Tag Archives: Magne Power

#3947: Magne Arthur

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

MAGNE ARTHUR

MICROMAN MAGNE POWER (TAKARA)

In the ‘90s, teams of colorful heroes imbued with weird fantasy powers were all the rage.  Well, Power Rangers was all the rage, and a lot of other people wanted that success for themselves, so other stuff became very Power Rangers-like.  Takara’s Microman, descendant of G.I. Joe and progenitor to Transformers, decided to give the whole thing a try, as well as throwing in a bit of a scale shift.  The result was Microman Magne Power, a brief run on the line at the tail end of the decade.  Today, I’m looking at the central member of this incarnation’s core team, Magne Arthur!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Magne Arthur was figure 001 in Takara’s Microman Magne Power series.  He was the first of the figures that debuted the line at the very end of 1998, and helped to establish the line’s new style.  The figure stands abut 3 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  As with the rest of the figures in this line, Arthur was scaled down from Microman’s usual 3 3/4-inch set-up, with the in-universe explanation being that these guys came from a  different Micro Earth than the original line’s figures, following up on the slightly smaller vintage Micro Hoodmen, who shrank themselves further to conserve resources.  His sculpt is largely the same as the other four core figures from the line, albeit with a unique head.  Arthur’s head was especially unique amongst the launch figures, as he didn’t have a helmet like the other four, instead just getting a set of funky headphones.  It’s ultimately a sculpt that’s a bit more in keeping with the earlier Microman figures in that regard.  From the neck down, he’s the same as the others, with the same kind of dated, bulky and boxy sort of body sculpt.  As the leader guy of a team of chromatically themed heroes in the ‘90s, Arthur was obviously predominantly red, which is done in a nice translucent plastic.  He’s also got white and dark grey accenting, and of course the usual chromed head.  As with all the basic figures, he had no accessories, but did have magnets in his torso, right arm, and feet, so you can stick him to all manner of metal surfaces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After discovering this line’s existence from the Micronauts guy at Mego Meet in 2011, I jumped pretty quickly on finding what I could of the line domestically.  Thankfully, Big Bad Toy Store had a rather nice selection of figures for pretty cheap at the time, so I was able to get the whole core set without much trouble.  Arthur is the most standard of the set, and that makes him the easiest for taking in the whole of what the line meant to be.  It’s not quite the success that Takara was hoping for, but it’s still a fun little set to look back at, and Arthur is a nice central piece.

#3888: Magne Edison

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

MAGNE EDISON

MICROMAN MAGNE POWER (TAKARA)

The success of GI Joe in the ‘60s in the US led, unsurprisingly, to an export of the line to other countries.  Nowadays, lines are largely produced by one company even internationally, but there was a lot more licensing out back in the day.  Palitoy had great success with Action Man, a line that stuck pretty close to the spirit of the original line.  In Japan, however, Takara had to get a little more inventive.  As materials were scarcer, the figures could not be easily clothed, so to avoid selling a naked figure, the molded them in clear plastic and filled the hollow sections with “machinery,” creating Henshin Cyborg. It was quite a success, leading to the creation of a smaller scale equivalent, Microman.  That line would itself be imported back to the US by Mego as Micronauts, which picked up a dedicated following.  There have been attempts at relaunching Micronauts over the years, always falling shy of success.  The first of these attempts was in the late ‘90s, by Takara themselves.  But, when a US market failed to materialize, the Micronauts angle was dropped, leaving just the Microman component.  Alas.  Well, at least there were cool toys!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Edison is figure 004 in Takara’s Microman Magne Power line, released in 1999.  He’s the second to last of the five-man team that made up the core focus of this new line.  The figure is about 3 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  The Magne Power line was unique in its scaling; they weren’t the traditional 3 3/4 inch figures, but a bit smaller.  All of the original five were identical sculpts from the neck down.  It’s a sculpt that’s certainly a product of its time, with some rather pronounced proportions, and the very awkward magnet arm attachment on the left arm that removes the elbow joint.  It’s an interesting offering, especially so close to the immensely revamped Microman base body Takara would transition to very shortly after.  It feels like the last hurrah of the older style.  Each of them got a unique head.  In Edison’s case, it’s a helmet, patterned on a sort of grasshopper style.  It’s a little goofy, but certainly fun.  Edison’s primary color is green, so there’s a lot of that.  He’s got a mix of translucent and opaque, as well as some yellow and gold accenting.  And, of course, he’s got the chrome head, which is always super cool.  The standard figures didn’t get any extras, but they do have magnets in their left hands and torsos, which are fun for sticking them to fridges or metal shelves and the like.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since the US distribution failed on these, they were kind of unknown on this side of the world.  I only learned about them in 2011, when the Micronauts guy at Mego Meet brought up the planned relaunch of the line in his presentation, and had Edison as his sample figure for what the line looked like.  I was intrigued, and also happy to find that they weren’t an especially expensive line of figures.  Edison’s got a neat vibe, similar to Bug from the Marvel tie-in comics, and I really like that.  He definitely appeals to what I loved about the original line.

#1805: Izam

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

IZAM

MICROMAN MAGNE POWER (TAKARA)

While I’ve touched on its American cousin, Micronauts, a number of times for this site, I’ve only actually looked at the original Microman line twice before.  The line initially began as a 3 3/4-inch-based line, and has mostly lived on in that fashion.  However, for a brief period of time in the late ‘90s, Takara attempted to mix things up, rebranding the line under the Magne Power banner and shrinking the basic figures down to 2 1/2 inches.  Though ultimately short-lived, it’s an interesting cross-section of the line.  Today, I’ll be looking at one of its figures, Microman Izam!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Izam is figure 002 in the Microman Magne Power line, the second member of the main team of Micromen from the launch of the line.  The figure stands 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  Izam’s sculpt is largely identical to that used on all of the main Magne Power team members.  It’s sort of rudimentary, especially when compared to some of the more recent Micromen.  It’s certainly a product of its time, and possesses some strong ‘90s vibe.  That said, compared to the Demon Acroyear I’ve already looked at, he’s definitely got more reserved proportions.  Also, for whatever reason, all of the early figures had this weird magnet attachment on the left arm, which removes the elbow joint.  Odd choice, but he’s still got the swivel, so it works out alright.  His one unique piece is his head, which is a pretty fun sculpt.  He’s wearing a helmet, which has a bit of a Wolverine vibe to it, because hey, it was the ‘90s.  It’s really angular, and definitely fits well with the body.  Each of the initial figures had their own distinct color scheme to help keep them separate from each other.  Izam is purple and grey, with a predominately clear body.  It’s more reserved than you tend to see from this line, but it is certainly pleasing to the eye.  He’s got the standard chromed head, which clashes ever so slightly with the gold sections, but it’s decent enough looking.  There were no accessories included with Izam, but he does have four magnets built in: one in his torso, one at the end of his left arm, and two in his feet.  It makes him rather handy for sticking to fridges and the like, which is certainly nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed this whole thing when they were new, since the line was exclusive to Japan.  However, I came across the line during my freshman year of college and ended up tracking down a whole assortment of them.  Izam was amongst those.  I wasn’t really expecting much out of Izam, but he ended up being one of my favorites of the basic line.