1984 Transformers

1984 was the last and final year of the Microman line. By this time, the changing trend of the robot toy industry and the popularity of revolutionary shows like Gundam and Macross had permanently and completely altered the toy market landscape. By this point, it was clear that the popularity of action figures was on the decline as evidenced by the decreasing numbers of Microman figures in the line-up. By 1984, the Microman lineup consisted mainly of Microman Micro Change robots that no longer had much interaction with the Microman figures. Aside from the sole figure, Microscope Robo, the rest of the Micro Change line was a stand-alone transforming robot "action-figures" type.

Diaclone also began this trend of removing action figures and the last few toys in the line such as the construction robot (TF: Devastator) and the train robots Raideen no longer were scaled with the small Diaclone pilot figures. Looking at this trend it was clear to see that the transformation for both lines was inevitable. The event in 1984 across the world would seal the fate of both series.

In the US, Mego at this point had gone out of business and Takara was left without a US domestic partner to sell their toys. Takara had attempted to sell the toys themselves in the US as Diakron and Kronoform but with little success. Then along came a US toy company named Hasbro (which Takara had done business with before as a distributor of GI Joe for the Japanese market) who decided to license part of Takara Diaclone Car Robot line and Microman Micro Change line to be sold in the US. Hasbro came up with a marketing campaign for the toys with a new storyline that made the robot into a living sentient race that struck in a civil war between the two factions. Hasbro marketed the two series together as the Transformers More than Meet the Eyes.

Takara saw the success of Hasbro Transformers and decided to phase off both the Microman and Diaclone series and was going to produce their own Transformers series to replace the line. Takara originally planned to sell Microman and Diaclone together as a new line called "Henshin Sentai" Transformers as a bridge series to the new Transformers line (interestingly they actually did this for the US market in 1982-83 with the Kronoform line). They went as far as doing a test market proposal and soliciting a catalog for the dealer that features Microman and Diaclone toys as one single toy line. However, this plan was never realized and Takara decided to just "re-imported" the Transformers concept back to Japan and basically sold the combined series as a totally new series called Transformers Super Robot Life.

During the second half of 1984, Microman Line and Diaclone were both in limbo awaiting the arrival of the Japanese version of Transformers. The series finally arrived in 1985 as Super Robot Life Transformers and it was the success that Takara had been looking for.

By 1985, the Transformers Super Robot Life line was in full swing so Takara decided to terminate the Microman line due to confusion with the Transformers line (which also had the same toys) and also because of declining sales and popularity. (The Diaclone series was also canceled that year) Microman legacy continues to live on in the Transformers toys line, which is still being marketed today as the Transformers Beast Wars. It would be over 20 years later since the first Microman-Zone series that Microman toys would again be marketed by Takara. The new line called Microman Magne Power made its debut on December 26th,1998 along with a reissue series called Replica Microman.

The last Microman "catarog" - 1984 Microman Secret File Vol. 1