microforever • microclassic • micro21 • micromillennium • microforce • microheritage • microresources • microarchive • micronews

 

MGA-02

MAGNEACROYEAR ATLAS MICROMAN 2005 MAGNEFORCE SERIES

MICROMAN 2005

 

 

RELEASE DATE : 4/28/05

RETAIL PRICE : 1,575 Yen

 

Microman Magne Force were sold in half-size blister card. (About the same size as Microman Military Force packaging)

 

 

 

Magne Force Series

 

Magne-Microman
MGM-01 Achilles

MGM-02 Theseus 

MGM-03 Icurus

 

Magne-Acroyear
MGA-01 Phobos

MGA-02 Atlas

MGA-03 Metis

 

 

OF MAGNEMO and TITANS

 

Magnemo is the term coined by TAKARA for their magnetic ball joint system. The very first toys to use this ingenious design was Kotetsu Geeg series in 1975 (TAKARA first true licensed property toys, prior to this, aside from the Henshin Cyborg costumes, TAKARA only produced their own in house design for their toys lines). There were two scales or sizes for the Magnemo series - the smaller 8-size and the larger 11-size. (The numbers denoted the size of the metal balls). TAKARA also combined the Magnemo-8 style with Microman series and resulted in the first "Microman Magnemo" line called the Titans. (Thus the Titans belong to both Magnemo and Microman category).  After Geag, TAKARA continued the Magnemo line with Gakeen and then Baratak. But the Magnemo series lost its popularity by late 1970's and TAKARA eventually canceled Microman Magnemo series (the Titans) in 1979. TAKARA attempted to revive Magnemo line with Machine Sourer and Death Cross in early 1980's but the series never catch on. When Mego licensed Microman in 1977, Magnemo-11 Geag was used as basis for Micronauts "Magno" series. It was not until 1999, that TAKARA brought back the Magnemo toys with Microman Magne Power series.

 Titan T401 Hercules (c.1975)

 

Microman 2005 Magne Force was clearly a homage to this short live Microman spin-off series from 1978 called Space Traveler Timanic. The Timanic featured 7" tall Microman-like figure with magnet light-up gimmick that was used in Microman Police Keeper line. Timanic series only lasted about a year (1978-79) and consisted of only a handful of figures and vehicles. (See also Micro Heritage : Timanic)

Red Timanic 1 (c.1978)

 

MGA-02 Magne Atlas

Equip with "Magne Ball" and "Chaos Armor" which gives him his stealth ability.


While the Magne Force figure use the 2005 Magnemo Body, their design is actually based on the old TAKARA Timanic series. (See below). Both Microman and Acroyears Magne Force are very similar in appearances, this is because the Magne Acroyears, at one time, were part of Microman Magne Force team. Phobos, Atlas and Mentis betrayed M.I.C.R and joined Acroyear Emperor.


Atlas' Magne Ball (which is kind of fitting since Atlas hold up dome of the world in Greek Mythology)


"3mm to Magnemo-8" connectors


Instead of the the standard 2004 figure stand, each Magne Force figure came with matching color stand with metal core for used with the figure magnetic feet. While these figures can stand pretty well on their own, they are still very top heavy with the magnet block in their chest and metal balls, so the metal lining stand was really a welcome added bonus.


Like the other Force Series, Magne- Force figure came with extra hands. Microman come with white hand while the Acroyears come with black.


 

MICROMAN MAGNE FORCE STORY 

(as translated from Infomercial Vol.05 by Tomoyoshi Araki)

 

AD 2007, International Organization M.I.C.R. created next generation of Microman. Although, Micro Final War ended over two years ago, the terror of M.L.T. (Micro Living Thing = Acroyear X) still fresh on everyone minds, so the UN (United Nations) feels there is possibility of M.L.T again resurfaced with Unknown Accident (Unexplainable Incident). UN ordered M.I.C.R. to develop a New Concept Microman (NCM). Previously Microman has been constructed as "Living Being with Machine Enchantments", the NCM project however took the Microman in opposite direction. The new Microman is now made as "Machine enchanted with Micro Living Cells". They named these new Microman the "Magne Force"

 

Magne Force, being a New Concept Microman, has full Mechanical Body constructs around five Hyper Magnet called "Magne Ball" and used the new management system - "Magne Ball Joint System" or MBJS. With this system, the New Concept Microman Magne Force will have great possibility since they will be able to easily Transform, perform Mode Change with ease.

