Microman

Microman

A scan of the cover of a Microman catalog from 1976.
Type	Action figure
Inventor	Takara
Company	Takara/Takara Tomy
Country	Japan
Availability	1974–2007
Materials	Plastic/Die-cast

Microman (ミクロマン, Mikuroman^?) was a science fiction toy line created, manufactured and marketed by Takara Co., Ltd. from 1974 to 1984 as well as from 1998 to 2007. At the core of the Microman line was a series of 3.75-inch-tall (9.5 cm) action figures with accompanying vehicles, robots, playsets and accessories. Unlike other toylines at the time, Microman figures were marketed as being the “actual” size of the cyborg beings that were replicas of real “Micro” beings that hailed from the fictional planet known as “Micro Earth” and disguised themselves as action figures to hide on planet Earth.

The core of the Microman line consisted of 3.75-inch-tall (9.5 cm) action figures which were known for their high number of articulation points relative to other toys of similar size/scale in the 1970s. The toy line also included vehicles, robots, playsets and accessories. Many of the Microman toys used interchangeable 5-millimetre (0.20 in) connectors and ports that allowed parts to be transferred and connected between different toys.

The Microman toy line was licensed and released in the United States by Mego Corporation as the Micronauts from 1976–1980.

Some of the transforming Microman toys and vehicles from the Micro Change series created within the 1980s New Microman toy line were licensed by Hasbro—along with other similar transforming toys from Takara’s Diaclone toy line—in the 1980s to be a part of Hasbro’s Transformers toy line in the United States.

Takara first released Microman toys in Japan in 1974 as a smaller version of their popular 8-inch-tall (20 cm) & 12-inch-tall (30 cm) 1972 Henshin Cyborg (Transforming Cyborg) line. Henshin Cyborg figures were based on 8-inch-tall (20 cm) & 12-inch-tall (30 cm) Combat Joe figures—which themselves were based on Hasbro’s G.I. Joe figures—with their bodies molded in clear plastic, exposing their inner workings and supposed cybernetic parts.