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Autobot Construction Patrol by Dirge

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Name: Construction Patrol
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Ground Reinforcement
Components: Crumble, Groundpounder, Neutro, Takedown

Crumble

CRANE MODE
Height: 2.5cm Length: 5cm Width: 2.5cm

Crumble's a rather oddly named crane, since they tend to build things, rather than making them crumble. Still, he's a pretty decent crane for his size. He's grey with black tyres, a darkish orange arm and green windows.

It's worth noting that he's reminiscent of Hook in this mode, in fact his transform is similar to Hook's - he's not the only Micromaster with an obvious inspiration from earlier G1. Unlike Hook, he only has four wheels, and they're a lot bigger in proportion than Hook's - in fact he has monster tyres. As you'd expect with a Micromaster, the arm is all one piece, though it does hinge at the attachment to the rear cabin (which has unpainted windows). The rear platform on which the arm sits swivels right around, which is a nice touch, since it doesn't have to for his transform. The wheels turn, giving him three rather basic things you can do with the crane.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Fold the front over to form the legs, stand him up and position the arms.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 5.5cm Width: 2.5cm

Crumble's robot mode is grey, brown and yellow, with a yellow torso & head and yellow thighs, grey arms and lower legs, brown groin and a brown face. Oh and a big green patch on one knee, by virtue of the cabin on the left only. In fact, he's one of few assymetrical Micromasters (there's Grit and Terror-Tread also, who are the same mould).

As Micromasters go it's a pretty decent robot mode. The asymmetry is a nice touch, mainly because it's so unusual. It does make for one shin/foot being much bigger than the other. But it's kind of offset by there being a foot deliberately put on the right side. The arms are typical Micromaster moulded forearms affairs, with wheels on the shoulders. The face actually has good detail, but it gets somewhat lost in the brown paint that covers it. White would have worked a lot better, but this entire patrol has dark faces, and only Takedown has any white in him at all.

OVERALL

I've always liked Crumble, I think the asymmetry works for him, and well, I've always liked Hook so that certainly helps. The colours are pretty good, aside from the paint on his face. The fact he's got some play value in crane mode is a big plus, too. 9/10

Groundpounder

PAYLOADER MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 5.5cm Width: 2cm

An orange payloader with a darkish orange tray, black monster-truck style tyres and silver windows. There's a Scrapper theme going here, although they added a cabin in place of the simple open roof. The tray can lift up and the wheels turn. Less than Crumble, but more than Takedown.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Flip up the bucket, fold the back end over, stand him up and flip his head up. Despite being a lot smaller, his transform is basically the same as Scrapper (c8

ROBOT MODE
Height: 5cm Width: 2cm

Well, this mode reveals a lot of red, he has a red head, chest and red thighs. The feet and arms are orange and he has a black face and groin. Oh and he has tyres on his shoulders.

The arms look a little odd, but otherwise he looks pretty cool. The poseability of the arms is seriously hindered by the chestplate which covers the shoulders, however. If you lift his arms up, he looks pretty weird thanks to the bits of the chest sticking out the side. And they arms only move to about 40 degrees anyway. I strongly recommend leaving this guy at attention.

OVERALL

A decent payloader and a nice looking robot mode that's ruined by a badly designed chest. It's a shame, because this problem was so avoidable. It's still a nice toy, but not as cool as it could have been. 6/10
Neutro

BULLDOZER MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 5cm Width: 3cm

A yellow bulldozer with grey treads & pistons, a darkish orange shovel and black windows. Yes, that's right, windows. While Crumble is based on Hook, this guy shares nothing with Bonecrusher.

He has wheels underneath the treads, which is good because they probably could have skimped, as they did with many aeroplane Micromasters. The shovel blade can move up and down, but the pistons wont go with it. The blade is pretty much flat, he's almost a snowplow, really. The front half of the treads are grey plastic, and the rear half grey paint, but they've done a good job of matching the shades. Not a bad bulldozer, and the colour scheme is very good.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Fold the rear half over to form the legs. This can be a little tricky, you may want to dislodge the front halves of the treads first. Once you've done that, fold the blade up, stand him up and fold up the grill to reveal his head. Reasonably involved for a Micromaster.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 5cm Width: 3cm

In robot mode, Neutro has a yellow chest, yellow shins, grey thighs, head and arms and a painted black face. It's a bit of a departure of the standard Micromaster colour scheme, which is nice. His arms are a little long, and they have wheels on the insides of his elbows, but otherwise he's a great little robot. His face is obscured by the black paint, but the detail is actually good - he's got a very tough looking face which matches his rather solid-looking physique.

OVERALL

A nifty little Micromaster with a good robot mode, decent dozer mode and a very nice colour scheme. My only gripe is with the name, because it doesn't really make any sense. 8/10
Takedown

CEMENT MIXER MODE
Height: 2cm Length: 5cm Width: 2.5cm

A red longnose-cab cement mixer, with blue windows, a painted white drum and six black tyres, with four at the back. The middle tyres are moulded and painted black, the grill at the front painted silver. An actual drum that spins would have been cool, but it's not even it's own piece. Incidentally, I'm not sure what the guy who named these guys was smoking at the time, but cement mixers can't TAKE things DOWN unless they ram them. I suspect the same guy wrote their spec, which calls them "Powerhouses of metal and steel". Last time I checked, steel was metallic...

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

Fold the back down, then straighten his knees and stand him up. One of the easiest transformers ever, I suspect.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 5cm Width: 2.5cm

He's mainly red as a robot, with an orange chest, orange head and orange thighs. His groin and face are painted brown. While the orange-red thing works on Groundpounder, it's rather dull on Takedown.

The arms move, the legs don't. Despite them being two pieces of plastic, they don't separate at all. By virtue of his transform, he's got shins that stick out way too far. They're also way too tall in proportion to the rest of him. One good thing about his robot mode is that they actually bothered to mould an assymetrical chest - something not even Crumble has.

OVERALL

Well, he's not awful, but the moulded drum, legs that don't split and sticking-out shins really hurt this toy. It's almost as if he was tacked on the end in a hurry to complete this set. 3/10
VARIATIONS

None I know of.

THE PATROL OVERALL

Overall, this is a nice set. Crumble and Neutro are great Micromasters, Groundpounder isn't perfect, but I still recommend him. Takedown is pretty much baggage, but there are worse Micros out there. You've even got two toys in Crumble and Groundpounder that are almost shrunken-down Constructicons. They look cool as a set. 8/10