#292 TRANSFORMERS – MICROMASTERS AIR STRIKE PATROL (1989)

The Micromasters have already appeared several times in this blog. In entry #168, I described the different categories of toys in the Micromasters series. The most basic of them was the “Patrols”, which were defined like this:

Micromasters Patrols (1989-1990): “Patrols” were group of four robots, sharing a unifying theme, for example Race Cars, Military, Rescue…these packs were the cheapest Micromasters available and came carded. The size of these robots is the reference for the whole collection; the characters are relatively small and have simple transformations. The concept resembles a little bit Micromachines’collections.

In the same scenery from that entry, I am presenting one of the Patrols I have: the Air Strike Patrol. This group of four Decepticons are 4 war planes: an F-14, a Rafale, a A-10 Thunderbolt plus an unidentified models that resembles some kind of spy plane (F-19, later F-117). The names of these are Storm Cloud, Nightflight, Tailwind and Whisper, respectively.

Whisper, Tailwind, Storm Cloud and Nightflight

These small planes can be very easily transformed into robots (and the other way round) in just 4 or 5 moves, and despite their size and simplicity, that transformation is really nice.

Hasbro reused the casts for these planes to, once recoloured, include them as “commanders” of the different Bases, Stations and so on. For example, the F-16 plane, named “Storm Cloud” is made out of the same cast than “Skyhopper”. Recolouring was new at the time for the Hasbro toyline, but it would be exploited during the G2, in which many robots from G1 were re-released in new decorations.

Skyhopper (left) and Storm Cloud (right)

Micromasters are normally very easy to find and very cheap to buy, with some exceptions. Logically, those with fragile/easy to lose parts are more expensive. The same happens with those Micromasters included in bigger boxes like Bases, Stations or Combiners Bases.

The Air Strike Patrol @ Micromasters Base

They are definitely not the most popular transformers, but they were a nice alternative to most expensive and most difficult to transform robots. Maybe a child-oriented sub-series or just a try from Hasbro to fit the popular Transformers into the new fashion of reduced toys that came in the mid to late 80s.

I’ll finish this article with the profiles and tech specs for these characters. Thanks for reading!

AIR STRIKE PATROL

• Faction: Decepticons
• Subgroup: Micromasters
• Function: Espionage
• Motto: "The more tightly you hold a secret, the more we like ripping it away."
• Bio: Spent years practicing in the mercury swamps of Cybertron. Perfected the "fly, spy, and fry" teamwork technique of stealing info and blasting their targets. Rank among the most capable and savviest of Decepticons. Constantly fight among themselves to take credit for the group's successes. Always blame each other for its failures. Their inability to get along is their greatest weakness.
• Tech Specs for Air Strike Patrol:

• Strength: 4
• Intelligence: 8
• Speed: 7
• Endurance: 6
• Team Work: 2
• Courage: 8
• Firepower: 2
• Skill: 7

WHISPER (black)

• Motto: "Undetected in flight; undefeated in fight"

NIGHTFLIGHT (grey)

• Motto: "I prey like a vulture in the night"

STORM CLOUD (black/purple)

• Motto: "The air is my playground"

TAILWIND (blue)

• Motto: "Revenge is sweet, victory is sweeter"

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MICROMASTERS AIR STRIKE PATROL
• Toy Line: TRANSFORMERS (G1)
• Year: 1989
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 5 cm

#291 GISIMA – CHEVROLET CORVETTE, DODGE STEALTH and VOLVO FH12 TRUCK (Around 1992)

Gisima is a Spanish toy manufacturer based in Ibi (Alicante). The company was founded in the year 1978 by Miguel Juan Gimeno, Emilio Mollá Silvestre, Plácido Martos and a brother of him. The name of the company was taken from the first sillable of each surname: GImeno – SIlvestre – MArtos.

The company manufactured toys from the very beginning, it was not one of those companies whose production derived from plastics or metal to toys, but a toy company from 1978 on. First, they had both plastic and die-cast toys, later they specialized in plastic. Some of their products were: garages and circuits for scale cars, doll houses, construction games and many more, including small toys for promotional purposes.

Something that I find particularly nice, is that the company still exists. In 1998, the name GISIMA was changed to Game Movil S.L. In the present, the only founding partner that remains in the company is Miguel Juan Gimeno together with his new partners José Vicente Juan Aurea and Miguel Dario Juan Aurea (brothers).

