Stay Chrome

[DaveZav]

I posted this over on another board
but this place needs some action! Yo!

this is "simple" custom.
No cutting or glue.
That chest armor (from AX-12 AcroCleve) is held in place
by wax, the kind you get when you get braces.

The armored hands and feet (from AX-22 AcroMedalg)
remind me of the Henshin Cyborg accessory concept.
The skull head is from some key chain I bought at Party City.
The helmet is from a Playskool Native American Indian figure
(happy meal toy?).
The helmet doesn't fit the head very well,
which doesn't stay on the body either without some encouraging.

I'd say the whole thing is a "study" for a true custom that I would like to
make using an AX-12 AcroCleve body (clear yellow). I'll need to remove
the decals on that figure, which I'm a little reluctant to try.
I'd like to find a better head and helmet combination that is a little
closer to scale too. This head is obviously too big, but when I look at it
it almost makes sense, like it is supposed to look over-sized,
like a scary mask from a carnival or voodoo parade.
No offence to anyone onboard who practices Voodoo...

[admin1 aka Ed]

Cool work... it reminds me of the little guys from the Mummy II.

[magengar]

Hey, that custom figure looks Siiiiiick!
Like, it's meant to appear that way- it's very unique!

zozo-Magengar

[DaveZav]

thanks guys!

[DaveZav]

Hey All,
Got a new custom configuration here that requires no cutting and no glue.

This is a reissue of Acroyear A301 Red Star on the left
and Microman MGM-03 Magne Icurus on the right that's been
modified to look like an Acroyear by adding the spare head and
arms from Acroyear X - AX-13 AcroVoltech.
The wings on his back are from Master Force - MF2-01 Skymaster Hayate.



The Magne Force Series (with magnetic joints) can be found on
ebay for some really great prices ($5-$7) and are some of the
best poseable action figures I've ever played with.
I recommend them highly as they mix well with the vintage Titan
Microman series and are really well made.

Thanks to Paul L for his terrific MicroForever website dedicated to
all things Microman!
www.microforever.com/reissuea30X.htm
www.microforever.com/2005Icurus.htm
www.microforever.com/2004AcroVoltech.htm
www.microforever.com/2004Skymaster.htm

[Daltanias68]

I love switching all the parts on my Micromen (the newer stuff) and even taking the chest screws out and changing things around like arms, legs & torsos. In fact I've switched them all around so much, I'm not even sure anymore which way they go back together to be "official." LOL. Unfortunately part of the reason I started messing around customizing to begin with, is because of how easily some of the newer Micromen just literally FALL TO PIECES. It's like the plastic is bad, or something! It makes me really angry when I pay $15-30 for a really cool figure, and in less than a year the plastic disintegrates without even touching it, and the arms and legs just fall off. I could totally understand if you played with a figure to death and it broke, but I am an adult collector, I hardly touch the things. What a shame...I read it was due to a bad plastic batch formula or something. Doesn't seem like they're working too hard on CORRECTING the problem, however! WTF?

[DaveZav]

Jul 2, 2008 23:10:31 GMT -5 Daltanias68 said:

Unfortunately part of the reason I started messing around customizing to begin with, is because of how easily some of the newer Micromen just literally FALL TO PIECES.

I guess I do the same.
Once I've broken a figure I feel I can't do any MORE harm,
so why not chop it up?

Don't give up on Microman! He needs all the help he can get!
There are so many suggestions I would give in buying them
but for every rule there seems to be an exception.
For example :
it's a safe bet that the solid color (opaque) figures are less likely to break
EXCEPT for the 2005 Acroyear Exo series, which I think has the
same problem as the Beta Midgets, bad plastic used for the hip joints.

Unfortunately, CLEAR and tinted color plastic is one of the trademarks of Microman
and one of the reasons I am drawn to them.
Still, with the new clear figures you have to treat them like glass.
Well, most of them. I think all the 2004 Military Force series are very solid.
Even the clear plastic ones.

Above is a vintage Mego Micronauts Time Traveler on the right
and on the left is one I made with a Military Force Microman.
I had to swap the ankle, knee, elbow and pelvic joints out
to make him entirely clear orange (I left the inner chest joint)

MF4-03 Lava Planet www.microforever.com/2004MF403Lavaplanet.htm

MF4-01 Space Rescue www.microforever.com/2004MF401Spacerescue.htm

(thanks to Paul L. for his amazing Microforever website)

[domu]

Nice custom TT, Dave!

