All the smaller Micromaste bases & Battlestation have the figures just standing - the Battlestations don't even have the foot mounting pegs. In Skystalker they sit. Now I'm older than the average Transformers fan - born 1973 - and I grew up with Star Wars toys. So I automatically like larger vehicles which my figures sit in. This is a bit harder with larger Transformers toys but Micromasters are suited to this purpose - indeed the common leg articulation means they're more than capable of it. Yet this is the smallest Micromaster toy that the Micromasters can sit in. The idea of Transformers operating larger vehicles is carried over into the Action Master line with older character returning as non Transforming figures that control transforming vehicles. Now if only they'd done the G1 characters as Micromasters instead ..... a missed opportunity by Hasbro. But I've significantly digressed here.... Skystalker has a clear blue cockpit canopy that lifts revealing a space for the Skystalker Micromaster to sit in. It's perfectly sized for him and most other car Micromasters but your mileage may vary with other figures. Mobility is imparted to the shuttle via three wheels on the underside - one near the front, the other two at the rear. The grey wings each feature a peg to allow you to stand members of your Micromaster army on. Underneath each wing is a 5mm peg socket - there's two more on either side of the nose. These allow you to add some weapons to the Skystalker shuttle. He comes with a pair of dual barrelled lasers (which are intended for the nose ports) and a a pair of triple barrelled cannons (for the wings). Each is mounted on a 5mm peg so they can be easily swapped between the ports. Under the nose is a hatch which is used in the transformation. However if you open it inn this mode it gives the shuttle the appearance of having a mouth similar to the Autobot shuttle Sky Lynx.
A second cockpit is found on the Jet Pod - the front half of the pod splits in two down the middle allowing your figures to gain access. The pod is held onto the shuttle by 2 5mm pegs on the shuttle that match holes on the pod. This allows you to use the shuttle as a seperate unit. Mounted round the tail is a very large twin cannon - it's pegged into the top of the pod's engines using an easily lost connector. Which I have lost. Anyone got a spare ? The wings each have a 5mm port passed through them allowing you to plug any of the Shuttle's collection of weapons into it. The underside of the jet pod features a large cavity which makes you think that something was meant to go in - looking at the shuttle it's a bit flat without the pod so maybe it was meant to have a tail originally ? The back of the jet pod features a pair of clips used for attaching the transformed jet pod to what was the shuttle's nose in base mode. These clips are frustratingly a centimetre or so too short to attach the pod to the front of the shuttle in Spaceship mode which would have been a lovely extra bit of play value for the toy. What the jet pod does emphasis is that the Interstellar Shuttle is a toy for playing with in conjunction with other Micromaster toys. There's two cockpits - one on the shuttle, one on the pod - which means you need 2 figures to crew it which means you use other Micromasters with the toy. Genius.
Transformation: I've been dreading this. Whenever I try to transform Skystalker after not having touched the toy for ages I get in a terrible muddle. The problem is the first stage involves moving a part that feels secure. In preparation remove the jet pod, it's cannon, all four of the Shuttle weapons and any Micromaster sitting/standing on the shuttle. Turn the shuttle over and fold the rear wheels in. Then the wing and base of the rear folds back 180 degrees to stretch out behind the shuttle. No, really it does. The sides of this piece are locked round two tabs on the sides of the shuttle body and need to be coaxed over them. Turn the shuttle over with the rear towards you. Fold the ramp down from what's now the front of the base facing you. Fold the wings so they point up. Fold the top of the middle of the shuttle out to the right side. Fold the base of the front of the shuttle out to the left, and from there fold the blue platform out so it rests over the side. Fold the shuttle's nose up so the underside is facing down the base. Fold the flap under the nose down.
The jet pod meanwhile can be attached to the base in two different ways. If you fold the clips projecting out the back of the pod down under the pod then the entire pod as is attaches to the sides of the nose cone at the back of the base. Alternately fold each half of the cockpit canopy right the way back and swing the clips round through 270 degrees so they face straight up. Turn the pod over, fold the wings up and then, with the pod's front cannons facing forward, clip the pod onto the nose cone as before.
You're now left with the weapons to distribute around the toy. The instructions suggest that the large dual cannon laser from the Jet Pod's tail pegs onto the front of the Jet Pod. The three barrelled cannons then clip onto the sides of the Jet Pod's wings. It doesn't say where the guns that attach to the nose go, but seeing as the blue platform on the right has a 5mm hole in the front of it, I think it's safe to say one should got there especially as the console under the hole in the platform has a foot peg on it allowing a Micromaster to stand on the platform and act as a gunner. There's another peg on the fold out platform projecting from the shuttle's nose and a third in the space on what was the bottom of the jet pod but now is the top of the Gunner bay, giving an instant crew complement of three to this mode. If you fold down the shuttle wings at the front, which is a little trick as the right one catches on the platform on that side, that'll give you two more foot pegs making a total of five - Skystalker plus a complete Micromaster patrol.
Like all the other Micromaster Battlestations and Bases, Skystalker is capable of connecting with the rest of the base modes. He's got two ramp connectors - one at the rear on the right and one at the front on the left. Both are opposite to where panels are folded out on the other side completely removing the option of a through road across Skystalker. I find it a little odd that the main ramp folded out the front of Skystalker's base hasn't got a ramp connector on the bottom, or indeed the connectors to hook it onto another base. Yes it's wider than most Micromaster ramps but then so are those on Star Convoy.
I did have them all of my Micromaster bases connected together on the floor but the picture I took wasn't that good. So You'll be spared that. Instead see my friend Nick's much larger collection in the All your (Micromaster) Bases are belong to us thread on the Hub Forum and Stardub's Micromaster Asgard video on YouTube.
Of the nine Micromaster base toys* I have at the moment (the four Battlestations, Groundshaker & Skyhopper, Star Convoy, Sky Garry (well his Death Garrygun repaint) and Skystalker I think Skystalker's my favorite. It's just such a fun toy with lots of compatability with the Micromaster figures.
Skystalker was sold in Japan as the mail-in toy Thunder Arrow with the same Micromaster pilot who doesn't have a Japanese name.
* Number ten is en route ! This review series will continue !