Currently, the company is based in Avenida del Juguete nr 17, and their website is: http://www.game-movil.es

As a kid, I remember I had a few die-cast models made by this company. Most cast were similar to casts from other brands. Among their first die-cast cars were cars that were also pencil sharpeners, for example a Renault 5 or a Ford Fiesta I could show some other time. Some people say, these were copied from Guisval, although these are much less detailed and it is difficult to tell if they’re copied from somewhere else or if they are their own casts.

Later, by the mid to late 80s, there were much more models made, from which many of them were again copied from other die-cast manufacturers, most notably Majorette. They were not as well built as other brands, so today it is difficult to find cars in good shape from this years.

And finally, with the turn of the decade, Gisima finally made its own casts, for example these that I am showing here. Many die-cast collectors from Spain and worldwide consider them the ugliest casts ever, because they are pretty different to the models they represent.

The car in this picture is a Chevrolet Corvette in white (the red rearlights were painted by me, they were originally unpainted). This car is missing its stickers, I think I removed them for some reason many years ago.

The boat trailer that appear at the beginning of the article is made in plastic. There were a few of them made, and then set randomly with a car in a larger jewel case.

Each car was available in different colours: red, yellow, blue and white are the most common, although there are also orange, black, light blue, green... cars.

This other car is a Dodge Stealth (or a Mitsubishi 3000GT) also in white with some stickers from “Galletas SIRO” (SIRO cookies). This brand of cookies is based in a village in the province of Palencia and specializes in cookies, baked goods and bread. SIRO was founded in 1991, and they started promoting their products including small toys in their boxes. I remember having some die-cast made by Mira with SIRO stickers I got in a packet of cookies. It seems that later they changed to Gisima. I think SIRO will still appear some other time in this blog…

The last toy vehicle in this entry is a Volvo truck which is similar to a model made by Matchbox. It still has its original stickers, which, as you can see, were very colourful. It even has an opening door at the back.

Something interesting about later models is that the axles are fixed on the outer part of the chassis, instead of inner part. They are placed in two slots, and then these slots are shut with just two points. This method is surely cheaper to implement and surely led to a commercial advantage.Wheels are similar to some in Majorette models.

The peg on the chassis which fixed the cars to some jewel cases in which they were sold is somehow annoying when playing with the cars, but it you step on it, they won’t slide and the axles won’t bend.

I still have some more Gisima models, I expect to show some other time.

UPDATE: My Ferrari Testarossa by Gisima

Definitely not in the best shape, but still has its stickers. Note that the name of the car is misspelled "Testarrosa" with 2 "r" and 1 "s", where it should say "Testarossa". I think I still have another model like this one in a better shape.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CHEVROLET CORVETTE, DODGE STEALTH and VOLVO FH12 TRUCK
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: Around 1992
• Company: Gisima (Spain)
• Size: approx. 6,5 cm

#290 FIGURAS EN ACCIÓN (F.E.A.) Nr. 8

There have been a lot of changes in this magazine during the last 6 months. The most important is that the manager couldn’t continue with it, so now I have taken over his responsibilities. The same happened with our layout artist… he had to leave the project, and I also took over layout works. The core team, however, remains unchanged. 

The result is that I have brought new ideas to the magazine, I don’t know if these news are good or bad, you’ll have to check yourself if you like it better or worse than before. 

In this edition (nr. 8) you’ll find great articles about Kinder Surprise, Heraclio-Fournier playing cards, Hasbro’s WWF, Ninja Warriors and Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, Scalextric... there’s surely something for each of you there. 

Our interviewee this time is Juan Hermida, author of the brand new book: “Plastic Toy Figures Made in Spain (1948-1978)”. 

 If you can read Spanish, or you know people who could be interested in reading this, we would be very happy if you could share it, so we reach more people. Remember this is a free magazine! 

Download link: 

http://www.bubok.es/libros/224789/REVISTA-FIGURAS-EN-ACCION-N8--MAYO-2013

#289 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE – SORCERESS vs. SNAKE FACE (1987)

These two figures belong to the 6^th wave of the Masters of the Universe toyline, to which also belonged ClampChamp/Capturator.

This wave was the last in most parts of the world (everywhere except Italy and Spain actually), and therefore these figures are somehow “rare” compared to other in this toyline.

I hope you like the diorama pictures I took last winter, in which Snake Face has cornered Sorceress in a rock… but he doesn’t know Sorceress can turn into Zoar and scape. Here are two more of this series:

SORCERESS:

The first figure today is Sorceress, from which I already talked some time ago in entry #56, where I talked about Zoar. Sorceress and Zoar are actually the same being in two different forms. She is some kind of spirit, the guardian of Castle Grayskull, and can turn into a bird.

