Well, Cobotron, Izam does come back in my reviews at the tail end since she gets more appreciated in comparison. And you are not defensive at all, you are showing me what are the best aspects of this toyline so that I can appreciate it to the max and I am very thankful. As a truce, here is an e-mail I got recently from the
biggest authority in Transformers knowledge in my area:
The design fro Arthur originally was a concept that would evolve over time and what came Kicker 3 years later for Superlink/Energon. Microman never had an anime up to that point and a very limited loose manga to tell a story so all it’s designs if you look carefully are routed in Armada/Energon characters. I would show you, but one of the best Microman websites is dead now and it’s near IMPOSSIBLE to find a nice photo of the team with their battle masks on.
I will move on to the next part which is the Magneforce Series from 2004 with the figure Icurus who I give way more $hit to.
Now this is Icurus to whose who do not know. And the big deal is this:
Each Magne Force figure has strong magnetic joints with nice tight standard joints. The armors fit well to the figure with little or no problem.
so the big deal is that he is magnetic, that is his gimick. Now tell me when you look at him, where are the magnets?
I was certain looking at this guy that his magnets were those spheres, like bucky balls. But instead, these are just metal ball bearings, the magnets are all on the torso and it is what the balljoint limbs connect to. Which means my idea of having a gruesome display of limbs on the fridge did not pan out. Now I know that it still comes out to the same thing for this figure, but for me it reduces the magnets I have from a bunch to one. He does have magnets on his feet for him to scale he fridge but after 10 years in package the covering of those magnets disintegrated and now he has exposed metalfilings which leave a trace wherever he steps, and totally dirties up his shoes. So he is losing his fillings gradually and leaving a mess when he walks.
Also, and this is completely my fault, but since his deal was that he has magnets, I thought the armour would be magnetic. There are lots of parts and they dont always fit perfectly so having a magnetic connection would make the adding of armour a bit more fun. But no, it just pegs in. But that made me wonder, if the big deal is that he has magnets but nothing in the figure itself capitalizes on that, why are magnets preffered over regular ball joints? Because the magnets make him extra fiddly to pose. I try to pose him on his metal base (which I feel he needs to stay stable) but the magnetic pull from his feet make it so that when I try to pose him, his limbs give way and get removed. And thats another thing, of all the micromen, this guy's hands always undo themselves. See, to add the armour (which you need to instal the weapons on his arms since his arms dont naturally have a port for the weapons), you need to remove his hands and then place them back. Like Lego. But unlike Lego, his hand isnt tight so with the armour on (which is needed to have the weapon the right way), it keeps disconnecting. The whole point of this guy is that unlike Izam, he can pose in a whole bunch of ways. But his hands keep falling off and the rest of his limbs do as well since the ball joints are magnets that come undone. He<s just not easy to play with and have fun with but...
He looks great. Believe it or not, my main hesitation with this guy was how he looked. While others in this series had cooler coloured or translucent armour, this guy just had grey armour. However what no picture could do justice too is his chrome, which I adore. He has what I didnt know I like best in the world: tinted chrome atop silvery chrome. It is such an amazing effect (Your new Optimus has that too right cobo? Ah, so jealous!
). And the grey atop the clear blue works really well, like he is hiding away his exposed body which would expose an energy source.
Oh and Cobotron, what are these things?
He does get to mix and match accessories with other figures though, so I can give Icurus his wings!
Ok now moving on to Bio-Machine. The size is right and the chrome is beautiful and they use all ball joints (no magnets) and can use all the weapons of the previous guys listed (Izam and Icurus for instance). But the idea of placing the armour on them doesnt work that well. Firstly, the armour for the legs dont stay on and it gets very annoying. Also, the colour of the armour isnt great. Its smokey clear plastic which means when you put it over the beautiful tinted chrome chests you lose the shiny and instead get a dull shadowy version of whatever colour the chrome was tinted. And their heads are my least favourite of the rest. Its just human heads in chrome with the worst hairstyles you have ever seen:
And while I like that they can pose better than Izam from the earlier line, they have so many joints that moving an arm will make the whole body move too. They feel more like Drawing Mannaquins than action figures you can play with (unlike Izam) and I preffer the bright colours on Izam too. This feels darker and more stale. However, you get A LOT of toy for your buck. Each come with a buo machine that I find very inventive. You combine them all to make one beautiful chromey robot like Cobotron put earlier, but what I am impressed by is how 2 of them make really great stand alone vehicles that dont seem to be made to combine. There is a really nice three wheeled vehicle and a cool underwater stingray like vehicle. And I like how with that stingray vehicle, the body/tail section is removed to turn into a sword and wings:
The only problem is that since some parts are meant to be removed, they dont hang on too tight. However, as I am building the combine so far, everything seems to have been fit perfectly for this final form so I dont find him fiddly at all. I find the extra armour bits to put on the micromen far more fiddly.
in the end, I like Izam best, simply because she feels most like an action figure and her deco and headsculpt are perfect. Of course, I would preffer her taller to fit with the rest and I would like a thigh swivel, but to think that everything that came after her never looked as good and were never as fun to play with, even though they totally fix my two issues with her, is testament to how fun of a toy she is (she gets the honour of being by my bedside table). I dont know if I will get more, but if I do it will probably be from the earlier line simply because it feels more like a fun toy to play with.
Though all these toys are absolutely beautiful to look at, thats for sure.
Thats getting interesting. That would be greatly beneficial to both you and me to split this. You know what else is interesting? He's also cheaper than on e-bay... 
)
ya know i love that sh*t , cobblepot 
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