Phil's
Micromaster Bigshot
and
Transformers Zone & Return of Convoy Gunlift
Review


Bigshot

Micromaster Bigshot is a member of the Autobot Battle Patrol with Sidetrack , Flak & Sunrunner . It's hard to tell from the Western version but he's basically co-moulded with Sidetrack sharing the sandy beige & brown plastic - the Japanese versions we'll talk about later make it clear that the beige plastic on Flak & Sunrunner is on a different sprue. Both Bigshot & Sidetrack also uses a small amount of grey plastic which also appears on Flak.....

Bigshot is a brown 6 wheeled tank - although the middle wheel on each side is moulded and doesn't turn. He's got moving parts in vehicle mode with a sandy beige turret that can swing about 70 degrees to either side of centre and a grey gun barrel that elevates. That alone beats most Micromasters hands down.

TF: Fold the front half forward to form the legs. Stand with the underside facing forward. Fold the arms up.

The Bigshot robot has brown arms & lower legs with sandy beige on the upper legs and body. Traditional Micromaster articulation here has bending but linked hips & knees and turning shoulders. The turret and gun barrel on the back is a little heavy but the gun barrel helps to support the toy.

Standard Micromaster robot but the moving parts on the vehicle are a bonus.

Bigshot & the Battle Patrol - in this version at least - were not sold in Japan unlike many of the other Micromasters.


Gunlift

Instead the Battle Patrol is recoloured into the Battle Patrol team available in Transformers Zone as set number C-332 and then again in Return of Convoy as C-374 where they were packed with Microtrailer number 11. Some of the Patrol are renamed:

Flak = Powerbomb

Sunrunner = Sunrunner

Bigshot = Gunlift

Sidetrack = Sidetrack

For the Powerbomb(Flak) and Sunrunner pairing the following colour swaps apply:

Sandy beige becomes green.
Brown stays the same.

The intention is that the grey should stay the same but very early versions of the C-332 set replace the grey with bright yellow which looks distinctly out of place. This is most obvious on Flak's robot mode where his arms are the wrong colour, but the error is present on both Gunlift & Sidetrack too. Transformers Generations - otherwise an impeccable reference work - fails to highlight this for Gunlift & Sunrunner by only showing their robot modes on each variation (The Japanese version of the Micromaster Sports Car Patrol, the Super Car Patrol, also has this problem). Since the grey parts on both toys are on their backs it's hard to see the difference just looking at the front of the robot mode. Pictures of this very rare variation can however be found at Autobase Aichi.

Gunlift isn't that different to Bigshot with the changed green only visible on the turret and robot body & upper legs.


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