The figure has a nice particularity, and is that is the only female character after Teela (1982) and Evil-Lyn (1983), and unlike these two figures, it's body is made from a completely new cast.

The figure came with a white staff and spring loaded wings. This feature is unique to the figures in this toyline, as well as unique is the articulation on her shoulders. This allows to pose the arms in a coronal pose (“cross” pose), instead of moving just in a vertical (sagittal) plane.

Here a comparison between Sorceress and Zoar figures:

SNAKE FACE:

The second figure is Snake Face, one of the Snake Men. I have never talked about them here, but I will as soon as possible. In this entry, I will only comment, that the figure came with a green shield and a green staff (like any other Snake Men), and its feature can be activated by pushing a peg on its back. Five snakes go out of its eyes, mouth and shoulders, and two more appear from its chest.

The inspiration for this figure surely comes from the Greek mythology and more precisely from the gorgon Medussa. Both Snake Face and this mythological being have snakes instead of hair in their heads.

As usual, these figures came with a comic book. Snake Face included “Revenge of the Snake Men” while Sorceress came with “The Search for Keldor”. From these two comics books, I only have the second one, and I’d like to show it here:

This is the end of this entry, hope you liked it. Please leave some comment if you want to add, comment or correct something. Thanks!

BONUS: Cardback for Sorceress

Sorceress cardback illustration (Taken and modified from He-Man.org discussion boards)

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: SORCERESS and SNAKE FACE
• Toy Line: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (Wave 6)
• Year: 1987
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 cm

#288 SCHUCO MODELL – BMW 2002, OPEL MANTA SR and RENAULT 17 COUPÉ TS (Nr. 301808, 301839 and 301861) (1969, 1971 and 1973)

The “Schuco Modell” series was completely built in 1:66 scale between the years 1969 and 1976. They are quite rare: not only because they were only produced during 6 or 7 years, but also because they didn’t sell well and the production was scarce. That lack of success of this line and the declining sales of rest of the catalogue were responsible for the bankruptcy of the company in 1976. In that year, the company would be purchased by the British company DCM (Dunbee-Combex-Marx). With new owners and a new direction board, the production of 1:66 scale cars was stopped. The reasons are unknown to me… maybe they didn’t want this line to compete against a similar one, or maybe they were too expensive to produce (1:64 scale is often regarded as a toy, while 1:43 or bigger are often oriented for adult collectors).

Schuco Modells were sold in a clear hard plastic box (“jewel case”). The boxes have roughly the size of the car and can be placed in piles. They can also be opened and close as many times as the owner wants. The lower part of the box includes technical data of the real car: horsepower, top speed, length and width, number of cylinders…

This information (which is also common for Siku models) is also (partly) casted in the chassis of the car. In this case, we find only the horsepower and the top speed. For the models in the picture, these values are:

- BMW 2002: 100 PS – 170 km/h

- Opel Manta SR: 90 PS – 170 km/h

- Renault 17 Coupé TS: 108 PS – 180 km/h

Because the chassis of the Renault was shared with another version of the car (the TS, both there’s a small table with the values of that variant too. Model TL: 90 PS – 170 km/h). The same happens with the BMW, whose chassis is shared with the BMW 1600 (85 PS – 160 km/h).

Back to the boxes, all cars were placed over a sponge layer that “pushed” the car to the upper part of the box, sometimes producing some scratches in the model’s roof. In later years, models were also available in blister cards, with a small sheet of paper indicating the data referred above.

Almost every car model has practicable doors. These are very well casted and fit perfectly in the body of the car leaving no gaps at all.

The most remarkable aspect of these models are the two part wheels. The tyre is made of black plastic, while the hubcaps are chromed plastic. The are perfectly recognisable, but it is also not rare is some of the hubcaps are missing in play worn toys. 

Something I noticed only after I read it in a message board is that the wheels have a strange form: they are not cylindric, but somehow "conical". This improves the endurance of the axis (preventing them to bend), and reduces the friction with the ground, so the car is faster.

Note the "conical" wheels.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BMW 2002, OPEL MANTA SR and RENAULT 17 COUPÉ (Nr. 301809, 301839 and 301853/61)
• Scale: 1:66
• Year: 1969, 1971 and 1973
• Company: Schuco (Germany)
• Size: approx. 6,5 cm