Rob's Pile of Transformers: Micromaster Knockoffs

Top row: Captain Attack; Venom Van; Sky Hook; Terrain Tracker.
Bottom row: unnamed recolored Captain Attack; Red Flame; White Knight; Speed Deman [sic]; Night Warrior.

Top row: Captain Attack; Venom Van; Sky Hook; Terrain Tracker.
Bottom row: unnamed recolored Captain Attack; Red Flame; White Knight; Speed Deman [sic]; Night Warrior.

There's a certain beauty to the naming scheme on these toys, such as the fact that Red Flame has not a trace of red on him, or the Jeep that's named Venom Van, and the ominously named Night Warrior who transforms into... a cherry picker.

The toys themselves are very floppy and loose-jointed. Some of them don't hold together all that well as vehicles, particularly Captain Attack, Red Flame and Night Warrior. Sky Hook's arms are ball-jointed, but the posts that hold the arms look extraordinarily thin and fragile. On the other hand, I have to commend these guys for a couple of alternate modes we've never seen before, namely the cherry picker and Terrain Tracker the Bobcat. Terrain Tracker is actually a decent little Bobcat, even if he's got bizarrely goofy feet. Sky Hook is also bizarrely unique in that unlike most self-propelled cranes, he doesn't have a separate, second cab for a driver.

Several of the Formulator Force borrowed chest molds from first-year Micromasters, as seen here. The bootleg toys are simplified and slightly altered in places, but the similarity is unmistakable.

Venom Van uses Big Shot's chest.

White Knight has Stakeout's torso piece.

Terrain Tracker and Red Flame both use Tailspin's chest.

I haven't been able to figure out where the other four molds' torsos come from; Sky Hook and Terrain Tracker, at least, may just be original designs.

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