Chosen wrote:From experience, when people don't know what you're talking about, pretty pictures help. Otherwise, threads like these get ignored. Also, bumping one's own thread and adding nothing to it is pretty lame.
Personal experience with Microman was... not that good.
Well, in that case, I guess I can brief you.
Microman was a line started in '74 by Takara, or maybe by some obscure Japanese company that was later acquired by Takara. Anyway, they were originally smaller, portable versions of the twelve inch Henshin Cyborg dolls. They evolved from that to have their own story and a wide range of action figures. They were marketed in the US as "Micronauts".
The series got a complete reboot in 2003, introducing the new microman full action body sculpt (shown below), which has been used as the basis for every new figure since. The sculpt is super-posable, with around 30 points of articulation, and stands as tall as Star Wars or GI Joe figures do. This, coupled with each figure's usually excessive amounts of accessories which may include armor, a vehicle, or armor that becomes a vehicle (or an octopus), have planted this series firmly in the ground of collector's items. Each figure is guaranteed to have a lot of chrome. A LOT of chrome.
"How does this relate to Transformers?", you may ask. Well, other than being a line owned by Takara, overlord of Transformers in Japan, there has also been a figure tied exclusively to the transformers mythos --- Kicker (shown below), from Energon. Kicker came either as a standard toy, or packaged in a special 2-pack, sporting new chromed gear and a special big buddy, Grand Convoy, shrunken down to deluxe size and given the ability to powerlink.
Other attempts to crossbreed Microman with American franchises have been lackluster for the most part. The Microman AVP line was found to suffer from defective plastic on the Predator side. The Superman figures (2006) just looked... crappy, aside from the Takara-designed cyborg Superman. Micro-Batman, started in 2004, was relatively much better, featuring both comic book versions of the character and toys based on Batman Begins. Also released was yet another Takara-designed toy, "flight gear" Batman, which is essentially Bats in a new suit with a new helmet and what seems to be Deathscythe's cloak from Gundam Wing. And even another, Samurai Batman, which requires no explanation on the grounds that I'm lazy.
If you need any more info, go ahead and head on over to
http://microforever.com/.
On with the pics!
Also, Henshin Cyborg was based on GI Joe (the big 12" dolls, that is).
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