Dave's Microman Rant

     MF2-01: Skymaster Hayate
     MF2-02: Grounmaster Alan (their spelling)
     MF2-03: Divemaster Roberto
     MF2-04: Automaster Ryan
     AX-11: Acroscorl
     AX-12: Acrocleve
     AX-13: Acrovoltech
     AX-14: Acrobiom

     Ordered these months ago through my comic shop.  My original shipment
didn't include MF2-03: Divemaster Roberto or AX-12: Acrocleve, they arrived a
week later and I updated this review to include them.  Normally, I wouldn't
be reviewing these, but in light of Kicker being the same basic mold, I
figured I should.  Besides, they're actually available reasonably cheaply (I
paid $6.99 before my frequent customer discount, and BBTS has four-packs for
$29).


CAPSULES

     Common elements: Hyper-poseable, decent accessories, six pairs of hands,
suffer from chrome on accessories.  Strongly recommended.
     Hayate: Good equipped mode, lackluster vehicle mode.
     Alan: Good equipped mode, interesting vehicle mode that suffers from the
chrome layer.
     Roberto: Weird but good equipped mode, vehicle mode is the equipped mode
without the guy.  Suffers from chrome issues, big surprise.
     Ryan: Okay equipped mode, very good vehicle mode.
     Acroscorl: Accessories don't really transform, but this is probably the
best of the six overall, with almost no chrome-related issues.
     Acrocleve: Looks great.  Holds together poorly.  Needs more help staying
together than Acrovoltech.
     Acrovoltech: Again, non-transforming accessories, which look good but
barely hold together thanks to chrome.  Worst execution of the lot (but still
strongly recommended).
     Acrobiom: Good equipped mode, accessory transform requires removing the
head (yowp!).


RANTS

     First I'll cover common elements, including pasting in some bits from my
Kicker review.
     Each is packed in a blister card with slide-down backing similar to that
used in the 1999-2000 Microman line.  The figure is central behind a "lens"
shape, surrounded by accessories in chrome and clear.  The number of
twist-ties is variable, with the worst offender being Acroscorl (whose ties
had the loose ends snipped off, making it pretty much impossible to remove
them by hand).
     The front of the card has a monochrome picture of the toy in the
background, various name and faction logos (the factions being Masterforce
(woot) and Acroyear X), and a little story blurb in English: "Time has flown
by since the birth of Microman in 1974.  Now in 2004 he has returned to us in
a new form.  We entrust him to the care of thoes [sic] who have a child's
heart in order to explore the unforseeable future."
     Cardbacks are information-dense.  Top row from left to right: generic
figure showing the superposeability and spare hands, "Naked Style" picture of
the figure without accessories, a nearly full sized picture of the toy with
accessories, smaller insets with various things the figure can do.  The stuff
related to the toy is in a black box called the Data Base.  Bottom row is
co-sell pictures.  Left to right: the Masterforce quartet, the Acroyear X
quartt, and tiny pictures of Microforce ("basics" to the "deluxes" that
Masterforce is) and Micro Action Series licensed figures like Casshern,
Gatchaman and Kicker.
     Taped to the inside front of the card are two sets of stuff.  One is the
catalog (called "Infomercial Vol.01"), instructions and consumer reply card.
The other has a clear figure base with one regular peg and what looks like a
short Powerlinx hardpoint, and a baggie full of hands.  Five spare sets, will
go into more detail on them later.

     Basic Figure: Each figure is 10cm (4") tall with 30 joints.  The
majority of the body is either regular opaque or clear plastic, and the head
is chromed.

