Air Defense Team (Limited Edition) - Armada - Figures


Limited to a production run of 10,000, this version of the Air Defense Team came with a CD single of the outro theme song from "Transformers: Micron Legend."

Mach (Runway)
At a little over 2 ½” in length, Mach resembles a sleek transport jet. As stated above, he is made mostly of clear blue plastic with some dark blue pieces making up his robot arms and legs, which make up the undercarriage of his jet mode. There are some dark blue and silver highlights on his cockpit and rear fins as well as a couple spots painted red. The neat part in this mode is that he has retractable landing gear in the front. The robot legs are rather bulky looking in this form. Each leg has a Powerlinx notch for use with the Cybertrons and Destrons.

Transformation is fairly easy, though not Micromaster easy. Retract the landing gear; flip down the legs and arms. Flip the head up and the rear engines down. Mach now stands just under 2 ½” and looks a little more opaque now that his arms and legs aren’t tucked away. He features eight points of articulation. His elbows, hips, and knees move and his head and waist can be moved as well. The detailing is very nice considering the size.

Jetter (Jetstorm)
Like Mach, Jetter is primarily comprised of clear blue plastic. His secondary color is dark blue; he just has less of it. His tail fin is blue with blue stripes painted up to the cockpit where white, red and black highlight the front of the jet. Jetter looks to be similar to a Concorde jet, but I’m no aviation expert. He also features the front landing gear but has only one Powerlinx notch in the center of his undercarriage.

Jetter’s transformation is a bit more involved. Retract the landing gear and flip the front of the jet back. Unsnap the legs from the back of the jet, swing them down and rotate the lower legs down and forward. Swing the arms done and flip out the lower arms. Push the tail fin up and swing around to form the chest.

In robot mode, Jetter stands at 2 ¼” and features eight points of articulation: shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. His chest plate is blue, as are his legs which feature some red highlights. The rest is clear plastic with exception of hit upper arms. Again, the detailing is fantastic. His face resembles those of the Generation 2 Cyberjets, the Hooligan mold in particular.

Shuttler (Sonar)
Resembling a futuristic space shuttle, Shuttler is the shortest of the bunch at just over 2” in length. He hides the robot parts very well. The only kibble is the sword handle underneath. Shuttler is mostly light gray with blue highlighting his wings, nose and underbelly. The cockpit windows are painted red and his smaller fins are molded in dark blue. His robot face is unfortunately visible in the rear of the shuttle. The sword hilt provides Shuttler with two Powerlinx connectors.

To transform, pull the front of the shuttle out and separate. Push the nose halves outward and rotate so the cockpit windows are facing out. Flip the hilt to the back, fold the arms down and move the head up. In robot mode, Shuttler is mostly dark blue with some clear blue parts in his upper legs and back. He’s still shorter than the rest at just a little over 2”. Like the others in his team, he has eight articulation points: shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles.

Form Blazing Sword!
To form the Star Saber, make sure to start off with all three Microns in vehicle mode. Separate Shuttler’s legs as before, but leave the cockpit section alone. Fold Jetter’s front section back and attach to Shuttler. You can also bring Jetter's robot legs down and connect them into the Powerlink ports on Shuttler. This helps to stabilize the sword and clear the blade of some kibble. Then simply attach Mach’s engines to Jetter’s and you’re done.

Star Saber
Measuring 5 ¼” from the tip of the handle to the tip of the blade, this version of Star Saber looks a little more like a sword than the standard release. It could be that the television show has tainted my view of the toy. I think that the clear blue parts work better than the straight clear parts. With all the robot undercarriage from Mach and Jetter, the blade of the sword is very think, though with Jetter's legs moved down it helps the appearance a lot. Sadly, this version doesn't light up any better than the standard release.

"Never Ending Road"
Performed by Psychic Lover, Micron Legend's outro theme "Never Ending Road" is a solid rock song. As seems typical in the few Japanese songs I've listened to over the year, most anime-related, there are a few English sentences in the lyrics. "Never give up" and "Never ending road." The secons song on the disc is "No Name Heroes." I'm not sure if this is featured in Micron Legend or not, but it is also a good solid rock song. "No Name Heroes" has a little more pep to it than "Never Ending Road." The third and fourth songs are instrumental versions of "Never Ending Road" and "No Name Heroes" with only the background vocals intact.

The booklet features artwork of Ratchet, Hot Rod and Convoy on the cover. The same artwork for Convoy is on the back of the case. Also included in the booklet are the lyrics to the songs and profiles of Yoffey and Imajo, the guys behind Psychic Lover, as well as the instructions for the Microns and Star Saber. Surprisingly, the CD comes in a full sized case, rather than the typical CD-single case. This is likely due to the packaging need for the toys.

Overall
While the Star Saber mode is still a bit disappointing, each of the Microns are remarkable on their own. The parts of Jetter’s cockpit seem a bit brittle, so be careful. Good toys and worth picking up if you can find them. The music is good too.

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ReviewerRichard C. Mistron  
DateFebruary 12th 2003  
Score 8 stars (8 out of 10)  
Reads7277


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