Phil's
Micromaster Flak
and
Transformers Zone & Return of Convoy Powerbomb
Review

Flak

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

Flak is a tracked Missile launching tank. The tracks are, of course, moulded with mobility being imparted by a wheel embedded at both ends of each track. Mainly green in colour in this mode he has a moulded missile array mounted on his back. The array features space for 10 missiles in 2 rows of five. The missile array can elevate but isn't capable of swinging around independantly to the rest Flak's body.

TF: Fold the missile array back behind the tank. Stand on the front of the missile array. Fold back the front of the tank to reveal the head. Fold the treads at the front of the tank down to form the arms.

Flak's robot mode reveals the sandy beige plastic on his chest & upper legs but it also becomes clear that the grey of the missile track arms is plastic, not paint as on the rear of the vehicle and for Sidetrack. There's some arms embedded in the tracks which is a nice touch. Traditonal Micromaster articulation of turning shoulders and bending but linked hips & knees.

I like Flak. Heck, I like the entire Battle Patrol, even though I do wonder why they're Autobots and not Decepticons. Somehow he's got some character to his moulding and the moveable parts - if accidentally so - on the vehicle mode add to the play value.

Flak was not sold in Japan unlike many of the other Micromasters.

Powerbomb

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 white.
Green becomes blue.

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. Pictures of this very rare variation can be found at Autobase Aichi.

I like Powerbomb. The blue looks great and the colours on this form are an obvious inspiration behind Galaxy Force Vanguard Team Backguild/Cybertron Defence Scattorshot, which would be repainted as Universe Dropshot using an inverse of the Flak colours, the using the Flak colours themselves as Universe Overload finally aquiring the Flak name under new colours as Botcon Flak

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