Surveyor Series - Surveyor-1
Takara released Microman Surveyor 1 in 1977 as the first vehicle in the Surveyor series. The Surveyors were designed as Microman ground mobile bases. Takara released a total of three Surveyor vehicles - Surveyor 1, Surveyor 2 and Surveyor 3. Surveyor 1 was the smallest of the three, while Surveyor 2 was the mid-size and Surveyor 3 was the largest.
Surveyor vehicles utilized 5mm core blocks as the basis for the vehicles. Each part of the Surveyor vehicles were designed to be interchangeable via the 5mm system. The core block itself was also fully motorized and require batteries to operate.
Surveyor-1 set the tone for the other two Surveyor models, and was able to break into smaller specialized vehicles.
Packaging
Surveyor-1 came in a box with futuristic gallery style graphics showcasing some of the combinations possible.
The contents came in a formed vac tray, although my version, pictured above, came in a cardboard version. This might have been an earlier run, and I'm not sure how rare they are.
Mego sold the Surveyor-1 as their Star Seacher vehicle for the Micronauts line. While having the same functionality and design, two distinct differences included replacing the missiles with rubber tipped projectiles to save American kids eyes, and a noticable and arguably more interesting color scheme.
- See Mego Star Searcher here
