M112 Barnes

Hello,
Just a quick post today because I am meant to be heading out.

This is Barnes. He is the second body style used for Microman. He is a reissue of a 1975 Project Victory toy. He features the typical classic Microman construction with the 5mm peg holes in his feet and back. He comes with a capsule, L peg and stickers. The reissue adds a stand and a jetpack keyring which was a mail away offer back in the day. Barnes is the medic of the Microman group.

Takara was really on top of their quality control for this toy and he is really nice. I got mine from Animezone.

Palisades Pharoid

Hi again,
One subject I haven't talked about much is the Palisades Micronaut reissues. This guy is a Pharoid. The basic mold is taken from the Microman Command M16X series toys. The capsule has been slightly remolded to change the Japanise text into Heiroglyphics. He is from the second and final series of palisades reissues.

Exclusive to the palisades release is the new shoulder wings and the gun. The figure has been given two 2mm holes in his back to accommodate the new wings similar to the Microman M18X Lady Command Figures.

He is one of the better palisades items that I own. Palisades seemed to have terrible quality control problems with this series which probably really drew collectors away. This guy has no major issues and looks pretty nice.

I got my Pharoid off eBay. They should be pretty easy to find.

RS-04 Ray with Side Caliber

Hello again,
I haven't had a chance to talk about the current Microman line yet. So I thought I would introduce it with a quick discussion about Ray and her Side Caliber motorcycle.



One of the key things to notice about modern Microman toys is they are much taller than their classic brethren. They also have ditched the 5mm peg size for the most part and use 3mm pegs again. Modern Microman toy typically come with a clear stand which has pegs for both 5mm and 3mm feet. Finally modern Microman figures have a very large amount of articulation, typically 30+ points.

Ray and her Side Caliber were part of a sub-line of the 2005 assortment called Road Spartan. There were four bikes and their riders. The bikes could all be combined to make a single large road vehicle.

Ray is a really nice figure. She has a good sculpt and an interesting paint scheme. Since she rides a motorbike it is appropriate that she has a visor that can lower and cover her face.

The bike itself is solidly constructed and can happily roll along the floor. The sidecar can also seat a second Microman figure, classic or modern. The sidecar detaches and can become a fairly unconvincing set of battle armour. The bike can split in half, which is part of how it combines with the 3 other motorcycles in the Road Spartan subline.

All in all a fun toy and highly recommended. I got mine off eBay and I am sure it would not be challenging to find one there for your own collection, dear reader.

Arthur Comparison

Hi again,
just a quick post to put up a comparison picture of Arthur and Shining Arthur.



Hmm, don't like that result much. I think I might try again.



Ok, that's somewhat better...

I am still trying to get the hang of this toy photography thing.

Anyway, as you can see the left arm of the Magne Arthur is basically a big unposable lump. It is detailed to look like he is wearing a magnetic gautlet but the molded details are too small to match his right arm and the overall effect is very unsatisfactory (and slightly odd).

The colour scheme is nice though and I rather like the head sculpt. I had no trouble finding a Magne Arthur on eBay, new in minty packaging for a fairly low price.

He has magnets in his feet, one in his left arm and one in his chest. The chest magnet seems to designed to enable other figures to lift him up over there heads in a kind of wrestling throw. It is actually kind of cool.

He came with no accessories which is a bit sad. I think the fun factor of the toy would have been drastically improved by including a magnetic weapon or armour.

M102 Jack

Hello again,
one of the favourite Microman toys is my reissue of M102 Jack. He is a reissue of one of the original Microman toys from 1974. He is an interesting item because he predates to idea of using a standard peg and sockets system introduced in 1975 and used in virtually every figure and vehicle afterwards.

My reissue Jack is from the second release of the reissue under the "Victory Edition" label from 2001. He comes packaged with a gold chest piece and a capsule. The Victory Edition also comes packaged with two guns which are replicas of those found in the Rescue Power-up set.

For a 1974 toy he has an incredible level of articulation. He has all of the joints found on the first series of 3.75" GI Joes (which obviously use same type of construction) plus ball jointed wrists and ankles. The clear body combined with the chrome head and chest plate look really slick.

