Phil's
Operation Combination & Micromaster Collection Sixturbo
and
Universe Defensor
Review


Operation Combination Sixturbo

Sixturbo was originally available only in Japan as part of the Operation Combination toyline where it was numbered TF-03. The team consists of the following toys:

Road-police
Glide
Circuit
Neo-wheel
Discharge
Sireen

The other four Micromaster Sixteams have distinct origins in earlier Transformers combiners - Sixwing is Superion, Six Builder comes from Devastator and both Sixliner & Sixtrain are inspired by Raiden. Sixturbo on the other hand is a weird cross between Defensor and Menasor, one of those combiners you made as a kid when you didn't have complete sets of one of the Scramble City/Special Teams combiners but did have bits from different sets ! Road Police, Sireen & Discharge as well as more arguably Glide seem inspired by Protectorbots while Circuit & Neo-Wheel are more like Stunticons ? Did Takara plan for *four* new Micromaster combiners in Operation Combination but end up merging the best bits of two of them and then remould Sixliner to make up the numbers ? In fact why do a Defensor inspired Micromaster combiner at all - Defensor itself was recoloured this year as Guard City.

The three new six team combiners moulds introduced in 1992 all feature body parts that combine to form an aircraft when not being used to make the combined robot. Most of the body parts are the same for all three newer Sixteam toys: The chest & feet are moulded together in one colour (black for Sixturbo) while the legs & gun are another. The head & hands are moulded new for each toy but each features a 5mm peg hole. To combine the pieces take the waist & legs and lock them onto the chest unit. The gun goes between the where the knees would be on the combined robot, the fists lock onto where the robot's shoulders would be then the feet peg onto the fists. The robot's head is then put onto the back of the plane upside down. For Sixturbo there's an extra step where the radar dish plugs into the back of the head. The resulting vehicle is about the same size as one of the Micromaster Transports, and one Micromaster figure can stand in the middle of the chest cavity using it as a cockpit. It's not the best Transformers plane but well done for doing something with all those left over bits when Sixtubro's in it's robot/vehicles mode.

To form the combined robot start by plugging the head onto the top of the body and then the body pegs into the back of the waist. Take the left & right feet and plug them into the 5mm peg holes on the back of Discharge & Sireen's vehicle modes - Discharge usually gets the left foot. The underside of the front of their vehicle modes peg onto the knees of the waist & leg piece. Neo Wheel & Circuit's back halves fold up 90 degrees, pivoting round their rear axles. Neo-Wheel then needs his 5mm socket folded out. Both Neo Wheel & Circuit then have a fist pegged underneath the front of the vehicle - Neo Wheel traditionally has the right fist. Neo Wheel & Circuit are then pegged onto the shoulders, then the radar dish is pegged into the expose half of the shoulder formed by Circuit. Fold Glide's wind shield forward, then bend the front of the vehicle up slightly. Glide pegs onto the back of the waist piece. Finally take Road Police's vehicle mode and fold the back of the vehicle back to form Road Police's robot legs. Fold the legs up 90 degrees at the hips. Peg Road Police into the chest cavity. Put the gun in either hand.

As with the other Micromaster combiners the articulation on Sixturbo is limited to the shoulders and head turning. Unfortunately the design of the chest plate means it is very difficult to raise his arms straight in front of him - they catch on the sides of the chest ! Of the three Sixteams that use this piece only Sixbuilder has arms that will turn without obstruction. Sixturbo is also the least stable of these three: the hands are not as securely attached as they are on the other two Sixteams which combined with the knee connections - nowhere near as secure as those found on Sixliner & Sixtrain - marks Sixturbo down. In it's favour is a wonderful head design - seemingly inspired by Menasor.

I can't get too excited about Sixtubro - it's not got the rarity to a UK fan of a train combiner, it's not got the moving parts like Sixbuilder, it's not got the great modern repaints of Sixbuilder & Sixwing and it's not got a cohesive theme. At the same time - apart from some mild stability issues - it's not got a lot actually wrong with it either.


Micromaster Collection Sixturbo

Sixturbo was the second Micromaster combiner reissued in the Micromaster collection. Each individual Micromaster was sold separately in numbered boxes that also contained a part of the combined robot. The following says which Micromaster is associated with which number and which body part.

1 Road Police - chest & head
2 Glide - upper legs
3 Circuit - left fist & radar dish
4 Neo-wheel - right fist & gun
5 Discharge - left foot
6 Sireen - right foot

Essentially the Micromaster Collection Sixturbo is a re-release of the original with some minor tweaks. The most obvious are that the stickers are now paint applications with many of them simplified and the grey - just the radar dish visible in combined mode - and the blue - for the hands, head, gun & legs - is a lot lighter.


Micromaster Collection Reverse Evolution Sixturbo

The Micromaster collection veresion of Sixturbo has an important innovation for the line - chase pieces are introduced. In every box of 12 Micromasters - 2 complete sets - 2 pieces are recolourd black (with some drak grey). Autobot symbols are replaced with silver Decepticon symbols. There's always one complete colour set in a box, so you don't get two of the same Micromaster in black. The black Micromasters have the same number and the same combined robot part as their normally coloured counterpart. The name of this recoloured toy is Reverse Evolution Sixturbo and consists of:

1 Reverse Evolution Road Police
2 Reverse Evolution Glide
3 Reverse Evolution Circuit
4 Reverse Evolution Neo-wheel
5 Reverse Evolution Discharge
6 Reverse Evolution Sireen

What this boils down to is that Sixturbo is a classic "paint it black and make it an evil version" toy. It's OK but I can't really get excited about it (unlike Sixbuilder's chase repaint).


Universe Defensor

Defensor is the western Universe release of Micromaster Collection Sixturbo. All pieces are the same colour as their Micromaster collection counterpart and have the the same piece of the combined robot packed with them. All individual toys are renamed using the names of G1 Defensor's components as a starting point. I have some issues with some of the names but I'll talk about them in the individual toy reviews.

1 Prowl (Road Police)
2 Autobot Groove (Glide)
3 Streetwise (Circuit)
4 Hotspot (Neo-Wheel)
5 Red Alert (Discharge)
6 First Aid (Sireen)

Defensor was sold in it's separate pieces as a KB Toys exclusive in the USA and was available in Toys R Us in the UK.


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