Phil's
Armada Nightbeat,
Micron Legend Cha,
Universe Search & Destroy Robot & Nightbeat
and
Micron Booster Gague
Review

Nightbeat

Nightbeat is the Minicon that comes packed with the Armada Sideswipe toy. He's a motorcycle made up of three of the colours of plastic used on the larger toy:

Black is used for the wheels & front fork - same as Nightbeat's hands, feet & wheels.
Yellow is used for the exhaust pipes and the rear fork - same as Nightbeat's upper limbs.
Silver grey is used for the body of the cycle and the head lamp - same as Nightbeat's body and head.

I can't help feeling that the name Nightbeat is more appropriate for the larger car toy than the bike who maybe should have been Groove. See the Nightbeat review for me loosing my rag about this. And while you're at it the Armada Wheeljack one too !

There's not a lot to say about the bike really, got two wheels, doesn't fall apart. It is a little insubstantial for a Minicon though, there's not a lot to it and you know that this will affect the robot.

There's one Minicon socket under the bike. At a stretch the bike when mounted backwards on an arm could be a sort of cannon using the exhausts as barrels. It's not the greatest Minicon to be used as an add on. Even Nightbeat just tucks it into his boot and powers his gimmicks through other means.

TF: Pull the head back onto the middle of the bike. Fold the exhausts down under the bike. Turn both so the headlamp faces you and the front forks are to your left. Fold the head lamp down so the struts connecting it are folded up behind it.

Is this the worst Minicon robot ever ? Possibly. The arms are both wheels, with the forks being unable to turn towards you all you get is a little movement to the sides. The waist turns & bends. The legs move at the hips - and are horribly thin !

Avoid. But you probably were going to anyway because you didn't want Sideswipe.

Nightbeat & Sideswipe were sold in Japan as Cha and Stepper under the number MC-10 in the Micron Legend range.

Search & Destroy Robot

Sideswipe was recoloured as Oil Slick and packaged with the Search & Destroy Robot in a VS pack with Crystal Widow for K-Mart stores. Although Oil Slick's car body changes the inner robot still uses the same colours resulting in his Minicon - not even named properly here - looking exactly the same (bar a little variation in the yellow on the legs) as that sold with Nightbeat.....

Universe Nightbeat

.... and then they pull the same trick a second time ! Sideswipe is recoloured as Treadshot in a Battle In A Box vs pack with Ultra Magnus and Minicon Over-Run. Once again just the outer car shell of Sideswipe changes and we end up with our third near identical Minicon.

Micron Booster Gauge

Sideswipe is remoulded in Galaxy Force to resemble the G1 Battlecharger Runabout. In the process they eliminated the Minicon which later shows up in Micron Booster V3.

Black stays the same
Yellow becomes blue
Silver grey becomes black

At last one that looks different, almost a "dark" Nightbeat, much more apropriate to the name. It's still a useless Minicon though !

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