Uh, zoom zip.

The Race Mini-Con Team are a trio of super-fast speedsters, but their real strength lies in their combined form; the powerful Skyboom shield, possibly the only thing that can stand up to the destructive power of the Star Saber sword or the Requiem Blaster cannon.

When possessed by the Decepticons, their natures are sometimes twisted to evil, turning them into the Road Assault Mini-Con Team.

The Race Mini-Con Team is composed of

• Dirt Boss the Volkswagen Lupo.

• Downshift the LeMans racer.

• Mirage the F-1 racer.

Fiction

Armada cartoon

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Dreamwave Armada comic

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Panini Armada comic

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Cybertron toy bios

Optimus Prime split up the members of the Road Assault Team in order to make it harder for Megatron to reassemble the Skyboom Shield. Mirage and Dirt Boss were sent with Hot Shot and Red Alert, respectively, to the Speed Planet. Meanwhile, Downshift was abducted by Thundercracker, with whom he formed an uneasy partnership.

One universe's version of Mirage, Dirt Boss, and Downshift fell through a black hole-caused space-time anomaly to another dimension. Downshift and Mirage ended up on the Speed Planet while Dirt Boss landed on Earth.

Toys

Armada

• Race Mini-Con Team (Mini-Con 3-pack, 2002)

• Takara name: Race Micron
• Takara ID number: MM-05
• Takara release date: December 26, 2002
• Known designers: Shogo Hasui (Takara)

The Race Mini-Con Team (Dirt Boss, Downshift, and Mirage) are a trio of tiny racing vehicles. As Mini-Cons, each one has a Powerlinx socket that allows them to attach to larger toys with compatible plugs, activating play gimmicks on "live" plugs. They can also be combined to form the Skyboom shield.

This version of the team was nominally available as a three-pack, sold in the second wave of Hasbro's Armada line, and in the first wave of Takara's Legend of the Microns line. The Hasbro three-pack was added to various probably-randomized "Bonus Buy" sets clamshelled with other toys in the line sold through various retailers; the Race Mini-Con Team has been found packed with Super-Con Blurr.

This mold-set was also used to make the Speed Chaser Team.

• Grap & Race Micron (Multi-pack, 2002)

• Sonokong name: Smoky & Race
• ID number: MS-02
• Takara release date: December 26, 2002

The Race Microns were also available in Japan in a multi-pack with Grap and his Mini-Con partner Lift. Grap's expandable crane-boom serves as a launching ramp for the Race Micron's jet-like Cosmotector combined mode. All of the toys in this set are identical to their individual Takara releases.

This set was also released by Sonokong in Korea, with no changes from the Takara release, other than the packaging. This was also the only way to obtain "Smoky" (Smokescreen) and the "Races" in Korea.

• Race Micron Exdimensions (Mini-Con 3-pack, 2002)

• ID number: MM-10
• Release date: December 26, 2002

A somewhat more limited-edition -but still regular retaill- redeco of the Race Microns was released by Takara as part of the Exdimensions series. The team was given a deco in shades of blue with white accenting.

This deco was repurposed as the Burning Rubber Mini-Con Team.

• Drift (Change Micron, 2003)

• Change Micron ID number: 3

• Indy (Change Micron, 2003)

• Change Micron ID number: 1

• Spin (Change Micron, 2003)

• Change Micron ID number: 2
• Release date: August ??, 2003

The Race Microns were also sold individually as "candy toys" produced by Kabaya, as part of the second Change Micron assortment, sold mainly in convenience stores. Though seemingly identical to the normal versions of the toys at first glance, they are actually all new tooling based on the original molds, with minor changes to small details. Drift (Dirt Boss) and Spin (Downshift) also end up lacking their racing-number tampographs, while Indy (Mirage) ends up with some new black deco in both modes.

• Road Assault Mini-Con Team (Mini-Con 3-pack, 2003)

A late-series redeco of the Race Mini-Con Team was released under a new name in the sixth wave of Hasbro's Armada line. This time, the team was done up in a more sinister-looking black, red, and white. This redeco of the team was given the distinction of being a corrupted version of the Skyboom Shield when in possession of the Decepticons, to coincide with the Air Assault Mini-Con Team/Dark Saber repaint, via the Dreamwave More than Meets the Eye profile books.

