Phil's
Armada & Universe Makeshift,
Micron Legend Twist & Impulsor,
Micron Booste Rotor,
Galaxy Force Bulge
and
Cybertron Scythe
Review


Makeshift

The last two original Minicon teams released in Armada - Emergency and Air Military - are both triplechangers - each member has a vehicle, robot and weapon mode.

Makeshift is a dual rotor helicopter - like G1 Highbrow and BM Obsidian. The rotors are mounted at the end of small wings projecting from the body of the plane. Makeshift shares exactly the same colours of plastic as Prowl. As we'll see later if you change one on one toy the other changes too. Since Prowl is the toy that the toymakers had ideas of what to do with Makeshift is the one who has to suffer as a consequence. (Firebot uses the same plastic too, but in much smaller quantities and his major colour is independent of the other two toys) Makeshift's body and supports for the propellers are the same white as Prowl's back & sides. His wings and rotor blades are the same clear blue as Prowl's body. The central part of the rotor, robot legs and some small connecting parts are the same colour as Prowl's wheels. The rotor blades spin - they're loose enough that you can low on them and they'll turn and the supports for the rotors turn so the rotors can be pivoted forward or back - when forward they make the toy almost look like a twin propeller plane.

He has one Minicon socket under the cockpit. When used as a Minicon add on in this mode it appears as if he's a dual spinning blade weapon.

TF (to weapon mode) Fold the tail up over the helicopter. Fold the rotor blades in and up. Tilt the rotors backwards. Attach to a larger toy with the back of the helicopter pointing forward.

Makeshift forms a twin gattling gun unit. The Gattlings formed from the rotors still spin. Unlike Prowl he can't be hand held - but see the Hellflame versions bellow.

TF (from helicopter to robot mode) Actually the first steps are to form the gattling mode: Fold the tail up over the helicopter. Fold the rotor blades in and up. Tilt the rotors backwards. Fold the underside of the helicopter out and back to form the legs. Fold the nosecone down to form the chest. Flip the head up from the top of the cockpit.Fold the wings onto the side of the chest. Fold the rotor supports back to form the arms.

Similar to his twin blade helicopter descendant Incinerator Makeshift has large hands made up of the rotor blades forming the three fingers. Each finger bends out and back, the wrists turn as do the shoulder. That's it for meaningful articulation although the legs bend out to the sides at the hips and in at the knees - neither of which is very helpful.

Good toy in all three modes.

In Japan Makeshift becomes Twist and is sold in the Emergency Team set numbered MM-20. The Emergency team do not feature in a Micron Legend giftset.

From the original Emergency team review " The Emergency team are great, 3 nice vehicles, 3 good robots.

Makeshift may appear to have long fingers at first glance but to me it looks more like he's clutching a pair of Rhinox machine guns ala his weapon mode. I've turned the guns round from in the instructions and mounted him on the peg behind Overload's head.

As I intimated above Overload has these at the moment - the white and transparent blue on Makeshift and Prowl match him well, and while Firebot (Firebolt ?) is a different shade of red (more cherry) then Overload the shape works well with him.

Good set, recommended. "


Unicron Battles Makeshift

The Emergency team were one of the last pair of Minicon repaints issued in Unicron Battles. Because Prowl has become Smokescreen the other two toys have to adopt these colours. White becomes blue, clear blue becomes opaque red and black stays black.

The blue and the red don't work on this toy. Better options for the red would be clear blue, the same blue as the rest of the toy or black. Best of all would be grey - then we'd have a Minicon Highbrow. Makeshift feels short-changed in this set. It won't be the last time.


Dimension-X Twist

During Micron Legend limited edition repaints of the Minicon teams were released under the Dimension-X label but within the Micron Legend numbering system. The Dimension-X Emergency team were numbered MM-21 and were the last Micron Legend Micron team release.

Here white become orange and clear blue become black. I think they're intended to match Powerlinx Red Alert and provide him with a team of similarly coloured Minicons.


DVD Impulsor

The Emergency Team become the Hazard team which were released with the Micron Legend DVDs numbered 11-13. Impulsor came with volume 13. For this released white again becomes orange, clear blue becomes opaque white and black becomes a burgundy brown.

It's bright ....


Micron Booster Rotor

The Emergency team all sell in Micron Booster V3. White becomes bright white, clear blue becomes clear green and black becomes green.

Why ???? I can see little reason for this set. The green makes me think they were aiming for a military set but it just doesn't give that feel. They just feel like odd random repaints.


Transformers Universe Makeshift

The Emergency team along with the Air Military team each have a repaint in Armada that's distributed through three toys sold in the Transformers Universe repaint line. Makeshift comes with Whirl (a repaint of the European Transformer Rotorstorm) and a repainted Gunbarrel from the Air Military team. (The other two members of the team can be found with Magna Stampede & Stockade and Fireflight.) I can see the desire to bundle both helicopters together but I think this release might have been better with Prowl since of all the larger Universe toys these Minicons are packed with Whirl can actually hold him !

This release swaps white for one of the Universe favourite colours Burgundy, and the clear blue for off white, while black remains the same.

Once again I can't see any reason for the colours chosen for this set, but Makeshift does look quite cool in his new dark colours.


Galaxy Force Hellfame Bulge

The Hellflame Microns were released to promote the release of Galaxy Force Beast Convoy. See Remy Act 387 for a gallery of all three ! Each of the Hellflame Microns is exclusive to different stores - Quasar (Prowl) was an Ito Yokado exclusive, Graviton (Firebot) was a Justco exclusive and Bulge (Makeshift) was a TF Station exclusive.

Unlike Quasar (Prowl), both Graviton (Firebot) and Bulge (Makeshift) get a remould for this release. Bulge acquires a 5mm peg under his tail which allows toys with a standard size fist hole to carry him.

Here white becomes black and the off white becomes grey along with the black remaining the same giving a monochrome appearance to these toys. Makeshift looks great in these colours making him appear more like a military helicopter painted for night operations.


Galaxy Force White Hellflame Bulge

The white Hellflame Microns are as the name suggests and all white version of the Emergency team exclusive to the Justco store. White Bulge was available if you bought Leobreaker

Cybertron Scythe

Makeshift becomes Scythe in this Cybertron minicon 2 pack where he's paired with Ramjet - a repaint of Energon Skyboom who's a remould of Armada Sonar.

At last the Emergency team acquire a theme to their repaints and are renamed (and labelled) the SWAT team. Scythe is SWAT team member A01. White becomes blue and clear blue become black with black remaining black. The colours work with the name & theme for the team and breathe a life into this set of repaints that the others just haven't had.

Sadly Scythe is the original version of the mould and not the adapted Hellflame version. However the SWAT colours continue to work well on Scythe in both his modes, with the blue being dominant throughout. Works well.


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