down to the sides and fold down the forearms. Pull the tail fin back and fold over his head.

The robot has a minicon symbol on his right lower leg. His knees are ball jointed as well as folding to the sides in the TF. The hips move forward & back, the shoulders swing to the side and the elbows bend. The revealed head is clear with a painted red face plate - though I do own one missing this paint operation.

Decent jet and robot.

In Japan Jetstorm was known as Mach and was released as part of Micron Legend as pack MM-02 with the rest of the Air Defence Team. They also were available in giftbox MS-01 with the Japanese version of Hotshot..


Dimension-X Mach

During Micron Legend limited edition repaints of the Minicon teams were released under the Dimension-X label but within the Micron Legend numbering system. MM-07 is the Dimension-X Air Defence Team. Grey plastic is now orange, blue plastic & paint is now red and the red paint is now yellow. The clear plastic remains the same which I feel is a mistake in this case - the red body parts look too bright and making the clear plastic clear red would have given a nice combined weapon too.

Air Assault Jetstorm

Original Air Assault team review: "Recoloured Air defence team - in a mixture of greys, blacks and purples with gold highlighting. No clear plastic - everything that was clear before is grey. My Darksabre is a good fit, holds together well. The grey works better than I thought on the sword but a transparent purple would be yummy here."

The Air Defence Team were on of the first to be recoloured in the US and UK. Clear plastic becomes pale grey, grey plastic becomes black and blue becomes purple. Red paint ops become gold.

The loss of the clear plastic does affect the (admittedly poor performing) gimmick in combined mode but the individual robot & jet looks great in these new colours.


Mad

Mad is the Japanese version of Air Assault Jetstorm released as part of MM-17 or as part of MS-08 with Rampage (Wheeljack) This version take the Air Assault colours and swaps the pale grey for clear plastic, using a clear with a slightly lilac tint. Looks great in the plastic !

CD Mach

Original Review: "By ear Never Ending Road is the outro to the Micron Legend TV series

Never Ending Road is packed with the Air Defence Team that form the Star Sabre

These are the first real CD singles I've ever owned - they're the smaller size ones.

CDJapan also threw in 2 posters advertising the CDs - cool !

Just built the Star Sabre - looks fabulous in blue.

The Star Sabre holds together the best of any of the ones I've got (about equal with Hotrod's ) Exchanging pieces reveals the problem is with the tab on Runway rather than the hole on Jetstorm - the rest of the Firesabre can slot OK into the Blue SS's Sonar, but the Blue SS fit's loosely in the Firesabre's Sonar - as does it's blade.

If it comes down to getting one, I'd go for the Blue Star Sabre & End Theme set. "

The Air Defence team were one of two minicon teams released with a CD single in Japan. Grey plastic becomes blue matching the existing blue plastic, and the clear colour becomes clear blue. The plane looks nice, but the robot is a little odd looking - very blue. However the combined form is really what you're buying this set for.


Micron Booster Mach

The Air Defence team appear in Micron Booster v0. This set looks very similar to the originals but I'm told that there's some metallic flake added to the plastic. I've never been able to spot it in the pictures I've seen !

Change Micron Mach

Original Review: "Parts 4-6 - Air Defence team. Start with the UK release and cast the clear plastic in a (slightly cheaper looking) white plastic. Looks better in the plastic than I though, Star Sabre holds together well and looks OK in white. "

Kabaya issued a series of Minicon toys with candy in Japan during 2003. The Air Defence team take the clear plastic of the originals and replace it with opaque bright white plastic. Effective repaint, though like the Air Assault Team the solid paint used in the recolour limits the combined mod.


Energon Scattor

The Air Defence Team is remoulded & recoloured as the Energon Sabre in Transformers Energon. Grey becomes a more olive grey, blue becomes green and clear plastic becomes clear yellow. The paint ops are totally changed. The parts that are remoulded are all ones that were clear on the original Air Defence Team.

Scattor gains some forward pointing fins and flat wing tips in jet mode. This makes the jet look completely different.

Yellow isn't the best colour for a clear repaint - looks too much like urine ! (see Shining Ultra Magnus)

The Japanese version of the Energon Sabre was numbered SC-08 and Scattor retained his western name.


Micron Booster Quantum

The Energon Sabre then appears repainted in Micron Booster V1. The green plastic becomes blue and olive grey becomes grey - both similar to the original Air Defence colours. The clear plastic becomes clear blue like the great CD version of the Air Defence team. Great repaint, and even better when combined.

My notes say that the Energon Sabre seen in Micron Booster V1 is the first Energon toy to be repainted !


Cybertron Thrust

Scattor becomes Thrust in this Cybertron minicon 2 pack where he's paired with Anti-Blaze - a Firebot (Emergency Team) repaint.

Thrust's Red, Silver and Black jet looks spectacular. With the tailfin folded down he's got a good colour balance in robot mode - lots of Black and Silver but a Red chest - but folded back the tailfin is reminiscent of the old "coneheaded" year 2 G1 jets.


Email Philip

Phil's TF Review Page