(Begin paste-in)
     Okay, here's a rundown of all the joints.  All THIRTY of them.
     Head - The head is mounted on a peg (and therefore slides off easily)
which itself goes into a ball joint.  So the head can turn all the way around
and nod up and down, side to side.
     Torso - There's a folding joint between chest and abdomen and a GIJoe-
style waist (but it seems to use a ball joint, not a rubber band).
     Shoulders - Double ball joint, really neat.  The joint has a big ball at
the end that goes into the torso and a small ball at the end that goes into
the upper arm.  This gives astonishingly good range of motion for the arms
without having big obvious slots and gaps.  And he can shrug.
     Arms - The bicep piece pegs onto the deltoid as a swivel joint, and is
removable.  The elbows are double hinges, so the arms can fold almost
completely double.  The wrists peg into the forearms for another swivel, and
tend to fall out because of the soft plastic used.  Finally, there's a hinge
where the hand meets the wrist so the hand can flap back and forth (and
adjust for holding the sword with two hands).  The arms are the most
susceptible to falling apart at the peg joints.
     Legs - Ball joint hips, with a non-peg swivel just below them.  The blue
kneecaps are double hinged so the legs can bend double.  The ankles are a
combination of a hinge with nearly 180 degree range and a ball that pops into
a socket in the foot, giving some wiggle room and the ability to rotate the
feet.  There are 3mm pegholes in the base of the feet, but no corresponding
pegs on the sword for surfing.
(End paste-in)

     In addition to those joints, there's the spare hands.  Each represents
two joints: the connection peg and a hinge on the hand.
     Default hands: gripping hands, hinged to fold the palm towards the arm
(and back the other way).  With one exception, all the hands hinge this way.
     Spare 1: Closed fists.
     Spare 2: Open hands.
     Spare 3: Pistol grip.  Gripping hands with trigger finger extended.
     Spare 4: Alternate hinge grip.  Same gripping mold, but the hinge is
90 degrees offset from the rest (up and down rather than right and left).
     Spare 5: Saluting/chopping hand.  All fingers pressed together, thumb
firm against side.
     All the hands are gummy plastic, essentially rubberized.

     Accessories: Each has a bunch of accessories that go with their theme.
Most of the pieces are chromed stiff plastic, some are hard or soft clear
plastic, especially helmet visors.
     The chrome looks nice in display pictures, but is the most serious flaw
of the toys.  It's really hard to get everything to stay on, and many joints
all but scream "I'm gonna break!"  Already excellent toys, they'd be almost
perfect if they left off the stupid chrome.
     A note on terminology.  "Equipped mode" means when all the armor bits
are attached to the figure, rather than removed and assembled into something
else.  

     Masterforce: Heh, name reuse by Takara.  For those who don't know,
Masterforce was the name of the series in Japan that used the Powermasters
and Pretenders.  The theme of these guys is elemental vehicles, much like the
original four Cybertron Pretenders in TF: Masterforce, although with
underground replacing space.  Each figure has accessories that can be either
attached as armor or built into a vehicle of some sort.  

     Acroyear X: Just as the Destron Pretenders in TF: Masterforce were
monsters, the Acroyear X characters are monsters.  Their accessories are more
likely to just reconfigure a little, and only one of the four has bits that
turn into a separate critter.  There's also a resemblance to the old glow in
the dark monsters from the 70s Microman (Acrovoltech to Membros, Acrocleve to
the winged reptile guy, no real ant-guy analogue though).

     Skymaster Hayate: Hayate is one of those names that pops up a lot in
Japanese anime and gaming.  It means "storm gust" or "storm gale" from what
I've been able to find, and has been applied to everything from a
transforming Beyblade to a WWII warship.  Mainly clear medium blue with some
black parts and a silver chrome head.  He has a wide point-down silver
triangle pattern painted on his chest, and his accessories are simple silver.
His main bits are a winged backpack with winglets that can position as an X
and a clear visor that can tip back, and a silver mecha hawk that can split
into an arm cannon and hip wings.  His hands are solid black.  There is a
white hexagon with 01 in it on his left hip.  The winged part of his backpack
comes off and becomes a skyboard.  But because of the big peg it has for
mounting the hawk, it can't really stay stable on anything, nor does it plug
into his clear base.
     Despite the do-little accessories, Hayate does look good, and is clearly
the jetpack-wearing lead hero type that runs through all of Microman.