I did have small issues when I got him out of the packaging. He needed a bit of a trim to remove molding artifacts. This was particularly evident on the ankle ball. I also found that his chest plate fell of really easily. I now use the chest plate from the Palisades black Time Traveler with him which seems to work better.

Another item to note is that because he predates the 5mm peg system his feet have no peg holes which means you can't use a stand with him. This makes him a bit more difficult to display since he falls over fairly easily.

After saying all of that I have to say that he is a very nice looking figure and fun to play around with. Having at least one of the M10X barefoot figures is a good move for anyone who wants to experience the appeal of Microman toys.

Robotman

Hello again,
just a quick post to upload a picture of my Robotman reissue which I took a while ago so that I could upload it to the TF Wiki Microman article.

Robotman was (rather strangely) the first Microman toy to come into my hands. I had already ordered a few figures from Hobby Link Japan but they had not yet arrived. I was in Box Hill for another reason and I decided to look in Animezone. I talked to the guy there, Robotman was a good price and I was sold!

I ended up visiting Animezone the following week to get a pilot for him. The figure I am using for anyone curious is M257 Charles who was a re-colour of the Rescue Team body only available in a 1999 reissue series gift set.

Shining Arthur pic

Heh, it just occurred to me it would make sense to post a pic of Shining Arthur to go with my post about him.

M251 Robin pic

Hi again,

I'm going to try and post a picture to use for my profile.

L-22 Shining Arthur with Shining Blaster

Hi again,
this morning I was very slow to get up. This meant I was at home when the parcel post guy came around. In todays parcels I found Shining Arthur and Shining Odin.

Shining Arthur is part of the 1999-2000 Microman line. The line is interesting from the point of view that it introduces a whole new cast of characters at a different scale to the earlier (and indeed the current) Microman line. One of the key gimmicks was having magnets implanted in the Figures. The line was also much more kid focussed than the current line. This seems to have reduced its desirability to collectors.

I had already received a Magne Power Arthur a few weeks ago. This figure is an update of this character.

I have to say I am quite impressed. The number of points of articulation has been increased. Shining Arthur has ball jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, hips and ankles. He has rotating wrists and waist and conventionally jointed knees. This represents a great improvement from the Magne Arthur figure. He also has magnets in each foot and an LED in his chest. The body is constructed out of clear red and opaque grey with silver details. The head and belt and silver chrome. The chrome head is a traditional Microman touch although this one is unusual in that the area around the eyes is painted skin colored suggesting that the chrome pieces are a helmet and hair.

As for accessories he comes with a jetpack (which holds the batteries for the LED) and a red multibarrel gun which can also be configured as armour. Both of these items are pretty nice. The backpack is cast in the same translucent red as parts of the figure. The gun is a more pinky red transparent colour.

Anyhow. It is a cool figure and if you haven't tried out the 1999-2000 line (dubbed Micromillenium by Microman Forever (www.microforever.com)) then this would be a good item to give a try. You may end up liking him lots. The magnetic feet are particularly nice because it means you can pose him standing on the side of your computer.

Introduction

Hi everyone, I am Azereal your host.

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a few weeks now.
My primary motivation for doing this is that I have recently become a Microman collector.

If you haven't heard of Microman it is a long running toyline from Japan, produced by Takara (now Tomy-Takara). It started in 1974 and ran to 1984, was followed by a reissue series in 1996-97, a relaunch in 1999-2000 and was relaunched again in 2003 and is still going.

Microman would also be brought to the west as Micronauts by another company called Mego. The Micronauts line would later be resurrected by several companies. Most recently by Palisades in 2002-2003.

One of the reasons for wanting to blog about this subject is that thanks to Hobby Link Japan (www.hlj.com), Animezone (my local source of toy goodness) and eBay my collection has grown from nothing to fairly large in around a month and I haven't had a chance to give each item due consideration. I am hoping to devote at least one post per item over the coming weeks.

Another important reason for starting this blog is that I don't really know anyone else who is particularly interested in this subject. Even if nobody reads this blog I plan to enjoy writing it and expressing some of thoughts on the subject.

I will now leave you with a pic of M251 Robin.