Micro-TF history

[microbry]

(excerpt from a post elsewhere I wrote)

The Japanese toy maker Takara licensed GI Joe in the early 70's. It
wasn't doing so hot...Japanese kids didn't want to play with
american soldier toys. So Takara made new costumes of Japanese
superheroes, but still lacked its own identity and was expensive to
manufacture. So Takara invented "Henshin (Transforming) Cyborg"
after getting the idea from combining a clear test shot figure with
some chrome motorcycle kit parts. The main motivation for this was
so the figure could be sold seperately form the costumes and not
look naked! This was a big hit, but the size of the 12 inch Joes
made making playsets and vehicles cost prohibitive (amusingly,
Henshin Cyborg could be changed into a motorcycle toy with the right
accessory pack). So toy inventor Ogawa Iwakichi decided it was time
to think smaller...and metric.

The result (with some help from mecha designer Dan Kobayashi
of "Danguard Ace" and "Gaiking" as well as Henshin Cyborg) was a new
Cyborg series called Microman Zone. Little 10 centimeter (3 3/4
inch) cyborgs in clear plastic with crhomed mechanical chestplates
and heads. They made a number of vehicles and accesories and it was
a smashing success, so they further evolved it into a toy line using
interchangable modular parts inspired by Legos and simply called it
Microman. Microman Zone debuted in Japan in 1974 and was the first 3
3/4" action figure series on the planet (followed in 1975 by Fisher
Price's Adventure People). It would not be the last.

American toy company Mego (once huge, now long gone) stepped in and
licenses the Microman toys, repackages them and calls
them "Micronauts", releasing them in the US in 1976 (note--a full
year before Star Wars!). The series does well, spawning a Marvel
comic and lasting about 5 years (the comic lasted much longer, into
the 80's). Along the way it inspires Kenner to size down its Star
Wars toys to this scale, and make a mint off of its figures and
vehicles in this convenient play size. Mego also borrows the basic
design of the Microman figures to make a number of less successful
toys in this scale from all sorts of licensed series, firmly
reinforcing Ogawa's 10cm format of action figures with greater
articulation using an "o-ring' rubber band to connect the torso and
pelvis and hang the thighs from--the core structure of the Microman
figures.

After Mego's fall in 1980, Hasbro comes along with a scaled-down to
10cm/3 3/4" size version of GI Joe and scaled vehicles themselves,
following the same model set by Takara using the "o-ring" based
construction (something that Ogawa is quite proud of to have seen
come full circle). Accompanied with a hit cartoon series, the series
is a big success that continues to this day.

Meanwhile, back in Japan, over the years Microman has evolved in
several directions, and with the main competition being the
transforming die-cast robot toys by Popy (now Bandai) known
as "Shogun Warriors" toys in the US, in 1980 they scrap the original
Microman series in favor of two new ones with a new design team
aimed at taking Popy down. The resulting two spin-off series
are "New Microman" and "Diaclone". New Microman abandons the
modularly reconfigurable robots and vehicles of old and replaces
them with self-contained transforming robots and vehicles, along
with "gestalt" robots and toys made up of combinations of smaller
robots, an idea used often in the older Microman series in toys
like "Giant Acroyear". Diaclone, (led by future mecha designer god Shouji "Macross" Kawamori) on the other hand, originally
named "Inchman", features large robot and vehicle toys that are
piloted by tiny Microman-inspired inch-tall figures with magnets on their feet. The
two series continue for 2 years when a new innovation is
introduced...

Deciding that the Diaclone figures represent full-sized people, not
tiny aliens like in Microman, the idea came about that the robot
toys could transform into normal vehicles as disguised forms and
alternate ways to get about. The Diaclone "Car Robots" line,
invented by Koujin Ohno, was born and the reasoning soon followed to
apply to Microman as well...if they are tiny people, then why not
make them robots and vehicles that can change into full scale
household items, like tape players, cassettes, toy handguns, etc?
Thus began MicroChange. Starting to sound familiar?

Well, the rest is pretty obvious. At the 1984 toy fair, Hasbro knew
a good oppurtunity when they saw it. They struck a deal with Takara
for their cool robot toys, but changed one element that would become
a key factor in the line's future success. If you are a kid, would
you rather pilot a giant robot that can change into a race car or
plane, or would you want to BE that robot? The figures were given
the boot (which is why to this day it is the mantra of the TF makers
to NEVER show the Transformers being "driven"...along with potential
licensing confusions with Microman and Diaclone, perhaps), and a new
story was created merging the toys back into one series. And so the
Transformers were born, and became such a big hit, Takara dropped
Microman and Diaclone in favor of the new series back in Japan too,
and the Microman series would not come back until late 1998.

