Acroyear X-2 Series

AX-21 AcroPhantom and AX-22 AcroMedalg

AL-21 AcroElsa and AL-22 AcroPlana

Microman 2004 Acroyear X-2 Series was released on Jan. 27th, 2005. The series was delayed from the original December release date and one of the last Microman series for the 2004 line-up as the line moved on to the 2005 Magne Force series to be debuted in April. Acroyear X-2 as the name suggested was the followed up series to the Acroyear X. However instead of four Acroyear, the series was split into two Acroyear figures (AX-21 AcroPhantom and AX-22 AcroMedalg) and two Acro Lady figures (AL-21 AcroElsa and AL-22 AcroPlana). Acroyear X-2 followed the same sci-fi / fantasy theme of the Acroyear X and Acro Lady series with elements from many of the recent popular Japanese anime and manga.

AX-21 AcroPhantom

AX-21 AcroPhantom was the only figure in the X-2 series that did not have some kind of new tooling for the body. However, Phantom was not without a new material, his armor instead of the chrome parts was made with rubber PVC. The use of rubber suit gave the designer more flexibility but as with most soft materials there always problem with fit. The suit overall was very well made and fit well to body with little or no trouble, the problem came in when one try to connect the chrome accessories like his weapon and his necklace piece to the suit. AcroPhantom had clear body (this is the third clear body for the Acroyear side) with blue "tattoos" flame design. The decision for the clear body was probably to match his "phantom" name. His head design was very interesting with clear piece that fit atop his head (to give him some reference to AcroScorl, but he remind me of Hakaider). The decoration on his body was a bit too light and doesn't show up well which was too bad since he has such a nice design motif. Phantom came with only one accessory his hammer called Death-Grave. The weapon was an obvious reference to a certain popular anime. Death-Grave can be reconfigured into a "wheelchair" trike for Phantom but it look rather goofy than menacing.

AX-22 AcroMedalg

AX-22 AcroMedalg (Medal-lug) was one of the figures in the X-2 series that used some new tooling for the body (the other one was AcroElsa and AcroPlana). Medalg (who was previously called AcroGolem) had bulkier torso and arms than the standard Microman Full Action body. Medalg's design was very unusual with lug-nut head and oversize arms and legs armors. The armors was not snap on design but actually hold together by small screws, so in order to remove the arm and leg armors, one actually need small screwdriver to take them off. (The figure came with the arm and legs armors already on). The arm pieces were very well design with fully articulated claws that mounted on ball joint. The figure came with chrome chest piece and rocket booster pack. Since his armor set was design by Voltech, it was nice to see similar design elements show up on AcroMedalg. The figure came with set of hands (plus the two open fist that usually came ship with the figure). The wrist of the figure has small ridge that allowed the armors to twist. While the use of small screw made the armor harder to remove, it was rather nice to have the armor that stay snug and secure on the body.

AL-21 AcroElsa

AL-21 AcroElsa was one of the figures in the X-2 series that used some new tooling for the body (the other one was AcroPlana and AcroMedalg). AcroElsa had retool pelvic section along with new feet design (barefoot). Elsa had one of the more interesting color scheme with clear pink body and white camouflage pattern over her body. She also sported silver badge on the right side of her chest. With the exception of Plana, Takara seems to go for "less is more" design for the X-2 series. AcroElsa had very little accessories and armor pieces. She came with two arm-wings, four bracelets (in metallic pink) and wand (complete with heart shape motif). However, while she might lack in accessories, Elsa came with a cool animal cat pet sidekick. This was the first full size "pet" figure to appeared in the new 2004 series and a nice homage to the pet figures found in the vintage Microman series. The jungle cat (AcroPanther) was done in clear purple with compartment for the extra accessories and several 5mm and 2.5mm ports and connectors. The pet parts can be used as accessories for AcroElsa to change her appearance even the cat head can be remove and used on Elsa so she appeared to have mechanical cat head (the head seem to be a homage to Microman Odin from the Magne series). Aside from the cat head and purple cat mask, Elsa even came with interchangeable hair style so she can appeared with pig-tail hairstyle.

AL-22 AcroPlana

The following is my paraphrasing from a translated image of AcroPlana’s packagin card back: Acroplana takes the form of a well endowed female who uses her bewitching charm against her opponents. She has a terrifying presence that resembles Medusa, with large tentacles emerging from a mouthlike structure on the back of her head. The three tentacles can act independently, entangling prey and sucking their blood. Her luminous body can lure opponents closer so that she may strike with her poisonous fangs. She’s particularly dangerous at night.

I usually think of the Acroyear as being on the evil side, so AcroPlana's severe appearance makes sense to me, as compared to AcroElsa, who looks cute and friendly. Acroplana looks like some feverish nightmare demoness, despite or beautifully done but odd green and semi-translucent white color scheme. Base on the packaging description, you might want to avoid those tentacles.