New Microman Series

1984 Transformers

Henshin Sentai

Microman Series

1974

Microman Zone
The first year included the Founder Microman, Micro Kit Machines, and Conning Tower.

1975

Project Victory
The second year saw more Microman and several new sub-series such as the Acroyears, Titans, and Victory series.

1976

Spy Magician

The line finally came into its own during the third year with new figures and the classic Microman Transfer Fortress.

1977

Command
A watershed year for the Microman series, this year saw some of the best toys for the line. 

1978

Police Keeper

Takara tried new designs and direction for the series with the release of Hoodman and Arden. 

1979

Rescue Team
Takara's "rescue" attempt for the line with the Rescue Team Microman.  This year also saw an update of the old favorites like the New Tower Base.

1980

Punch & Blizzard Man
The last year of the original series saw the shift in the line to a more robot-like look and larger figures.

New Microman Series

1981

New Microman
Takara reset the line and relaunch the series under the New Microman banner.

1982

Micro Robot
Micro Robot series became the main focus of the new line.  Takara also tried to cash in on the "pla-mo" popularity with Real Type and Micro Borg.

1983

Micro Change
The "transformation" for the Microman series began with the Micro Change series.

1984

Transformers

Takara continued with the successful Micro Change series but the changing of the guard was inevitable.

1984 was the last and final year of the Microman line. By this time, the changing trend of the robot toy industry and the popularity of revolutionary shows like Gundam and Macross had permanently and completely altered the toy market landscape. By this point, it was clear that the popularity of action figures was on the decline as evidenced by the decreasing numbers of Microman figures in the line-up. By 1984, the Microman lineup consisted mainly of Microman Micro Change robots that no longer had much interaction with the Microman figures.  Aside from the sole figure, Microscope Robo, the rest of the Micro Change line was a stand-alone transforming robot "action-figures" type. Diaclone also began this trend of removing action figures and the last few toys in the line such as the construction robot (TF: Devastator) and the train robots Raideen no longer were scaled with the small Diaclone pilot figures. Looking at this trend it was clear to see that the transformation for both lines was inevitable. The event in 1984 across the world would seal the fate of both series.

In the US, Mego at this point had gone out of business and Takara was left without a US domestic partner to sell their toys. Takara had attempted to sell the toys themselves in the US as Diakron and Kronoform but with little success. Then along came a US toy company named Hasbro (which Takara had done business with before as a distributor of GI Joe for the Japanese market) who decided to license part of Takara Diaclone Car Robot line and Microman Micro Change line to be sold in the US. Hasbro came up with a marketing campaign for the toys with a new storyline that made the robot into a living sentient race that struck in a civil war between the two factions. Hasbro marketed the two series together as the Transformers More than Meet the Eyes. Takara saw the success of Hasbro Transformers and decided to phase off both the Microman and Diaclone series and was going to produce their own Transformers series to replace the line. Takara originally planned to sell Microman and Diaclone together as a new line called "Henshin Sentai" Transformers as a bridge series to the new Transformers line (interestingly they actually did this for the US market in 1982-83 with the Kronoform line). They went as far as doing a test market proposal and soliciting a catalog for the dealer that features Microman and Diaclone toys as one single toy line. However, this plan was never realized and Takara decided to just "re-imported" the Transformers concept back to Japan and basically sold the combined series as a totally new series called Transformers Super Robot Life. During the second half of 1984, Microman Line and Diaclone were both in limbo awaiting the arrival of the Japanese version of Transformers. The series finally arrived in 1985 as Super Robot Life Transformers and it was the success that Takara had been looking for.

By 1985, the Transformers Super Robot Life line was in full swing so Takara decided to terminate the Microman line due to confusion with the Transformers line (which also had the same toys) and also because of declining sales and popularity. (The Diaclone series was also canceled that year)  Microman legacy continues to live on in the Transformers toys line, which is still being marketed today as the Transformers Beast Wars. It would be over 20 years later since the first Microman-Zone series that Microman toys would again be marketed by Takara.  The new line called Microman Magne Power made its debut on December 26th,1998 along with a reissue series called Replica Microman.

The last Microman "catarog" - 1984 Microman Secret File Vol. 1

This large size catalog also doubled as mini-magazine completed with Microman Micro Change manga drawn by Mr. Moritou and articles about Microman Micro Change robots.  There were several nice artworks of these "pre-transformers" Micro Change robots including what appeared to be artworks from Microman anime which most likely was cancel in favor of the popular US Transformers TV show.