Jul 2, 2008 23:10:31 GMT -5 Daltanias68 said:

Unfortunately part of the reason I started messing around customizing to begin with, is because of how easily some of the newer Micromen just literally FALL TO PIECES. It's like the plastic is bad, or something! It makes me really angry when I pay $15-30 for a really cool figure, and in less than a year the plastic disintegrates without even touching it, and the arms and legs just fall off. I could totally understand if you played with a figure to death and it broke, but I am an adult collector, I hardly touch the things. What a shame...I read it was due to a bad plastic batch formula or something. Doesn't seem like they're working too hard on CORRECTING the problem, however! WTF?

The whole new Microman fall apart meme is such an exaggeration in my experience. I've posted about this before, but I feel it bears repeating. By and large, 2003+ Microman are NOT prone to breakage. Certainly nowhere near Beta Midget breakage rates. There have been around 200 releases in the 2003+ Microman line. I've got all but 2 of them, plus many duplicates. In total, I have probably somewhere around 600 or so of the new figures, and only maybe ten have had any breaks. 1 in 60 is pretty good in my view. I don't think that there are any toy lines that have a comparable amount of moving parts that do any better.

There are some releases with known problems. The Emperor from the Acroyear EXO series has bad hips, almost universally. The US release of the Biomachine figures have bad ankles, almost universally. AcroPhantom has bad thighs, but it's not as widespread a problem.

Black Material Force and other figures with black plastic sometimes have problems. I'd say that line wide, black plastic is more likely to be a problem than clear plastic, aside from the three specific cases mentioned.

Some AVP figures have bad knees and/or ankles. This seems due more to paint slop than bad plastic.

I just don't get it when people report that Microman figures fall apart all of the time. I open my figures. I pose them. I customize them. I have a wide variety, and a lot of them, and I just haven't found it to be true.

As for Takara not working to correct the problem, where is the evidence for that? The figures with known problems are all fairly early releases. I can't think of any specific problems with a particular figure released recently. In addition, I've found that Takara does an excellent job replacing broken or missing parts for customers in Japan.

[DaveZav]

agreed

[Daltanias68]

The whole new Microman fall apart meme is such an exaggeration in my experience. I've posted about this before, but I feel it bears repeating. By and large, 2003+ Microman are NOT prone to breakage. Certainly nowhere near Beta Midget breakage rates. There have been around 200 releases in the 2003+ Microman line. I've got all but 2 of them, plus many duplicates. In total, I have probably somewhere around 600 or so of the new figures, and only maybe ten have had any breaks. 1 in 60 is pretty good in my view. I don't think that there are any toy lines that have a comparable amount of moving parts that do any better.

I wish I was exaggerating. Your experience is much different than mine. Maybe I PLAY with mine a lot more, who knows. I can take dozens of pictures of figures that literally FELL APART in a plastic box in storage! For one, the clear figure with the "tattoo" designs, he came with a cross that transformed into some sort of bizarre motorized wheelchair looking thing...lol...and he was wearing cool black rubber armor & waistcoat. Well his thighs, the clear plastic, first got cracks in it (no undue pressure, just posed on a shelf), and then fell right off the joints. I replaced his legs with another clear guy I had, and shortly thereafter his center joint that connects the torso & abdomen, completely fell apart into 4 pieces!

This is the same story with many of my figures. I have around 80 or 90 figures, and I'd say at LEAST 12 of them have MYSTERIOUSLY "disintegrated" in some manner. Most of them are clear or translucent figures, but not exclusively. My "Gunner" figure, his shoulder joints cracked. That is, the plastic that snaps around the ball joint and no doubt takes a lot of pressure stress. This is a common area to crack at, but I've had a lot of figures with thighs that cracked from the stress of the screw holding the 2 pieces together. Again, another point where there was high stress, that looked good to begin with, but over time caved in to the pressure.

I'm not claiming that they're anywhere near the Beta Midget scenario, but I'm sorry, figures that command $15-$25 each, and more, due to shipping costs and import costs (and "rarity" costs!) should NOT be FALLING APART over time. 1 in 60 is not a good track record, IMO. It should be ZERO in 60. I have a right to be pissed off, I've spent thousands of dollars on the Microman line in every way shape and form. The first magnetic remake of Microman never broke at ALL, and they were constructed by sonic welding, and not held together with screws, and none of them ever cracked. If they're gonna make figures with a lot of pressure on the plastic then use better plastic, dammit!

