To form it:
Payload Separate the front of the vehicle, fold out the handle then reattach the front of the vehicle to each other. Turn the vehicle over and bend the front of the vehicle up. Skyblast Fit the three pegged side of him onto the now pointing upwards underside of Payload with the point of the rocket facing out the back of the vehicle. Fold the point to one side. Astroscope Fold the solar panels together. Fold the opposite end of Astroscope to the missile out to the side. Slide the other side of that end into the gap at the end of Skyblast.
The resulting blaster is relatively stable in it's connections between the components. In fact the weakest point is probably the connection between the body & the shoulder of Astroscope that's linked to the rest of the toy ! As a weapon it can be held by any toy with a 5mm peg hole or it's stable enough to be pegged onto larger toys by the exposed Minicon socket. Alternately fold out Skyblast's Minicon port arm and attach it to a larger toy using that as a mount & pivot. The missile in Astroscope can still be fired in this mode giving the Requiem Blaster some ammunition. The solar panels under Astroscope look like magazine cartridges and the projecting tip of Skyblast could be a handle to support the weapon with a second hand.
The only thing the blaster really lacks is a sight/scope. But Hasbro/Takara have provided that. The Minicon post mysteriously unused on Skyblast now comes into play: it's used to attach Jetfire's Minicon Comettor (Sonar in Japan) to the top of the toy - leave him in vehicle mode and attach so he faces forward along the barrel of the blaster. The red and blue on Comettor are a good match for the Requiem Blaster.
In Japan the Requiem Blaster was known as the Astroblaster and was released 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 Requiem Blaster review: "Requiem Blaster: Take the vehicle modes: Separate Payload's legs to unfold the gun's handle, reconnect them and bend the front of the vehicle down. Fold Sky Blast's nosecone to one side. Fold Astroscope's solar sails together to form to energy magazines and then the back to one side via the elbow. Peg Sky Blast into Payload and slot Stereoscope into Sky Blast. The monster weapon for the Armada toy of your choice but I suggest the forthcoming Jetfire or Op probably get first Dibs. The aforementioned use of Sky Blast's arm as a mount does indeed turn the entire cannon into something that can adorn a Powering connector on a shoulder.
We like these a lot !"
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 blue on the Requiem Blaster's front becomes an off white/grey and the black of the stock becomes purple.
Somehow this all works together quite nicely ! The purple was a mistake in Payload's individual form but isn't so bad here where it's next to the black.
This is the only time that the Space team gets the same paint scheme used on all three parts and it produces a coherent Astroblaster that I've seen termed the Radiation Blaster which would fit the colours used.
Works well with Armada Predacon !
OK - colour swap time - have your original space team to hand: Black and Darker Blue become the same shade of pale Grey, Light Blue becomes a shade of Greeny Blue close to the old Darker Blue. Red becomes a pale beige Grey. White becomes Black. Some orangey gold paint highlights on Payload and Astroscope, and some nice heat re-entry details on Skyblast's underside. To be honest - with the exception of Skyblast - this new team looks very washed out. I wonder if an all black colour scheme with white/grey/gold for the red and light blue on the original may have been better ? We will never know.... until someone gets their paint pot out. A shame, as my fave Minicon team has not yet been repainted satisfactorily anywhere :-( BTW the Skyblast in this set is from the Japanese version with the knees folding in the right direction. Not the best US Minicon repaints. "
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. Astroscope's dark blue becomes rust red. I can't find any combined pictures of this team but I suspect it's the hilt that sticks out !
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.
The purple and the white/grey used here give a little more coherency to the overall toy which would further have been improved if Backblast was also this colour. It makes a good match for the then unreleased Universe version of Astrotrain, the purple being a very Decepticon colour. I'd be failing if I didn't suggest a few colour schemes for this toy to be released in:
All white - sensible colours for a Space team.
All black - always a winner
All red - re-entry space team.
As ever clear red/green/blue for the missile would be nice - and maybe all clear versions to go with them.
I feel there may be life recolouring these yet !