Takara's Biotron - The Micronaut robot

With a micronaut inside !

 

Biotron, 1977, MEGO (Takara)
Hong Kong

Now that there is a Super7 remake of this guy, I'd like you to show you the original toy. 

Not very known here in Europe, but he had the support of the Micronauts Comic books in the USA.

1982 Micronauts issue #48

See-through Biotron...

Biotron, Takara, Japan, 2000

When all is clear, you can see the guts of Biotron on a sunny day. Japanese toy-companies always have liked to do clear and black and white versions of whatever toy they brought on the market. It's just their thing... 

Bagged !

Microman... and women ?

Microman (?) with sarcophagus, China, 1999

Why the Statue of Liberty ? 

In toy history, the Microman toy line from Takara (Japan) has great importance and paved the way to the oh-so-popular Transformer toys in the 80ies. The toy line started in Japan in 1974, and some of the figures soon made their way to the USA under the Micronauts toy-line (imported directly through Mego Corp.)

Some really cool web-sites are devoted to these, and are worth checking :

http://www.micro-outpost.com/

http://www.microforever.com/

Supergril, Takara, China, 2006

Packaging all pink and girly !

The nice thing about these figurines is that they are/were fully articulated. While Kenner and Palitoy were making stiffness the norm in their Star Wars / Action Force lines, Takara on the other hand was able to get about 30 (yes, thir-ty !) arculation points in their line. And all of this in a 3 3/4 inch figurine !

Furthermore, they came with ton of accessories, and could swap out parts from one figurine to another. At a certain point, they even introduced figurines with magnetized joints ! Tomy - Takara is continuing the line nowedays...

Magneforce ! or magnetic joints...

Icurus, Takara, China, 2005

Microsister Orga, Takara, China, 2005

No need for surgery, doc !

Evangelion set, Takara, China, 2007

Extra hands, weapons, display stands, ...