Of the original five Dinobots to be given an Action Master remake, the choice of Snarl seems random and arbitrary. Either the executives at Hasbro rolled dice or decided they could use the left over gold paint from Grimlock on Snarl.

Poor Grimlock. Once a ferocious robotic dinosaur, built with bomb shelter grade armour, now stripped down into a 10 cm tall non-transforming action figure. He must feel as debilitated as a Tyrannosaurus who’s just had all his teeth pulled out.

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.

Lander’s Pretender shell is literally just that: A hollow carapace within which a weirdly proportioned, spindly robot can be placed. Everything else has been scooped out to make space for the robot. You also get a helmet, a belt, a sword and a (non-firing) rifle. No change of clothes for a spontaneous weekend away to the seaside, however.