A HISTORY OF MICRONAUTS AND MAGNEMO TOYS
This story begins back in the mid-seventies. I was a small boy at the time when I recalled seeing my first Mego Micronauts hanging in a department store aisle. I loved their metallic look and with space exploration being huge in that era, I couldn't help but think these toys were like viewing a portal into the future. A green Space Glider was my first Micronaut toy I owned and oh how cool he was. But he was nowhere near my favorite since I wanted the giant figures in the line, especially those mighty magnetic warriors whose inter-changeable parts dwarfed my poor glider.
Whenever I played with my best friend David back in the day, I lead the good guys and pretended I was the valiant leader of the Micronauts, the Force Commander. David on the other hand, was always the villain and my arch nemesis. Therefore, he was the evil leader of the Acroyear army, Baron Karza. I don't recall who won most of those battles during our youth but I'm pretty sure it ended as a stale mate in the grand scale of things. We also read the popular Marvel Comics series that had spawned from the toys that we picked up monthly from the local convenient store. However, my Force Commander was a tragic side character in those tales and was a bit lame compared to some of the other heroes over the entire comic enchilada. Looking back over the promotional material produced by Mego and Gig from over the years, I don't believe that was their intent for him.
This brings me to the history of the magnetic jointed "magnemo" Micronauts, often called "magno" toys. During the seventies, Mego was a popular toy manufacturer based in the United States while Takara's "Microman" (AKA: Japanese Micronauts) was already a known brand in Asia. Mego decided to license out some of their characters and re-brand them for the American market. A fighting robot known as Kotetsu Jeeg was unique in that it had magnetic parts and could combine with its robot companion, Panzeroid, to become a centaur warrior. As with some other characters, Jeeg was re-tooled and had birthed the forerunners of the Micronaut series, Baron Karza, the Force Commander, and their stallion counterparts, Andromeda, and Oberon. Mego stuck with the old fashion themes of the good wearing white and the bad wearing black. This unfortunately lead to the misconception that Baron Karza was basically a clone of another dark armored villain and pop culture icon, Darth Vader, while the Force Commander looked more fashioned to a Storm Trooper taking steroids! However, in all actuality, they had premiered prior the release of the Star Wars juggernaut.
Irregardless that Star Wars became a cultural phenomenon, the Micronauts was still a profitable hit for Mego between the years, 1976 to 1980. Meanwhile, over in Europe, the Italian Gig Corporation came into partnership with Mego and began distributing their own "I Micronauti" series followed later by their "Nuovi Micronauti" concatenation. Micronauts were such a huge hit overseas that Gig released new characters of their own. Made by Mego's sister company Lion Rock, these characters were the Emperor, King Atlas, Green Baron, Megas, Lantaurion, Pegasus, and a renamed Takara Death Cross figure known as the Red Falcon. The Red Falcon was definitely the odd ball of the set. Renaming toys was nothing new. For example, the Transformers Autobot leader Optimus Prime is known as Convoy in Japan. Even a Greek company called El Greco got into the action some time later and released these popular magnetic characters (minus the Red Falcon) under different names such as the Super Commander (Force Commander), Santana (Green Baron), and Orion (Lantaurion). There were also additional copy cat magnetic figures released titled the "Cavalieri Stellari" which had a space cowboy theme with 3 humanoid figures (Capitan Cosmo, Jack-Il, and Scare-Face) and their 3 companion star stallions (Vigilante, Metallion, & Steed). These space desperados came in colors of blue, red, and green.
As with everything, all good things come to an end. By the late seventies, Mego became hit with financial troubles until they permanently closed their doors by 1983. By the mid-eighties, other companies such as Hourtoy and M.D. Toys picked up the rights to the Micronauts modes and re-released them with cheaper plastic constructions, a few with different colors, and called them the "Inter-Chanageables." They renamed Emperor as Lord Meto, Baron Karza was now Count Magno, the Force Commander became Captain Cosmo, Andromeda was renamed as Magna Steed and Oberon became the Cosmo Steed. Lord Meto's stallion was Metallion, which was a repaint of Lantaurion and Pegasus accept it was black with light green undertones. M.D. Toys later reissued the magno modes but altered the colors to a light gray and became known as the "silver series." Unfortunately, things weren't the same and many of these later versions of Micronaut recast wound up as close out items on discount racks, thus ending an era. The irony is that these toys would later become some of the hardest pieces sought out by collectors today.
Now fast forward about 20 years just after the turn of the century. The American toy company Palisades Entertainment LLC was next to try their hand with the Micronauts in 2002. By reaching out and getting known collectors involved, they requested the fan base to donate vintage toys so they could recreate molds of both the 3 inch and 6 inch figures. They invented original characters along with numerous repainted, clear, and exclusive figures. Rare gold versions were given to collectors who donated as a thank you for their generosity. Unfortunately, the company had partnered with a Chinese manufacturer that was quick to turn out faulty products. The original series had become plagued with quality control problems where many of their products either arrived defective or were simply too fragile to handle without breakage. Figures such as the Force Commander & Oberon box sets was nearly cancelled but eventually released as a limited Palisades club exclusive with low production numbers of 180 (standard), 120 (clear), and 60 (transparent red). Palisades attempted to correct these issues by changing manufacturing companies. They released a second series which had the Emperor & Megas box sets as the series 2 club exclusives which included a standard version, a purple & white variant, and a transparent green version. They corrected some quality issues but the damage had already been done and their reputation with both collectors and retailers was forever tarnished. Palisades had planned a series 3 but eventually cancelled it. In 2006, the company itself later folded into oblivion just like their predecessors.
In 2005, another toy manufacturer called SOTA (State of the Art) Toys had planned their own release of Micronauts called "Micronauts Evolution." They invented completely new molds of Baron Karza, Lobros, and the Space Glider. Apparently, these toys did not appeal to retailers, especially after the Palisades fiasco, and the line never went into production.
Currently, Hasbro owns the license to produce Micronaut toys but have only released exclusive convention box sets which did not include any magnetic figures. There have been several comic book companies that have also released new stories over the years but have failed to connect interest with the masses. Unlicensed art books with short stories known as the "Protectors of Inner Space" are the most recent entry to Micronauts fiction which is perhaps the most loyal depiction of the original Mego toy series to date.
The future of the Micronauts fandom is much like anything else at the moment.... A realm of uncertainty. There have been rumors for years about an upcoming movie by Paramount whose production is more off than on. But after reading its most recent developments, I hope the production remains in limbo for some time since the latest ideas faintly resemble anything from my youth, whether it be the toys or the original comics. I'd rather not have any big screen bastardization of my beloved toy line and will happily wait another decade for someone new to take over. And I hope its someone who knows how to handle this property by staying true to the original concepts and designs. Until then, we can only dream and retain our memories of an age that maybe lost but never forgotten….
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