Well hi there, little fella!
Everything in the Transformers universe can be traced back to the original bots, the Thirteen Primes. Micronus Prime is
the conscience and moral center of the Primes.
In that case let us hope he's good at his job, so one of the Primes doesn't get manipulated by one of the others, turn evil, and impetuously kill a third. That'd sure be embarrassing for him, wouldn't it! Especially if Primus had made up for Micronus' small size by giving the little bot the ability to predict the future, Hari-Seldon-Foundation-psychohistory style. Big ol' whoopsie, that'd be! The Japanese bio goes on to talk about how he used that predictive ability to help Solus design Vector Sigma, the computer that would allow The Thirteen to practice strategies against Unicron.
The head is one of the most "IDW Comics" designs we've seen recently! You could definitely see this in a panel next to Swerve or Calidus. A crest on the forehead, wings over the eyebrows, a smooth silver visor instead of separate eyes, armor over the cheeks, and a sunken mouthplate... this round little bucket could be taken straight from the printed page.
This is a very short, stocky body. It looks thick and armored, with a circular divot in the center of the chest where Micronus' artifact, the Chimera Stone, can plug in. The legs are stumpy, and the hands look like they have blasters instead of fingers. There are hollow parts in the chest to show the interior, and what look like small helicopter blades sticking off the back. The colors are muted, mostly dark grey with a desaturated, dusty teal for the head and arms, and a shiny silver section on the waist.
Articulation is decent, but not surprising. The toy moves at the head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles.
The ankles just rock to the side, not move up and down like you would expect. The knees hinge normally, but there's an extra panel in there that will be used in the altmode; when you bend the lower leg down, the panel stays behind, making this look like a layered mechanical item, rather than a simple toy. Neat! Since that's also similar to how elbows and knees work on expensive Japanese action figures, that little feature also makes this feel like a higher quality toy than it is.
If this figure seems awfully large for a guy named "Micronus" who was the progenitor of all Minicons, you're not wrong. And perhaps you noticed that so far in the review, we have not referred to the toy as Micronus. Well, there's a reason for that: what we've seen so far isn't Micronus.
This is, in fact, a second ancient artifact, the Apex Armor. Introduced in Transformers Prime, the Apex Armor was a disc that, when placed against someone's chest, expanded to become a nigh-invulnerable suit of armor that perfectly fit their body, no matter what size they were. It was stocky and thick, with a circular divot in the center of the chest and some hollow parts that seem to show the interior, a dome helmet, chunky shoulders, and seems to have three blasters on the back of each hand. Say, that all sounds pretty familiar!
Open the chest on the toy, and you'll find inside a bright blue, semi-translucent puck with the Armada Mini-Con symbol painted on the front. This is Micronus, in his altmode. A disc. Kind
of like how the Armada cartoon showed its Mini-Cons going into storage devices (because the cartoon was trying to get some of that Pokemon money). Going all the way back to the earliest sketches of who The Thirteen would be, Micronus was shown as a tiny bot floating in the middle of a big ball of energy - something that, seen in two dimensions on a TV screen or printed page, looks like a blue circle. The same thing he turns into here.
Micronus' robot mode is based on his appearance in the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon. Because the Apex Armor to some extent
reflects the being who's wearing it, Micronus is also stocky and broad, with thick, curving limbs. And although he's got eyes and a mouth instead of a visor and faceplate, the rest of the head is shaped similar to the bigger version. Despite only being just over 2" tall, the toy has swivel/hinge hips, and then balljoints for the knees, elbows, shoulders, and head. Completing the homage, there are spots on his chest and forearms that look like an Armada toyline Powerlinx port. What a great little guy!
Just giving us a little robot that turns into
a disc and fits in the chest of a suit of armor would be a little boring, so the big bot can turn into something else, too. It's a definite partsformer (because it doubles as a Weaponizer, becoming gear for other characters), with the first step being "remove arms." After that, you pull the legs and torso apart. The instructions have to label the various parts with letters so you can tell how they fit back together. Basically, the body becomes a bike, the arms become an engine, and the legs become a wheel.
Yes, "a" wheel. This is a single-wheeled motorcycle. A high-speed heavy assault unicycle. What looked like blasters on the robot become
exhaust pipes here, and the "helicopter blades" are the spokes that hold the tire in place. Okay, that's all pretty neat. The wheel can theoretically turn, but there isn't quite enough clearance to allow it to spin freely. Obviously balancing a one-wheeled motorcycle wouldn't be easy, but you can fold the former arms down at the elbows to become supports. And in any case, seeing bright little Micronus sitting atop this giant, dark vehicle is a lot of fun.
Hasbro designer Mark Maher admitted that he came up with the bike mode first and tried to force it to be Micronus, but that it was Takara designer Takashi Kunihiro who pointed out that maybe the first Mini-Con should actually be a Mini-Con. Wild idea, I know. So the whole Apex Armor idea was a compromise, but a smart one. And while none of the Age of the Primes Primes have any planned re-uses, it really feels like mini Micronus could mean we finally get a Scrounge. No, not Scourge, Scrounge; the comic-only character who is way smaller than everyone else and who literally turns into a wheel. Seems like a perfect fit, yeah?
-- 11/11/25
Since when is "the little guy" not weird and angry? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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