1976 Microman Series

Microman Spy Magician - M14X Type M141 Henry, M142  Hudson, M143 Holms and M144 Howard (c.1976)

Spy Magician

Microman Series

1974

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

1975

Project Victory
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 Microman series, this year saw some of the best toys for the line. 

1978

Police Keeper

Takara tried new design and direction for the series with the released of Hoodman and Arden. 

1979

Rescue Team
Takara "rescue" attempt for the line with the Rescue Team Microman.  This year also saw updated of the old favorite like the New Tower Base.

1980

Punch & Blizzard Man
The last year of the original series saw the shift in the line to 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 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.

Microman Spy Magician M14X Type. Top - M142 Hudson (vintage) Bottom - M143 Holms (vintage) & M144 Howard (vintage).

Magician Story

Microman Spy Magician were revived near the beach where the Acroyears first emerged from the polluted ocean depth.  They are the expert in intelligence gathering and fight against the Acroyear by using their spy ability. With the growing power of the Acroyears, Microman Spy Magician form MCIA (Microman Central Information Agency) to train other Microman in the art of spy.

Takara released Microman Spy Magician as a follow up series to the second Microman Zone line.  There were two distinctive types of Microman Spy Magicians - the M13X type which used several parts from the last year M11X and M12X and the M14X type which used M11X head design but had a completely new body design. Unlike the previous year, Microman Spy Magicians were sold in small window box and not in the capsule chamber. Takara marketed Microman Spy Magician as a "spy-kit" that can be used to "train" and upgrade" other Microman.  Each Microman Spy Magician came with Spy Magician figure, a spy manual and a set of three Spy Magician wand & bracelets. The wand and bracelet were unique equipment that only given to Microman who had completed the Spy Magician training.

After Microman line was cancel in 1981, Spy Magicians M13X and M14X along with Lady Command were the three Types that never got made into New Microman. Microman M14X would never be produced again until Takara reissued them in 2000 as part of Replica Microman series. The reproduction versions were slightly smaller than the vintage figures. Beside the original four M14X, Takara also released several exclusive versions along with new member M140 Hawk Spy Magician leader who was featured in the early Microman Spy Magician catalog.

M14X Spy Magician

CRIM - Intelligence Section (formerly MCIA)

M141 Henry - Naval and military scientist, make weapon design for the benefit of information gathering activities.   (naval intelligence officer)

M142 Hudson - Expert sociologist, gather information and profile study of Acroyears. (terrorist psychologist and profiler)

M143 Holmes - field medical expert, well aquatinted with emergency procedures and poison sickness.   (field medic and poison gas expert)

M144 Howard - teacher of infiltration methods.   Expert in insertion and extraction of Microman Spy Magician probe teams.  (probe team leader) 

M14X sport the unusual wrap around chest armor design. Beside these four colors, Takara also released limited chrome plated edition of M141 Henry in 1978 as a promotion item.

Tools of the Trade

Magic Wand: Teleportation device to help expedites spy activity.

Spy Bracelet: By altering the ESP wave randomly it allow the Spy-Magicians to communicate with 5 other members simultaneously without interference by Acroyear.  The bracelet also maximize the ESP power of Microman to allow him to use United Will.

United Will: by utilizing bracelet ESP function combine with the teleport wand, the Spy Magician can merge his psyche with another Microman. For this reason untrained Microman is excluded from wearing the Spy Magician Bracelet.

The Spy Manual

One of the unique feature for the Spy Magician series was the fact that each figure came with Spy Training Manual.  The manual was basically a Microman catalog with Spy Magician story and their special powers along with a special training section.  The training section featured thing like how to encrypt and decode message, basic magic trick and how to amplify one ESP energy. 

The manual also featured the pictures of famous prototype Microman Spy Magician figures (which were sold as Takara e-Hobby exclusive. There were also metallic editions of these two figures).  The Spy Magician Manual also had a section on Spy gadgets that were suppose to be sold by Takara as part of the Microman Spy Magician line but they were cancel and never got pass the design stage.