Phil's
Battlestars & Micromaster Collection Spark,
Operation Combination & Micromaster Collection Desire
and
Universe Railspike
Review
Spark was was sold in Japan in 1991 as part of the C-370 Sixliner giftset. He's a Tokaido 100 line bullet train - mainly cast in white - with a loop connector that can fold down from his rear. He's one of the three Micromaster trains in this set to have one - the other three trains have a peg which allows the six trains to be connected into three pairs of trains. This can be also used to tow Sixliner's right foot on which can be mounted either the Gripper probe *or* the Wingard vehicle - see the Sixliner review for details. The top of Spark's train is open and his head can be folded up through it - however he will be facing backwards when you do. I don't like Transformers where you have to see the head in vehicle mode (Energon Ironhide) but ones where you can fold the head up as an option are quite fun.
To TF look at the roof of the train. Fold the nose down, then fold the head up and the arms out.
Like all the other members of the Sixliner team he's got the standard Micromaster articulation of turning shoulders & hips with joined bending knees, and a peg hole in his base allowing him to use the stands on the playsets and vehicles. There's a pretty good colour balance to the robot too with the white of the lower legs & arms working well with the black of the upper legs & body and red of the head.
Spark's combined mode forms the chest of Sixliner - from robot mode bend the arms up, bend the legs forward at the knee and fold the arms down. Then push Spark backwards into the chest/wingard so he locks in place with the nose pointing forwards. The combined robot head mounts on Spark's head.
When Spark, now called Desire, returned in Operation Combination all of his white parts had been extensively remoulded so that he's now a Hokkaido Bullet Train - similar but not identical to his earlier moulding. While the white is remoulded but remains white, the black becomes red and the white becomes yellow leading to a set of colours that don't go together so comfortably.
Spark was available in Japan in 1992, as part of the Sixtrain giftset numbered TF-05 in the Operation Combination toyline.
For Spark's Micromaster collection re-release he reverts back to his earlier moulding and colours, but with his stickers simplified and rendered as paint operations.
Spark is numbered 3 in the Sixliner Micromaster Collection and inexplicably comes with Sixliner's left foot when all common sense says he should have been packaged with the chest piece.
Desire's Micomaster Collection re-release recolours the modified version of the mould. White stays the same, yellow reverts to red and the red (was black on Spark) becomes blue giving a much more satisfying colour set closer to the original used for Spark.
Desire is numbered 1 in the Sixtrain Micromaster collection and comes with Sixtrain's right foot.
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 Desire comes with the same Sixtrain pieces as Desire, but coloured red.
Railspike is the Universe release of Desire, identical apart from him being packaged (FINALLY) with the chest for the combined robot, now renamed Rail Racer.
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