They came from inner space. Micronauts was this incredible toy that reached out to my in the late ’70s, I think that my older brother was the original beneficiary of these toys, but their scale and magnificence would call to me. Specially the Battle Cruiser, man was that magnificent. Then Marvel Comics released the comics and my love spread deeper. I was hooked. It would be a few years before I learned that MEGO’s Micronauts were based on Microman, a Japanese toy line from Takara; this would only deepen my love for them.
Flash forward a few decades to the announcement that 3A toys threw out about getting the license to make Microman toys in a collaboration with TakaraTomy. This was a dream come true. And the figures would be in six inch scale not the old three and three quarter scale of the ’70s. It was a childhood fantasy come to life. Except, in typical 3A Toys fashion, you gotta wait a bit for it to happen.
Today my figures finally arrived. Well not all of them, there are 6 in all coming, 5 from 3A directly and 1 from Hobby Search, he’s a little different. Arriving today were SD04 Sam and SD02 Maxim. Sam is blue and Maxim is black. Now if memory serves, and I might have to check Microforever.com for the details but I think the 3A Toys String Divers are supposed to represent the 1974 Microman Zone Series. These were you basic figures, nothing special about them, they were molded in clear plastic and colored Clear, Blue, Orange, and Yellow. 3A has stayed pretty true to that coloring. They released Grey, Black, Red, Blue and Yellow, plus the exclusive clear.
The 3A figures are not clear, instead they have a colored skin tight suit. They do sport a vacmetal head and all of them have the vacmetal chest piece. The chest piece is strange, it doesn’t fit all that great and when you do get it to pop in, it locks up the chest and waist articulation. Each figure has a belt and breathing mask. I’ll be honest, I’ve take the belts and the breathers off. I might keep the breather and hack in a new cord to the chest piece, but I’ll have to figure how to keep the breather on the face. Right now the breather pops off with little effort and the cord is molded piece of plastic that pops off way to easily.
Microman doesn’t suffer in the articulation area. Not one bit these are super articulated, just like all the other 3A portable action figures. If I could fault anything it’s the usual feet popping off too easily or the wetsuit being too tight for the rocker shoulders. You can’t get a great range of motion as the jumper prevents backward movement from sticking. But honestly, I’m not too bothered. As mentioned in the paragraph above the chest piece, when properly locked in place prevents the chest from bending forward or backwards, it’s no show stopper but it is a minor annoyance. However these figures pop on my shelf and really look great when posed.
The base figure is new. Yes this is a new base figure and not the current portable body being used on Adventure Kartel and Tomorrow Kings. It’s a new slim body and it looks great! I’m hoping this means that we’ll see some new Adventure Kartel portable characters in the near future as F-Legion was on the slimmer body. It looks great, and any variety is welcome!
I’d be remiss in not mentioning the very simple packaging, it’s this thick cardboard that’s all black with white lettering and detailing. The blister is great but it’s not quite long enough, it doesn’t reach the bottom of the cardback making display of these in package difficult. In fact I had to scrap taking carded pics as I couldn’t figure how to stand them up. Which is a shame since I am enamored with the packaging, 3A did great.
Overall I am very pleased with these figures and I can’t wait to get the rest in. You should be able to get these from BigBadToyStore in the near future. For the Microman enthusiast, these are a must have!
