Why Are Micronauts So Cool?

Why Are Micronauts So Cool? Jason Delacey tells us why…

I have an interesting relationship with Micronauts. As a kid I didn’t have much of a collection. In fact, I only discovered they existed around 1984 – years after the original toy line was done and Mego (the company that produced them) had gone out of business.

The reason for my late introduction was pure chance – I saw a couple in a random discount store and begged my folks to buy them for me. They did and it sparked a fascination that’s stayed with me even as an adult collector. So, what makes Micronauts so cool and collectable? This is my view…

Heritage

They started life in 1974 as the Microman toy line, produced by Japanese toy makers Takara (who, of course, would go on to create Transformers). In 1977 Mego signed a deal with Takara for the rights to manufacture and distribute a version of the Microman in the USA. These were renamed Micronauts.

Making Your Own Toys

A popular toy today is Mashers from Hasbro (My son loves them!). They make Marvel, Transformers and Jurassic World Mashers and the idea is that you can take an arm from, say Iron Man, and stick it on Optimus Prime! Well, Micronauts were doing this 40 years ago! That was what I and many other kids thought was so cool about the line and gave them a unique level of playability.

You could interconnect them with each other and have a lot of fun coming up with different combinations and as long as you had at least two Micronauts, you could do some pretty cool and innovative stuff thanks to the neat accessories like wings, battle armor, interchangeable vehicle parts and more.

Awesome Playsets And Accessories

Though the Micronauts were small, the world that they had to play in was huge. The vehicles and playsets looked really cool and there were plenty of them. As a kid, there were two that really captured my attention. One is the Stratastation playset which is like its own space station, complete with track and vehicle. This thing was awesome and something I wanted as a kid but had to wait 30 years for!

The Stratastation was cool but there was another playset that was truly stratospheric – the Mobile Exploration Lab. This thing was/is totally awesome – part jet, part science lab and part robot all rolled into one! As an adult collector getting one of these in mint condition is one of my collecting grails!

Cross Media Appeal

Marvel created a long running comic book series which ran from 1979 all the way to 1986 and many Micronauts fans consider this to be the best incarnation of the Micronauts story. Image Comics and Devils Due Publishing would try and bring the Micronauts back to life in comic book form in the early 00’s, but it never really caught on. However, IDW relaunched the Micronauts comic book series in 2016 and just as with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they did a great job with their take on the legend.

Time For A Comeback?

Toy company Palisades did try to bring the Micronauts back In 2003 with the Retro Series and Hasbro tested the waters with a limited edition set released during the 2016 San Diego Comic Con. If Hasbro were to go all in and rerelease the line today I believe kids and adults would be super into them as this is one very fun toy line.

As an adult collector, I have found Micronauts a pretty fun and affordable line to collect. You can often find cool items at reasonable prices, though getting a loose one complete with all its accessories can be tough and some of the playsets, if in showroom condition, can be pricey. But hey, that’s life.Big Screen?

There has been talk of a live action movie and an animated series being in the works, but these stories seem to come and go. Hopefully the phenomenal success of The Transformers movie franchise along with the moderate success of G.I Joe will encourage one of the big studios to take a chance – let’s hope so.

Though I came into them late I have fond memories of the Micronauts. What are you thoughts?