Acroyear X - AX-12 AcroCleve

Microman 2004 AX-12 AcroCleve was the second member of the Acroyear-X series. Acroyear-X was the evil counterpart to the Microman. The designs of the new Acroyears followed the King Walder designs (enemy of Henshin Cyborg) rather than that of the Acroyears from the original 1970's Microman line. Because of this design concept, the new Acroyear-X might take some getting used to, but since the new Microman designs were more akin to the Henshin Cyborgs, having the bad guy followed the same design philosophy made a lot more sense than turning these villains into the mechanical beings from vintage Microman. However, as in Microman Master Force series, Acroyear-X had plenty of designs that were homage to both Microman and Henshin Cyborg villains. AcroCleve design gave a tribute to several of the old designs. His clear yellow and gold scheme evoked the image of both Yellow King Walder and Acro-Zenon (from the Magne line). His outer chest armor with eyes and fangs was clearly a nod to Henshin Cyborg Alien Invader series and his inner chrome chest armor was a take on Acroyear 2 chest armor design. His wing with two small fans, though a little small, was definitely that of Acroyear 2 wing pack design. It was nothing short of amazing how many old designs got repackaged into this one small figure.

AcroCleve had all clear yellow body with red flame motifs on his chest, shoulders and legs. AcroCleve came with gold armor with dragon-like wing-pack. The front armor had two parts - a clear yellow piece on top of the inner gold chromed chest armor. The wing was well done with a blend of organic and mechanical looks. The "tail" can be removed from the wing pack and used as weapon for AcroCleve. The streamline design gave AcroCleve a less cluttered appearance. He was, however, not without some problems. The clear yellow "ears" on his head were designed to be removable which was not a bad idea but the PVC materials can be tricky to mold and the "ears" had tendency to fall off easily due to less than optimum fit. The "ears" were not glue-on because. curiously, there was molded on design underneath the ears and this allowed the head to be display with the pure "chrome-only" look. AcroCleve came with small PVC dragon-like creature (look like a small wyvern). This appeared to be his "pet" (a dragon pet usually symbolize a wizard or a warlock status) that can be snap on to his body armor or his arm, however, again the PVC materials used suffered some warping and the part had hard time snapping on to the body. The pet can also be split in half and form arm-attachments for AcroCleve just like the old Henshin Cyborg interchangeable arm-attachment design concept.

AcroCleve was probably the least elaborate of the four Acroyear-X figures but his simplistic look was packed with homage to the old series designs. I actually find this figure to be more attractive with less stuff hanging off him. His simple design made him more like the old Cyborg and Microman design as oppose to the busy looks of the recent Microman and Cyborg toys. Although, I never had any problem with Acroyear 2004 series appeared less Acroyear-like and more Walder, AcroCleve strike a very nice balance between the two. I rather find Acroyear-X to be more appealing this way rather than if Takara had turn them into mechanical Acroyears of old. My main gripe was with the PVC material used for his ears and his small dragon "pet". While the idea of making the ears removable so his head can have the all "chromed" look, I often tempted to just glue the ear pieces to his head. I understand that the line was clearly aim at adult collectors and was meant more for display than for to play with but having stuff fall off your toys while doing some posing can be frustrating. The line will need to have serious debugging if Takara want to turn this series into Microman toys for younger generations.

Acroyear-X AcroCleve

AcroCleve possessed "mystical" power and "magic" witchcraft abilities. (I still need to get better translation but it appear he has the ability to become an ethereal being that allow him to chase down his foe)