Now, following this in the 80's myself, I always thought Hasbro had
an oppurtunity to make something of a TF/GI Joe crossover. There are
some Microchange toys that were designed to accomodate figures in
the same scale as GI Joe, after all, let alone all those New
Microman robots and toys. And much later, the Action Master
Transformers were based upon yet again the same basic design as the
Microman action figures (like GI Joe), making a number of easily Joe-
compatible toys. So a Joe/TF crossover seems like something that is
more than natural...It's a shame the Hasbro/Takara folks are so
resistant to ever showing a piloted Transformer, as that was the
whole point to the original Diaclone toys of characters like Optimus
Prime and Starscream--that's why all the large-scale g1 TF toys have
little seats and opening panels to access them, after all. They
actually used to BE piloted robots, very much intended to compete
with stuff like Gundam, which was some of the main competition in
Japan back THEN... (Gundam came out in '79!)

So there you have it. Interestingly, Biotron (Robotman in Japan)
was the first "transforming" (he could be changed into a tank-like
vehicle) Microman robot and had a very similar color scheme to his
descendent, Diaclone Battle Convoy, AKA Optimus Prime

[microbry]

Another excerpt, more recently, on Microcassettes and the history of animals in Takara SF lines:

I was browsing Microforever today some and saw Paul's nice review of
the recent Energon Battle Ravage toy. One comment sparked off some
thoughts regarding a reassessment I've been doing of the evolution
of the Takara SF universe.

In the review Paul notes the reasoning behind the "animal"
transformers back in the original G1 series, and points out the ties with Microman's titan animals and such. More significantly, the Jaguar and Condor were originally
Henshin Cyborg toys, though the Cyborg Condor design was never
produced except as a MyClone toy decades later. The style though is
clearly informed by the Titan Dober (some people STILL mistake
Ravage for a dog, lol) and Condor. But that's only the begining...

A close observation of the three cassettes (almost definitely
designs by Artmic's Aramaki Shinji of Mospeada and Bubblegum Crisis
fame with one of Takara's two in-house designers on the project)
reveals some more important and vital parts of these classic toys'
heritage. Let's look at each individually:

Micross (Rumble/Frenzy):
Micross was the first Microchange robot figure. Being tied with the
two animals (a theme repeated with the meteor "ball" trio later in
Microchange) links these three thematically to the original trio of
Titan designs. Like his Microrobot (New Microman) forebearers, with
whom he owes much of his design motifs to along with the development
and evolution of "box-shapes that change to figures" (more on that
in a sec), he features a silver-painted, very human-looking face
meant to evoke the chromed head of the Microman figures, and his
scale is not far removed from that of the Hoodmen. The Titan link
is significant, because looking at the roles of these robots in both
the manga and catalogs, meant to partly replace the Micromen as
core "figure" toys in the series, suggest contrary to popular
misconception, that the Microchange (and New Microman) robots are
similar to the Titans as being androids with full Microman
identities. That is to say, they are trulymeant to be seen as individual characters, somewhere
between the silent but semi-intelligent AI of Robotman and the
Microman mind-dubbed Titans (where the brain of a Microman is
downloaded into a new robotic body).
Ever throughout the series, since Henshin Cyborg, Takara has been
ambiguous about where the line is drawn between the cyborgs,
androids and robots.

As I mentioned, the "box-shape-to-robot" design developed through
New Microman into Car Robots and Microchange is significant,
becoming the core design structure upon which all future Takara
Transformer design evolved from. Some of this could be linked to
influence from the boxy transforming designs for sentai shows and
such by Takara's rival Popy, but more interestingly there is a quote
from Marty Abrams (possibly apocryphal) about one of the Takara
designers being in New York during the peak of the Rubick's
Cube/Snake/etc puzzle craze, and being inspired to make
the "transforming block" toys for Microman influenced by this
experience. The transforming core block design informed most of the
pre-Microchange robots and also along with the 70's Microman "core
block modules" (inspired by Legos) is best reflected by the short-
lived Blockman series. Blockman used small interchangable robots as
building blocks with an expension of the 5mm port system (a standard
also carried into most of transfomers), and the series followed
Takara's tradition of making "bridge" series between their product
lines (similar to, say Robotman Gakeen, interchangable Magnemo toys,
Cyborg-Robotman-Microman, and so on). Blockman toys were designed to
be usable with both Diaclone figures and Microman toys.

