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Reissue Microman Rescue Team 25X Set B

Comments

4 comments posted
GIMME BACK MY TIME TRAVELER!

Just kidding.

I enjoyed reading this review. The fact that your story it is about a Time Traveler toy makes it kind of poetic. Cool.

I have very fond memories of a Micronauts toy. I had a translucent blue guy, can't remember his name, but it is my earliest memory of having a favorite toy.

Where did he go? Maybe some friend of mine took it, or I buried it in the back yard. Probably, it broke and my mom threw it away.

Televex's picture
Posted by Televex on 18 July, 2012 - 08:41
I have my own story about these figures...

One Christmas, I decided to get my brother a reissue Microman, because one of the figures had the same name as him (it wasn't one of the Rescue team, though). It took me *ages* to find one. I went as far as doing up a sort of giant backing card with the Microman logo and a little story I Babelfished into Japanese.

I don't think he quite appreciated it, unfortunately - hes not really into "da culture" like I am. Still, its the thought that counts, right? :-)

F-ZeroOne's picture
Posted by F-ZeroOne on 18 July, 2012 - 09:49
I have nothing to say

I have nothing to say here.

Okay, okay, kidding. I actually gave these sets a miss as Romando had done reissue Rescues previously and I'm not a completist. :) The Rescue Micromen were the last sets of new sculpts of figures in this format Takara made, and even then they shared the same legs, arms and pelvis. They aren't as well-favored by original fans because they are a lot more generic than the earlier series and were clearly a case of Takara cutting costs near the end of the first series (New Microman in 1980 would just do recolors of the existing figures from the last six years for the most part, not counting the over-sized MicroBorg toys), and shifted their focus more to the robots as their new figures/toys) and are largely seen more as "army builder" figures than the rest. There's some fan speculation (unconfirmed--I think it was from Microforever.com's Paul Lorphanpaibul) that they represent the ranks of humans that were micronized by Alpha H7 in one of the Acroyear attacks and were recruited as Micromen (if we take the manga storyline as canon).

That said, they are nice enough, if a bit more generic looking, and the capsules are kind of neat. The capsule design is meant to do a couple of things. At the top left there is a dome that is probably meant to evoke the Rescue Secret Base set, so it helped promote that playset. The tiny figure in the "launch" tube also provides a link to the Rescue Servo Machine toys that were in a smaller, similar scale. This downscaling of Microman also was used in the Death King toy and was probably leading into a new "mini-Microman" line that evolved instead into "Inchman", which became the separate series Diaclone the following year. So this capsule is sort of a not-so-missing link between Microman and Diaclone. Note that the main designer at the time who became the "father" of the New Microman and MicroChange series was Hideaki Yoke, who became one of the main people behind Transformers in Japan and is still involved with the production to this day (last I heard at least).

microbry's picture
Posted by microbry on 18 July, 2012 - 22:12
The line that got me collecting again

I only had a time traveler and a space glider as a kid but discovered the microman forever site in (i think) 99. It kept growing and I kept looking until I finally started buying them in 2002. That was the only set that i saw in a four pack.
I really liked the female set. The modern update lines where really crazy. Takara easily kept the maddening unexplained characters interesting. My favorite has a visor but just a chrome skull to protect. You have to make it up for yourself. I always thought the Time travelers look calm because they dismantled you yesterday.

The takara/tomy merge and the disappointing micronauts line by palisades left microman discontinued at a time where the US was really thinking the toys where crap.

I'm really glad I collected them. I still see homage detailed in new transformers.

openchallenge's picture
Posted by openchallenge on 14 August, 2012 - 04:36