Hasbro moves into the neon-coloured nineties with more Micromasters, expanding on the previous year’s range. The first Micromaster Patrol is the Race Track Patrol. It’s the Decepticon’s answer to last year’s Race Car Patrol but with brighter and more bilious colour schemes.

Who to blame for the extortionate prices of fuel? Look no further than the Micromasters and it’s likely it could be the Decepticons! More specifically, Greasepit and his transforming petrol station!

The Micromaster Stations are the next step up from the Patrols and Transports. Disguised as Earth-based buildings and installations, they unfold into battle platforms and come with one Micromaster “commander” each. Airwave, the first of the Decepticon Stations, is a playset consisting of a robot/F14 jet fighter and mini-airport with an impossibly under-scaled runway.

Roughstuff, the fourth and final Micromaster Transport, is almost a reincarnation of the Combaticon Onslaught. Both Roughstuff and Onslaught share very similar vehicle modes (missile trailer) and very similar colour schemes (olive green, midnight blue and grey). It’s quite a coincidence.

Overload, the second of the two Autobot Micromaster Transports, takes the term Transport quite literally. In blue cab/grey trailer car carrier vehicle mode, he is able to transport other Micromaster vehicles. In that respect, Overload is a lot like Ultra Magnus from 1986. Except in this case, the trailer unfolds into a jet/chariot instead of robot armour.

Flattop is unique among the Micromaster Transports in that the set is not a Micromaster pulling a transformable trailer but two separate transforming vehicles; a jet and an aircraft carrier. The two vehicles are well suited to one another. Like other Micromasters, Flattop seems to be named after his accessory rather than himself. Somewhat bewildering, that.

After the initial batch of Micromaster Patrols, Hasbro released the Micromaster Transports. Micromaster Transports are large Micromaster vehicles. But isn’t that an oxymoron? But the less moronic part is that it’s only the cab (in three-out-of-four cases) that is the actual Micromaster which tows the rest of the vehicle.

Not since the Stunticons of 1986 has the Transformers line given collectors a team of recognisable sports cars. Did I say sports cars? I meant race cars, since that’s what this team of Autobot Micromasters is called. Except only one is a race car. (True, all cars can be raced, but let’s not get into semantics.)

Consisting of Highjump, Mudslinger, Powertrain, and Tote, the Autobot Off Road Patrol was released concurrently with both the Race Car Patrol and the Air Strike Patrol. With the Micromasters sub-range initially returning to aircraft equal Decepticons and cars and trucks equal Autobots, it meant, for the moment that the Autobots outnumbered the Decepticons two to one.

The Air Strike Patrol was the first of the Decepticon Micromaster Patrols. Released as a carded four-pack in 1989, the Air Strike Patrol consisted of Nightflight, Stormcloud, Tailwind, and Whisper.