ML1-01 Commanderlady Diane

Microman 2004 ML1-01 Commanderlady Diane was the first member of Micro Lady series. (Micro Lady series were female counterpart to the last year Microman 2003 Micro Force series). Commanderlady Diane used the new female version of Full Action Body which derived from the Micro Force body combined with Cool Girls body (1/6 scale action doll produced by Takara in conjunction with bbi). Diane was female counterpart to last year Micro Force Commander Microman. In her "naked mode" Diane followed the same basic color scheme as Commander Microman. (And obviously also the same "commando" theme). The body was molded in smoke clear plastic with maroon trim (slightly brighter than Commander Microman). Diane had the medium size bust (Female Full Action Body came with three different bust sizes just like Cool Girls body). Dianne had heart shape design on her chest to give her more feminine look (Shina had butterfly design, they reminded me of those butt stamps tattoo I saw on my daughter's "My Little Pony" horse). Diane had short hair with clear futuristic visor around her eyes. Diane came with six extra pairs of hands in red color. The hands now came on tree socket that hold the spare hands when not in used.
Initially, I preferred Commanderlady to Ninjalady but after playing around with both figures, I found Shina to be slightly better design. The main problem with Diane was the difficulty in posing the figure due to all the over hanging accessories. (Though she do looked really nice as you can see from the pictures once you finally get all the pieces in placed.) The figure stand well on her own even with the giant size bazooka on her back. I am not sure if Takara will do the other two member of Micro Force (Gunner and Spy) in female form but I would rather they would just moved on and do something more akin to the Master Force for the next Micro Lady series.
Commanderlady came with chromed plated armor with futuristic army-style chest armor. She came with several more accessories than her male counterpart from last year Micro Force. Beside the assault rifle (Micro Blaster P3) she also came packing with a giant shoulder mount cannon (Micro Bazuka?04) along with M-GPS (GPS unit) and a combat knife. Diane armor was designed to hold all the weapon including the leg straps that hold extra cartridge for the Blaster P3 and the M-GPS unit. All the armors and weapons stayed on pretty securely with the only cumbersome piece being the arm strap that hold the knife (which kept slipping down or get in the way especially when the knife was being stored). The big bazooka was mount on ball joint and can be swivel around to the desire position.


ML1-01 Commanderlady Diane

ML1-01 Commanderlady Diane without gear
Packaging
Microman 2004 came in beautifully done removable blister card style packaging. The backing card had very nice picture of the toy with all the accessories on display in the blister window. As a nice touch, the blister had the "O" design (in MICROMAN logo) molded on. While the cylinder tube 2003 series was nice and compact, the new blister was definitely more attractive looking.


Accessories
Microman 2004 came with new style figure stand. The stand features Microman "Da Vinci" style logo emboss on clear plastic with two styles of pegs - one for the newer Microman figures and one for the vintage figures with 5mm port.