[domu]

Aug 4, 2008 5:47:29 GMT -5 Daltanias68 said:

I'm not claiming that they're anywhere near the Beta Midget scenario, but I'm sorry, figures that command $15-$25 each, and more, due to shipping costs and import costs (and "rarity" costs!) should NOT be FALLING APART over time. 1 in 60 is not a good track record, IMO. It should be ZERO in 60. I have a right to be pissed off, I've spent thousands of dollars on the Microman line in every way shape and form. The first magnetic remake of Microman never broke at ALL, and they were constructed by sonic welding, and not held together with screws, and none of them ever cracked. If they're gonna make figures with a lot of pressure on the plastic then use better plastic, dammit!

Well, if you've been paying $15-$25 for most Microman figures, you've been overpaying, even considering shipping/import costs. Furthermore, it's unfair to judge these by the cost one would have to pay to import them. They were not meant to be sold outside of Japan (aside from a few select figures, like the US Biomachine releases, an admitted disaster.) In terms of cost, the only fair measure to judge these is the original retail price. I would think that the expectations of a $5- $15 toy, which is what it would normally cost for a Microman figure in Japan, would be dramatically lower than what would be expected of a $15- $25 toy.

And 1 in 60 is an excellent track record. Expecting perfection from a mid-priced, super articulated toy line is highly unrealistic. So your Magne Power figures "never broke at ALL." That's great. And from that, you are comfortable generalizing that none of them ever break. But some have. Maybe not yours, but some have. Sure, the Magne Power line is almost definitely more durable than the later Microforce line. But then, they also have a lot fewer parts, and a lot less articulation. I understand that pet rocks were fairly durable in their day, too.

It's always bad to make generalizations based on a small sample. Even worse when the sample doesn't include a wide variety of what is being sampled.

Couple a small and limited sample with bad luck and, frankly, highly unrealistic expectations, and your disappointment is an almost inevitable outcome.

I'll ask again; is there a toy line at a similar price point, size, and complexity that does any better in terms of durability? Not a rhetorical question. I'd really like to know. (Maybe modern GI Joes?) I read complaints about every toy line. What is that perfect toy line that you are judging these against?

[Daltanias68]

Well, if you've been paying $15-$25 for most Microman figures, you've been overpaying, even considering shipping/import costs.

Then please tell me where you buy yours. I have only ever bought them off ebay, and online toy stores are even MORE, so I'd love to have access to some other source!!

I honestly don't know what you're arguing with me about. I love the Microman line and I own zillions of figures and sets. I'm not trying to badmouth them for no reason...I'm simply honestly telling you what these figures have done. Without me TOUCHING them, they have, literally, disintegrated. What is it, you don't believe me? Or do you believe I'm exaggerating? I don't know why you're being so defensive; you act like you're the president of the company and you're insulted because I'm making untrue comments. I wasn't trying to insult you or offend you personally, so I'm sorry if you took anything I've said as that but that was never my intention. I'll take PICS of all my broken figures if you'd like. Do you really need that much proof?!

"What am I comparing the line of toys to?" I wasn't comparing Microman to anything. But if you want comparison, then let's say, let's compare it to the Todd MacFarlane toyline. Microman is not as bad as the TM toys...all of which a MAJORITY, literally, have broken, snapped, or lost a limb. I collected TM toys as an adult, and only ever posed them and left them posed on a shelf, and yet somehow very nearly every single one of the ba$t*rds broke in some way. The plastic was GARBAGE. TM even addressed it the issue publicly, admitting they used crappy plastic and that there was a breakage issue. I've given away, or thrown away, 98% of my TM figures. Only a rare few favorites remain. Now let's compare Microman to, say, the small-sized GI Joes of the 80s. NONE of my GI Joes ever broke...NONE...and those things, I assure you, got put through HELL. Even ones that got run over by the lawnmower survived. For $1.99 figures, those things were worth every penny! Even 25 year old figures STILL hold up against dry rot on the internal rubber band, amazingly!

Anyway, so what was your point? I don't understand why you wanted a "comparison" to begin with. Your experience with Microman is different from mine...so what? I'm not accusing you of lying about anything. Are you accusing ME of lying? Why are you so (seemingly) personally offended just because I said that my figures broke unneccesarily? You made the statement that people have been "exaggerating" the frailty of Microman figures, and I simply countered that with my own experience. Mine broke. A lot. I'm a 40 year old adult collector who's been collecting Japanese toys since my obsession with them in the mid 70s, I was very anal about my toys as a kid and I STILL own my original Star Wars figures, nearly mint, every single one of them still with thier original capes and weapons, so that will attest to how gentle I am with my toys...Yes I "play" with them but I'm not rough or crude in any way. I can accept a few defects here and there, but when I see a pattern, I do start to get pissed off. Especially when I really like a toyline and support it.

