Phil's
Battlestars & Micromaster Collection Leaf,
Operation Combination & Micromaster Collection Raise
and
Universe Rapid Run
Review
Leaf was sold in Japan in 1991 as part of the C-370 Sixliner giftset. He's an white Tohoku bullet train. His rear connector is a peg - meaning he can link to any of the three trains with a loop on the end or to tow Sixliner's left foot on which can be mounted either the Gripper probe *or* the Wingard vehicle - see the Sixliner review for details. Leaf forms the left arm of Sixliner - interestingly the right arm, Alan, is a hoop linked train so one of the ones Leaf can be connected to.
TF: Fold the connector in, fold the back of the train down 180 degrees to form the legs - you may need to tilt the back down slightly to do this - then raise the arms at the shoulders.
Robot mode gives Leaf a hoodie formed from the nose of the train. The revealed body & head are red, with black upper legs, and grey arms painted on the outside to match the white plastic. Articulation is typical for a Micromaster - turning shoulders & hips with joined bending knees, Like all Micromasters he has a peg hole in his base allowing him to use the stands on the playsets and vehicles. The hoodie can be lowered over his head giving him an oversized train helmet.
Leaf normally forms Sixliner's left arm - Transform him into robot mode then lower the front of the train down over his face and head. On the other end of the train front is a 5mm peg hole allowing him to be connected to Sixliner's (or any other Micromaster Six Combiner's) shoulder joint. Into the bottom of the robot's feet slide in Sixliner's fist - Alan will hold either fist which means he can be used as either arm. However he has to use the fists for Sixliner (or it's Sixtrain repaint) as the fists vary in the moulding of the connector from one six team to the next.
Leaf is rechristened Raise for his 1992 release in the TF-05 Sixtrain set in Operation Combination. Like the other two parts of Sixliner with constructed out of mainly white parts he gets a substantial remould to his bodywork rendering him as a different model of train though I've not been able to find out what ! The red on him is repainted yellow while the grey is now coloured blue.
The original mould version of Leaf was reissued in 2002 as part of the Sixliner Micromaster collection where he was numbered 4 and came with Sixliner left foot - he's Sixliner's left arm, why didn't he have the left fist ?
The following year the Raise version of the mould is reissued, again with the combined robot's left foot, as toy number 3 in the Sixtrain Micromaster collection. This time the orange is repainted back to red while the blue & black both become dark blue.
Like the other three 1992 Six teams, the Sixtrain team gets an alternate chase colour scheme for their Micromaster collection release. One or two toys per box of 12 came in this alternate colour scheme in this case colouring the toys all red. Red Mode Raise comes with the same Sixtrain pieces as Raise, but coloured red.
Raise was sold as a KB Exclusive Universe toy in 2005 which was later sold as an Cybertron toy in the UK. He was rechristened Rapid Run after the Robots In Disguise train. This time he comes with both left & right fists.
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