Hang in there! Only one more part in the series after this one!

Now we come to the “Masters” series. I’m impressed that these Transformers remained in such good condition. That simply means that they were purchased when my interest in the toy line was waning but when I still wanted to collect a representative sample of each type of Transformer.

The Transformers toy line had Targetmasters, Headmasters, and Powermasters. The concept behind this was that the larger, more capable Transformers had little robot assistants who were humans who had undergone special operations to become special-purpose Transformers.

The first example of this is the Targetmaster. I think this one was named Slapdash. I have no idea what his gun was named.

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See? The gun transforms. Okay, that’s reasonable. But the concept got stranger.

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This is a Headmaster. The concept here is that the helper humanoid transforms into the head when the Transformer is in the form of a robot. Since I figured I would only buy one Headmaster, I bought a triple changing one. The Headmaster transformers into the head for both non-vehicle transformations. In the jet form, the humanoid fits comfortably in the jet cockpit:

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The robot form (and I seem to be missing the picture for the dinosaur beast form):

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From a tactical perspective, the Powermaster idea strikes me as an abysmally misguided concept. In this variation, the helper robot turns into an engine that connects to the larger Transformer enabling him to transform. Seems awfully risky, especially if something happens to the humanoid. I can’t remember what the benefit was in the official Transformers storyline.

Again, I went with a triple changer when I decided which Powermaster to collect. This Transformer came with 2 of the helper robots.

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This was the form that didn’t need Powermaster assistance, a mobile ICBM launcher:

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Using the bat Powermaster, he could transform into this bird:

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And with the robot Powermaster, he could transform into the robot:

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Both Powermaster helpers went into the same slot on the Transformer. However, they pressed different buttons in the hole which enabled the different transformations.