Phil's
Micromasters and Return of Convoy
Phaser & Blast Master
Review

Phaser

Phaser is the front half of the Astro Squad's Space Shuttle both parts of which are moulded in the authentic white. His vehicle mode consists of the nose of the shuttle and by itself is completely useless slanting down at the back because there's no rear wheels to support it and act against the front wheel under the nose. The nose itself is on a hinge at the top because of the transformation and that can cause the nose to slope upwards if you pull the combined vehicle mode back. Worse still the hinge can come apart easily so you'll see many Phasers on eBay missing their nose and thus the wheel necessary to support the combined mode.

Transformation: fold the back of the Micromaster up 90 degrees to form the lower legs. Stand with the underside facing you and fold the nosecone back.

Phaser's robot mode carries the tapering look of the shuttle's nose over with a wider base and a body that gets thinner the higher it gets. There's not a lot of plastic round his shoulder joints which worries me a bit. His upper legs are moulded in light blue plastic, his chest is red and he has standard Micromaster articulation.

Not great by himself.

Blast Master

Blast Master is the back half of the Space Shuttle comprising of the wings and the tail all of which are on hinges as part of the transformation. He's got just one set of wheels towards the back so he tends to lean down at the front.

Transformation: Fold the front of the Micromaster down to form the feet. Stand with the underside facing forward. Fold the wings back if you want and raise the head up

Blast Master is taller, wider and chunkier than his companion. The robot mode reveals light blue upper legs, a grey chest and a cherry red head. Standard Micromaster articulation again.

Not great again as a single vehicle but a decent robot mode.

Phaser and Blast Master Combined Mode

Plug the back of Phaser into the front of Blaster. This forms a decently proportioned space shuttle. Ok you can see both sets of legs through the roof where the cargo bay doors would be and there's no engines on the rear but it's still decent enough and one of the better combined modes. The wheels underneath keep it level but, as I said earlier, moving the shuttle backwards raises the nosecone and it's attached wheel which isn't so good.

Decent combined mode and one decent robot mode vs two bad half vehicles and a not so good robot mode make this a little bit of a mixed bag. But it's a Space Shuttle and Space Shuttles are great :-)

Phaser & Blastmaster were sold in 1990 as part of the Astro Squad with Moonrock & Missilemaster and Barrage & Heave

In Japan Phaser & Blastmaster were sold as part of C-364 Shuttle Rocket W Team with Micro Trailer #4 and their teammates from the Astro Squad Moonrock & Missilemaster

The remaining two members of the Astro Squad, Barrage & Heave and were sold as part of C-366 Radar Hover W Team with Micro Trailer #6 and Powerrun & Strikedown from the Metro Squad.

The remaining four members of the Metro Squad, Wheelblaze & Roadburner and Oiler & Slide were sold in C-365 Fire Tanker W Team with Micro Trailer #5.

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