Phil's
Operation Combination Raker,
Micromaster Collection Raker,
Micromaster Collection Berserker Raker
and
Universe Storm Jet
Review
I suspect the inspiration behind Raker's name is the James Bond film Moonraker which features space shuttles. His vehicle mode ticks the boxes with a white body and black wings/fins and wheels underneath. My only query about Raker's vehicle mode surrounds his inclusion in this team. Yes he flies, but it's not directly a plane like 4/6ths of this team and as such not an Aerialbot homage. It's more like he and Chain Gun are part of some abandoned Combaticon/Bruticus Six combiner that never got made and were merged into this set (See also: Circuit & Neo Wheel in the Sixturbo team)
TF: Fold the back half of the vehicle back 180 degrees to form the robot's legs. Fold the wings in, stand, then fold the nose cone forward to expose the head.
I'm starting to get tired of writing about standard Micromaster articulation - this is the 15th time I've done it, only 9 left to go. Shoulders with hips & knees joined together etc.... The exposed body parts - head and upper legs - are blue which clashes a little with the monochrome colour scheme you expect from a shuttle toy.
Raker forms Sixwing's right arm: fold his back half up at the rear & his nose cones folds down and under his shuttle form before the right hand is attached - the hands are unique so no arm swapping here - before it's plugged into the right shoulder.
A perfectly adequate Micromaster Space Shuttle.
Raker was sold in Japan in 1992 as part of Operation Combination's TF-02 Sixwing gift set.
Raker was reissued in 2003 as part of the Micromaster Collection Sixwing series where he was packed with the right fist & gun of the Sixwing robot and numbered three in that series of six. Raker deviates little from the original in shuttle mode but the robot swaps the blue - also used on Missile run - for black giving a much better colour set. I *think* this is the only time there's been a pure white & black TF Space Shuttle !
Raker's Micromaster Collection Chase version is moulded entirely in white plastic with purple painted Autobot symbols. He comes with the white version of the right hand & gun for the combined Berserk SixWing robot. Berserk Raker was packed at one every 3 cases (12 toys, 2 sets of six per case) of Sixwing parts replacing a normal Micromaster Collection Raker in the boxes he appeared in.
As Raker is one of the non Aerialbot homage parts for Sixwing his inclusion in the Superion combiner needed a new name. They went for Storm Jet - previously used for A Robots in Disguise "Jetstorm as Jetfire" repaint and the leader of the Energon Aerialbots. I would suggest a better name for the toy would be Space Shot, a corruption of Slingshot the original Aerialbot name that's unused in this team
In an attempt to differentiate Storm Jet from Destron Raker - the moulded colours are basically the same - the wings have been painted red which doesn't work so well for his vehicle mode but makes the combined Superion form a little more cohesive.
Email Philip
Phil's TF Review Page