1983 New Microman - Micro Change Series

MC04 Mini CAR Robo 01-07 (c.1984)

Package

MiniCAR were packaged in small "matchbox" style box to emphasized the fact that these were small toy cars.

The package would later change to larger style box with the toys packaged in robot modes.  01-03 had a small sticker on the box to denote the color - red, yellow or blue.

The Transformers Connection

Hasbro and Takara would later repackaged the entire series of Mini-CAR and marketed them as The Transformers Minicar robot.  02 Nissan 1500 XG however was not officially part of the first series Transformers Minicar but some of the toys got packaged and sold as either Bumblebee or Cliffjumper which let collectors to later named him as Bumblejumper or Bumper.  The early series of Transformers were repackaged of Microman left over stocks with added Transformers logo.  Later, the toys would be produce exclusively for the Transformers, these later versions had some minor changes.

MC04 MiniCAR robo consisted of a group of seven robots that can disguised themselves as Choro Q (Penny Racer) mini-cars (super deformed cars).  There were two basic categories of MC04 - compact car type and big vehicle type.  Each type shared similar design and transformation method.  

The compact car type resemble Choro Q cars with rubber wheels and chrome cab.  There were three cars in this category - a VW Bug, a Nissan 1500XG and a Porsche 924.  Each car came with alternate color variants - red, yellow or blue.  The transformation for this type involved flip open the head from the coin slot section and pull out the arms from the rear quarter of the cars and the hood section pull out and flip to form robot feet.

The big vehicles resemble the Mini-Car trucks and 4X4 vehicles.  There were four vehicles in this second category - Firebird, a semi-truck, 4WD truck, and a jeep.   The larger vehicle types did not have the alternate color versions.  The transformation for this type involved pulling out the arms from the front quarter panels and the rear part of the cars flip to form feet.  The head part was molded to the bottom of the vehicle.

01 Porsche 924 (TF:Cliffjumper)

  02 Nissan 1500 XG (TF:Bumblejumper)

03 VW Bug (TF:Bumblebee)

04 4WD Truck (TF:Gears)

05 Jeep (TF:Brawn)

06 Trans Am (TF:Windcharger)

07 Semi Truck (TF:Huffer)