Micronauts

45 years ago, George Lucas' space opera captured my childhood imagination. As such, I devoured everything related. From Kenner action figures to Marvel Comics. It was in the pages of Marvel UK’s making of Star Wars magazine that I saw an advertisement for a new toy line distributed by Airfix.

The interchangeable world of the Micronauts.

The Micronauts, Mego’s rebranded name for Microman in the US, was a storied interchangeable toy line from Takara (the Japanese toy company that would go on to create Transformers).

Marvel released a tie-in comic (reprinted in Star Wars Weekly and Future Tense) following the adventures of Commander Rann (my Xbox Gamertag) and his battle with the evil Baron Karza. The latter would be a cherished holiday gift in 1978.

The 3½ inch action figures and accessories scaled perfectly with Kenner’s Star Wars toys, so they inhabited a shared universe in my bedroom. Ironic, as Mego infamously passed on Star Wars. Incidentally, Mego reused Microman tooling for Disney’s The Black Hole and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century toys, which I also collected.

Collecting Micronauts wasn’t like dusting crops in a galaxy far, far away… Exeter’s Pram & Toy was mostly dedicated to Star Wars as it was the hottest property in town. Therefore, finding the elusive toys (sold mostly in model shops) became a treasure hunt from Dawlish to Vienna.

Happy days!