Phil's
Micromasters Whisper & Groundshaker
Review


Whisper

Whisper is a member of the Decepticon Micromaster Air Strike Patrol. He's co-moulded with Stormcloud - the two share the same colours of plastic. The patrol also contains Nightflight & Tailwind. The same four toys were available in Japan as the Micro Transformer Jet Patrol Team numbered C-336 where Stormcloud is named Starcloud. Whisper & Nightflight are named the same but Tailwind becomes Windrim. All Four are recast as Cybertron (Autobot) Transformers for the Japanese release - but are identical to the Western versions.

The upper side of Whisper's Stealth Jet mode is moulded in black plastic (the same as body & tail of Stormcloud's jet mode) while the underside (his robot mode body) is purple (as are the wings and nose on Stormcloud's jet mode). A moulded front landing gear with two wheels towards the rear.

TF: Identical to Stormcloud: Pull the nose forward and down a tiny bit. Fold the front of the nose up and back 180 degrees. Fold the wings up. Stand. Raise the arms. (That's right - a C&P from the Stormcloud review)

Whisper's robot mode is a game of two halves. The legs are very poor. For a start there's open panels at the front of the lower legs which taper away to form the underside of the jet mode. To make matters worse he doesn't stand that well either being rather too top heavy for the legs to support him even with the aid of the front landing gear serving as a heal spur. He needs some support to the sides too. A good job then that he has a Micromaster foot peg hole. The upper body looks great, especially the dual cannons moulded either side of the robot's head. Standard Micromaster articulation here: turning shoulders and joined bending hips & knees.

Let down by the legs & the balancing.


Groundshaker

Stormcloud & Whisper are recoloured and used as the pilots for the Western version of the Micromaster Bases - Nightflight & Tailwind are repainted and packed with two of the Micromaster Battlestations becoming Airwave and Hot House. Whisper becomes Groundshaker, the driver for the identically named Tank base.

For this release black becomes green and purple becomes grey resulting in a more Military themed figure.

The Groundshaker base when released in Japan was identically coloured but renamed Landshaker and came with a different figure: Gunrunner who is a repaint of Roadhandler


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