I have a treat for you all today! Recently, I acquired Storm Cloud and Visper, two Micromasters in one package from the War For Cybertron: Siege line. These two are modern updates to two G1 Micromaster characters from the Air Strike Patrol, of which I do have! I will be able to show them side by side.

Storm Cloud kept his name, but Whisper is now Visper. OK Hasbro you’re so creative. Let’s get on with the review.

Robot mode.

Storm Cloud, G1 and Siege.

G1 Whisper and Siege Visper.

As for the robot modes, there is no comparison here. The new Siege Micromasters look way better than their G1 counterparts in robot mode. The G1 guys have no articulation other being able to raise their arms. The Siege guys actually has some decent articulation for toys of this size. Siege Storm Cloud can bend at the hips, knees, arms, and elbows. Visper has all that minus the elbow articulation. No head, waist, or feet articulation on either of the Siege guys.

Hasbro really did the G1 old schoolers a favor and modeled the new characters as faithfully as possible to the G1 characters of origin. Check out the body and head molds of Storm Cloud and Visper. The designs are almost carbon copies of how they were in G1. Smashing.

Storm Cloud and Visper are both solid figures. I detect no weaknesses in the constitution of either fig. Visper can be a tad back heavy if you choose to pose him with knees bent.

And looking at the pics just now, I see that Storm Cloud and Visper (Whisper) are inverted in their color schemes. Storm Cloud has a black body with purple limbs, while Visper (Whisper) has a purple body with black limbs. I never realized this in G1.

Transformation to jet mode is obviously going to be on the simple side here. But the transformation paradigm does differ from G1, and Storm Cloud and Visper do not transform in the same way. Both figs feature a cockpit shift and extend out mechanism from the back, like G1 Aerialbot limb figures. Visper tucks the legs under the front cockpit, while Storm Cloud does the splits and rotate the legs under the wings. Arms stay tucked on the sides for Visper. Storm Cloud has the arms rotated behind while the elbows bend up. Wings fold out from the back for both figs.

Storm Cloud jet mode, G1 and Siege.

G1 Whisper and Siege Visper, jet mode.

For the jet modes, I’m gonna give the edge to the new kids as well. Siege Storm Cloud and Visper look sleeker in their jet modes when compared to their G1 counterparts. But the G1 guys have their charms too in jet mode. In jet mode I find the Siege guys to only be slightly superior, unlike the robot mode where Siege killed it by a wide margin.

Both Siege Storm Cloud and Visper come together well in jet mode. Everything tabs into place where it should to form a cohesive unit. Tabbing everything in perfectly is a bit tougher on Storm Cloud, because the legs need to tab onto the arms and wings, and they’re all moving parts. It’s a tad difficult, but nowhere near impossible.

Siege Micromasters feature this gimmick where the two Micromasters can come together and form weapons for other robots in the Siege line sized deluxe or bigger. So in a way, Siege Micromasters are also kind of like Targetmasters. It’s kind of a lame gimmick if you ask me, but whatever. For Visper and Storm Cloud, the instructions just show you to connect the two once you got each properly transformed. But it’s missing one very important detail: there is a peg on the rear of Visper in jet mode that needs to be rotated out. I didn’t know this, and spent several minutes looking at how these two are supposed to connect. A pic of the peg is below.

The combined jet looks pretty cool. Much better than the PotP Dreadwing combination.

This is supposed to be a weapon. I’m gonna guess this is more like a sword. Here I have Titans Return Blitzwing holding it.

Overall, I like Siege Storm Cloud and Visper. Some will say the original G1s are better, but don’t believe it. At least not for these 2. I have some other Siege Micromasters that are disappointing, but Storm Cloud and Visper are worth your money. Get them.

Transform and Roll Out.

 

More goodies from my childhood. I have some G1 Micromasters. Only the most hardcore of TransFans would know of Micromasters. They came around at a time when G1 was on its last legs. At the time, Micro Machines were all the rage. I think Hasbro wanted to capitalize on the trend, and thus came up with Micromasters. Basically, these are extremely small Transformers. Think Micro Machines that transform, which is essentially what they are. The G1 Marvel Transformers comics did come up with a backstory for them.

Micromasters came in packs of 4. For most of my G1 Transformers, I still have a fairly vivid recollection of how it came into my collection. Like where I bought it, who and what I traded for it, or who gave it to me as a gift. That’s not the case with my Micromasters. I have absolutely no memory of how I acquired them. I guess even at the time, I was not too impressed. Either that, or my focus has been shifted entirely away from Transformers (the original NES was big at the time). Anyway, here they are. I don’t remember their names at all. Had to Google them. And sorry for the crappy pics. My camera just can’t take pics this close.

Autobots- Off-Road Patrol

Tote, Powertrain, Mudslinger, Highjump

Like I said, these came in packs of 4. The above are the Off-Road Patrol. Mudslinger is probably my favorite out of these 4. That’s not saying much though.

Decepticons – Air Strike Patrol

Tailwind, Storm Cloud, Whisper, Nightflight

These 4 Decepticon jets make up the Air Strike Patrol. They are ok. Some of these remind me of G.I.Joe vehicles from Real American Heroes. Tailwind reminds me of the Cobra Rattler, which I did have at one time in my youth. Whisper looks like the original Cobra Night Raven. BTW, I played with that Raven extensively, since I gave one to a friend for his b-day. In 2011 I bought the Raven from Rise of Cobra, and IMO the original Raven is better. Nightflight looks like the Joe Sky Striker. I never played with the Sky Striker when I was a kid, but I did buy the re-issue at Target for $17 this past summer. Regardless, Nightflight seems like an odd name for this character. I keep thinking that must be the black jet in the bunch.

OK, now for some G1 Transformers Decoys. These are rubber figures that came with some G1 figures, I think in Seasons 3 and 4. I have 4 of these.

Windcharger, Bumblebee, Grapple, Skywarp

These are kinda cool. I remember distinctly that the Grapple decoy came with my Technobot Afterburner figure. Don’t remember where the rest came from. I saw more of these when I went to BotCon. I wanted to get more, but must have forgot from seeing all the other TF craziness at BotCon.

Above is all of them in one shot. I put a AA battery in there for size comparison to note their extreme smallness.

Transform and Roll Out.