• Drift Road Assault Edition (Promotional Micron, 2003)

• Indy Road Assault Edition (Promotional Micron, 2003)

• Spin Road Assault Edition (Promotional Micron, 2003)

• Release date: August 2, 2003

In Japan, individually-bagged members of the "Road Assault Edition Race Microns" (identical to the Hasbro versions) were only available as promotional giveaways, a random member of the team given free with the purchase of Legends of the Microns Jetfire or Shockwave at Ito Yokaido stores in August. At least, they were supposed to be one random toy per purchase; in practice, apparently many stores gave them away with any toy from the line.

Squint and you can see the sparkliness.

• Drift (Micron Booster, 2003)

• Booster ID number: 6

• Indy (Micron Booster, 2003)

• Booster ID number: 8

• Spin (Micron Booster, 2003)

• Booster ID number: 7
• Release date: August 7, 2003

The Race Microns were sold in individual boxes as part of the first Micron Booster set. This version of the team is almost totally identical to the original retail version, only this release uses a slightly-sparkly plastic and paint. Whoopee.

• Predacon with Side Burn and Skid-Z (Max-Con Class, 2003)

• Scavenger with Rollbar (Max-Con Class, 2003)

• Thundercracker with Zapmaster (Max-Con Class, 2003)

The complete Race Mini-Con Team was also included as bonus add-ons with several Max-Con Class toys; samples of Predacon, Scavenger and Thundercracker have been found.

Unfortunately, what retail chain offered these is unknown at this time.

• Dirt Boss (Tiny Tin, 2004)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

• Downshift (Tiny Tin, 2004)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

• Mirage (Tiny Tin, 2004)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

In Europe, all three members of the Race Mini-Con Team were made available individually under the original Armada branding through the Tiny Tins series. The toys themselves were unchanged from the original versions, but now each figure included a "Tiny Tin" carrying case.

Universe (2003)

• Dirt Boss (Tiny Tin, 2004)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

• Downshift (Tiny Tin, 2004)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

• Mirage (Tiny Tin, 2004)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

The entire Race Mini-Con Team was made available as individual Tiny Tins releases under the Universe banner. The toys in this release are identical to the original Armada ones.

Energon

• Race Mini-Con Team / Space Mini-Con Team (Mini-Con 6-pack, 2004)

An unaltered version of the Road Assault Mini-Con Team was released as part of an Energon "Mini-Con 6-pack" with the Space Mini-Con Team. However, the team is not only called the "Race Mini-Con Team", the character art and stock photography show the original Race Team decos rather than what's actually in the package.

This set was exclusive to both Toys"R"Us and Walmart stores.

Cybertron

• Landmine with Dirt Boss (Bonus pack, 2006)

• Red Alert with Dirt Boss (Bonus pack, 2006)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

• Dirt Boss with Downshift (Bonus pack, 2006)

• Thundercracker with Downshift (Bonus pack, 2006)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

• Hot Shot with Mirage (Bonus pack, 2006)

• Override with Mirage (Bonus pack, 2006)

• Accessories: Carrying tin

A new redeco of the Race Mini-Con Team with Tiny Tins' carrying mini-cases was available as part of a set of Walmart-exclusives, each one packed with unchanged versions of various Deluxe Class toys.

Dirt Boss was packaged with both Red Alert and Landmine, Downshift came with Dirt Boss (no relation) and Thundercracker, and Mirage with Hot Shot and Override.

Hasbro copywriter Forest Lee confirmed that the Cybertron Tiny Tins-exclusives were originally planned with two different Race Mini-Con Team decos in mind, hence the backstory involving one version of the team being from an alternate universe and the tins' decos showing the Mini-Cons in silhouette rather than the normal full-color images. He could not confirm what the then-chosen decos were, however, but it seems likely they would have been rebranded re-releases of the two schemes from Armada, given the use of "Road Assault Mini-Con Team".

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Race Micron (レースマイクロン Rēsu Maikuron)
• French: Équipe de Course des Minimodus ("Race Mini-Con Team"), Équipe d'Assaut Routier des Minimodus ("Road Assault Mini-Con Team")
• Korean: Race (레이스 Reiseu)
• Spanish: Los Minimodus - Equipo de Carrera ("The Mini-Cons - Race Team"), Los Minimodus - Equipo de Asalto Terrestre ("The Mini-Cons - Ground Assault Team")