Back to Micross...aside from the silver-painted face, Micross also
has an interesting gold-chromed bit of circuitry on his chest that
is similar to some designs for the New Microman robots and more
significantly is evocative of the M101/Time Traveller series of
chromed breastplates. His die cast feet help keep him upright,
similar to the Microborg, and gives the figure more weight as a
whole. The articulation, for such a boxy figure, is actually far
improved over his New Microman robot predecessors, furthering
the "figure" quality of the Microchange robot toys, and he features
details that evoke further articulation as well (particularly some
Aramaki-ish "ribbed" joints--see the Mospeada/Technopolice-like
Hyper Microman figure in the Biosuit).

Lastly about Micross, the name itself is a homage/dig at Macross,
which a lot of the Diaclone and Microman freelancers had some
connections with. What is particularly interesting to me on this
though is the development of Diaclone by Kawamori and Miyatake,
pretty much the main creators of the original pre-Car Robots
Diaclone line, and key members of Studio Nue and designers on
Macross. Macross thematically is pretty much "Microman in reverse"
and there are a lot of interesting similarities that suggest that
development for Takara might have influenced the creators of Macross
in turn. Particularly note that the giant Zentradei refer to (to
them) the Microman-sized humans as "Microns", lol. Development of
Diaclone as an evolution of Microman is blatantly obvious in their
designs, from the chrome-headed Inchman figures (even in Miyatake's
drawings) with a chromed detail on the chest, to the Robotman-like
face on one of the robots, to the overall look and feel of the
series. Diaclone is to Microman what Microman was to Henshin Cyborg,
pure and simple.

Jaguar--Ravage, a beautiful piece, also features the die cast shins
to weight it upright and amazing posability. Aside from his Microman-
based scale and Titan dober-like appearance, he has an interesting
detail at his waist--some exposed mechanics. It doesn't take much
imagination to guess that the design probably originally called for
this are to be painted or chromed silver, like on the box
illustration, and is an obvious reference to the exposed internals
of Henshin Cyborg and Microman. This look would be carried on into
Transformers and is particularly at it's most Microman-like years
later on Transmetals, which featured extensive detailing in this
exact style as well as much use of clear and chromed parts on its
mechanical animals. And of course all three characters have chromed
weapons with 5mm connectors. Another cool feature on the cassettes
is a "tech spec" of the character's abilities (including duration
between recharging), evocative of the later character-based tech
specs that would come with G1 TFs.

Condor--Laserbeak/Buzzsaw...aside from the obvious Titan and Cyborg
Condor (it's interesting that "Henshin Cyborg" means "trasnforming
cyborg" and that Microman are cybernetic organisms who came to Earth
in disguise and fight giant Decepticon-like enemies that are
attacking Earth's power plants and such...so many paralells, when
you think about it), there is a notable feature on the wings of this
cool toy. The decals on the wings are designed to look like
transparent panels revealing internal machinery--yes, the
key "mechanical internals visible behind a transparent surface"
motif we all know too well. The decals also evoke many of the old
70's decals showing the internal machinery/circuitry as well. There
is another link here. Aside from the Titan Condor's wings (the
underside of which reveal mechanical and electronic detailings) and
the aforementioned Cyborg condor, take note of the condor or falcon
form of Death "Red Falcon" Cross. Here is yet another mechanical
Takara bird design featuring mechanical detailings inside a clear
shell, a deliberate reference to Henshin Cyborg when the character
is in "human" mode (transforming, no less).

This brings me to a tangent of some other connections between the
series...while Diaclone is largely influenced by Microman, nowhere
is the design motif more apparent than on the "Dinobots", which were
originally enemy robots. This may partly have to do with the
inclusion of a recolor of Machine Saurer as part of their
set...Dynamic Pro, when designing Machine Saurer, also created
drawings of Henshin Cyborg-influenced dinosaur designs that were
never produced (though a much later Transformer took even greater
direct influence from those illustrations) with, yes, clear plastic
revealing mechanical details. Well, unlike most of the other
Diaclone toys, the Dinobots feature this Cyborg/Microman styled
feture in ornate detail extensively. The Dinobots encapsulate this
hallmark Takara SF design motif perfectly and are probably the last
pre-TF toy design to implement this original look. The Insecticons,
also enemy Waruder robots, share some Microman-like features,
particularly the size and scale of the insects, making me wonder it
they weren't first developed as Acroyear robots for Microchange.