 

One day a new Acro Virus incident occurred in Peru. The Magne Force were send out on their first mission to gather information on this incident and remove Acro Virus.  However, the unimaginable took place instead. The 1st Squad of Magne Force which consisted of three Prototype unit - Phobos, Atlas and Metis somehow became infected by the new Unknown Acro Virus and they attacked their partner Achilles.  The other two remaining Magne Force members, Theseus and Icarus who were on stand by, witnessed three beams of light shot up into the sky. Those were the renegade Magne Force members.

 

"EMERGENCY! We have new mission. CAPTURE or DESTROY the THREE INFECTED MICROMAN!"

 

MICROMAN 2005

TAKARA released Magne Force Microman in the spring of 2005 and marked the first series of Microman for the 2005 Series. The Magne Force consisted of a total of six figures - three Magne Microman (MGM) and three Magne Acroyears (MGA). TAKARA split the release into two waves with the first wave comprised of MGM-01 Achilles, MGA-01 Phobos and MGA-02 Atlas and the second wave comprised of MGM-02 Theseus, MGM-03 Icurus and MGA-03 Metis. 

 

RETURN OF MAGNEMO-8

The Magne Force series marks the return of Magnemo toys once more to Microman series. However instead of using the Titan name (vintage series name for Microman Magnemo-8 series), the new series uses the "Magne" name from 1999 Magne Power line.  TAKARA has done a remarkable job at combining the Magnemo feature with the Full Action Body style of Microman Force series. Unlike 1999 Magne Power Titans which used only Magnemo-11, the 2005 Magnemo body uses both the smaller vintage Titan Magnemo-8 and the larger Magnemo-11 for the joints. The Magnemo-8 balls are used for arms and legs and a single Magnemo-11 ball is used for the core waist. This design is just simply amazing with the two halves of the figure combine around the single core loose metal ball.  The usage of both Magnemo-11 and Magnemo-8 allows for some very cool Interchangeables with the older Microman Magnemo toys.  The Magnemo body usually gives the Titan figures some great articulations but by combining with the Full Action Body style these figures can do some pretty interesting poses. The shoulder joints even have the same double joints design as the standard Microman Full Action Body.

 

OR IS IT RETURN OF TIMANIC?

However, while the Magne Force uses the Magnemo-8 for limbs like the old vintage Microman Titan series, the body design resembles very little of the old Titans. Instead the Magne Force body actually is a homage to another Microman spin-off series from 1978 called "The Space Traveler Timanic". The Magne Force body is build around the chromed "skeleton" frame with clear chest and each comes with armor pieces that can be attached to the body. In fact MGM-01 Achilles color scheme clearly resembled that of Red Timanic 1 figure which had the same red armors and even the same clear orange parts. Magne Force also adds for the first time the "light pipe" or "light port" feature to Microman line.  The "light port" feature is heavily used in the Transformers toys whereby the head has added clear plastic part that formed the eyes and allows light to shine thru and give the figure the glowing eyes effect.  The "light port" also help gives these Magne Microman a more colorful design heads, instead of the usual bland all chrome looks.  Also like the late Magne Powers Microman and the old Punch Microman, Magne Force figure has magnetic feet that allow them to stick to metal surface.

 

Acroyear Magne Odyssey

 

MICROMAN TITAN SUCCESSOR

Magne Force figures are simply some of the best Microman TAKARA put out for the new 200X series.  Each Magne Force figure has strong magnetic joints with nice tight standard joints. The armors fit well to the figure with little or no problem.  TAKARA seem to have greatly improve the 3mm connections on the new series. While the skinny skeleton body frame might appeared to be fragile, the figure is actually very well constructed and very sturdy.  Magne Force 2005 Magnemo body also contains many 3mm ports and allows for more fun interchangeable with the other Force series.  Each Magne Force comes with several chrome accessories parts and 3mm to Magnemo-8 connector parts that when combined with the parts from other figures from the same team allowed a Magne Microman to transform into Magne Griffon Mode and a Magne Acroyear into Magne Odyssey.  The Griffon and the Odyssey are reminiscence of the old Titan Space Knight jet mode.  These parts also double as "weapons" for the Magne Force figures, though this was a bit of a stretch and the only weak part of this otherwise excellent series.

 

ACROYEAR ATLAS

Magne-Acroyear Atlas is the second member of the Acroyear side. He has smoke clear armors and clear green body. While the smoke clear parts usually look pretty nice on Microman figure, the clear green inner body just doesn't work too well with the smoke armors and Atlas end up the least attractive of the three Acroyears. There was no smoke clear version of Timanic but there was a black color. Personally I think Phobos would have look really nice in black armors.