The one and only thing I can think of is that there is something strange about my toy room. I have had chromed toys literally peel clean, the chrome "plating" on plastic figures has cracked and peeled off completely on its own, while my collector friends who own the same exact toys have had NO cracking or peeling at all. I've had toys with rubber parts, and the rubber had dryrotted and cracked and fallen to pieces, without touching it, while my collector friends' same exact toys have not dryrotted at ALL. For example, the mid-90s Transformers autos that came with real black rubber tires, on almost every one, only MY figures, the tires got hard, cracked, and then fell off!!! Yet my friends' figures' tires remained supple and rubbery! I got an old Combattra and when I received it, every black rubber part on it was rubbery, crack free, and movable. After about 2 months on the shelf, the treads and "suspenders" all dried up, cracked, and fell to pieces. Here's a 25+ year old toy where the black rubber parts survived in perfect condition all that time, and yet it gets into MY possession and suddenly all the rubber parts disintegrate?!

I suspect that something is up with my room. I don't know why or how...but something odd is going on. It's constantly air-conditioned and ALWAYS a constant 68-70 degrees. It's rarely humid in there. But something strange occurs up there, over time, and I'm STILL trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I have no other place to keep my toys at the time, but even toys that are stored in sealed RubberMaid boxes have dryrotted inexplicably. Anyone have any theories??

[domu]

First, apologies to Dave for jacking his thread.

And apologies to Daltanias68 if it felt like I was attacking you. It certainly wasn't intended, and I absolutely believe you about your toys having broken.

My point is/was just that we should all be careful when we generalize. That's all, nothing personal intended.

I would have guessed moisture was the problem with your room. But since you say it's air-conditioned, it's got me stumped.

Small Joes and BBTS, especially when they have sales, have been decent sources for Micros for me in the past. Though the last year of Microman releases did see a significant price jump, even in Japan, the earlier ones could usually be had for a decent price. When purchasing from ebay, I always tried to buy in big lots to try to save on shipping. Now, I'm lucky to have a friend in Japan who hooks me up with stuff.

[Daltanias68]

I gotta apologize to the topic creator, too...didn't mean to get off-topic so badly. Sometimes I get blabbing and I don't shut up (obviously)!! =0x And I'm sorry if I got a little stand-offish, I didn't mean to cop an attitude...sometimes with text only it's hard to tell someone's demeanor.

I had a friend in Japan once who bought me stuff. It was great, except he wanted TONS of crap in return, and not toys or anything I really was into very much...stuff like $500 Hard Rock Cafe jackets, Disney sweatshirts and whatnot, which I could get, but not at the drop of a hat, and I got really tired running around all over the place for all these name brand clothing items. He requested of me a lot more than I did of him, so I had to cut off the hook-up. Then, I did have another guy in Japan who I'd bought quite a few Microman items from on ebay, and he offered to get me whatever I wanted outside of ebay, but he was trying to make too much money off of me, I think, because he was still charging me more than JUST the price of the item + shipping. =0/ It wasn't any cheaper than simply ebaying the same items. If I could find someone honest & not too demanding, I'd try hooking up with someone in Japan again. Sometimes I imagine how cool it would be if I won the lottery...the first thing I would do is take a jet to Japan and buy EVERYTHING I ever wanted, and then rent out an entire jet to take all the stuff I bought back to America...LOL. Hell, if I had millions of dollars, maybe I'd just plain move to Japan & stay there! I can't be the only one who's daydreamed that same dream....right?

Yeah you're right about buying the figures in "sets." They are a bit cheaper that way, when you buy like the next newest Micromen figures as all 5 at once, or whatever...saves on shipping, too.

Did Palisades ever make the "dark emperor" line that they advertised about 4 years ago? And did THEY correct the bad plastic problem yet? I couldn't BELIEVE when those original Palisades figures came out - again, I bought up almost every single figure they put out, and a lot of them fell apart or cracked under the stress of the screws holding the halves together. I was so excited when they first came along and announced that they'd bought all the old molds & would be reissuing all the old Micronaut figures...and then THEY go and funk everything up, too!! After the first wave, I didn't buy much after that, for fear of experiencing the same problems, and ever since I've been wondering if they managed to correct the weak plastic situation.

