Phil's
Armada & Energon Payload,
Micron Legend Move
and
Cybertron Blastcharge
Review


Payload

Payload is a rocket transporter which forms the stock and handle of the Requiem Blaster.

The main body of the vehicle is black - unique to this toy in the team. The middle of the toy used the red plastic common to the entire team and there's a small amount of the light blue at the back. There are eight wheels moulded into each side of Payload, but the moving wheels are found hidden under the toy.

As well as forming part of the Requiem Blaster Payload combines withSkyblast - find the side of Skyblast with two pegs sticking out and put these into the holes on the back of Payload's vehicle with the nose pointing forward for Payload to act as a transported for Skyblast.

The Minicon socket is the under the front of the toy and to one side. Attached to a larger toy he just looks like a transport vehicle but you can then attach Skyblast to him to appear like a missile & launcher.

TF: Separate the front of the toy and fold the handle that's between both halves up and onto the back of Payload. Turn the toy round 180 degrees in the middle. Fold all of the back of the vehicle down exposing the blue head - the sides fold down further to form arms.

The robot is mainly black but the red of the legs & waist and the blue breaks it up a little and works nicely. He's got knees that bend, ball jointed hips, a waist and shoulders & neck that turn.

Overall: plain vehicle that only exists to form transport for another toy, poor add on for the same reason, but a really good robot

In Japan Payload was known as Move which is a pretty descriptive name for him! He appeared with the other two official members of the Space team in Minicon pack numbered MM-13. There's no giftset featuring this team as their obvious partner Jetfire is a toy larger than Supercon size.

Original Payload review: "Payload: As a Ground Transport vehicle you've basically got a lorry which you can use to carry the Sky Blast rocket on. Fold the front down to form some feet, open the legs and release the piece of plastic that forms the gun's handle, rotate at the waist and fold the back down to form the chest. Very like the cars earlier and not unfamiliar to any MM owner in robot mode. The socket on this one is under the cab. "


Unreleased Armada Skyblast

See also Remy Act 271

The Space Team's first brush with misfortune occurs late on in Transformers Armada - along with the Adventure & Street Speed teams who were also in Armada Minicons wave three - when their Unicron Battles recolour was cancelled. Red remains red in this team, but the other common colour in the team light blue becomes black.

The black of Payload becomes bright purple. Purple and red is another of those colour combinations that should be avoided on TF toys !


Dimension-X Move

The Dimension-X Space Team were issued as Micron Legend toy number MM-14 and are easier to obtain than the first wave of Micron Legend Dimension-X toys. Red becomes an sandy olive colour throughout the release, the light blue on Mir & Apollo as well as the black on Move becomes brown and the white of Apollo & blue of Mire becomes dark green with lime green zigzag patterns on it suggesting a sort of radiation theme.

This is the only time that the Space team gets the same paint scheme used on all three parts.


Change Micron Move

Change Micron Move is nearly identical to Payload colourwise. The head uses the darker blue of the rest of Astroscope and looks a bit better for it.

Energon Payload

The Space team did eventually get a western recolour when they were released with Energon Ultra Magnus, making them rare in the US and very common in the UK. Ultra Magnus was originally scheduled to come with a Street Speed Team repaint set, it's unknown quite why this change was made. See the Requiem Blaster review for one of the consequences of this choice.

Red becomes grey on all three toys and the light blue used becomes a teal blue. Payload's black becomes grey.

This version looks very plain and unappealing.


Unreleased Universe Payload

The Space team were next scheduled to be released in Transformers Universe as the Spacewarp team with Spacewarp - a Decepticon Armada Jetfire repaint that was eventually released through the Transformers Collectors Club as Astrotrain.

Red remains red on all three toys and the light blue becomes a pale grey blue as does the white used on Skyblast. The black of Payload becomes a horrid lime green. The Energon version might look plain but this just looks bad !


Cybertron Blastcharge

The Space team return in the fourth & final wave of Cybertron Minicon VS packs as the Decepticon Deep Space team fighting against the Autobot Street Action team that make up the Energon version of Perceptor. Blastcharge is the repaint of Payload. The name is the same as the Beast Machines/Universe toy and the colours used on this version are very similar to the Universe release of Blastcharge. The name helps to emphasise the linked nature of the Payload & Skyblast toys - they're Blastcharge & Backblast in Cybertron. Cybertron Blastcharge comes with a repainted High Wire - the motorbike member of the Energon Street Speed Team

For this team Red becomes Purple, Light Blue becomes Grey, Darker Blue becomes a very Pale Grey, Black (only on Payload/Blastcharge) becomes an Off White - these 2 are very similar but different when you see them next to each other and White (on Skyblast/Backblast) becomes a Rust Red.


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