     Grounmaster Alan: The mundanely-named Alan is made in a mix of black and
brownish yellow, all opaque, with a silver chrome head.  His theme is
tunnelling, and his kibble assembles into a mini drill tank...when you can
get all the pieces to get together despite the chrome.  His bits are a mix of
silver chrome and dark gray chrome, plus a riot helmet in dark chrome with
clear visor.  His other theme is a riot cop with big drill for, um, putting
holes in protestors?  His shield is formed from the bulldozer scoop of his
drill tank, and is clear.  Interestingly, it has "MA-T 02" on it, suggesting
a different code and name for the subgroup earlier on.  He has a white hex
with 02 on his left hip.  His hands are black.
     Chrome really gets in the way of most of his accessories working as well
as they could, and his wrists are too weak to hold up his shield, but he's
otherwise a good toy, about the middle of the pack for these six.

     Divemaster Roberto: Rrrrroberto.  Gotta say it with an accent.  Roberto
is opaque, in a mix of grayish brown and grayish blue, with a wetsuit theme
on his silver chrome head.  His silver-chrome equipped mode is the weirdest
of the lot, a diving bubble assembled around his upper body.  It looks kinda
like a "Ball" from Gundam.  The side panels flip open, so his arms can reach
out, or they just hold onto handles behind his head.  The waldos are made up
from the thing's guns (turned backwards), a ball-jointed stubby arm and a
short claw.  The guns can be held separately, but are kinda big and will tend
to droop in his hands.  Getting all these pieces together while fighting the
chrome (even given that the chrome wasn't even on everything at the joints)
is REALLY hard to do without breaking bits.  Thanks to the mid-torso joint,
Roberto can lie down while in the dome.  Making the "vehicle" just involves
removing Roberto and letting the thing doodle off on its own.  His hip decals
are gold, with 03 on his left hip.  The hands are blue-gray.
     Once I finally got everything together, it held reasonably well,
although the guns don't stay on the sides very well without help (in the form
of poster-tack jammed on the pegs).  His hands are supposed to be able to
grab the guns when they're pointed forward, but this requires stretching them
open almost to the stress point.

     Automaster Ryan: Clear green plastic with white paint detail and a
darkish chrome head.  While Hayate and Alan have regular heads, Ryan has a
helmet molded onto his head, since he lacks a separate helmet piece.  His
bright silver pieces hook onto him as a sort of powered skating rig with
single huge wheels on each boot.  The tiny chromed handlebars are on a joint
and I'm amazed I managed move each back and forth once without snapping the
things off.  Accurs'd chrome.  While the equipped mode is so-so, the pieces
assemble into a pretty good motorcycle in silver and clear rubbery green (on
the wheels and windscreen).  Chrome problems are only an issue with the
handlebars for this mode.  Hands are white with green pins in the hinges.
     This was the first one I opened, and it really impressed me.  Definitely
my favorite of the Masterforce trio I got.

     Acroscorl: I think this is supposed to be some sort of mix of skull and
scowl.  He's definitely got a skeleton motif in his chromed bony head with
built-in clear visor and chrome helmet.  Plus his accessoris are big skeletal
limbs attached to his backpack, in dark chrome.  His body is clear red
plastic with black paint, including gothic crosses on his legs.  Hands are
solid black.  His accessories are mainly the backpack, but he also has bone-
pattern chrome greaves and a lance-like weapon that can either be held in a
hand or plugged into a forearm in place of a hand.  The backpack limbs can
fold very elegantly together and out of the way, or extend on ball joint
"shoulders", elbows and wrists to rake enemies with three-clawed bony hands.
His accessories do not reassemble into anything else, but they don't really
need to, he's cool enough already.
     My favorite of all six, both in looks and in function (essentially no
chrome problems).  He's probably the Acroyear X leader, given his helmet
shape and the low-number code.