[DaveZav]

No need to apologize ;D
I'm glad to see people talk about Microman.
You can both just send me all your broken Microman
and I'll whip them into shape!
or make them into mutants

[microbry]

Aug 7, 2008 22:52:17 GMT -5 Daltanias68 said:

Did Palisades ever make the "dark emperor" line that they advertised about 4 years ago? And did THEY correct the bad plastic problem yet? I couldn't BELIEVE when those original Palisades figures came out - again, I bought up almost every single figure they put out, and a lot of them fell apart or cracked under the stress of the screws holding the halves together. I was so excited when they first came along and announced that they'd bought all the old molds & would be reissuing all the old Micronaut figures...and then THEY go and funk everything up, too!! After the first wave, I didn't buy much after that, for fear of experiencing the same problems, and ever since I've been wondering if they managed to correct the weak plastic situation.

Series 1 was due to a fiasco with the factory, which basically conned Palisades out of the money, did a dog and pony show of the production, then farmed the contract off to a third party and took the money and ran. On top of that, no, Palisades never got the original molds that AGE promised them they had, so everything was tooled from scratch.

The limited release of Series 1.5 would have been perfect except a mix-up at the last minute put the wrong sort of rubber tube in three of the figure types, with reacted with the plastic over time and caused internal damage (though this can usually be repaired if caught). As such, only Acroyear from 1.5 is really pretty much flawless from that set.

Series 2 came out the best. The quality is seriously improved over Series 1. There were still a few bugs in the release, but nothing on the scale of Series 1. Emperor was released, though the clear green Megas steed had fragile plastic (the two opague ones were fine), and the centaur mode doesn't work right, which was lame. The regular Series 2 figures are mostly trustworthy, though the clear plastic variants sometimes have issues, particularly on Centaurus and loose cuffs on the clear Reptos. Still, I own a large number of figures from all three releases, and have had very little problems with Series 2.

In the end, Palisades was pretty screwed over by both the license-holder and by their first factory, and lost more money on the 'nauts than any other project. The sad thing is that the entire production enlisted in a huge amount of help from the fan community (particularly the Micropolis Embassy Yahoo group), and a number of us sunk a LOT of effort (from donating vintage samples to be torn apart for making the new tooling to contributing work and QCing test shots and so on) into trying to make things work, and Palisades listened carefully and implemented as many fan suggestions as they could. And Palisades had some great stuff planned for original new figures, too, that would have been Series 3 had not the line been killed.

--Microbry (former fan consultant for Palisades, accessory designer, and CGI pre-visualization color modeler on the project)

[Daltanias68]

Thanks microbry, that's a lot of great info and clears some issues up. I know Palisades meant well, I just don't understand how the whole project crashed & burned so badly! I'm STILL trying to find the Emperor and Megas, and I cannot find it ANYWHERE. I wanted the glow in the dark version of the set, but somehow I missed it when it came out, and now it's sold out everywhere, and not even ONE is on ebay! Any suggestions where to find this one?!

Being that most of the figures I got were the translucent plastic ones, that would explain why such a high percentage of my figures are cracked. My clear steed utterly disintegrated in my hands moments after opening the package, and ALL of my translucent Membros, Reptos and Centaurus figures (I had 2-3 of each in assorted colors) got totally overrun by stress cracks. They came out of the packages just perfect, and within a year they were all sporting tons of cracks and looking like they'd been stepped on and crushed underfoot.

Just 2 days ago, I got the clear "Medic" figure in the mail. His lower legs (calves) were on BACKWARDS, which of course I could correct myself with a microscopic screwdriver, but upon closer inspection, it is ALREADY sporting some stress cracks in the shoulder joints! No, it's not broken...yet. But over time, the plastic will weaken and eventually the arm will fall off. Maybe I'm looking too closely at my toys or something, but I'm very anal about stress cracks, they drive me insane if I spot one. It's like the figure is no longer perfect, it's defective. A lot of the micronaut figures get stress cracks in the joints where they use the squashed-on metal "pegs" instead of screws or plastic joint rivets. And it's also beyond me why Palisades could not make the internal rubber band hook face the other way so that every dang figure is not half-twisted around at the waist!!! The hook inside the original ones were angled so they were not pulling the torso around to the side. Why on earth did they decide to NOT do it the original way?