And lastly, I should mention that the design of the Unicron toy is
based DIRECTLY (only changed superficially to make it more like the
character from the TF movie and integrate mini-con play features) on
a design for a Diaclone "Planet-Robot" by one of the Diaclone
designer-illustrators (I forgot his name, but he also was one of the
main creators of the anime "Outlaw Star"), developed well before
Transformers even saw pre-development.

[waruderos]

microbry said:

Diaclone is to Microman what Microman was to Henshin Cyborg,
pure and simple.

Perfectly stated. I found the the first part of your Micro-TF history- post, informative; while the second part blows my mind (the good way). This is a worthwhile read for any fan of Japanese Robots.
I'm beginning to see more Diaclone insect/Waruder qualities in the Microman series Acroyears...any speculation on the Acroyear helmet fins being adopted from insect mandibles etc.? Have you ever run across an explanation of just what the Acroyear were supposed to be? Is it the similar mystery of the Micromen (robot? android? cyborg?)?

Ward

[hypnotator]

Henshin Cyborg's evolution from Combat Joe was direct and is well known, but I'm convinced that part of the inspiration to do a transparent figure came from the Visible Man model kit. King Walder's rather repellant visible guts clearly cater for little boys' fascination with the visceral, without the mitigation of being "educational".

[Microbry]

I've often thought so, too, actually. It's not mentioned in any of the interviews I know, but it was a well-known kit around those days. At the very least, I'd expect it was an inspiration for the Walder designs, as you mentioned...the similarity seems to great for a coincidence.

Still, the various iterations of the origin I've seen from the designers themselves all emphasize it was driven by the need to cost-cut and sell a "naked" figure and more significantly a brainstorm that combined a test shot molded in clear plastic (done usually for debugging the figure) with some random chromed engine parts (BAM! Instant cyborg!). Yet, perhaps the thought that inspired putting the parts INSIDE the hollow figure might have been from seeing the Visible Man, even if just in passing...

Also, I hear that Microman's inventor Ogawa Iwakichi was very fond of educational science toys, and wanted to portray Microman in that kind of light. It doesn't seem a far stretch that his seniors that worked on Henshin Cyborg probably had a similar attitude.

[shaxper]

Just as a response to your first post, the addition of the car robots was specifically in response to the emergence of the Macross Valkyrie toy. It created a huge craze in Japan because it was the first realistic vehicle that became a robot through an intricate transformation. Microchange (which first emerged at this point, not when Diaclone began) and the Diaclone car-robots were a response to this demand for realistic transformers.

Also, Hasbro did not create the idea for the Transformers story. Marvel created the idea when they produced the comic book series, shortly before the cartoon. All Hasbro did was name the toys and write up brief descriptions. I believe the reasons they scrapped the drivers were threefold:

1. Choking hazards
2. costly metal and fine detailing
3. the 1/60 scale no longer applied once Hasbro threw the Microchange toys into the mix. A 1" tall pilot would look awfully confusing next to Soundwave or Bumblebee.

I think the story about sentient robots was just a byproduct.

Finally, the first transforming Japanese robot was produced in the 1960s. It was a tin television that became a robot. A robot that became a dinosaur followed shortly after. In more recent history, Raideen was the first modern-day transformer. It was part of the Chogokin line produced by Popy in the 1970s, and became a plane through a ridiculously simple transformation.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'll go through the rest of your posts when I get the chance

[hypnotator]

Shaxper, I think I remember the robot that turns into a dinosaur that you mention. Way back in the early '70s, when I was very little, there was a battery operated tin robot, all black, with a big square head that split down the middle and opened into two halves. Inside was a plastic Godzilla style dinosaur head with a little lightbulb in its mouth (to simulate fiery breath, presumably). I believe he was called "Dino Robot". I wanted that toy so badly, but I never got one. I believe they fetch a high price now.

[shaxper]

Awesome memory, hypnotator! Yep. This is him right here.

[hypnotator]

Thanks for that link, Shaxper; it's lovely to see him again!
Hypno