Transformers Micron "Mighty" team

QUICK INFO:

Name: Mighty Bull, Mighty Dozer, Mighty Sutora
Line: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Takara Tomy)
Year: 2009


To celebrate the release of Revenge of the Fallen in Japan a few retailers partnered with Takara Tomy to give away special Micron toys with the purchase of 2,000 yen or more. While they are simple repaints of Mini-Con toys released in the west under the Classics banner, many many Mini-Con/Micron collectors have sought these out to add to their collections. Are they worth the effort in tracking them down? Read on and lets find out.

We'll start off by taking a look at Mighty Bull. He is a repaint of the Classics Mini-Con Sledge.

Let me start off by saying that I love Mini-Cons/Microns. I have found myself buying just about every one that I can find. I was thrilled to hear Hasbro was bringing Mini-Cons back w/ the Classics line a few years ago and was even more thrilled to find out there would be new molds. Then I got my hands on this mold (as Sledge). My excitement was quickly dimished. I hate this mold hands down. In vehicle mode it's passable.

Now that I've got my rant out of the way, let's take a look at the mold. Mighty Bull was available in Japan at Bic Camera and Yodobashi stores and free with a purchase of 2,000 or more yen. In vehicle form it's a decent figure. The front shovel lifts up and down and the back shovel arm can pivet from side to side while the shovel itself can swing up and down. That is where the good ends though. It has a very weak feel overall. The wheels are free rolling, but getting all 4 flat on a surface isn't as easy as it should be.

If you thought the vehicle mode was bad, well the robot mode is just plain ugly. Come on, this doesn't even look close to a robot in my opinion. It just isn't very convincing. There is little to no articulation in this form. The "arms" (and I use that word loosely) only rotate up and down. You can't pose the arms very much at all. The waist is a ball & socket joint which doesn't give the robot a whole lot of stability. The legs...well if you look at them wrong they fall off. When I first fiddled with this mold as Sledge I thought the problem may be unique to my toy. I've got 4 of this mold now and they all suffer from the same issues. This is just a poor, sloppy executed toy. Unless you are a completist stay away from this mold.

I snapped a few comparison shots so you can see how the mold compares to one of it's counterparts, but I dislike this mold so much that I didn't even feel the desire to post the pics. So you can just click on the links here and here to take a peek.

Next we'll take a look at my favorite of the trio, Mighty Dozer. Growing up I loved the G1 toy Wideload.

Mighty Dozer was available exclusively at Toys 'R Us Japan stores and was given away with more than a Revenge of the Fallen purchase of 2,000 or more yen. When I first saw pictures of Mighty Dozer on in the internet images of Wideload immediately popped in my head. First thing you should notice is the eye popping orange. The flash of the camera makes the orange appear a little brighter than the actual color, but it looks great on this mold. Originally this mold was released by Hasbro in the Classics line as Wideload (interestingly enough). Hasbro should have used the color scheme. This is one of the better new Mini-Con/Micron molds...at least in vehicle mode. The dump truck design is very well designed. The mold holds together really well. The bed of the dump truck sadly doesn't lift thanks to transformation restrictions. The wheels are free rolling, but the back wheels have an extra tire molded into the plastic on the inside of the rolling wheel to give it that needed size appearance. This molded wheel isn't painted though so at least to me it looks odd, though it really isn't that obvious unless you flip to toy over and look at the bottom. The only other complaint I have with this mode is the robot's head is partially exposed on the rear of the mold. The face is looking down, but you still have this little robot head protruding from the back.

Here we have Mighty Dozer's robot mode. While it's not nearly as bad as Mighty Bull's robot mode it doesn't quite hit a home run. First thing you may notice is the, um, chest...boobs. Yes, this is the first "male" Transformer I've seen with giant man boobs. Again this robot mode just fails on some many different levels. Ignore the mammary glands for a moment if you can and lets take a look at the rest of the robot. You should notice the arms are simply the dump truck's bed split into two halves. The ends of the bed has a articulated flap that I guess is supposed to be passed off as fingers? Just doesn't cut it for me. The feet are the front part of the dump truck. OK, that I can deal with. The part of the feet that bothers me is the front wheels being fully exposed make it hard to stand this figure. There aren't any plastic tabs that stick down to help balance this guy. Make one wrong move, breath, cough or sneeze near this guy and down he goes. At least the robot head sculpt is pretty good.

As with Mighty Bull, here and here are some comparison pics of Dozer with the Japanese Micron Booser Refuser.

Lastly we'll take a look at Mighty Sutora, or also known as Mighty Stra.

Mighty Sutora was exclusively at Bic Camera & Yodobashi stores and free with a purchase of 2,000 or more yen. Mighty Sutora is a repaint of the Classics Mini-Con Strongarm. It's obvious the alt mode this time around is that of a police car. While the color scheme may not invoke the image of a police car you or I would think about, the colors work really well. I like the "TF Police" stamp on the sides of the car. It would have been nice to see some extra paint apps on the light bar or to have the side windows painted black like the front windshield, but we are talking about a Mini-Con/Micron here. Not else much to say about this mold other than it's a rather long car and the wheels roll just fine.

Not again! This is yet another new Mini-Con/Micron mold with a decent alt mode that suffers from a horrible robot mode. The best thing going is the transformation. It's rather cleaver I have to say. The whole car basically folds in half to form the robot. Unlike the other Mighty partners, Sutora does have limited articulation in robot mode. The arms bend at the elbows so at least you can some what pose him. The long vehicle mode also makes this figure taller than other Mini-Cons/Microns. Another good head sculpt is present, although it seems to get "lost" in between the arms. The paint apps are exposed in robot mode which helps the overall appearance. I still think the robot mode is weak, but when compared to Mighty Bull & Mighty Dozer it wins.

I was going to pull out Strongarm for the comparison shots, but I simply love the deco & name Hasbro decided to use on this mold for their 2nd Mini-Con 10 pack. Click here and here to see shots of Mighty Sutora and Overcharge side by side.

In closing I really can't recommend this trio of Microns. As I said earlier in the review I'm a sucker for these little TFs and I tend to buy as many as I can. If I weren't a fanatic I would be sorely disappointed in these 3 molds. I tend to display all my Mini-Cons/Microns in vehicle form so at least these look half way decent on my shelf (excluding the horrid Mighty Bull mold!). The decos Takara Tomy went with are an improvement over their Classics counterparts, but the price tag for them (thanks to their exclusivity & people like me) tends to be a little high on the secondary market. If you want the molds, then just stick to the Hasbro Classics versions.