Transformers: Return of Convoy was Takara’s 1991 installment of Generation 1 for the Japanese market. With dwindling popularity, the series consisted of only a handful of sets, many of them repackaged versions of Hasbro’s 1990 US releases. Again the line focused on Micro Transformers (Micromasters in the US), and larger figures were able to interact with the Micros by transforming into bases for them. ROC also introduced the Micro Trailers. Included with each set, they resembled a carrier vehicle, and could launch a Micro Transformer with a spring-loaded plunger inside.
Return of Convoy continued to issue 4-packs of Micro Transformers that had not been released during the predecessor series Transformers: Zone, but including one aforementioned Micro Trailer. Takara differed from the Hasbro release in two other key ways: all the toys were rebranded as Cybertrons (Autobots), and the six-member Micromaster Combiner Squads were divided up into four-member W Teams (the Latin letter W is here used to denote “double”, such as the W Cassettebots). This meant that some W Teams included pairs that were not sold together in the US, such as Crane Cannon W Team which included a pair from the Constructor Squad and a pair from the Battle Squad. The Micro Transformers themselves were otherwise unchanged from the Hasbro release. The line also introduced the six-member Micro Transformer Combiner teams, which formed a gestalt robot by fitting into a number of connector pieces, not unlike G1 Devastator. This theme would be expanded the following year.
Despite being unsupported by any sort of animated features, Return of Convoy managed to justify a stay of execution for the Transformers line in Japan. The following year would see Takara offer the Operation Combination series, another footnote of the monumental Generation 1 of the mid-80s.