     Acrocleve: Probably a cutting or "cleaving" thing.  The theme of this
monster is...a skeletal techno-dragon?  The head is gold chrome with foggy
clear antennae that never stay on without help.  The rest of the body is all
clear yellow plastic with red flames painted here and there.  Very nice
effect.  The backpack is gold chrome, with an optional cloudy clear yellow
skull piece for the chest (goes over the chrome chestpiece).  The hands are
clear yellow, but some are cloudy and some are clear...must be different
batches.  He has a chrome gold "sword" that looks like a skeletal tail, and
which can plug into the back of his gear as a tail.  It looks better there,
since he really can't hold it well.  His only other accessory is a little
clear rubbery yellow dragonet.  The dragonet looks like it's supposed to be
able to plug onto his arm like Hayate's mechahawk, but it doesn't actually
attach anywhere.  It splits in two to become replacements for his hands, but
the pieces don't stay on well.  The coolest accessory detail, though, is the
pair of hoverfans in his wings.  They tilt, so he can hover with the fans
pointed straight down while he's upright.  And the wings are hinged to flap
as well.  
     I'd say that on this one, the chrome looks more appropriate than on any
of the others.  On the other toys, it stands out.  Here, it fits in pretty
well.  Too bad his ears keep falling off and his dragonet can't really
connect to him.  Shiny.

     Acrobiom: No idea what this name is supposed to be from.  Highly
corrupted "venom"?  Anyway, this guy's monster is the giant snake, and he has
the biggest head of any of the Microman figures by a wide margin.  His body
is made of clear purple plastic with teal hexagons painted on to evoke
scales, and his hands are teal with purple pins.  His chrome parts are all
teal, and unlike all the others, his chest armor pieces don't connect to
anything else.  They're just armor.  Instead, an 8-jointed clear light blue
snake body attaches to a ball joint on the back of his head, and his spear
weapon can snap onto the end of the tail as a stinger/rattle.  He has forearm
blades that stay on so-so, and a shield made to look like a cobra hood that
he can't hold very well.  The shield attaches to the top of his head, which
removes to be a separate snake monster.  When the head is left attached, the
joints are stiff enough you can use the snake body as a stand, suspending the
body above the tabletop.
     If the shield attached better and his hands didn't keep falling off when
the arm blades were attached, this would probably beat out Acroscorl.  In
fact, its problems have nothing to do with chrome and everything to do with
some bad engineering on the hands.

     Acrovoltech: This guy has the whole mad scientist/brain in a jar/
Frankenstein's Monster vibe wrapped up, with crystals in tubes, lightning
spheres on his backpack, exposed brain, scifi zapgun pistol, etc.  His
coloration is milky clear colorless with lavender stripes and some fun
decals.  His feet, kneecaps, elbows, hip joints and hands are lavender.  On
his left pec and left deltoid are red blocks with + in them and microwriting
next to them.  On the right, in mirror reverse pattern, are - signs.  Pulling
out my microscope, the "large" writing on the chest reads POSITIVE and
NEGATIVE on the relevant sides in letters half a millimeter or smaller tall.
The smaller words, about 1/10 mm tall, are too low-res to make out except for
one word, "supply".  INSANE tampographing.  The deltoids also have POSITIVE
and NEGATIVE written really tiny, plus smaller words that are too gunked to
read.  (I bought a hand microscope to help in reviewing Alternator
Smokescreen, you see.)
     His backpack holds articulated arms (shorter than Acroscorl's) that
terminate in spheres, presumably with lightning crackling from one to the
other.  He has armbands with mounted bits that are chrome electrodes encased
in clear tubes.  His zapgun has a big hexagonal crystal that can be attached
to the muzzle, and the tube-trodes can be taken off their armbands and
plugged onto the gun.  He also has dopey-looking chrome shoes that are really
hard to remove once in place (the foot will pop off at the ankle first, gotta
pry the shoes off).  This all LOOKS really cool and mad scientisty, but it
also tends to fall off when you look at it funny, except for the shoes (which
cling like lampreys).  Without chrome getting in the way of joints and pegs
(although it's appropriate for some of the details), this would be my
favorite for sure.  But the fact that it falls apart so easily drops it
several notches.  Only the discovery of the microwriting while typing this
review keeps it from being at the bottom of the pack...then again, the pack
is pretty tightly bunched.  Hard to say which IS at the bottom.
     Overall, I like the IDEA of this one the best, just wish it had been
executed better.  Putting a little poster putty on the posts helped a LOT.

     In case you hadn't noticed, I really like these guys, and only wish they
hadn't used so much chrome on pegs and joints.

     Dave Van Domelen, fixed Acrovoltech nicely.