"Sure Bets" in Palisades Micronauts: a reference list.

[AcroRay]

Palisades' Micronauts had a pretty bad hit-or-miss quality control record, which understandably sours many collectors to them. But there are a lot of really great figures in the line that at least meet and often exceed Mego's workmanship, in my experience. So as far as Palisades' Micronauts are concerned, I can advise some "sure-bets" as far as reliable quality is concerned. These will give you a good crowd of Micronauts toys to enjoy shopping for, opening and playing with yourself or - dare I say it - with the kids!

Transparents were always an issue (which was a shame, since transparent figures were a keystone of the line, I think), but most of the opaque toys worked out quite nicely. Series one has the worst QC by far, but there are even some real winners in that set as well.

Excellent Palisades Micronauts, great QC and compatibility with vintage Micronauts:

Red/White "Hero" Acroyear (series 1.5)
Red classic-style Membros (series 1)
Black Membros (series 1)
Black/Gold opaque Time Traveler (series 1)
Red/silver opaque Time Traveler (series 1)
Lee's AFN&TR Black "test-shot" style Time Traveler (series 1)
Green opaque Galactic Defender (series 2)
Blue opaque Galactic Defender (series 2)
Black opaque Galactic Defender (series 2)
Black/Blue classic-style Centaurus (series 2)
Black/Purple Centaurus (series 2)
Red/Gray Pharoid (series 2)
White/Green Pharoid (series 2)
Blue/Black Pharoid (series 2)
Green/Red classic-style Repto (series 2)
Blue Repto (series 2)
Blue/Red classic-style Red Falcon (series 2)
Military Green Red Falcon (series 2)
Black/gold classic-style Emperor & Megas set (series 2)
White/purple Emperor & Megas set (series 2)
Gold Baron Karza/Andromeda set (series 1)


Pretty-Good Micronauts: have some regular flaws, but are absolutely worth picking up if you don't mind doing a tweak or repair yourself because they're otherwise great looking figures with decent QC:

Gold/Red "Hero Factory" Space Glider (series 1)
[may have loose elbow rivets]

"Space Commander" Space Glider (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing.]

"Time Medic" Time Traveler playset (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck and inner shoulder joints. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing. Delicate work, but the whole playset is great!]

Micropolis Embassy "Bioscan" Membros (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck and inner shoulder joints. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing. Delicate work!]

"Radioactive" Membros (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck and inner shoulder joints. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing. Delicate work!]

Clear blue/white Pharoid (series 2)
[may develop cracked or broken transparent body parts]

Gold Acroyear (series 1)
[5mm sockets & posts are inconsistently sized, and not compatible with vintage Micronauts or for full interchangeability with itself!]

Grey/Silver Acroyear (series 1)
[5mm sockets & posts are inconsistently sized, and not compatible with vintage Micronauts or for full interchangeability with itself!]

Grey/Purple Acroyear (series 1)
[5mm sockets & posts are inconsistently sized, and not compatible with vintage Micronauts or for full interchangeability with itself!]


For collectors who repair, kitbash and take advantage of the play value of the Micronauts interchangeability, I'll note that any Palisades Micronaut is worth picking up if it can be picked up for a couple of bucks. Each one comes with a stand for either standard Micronaut feet or the unique Micronaut alien foot design (even Acroyear and Centaurus, who don't need stands), and lots of accessories and parts that are typically compatible with the vintage toys for play or repair. You'll often see some competitive bidding for lots of loose Palisades figures on eBay because of this. Also, all Palisades Micronauts were produced in lower quantities than their Mego or GiG counterparts - even Emperor and Red Falcon.


I'll also note that:

Series 2 Pharoids and Galactic Defenders have forearms that are slightly too long, and may force the figures' hands out of their wrist cuffs. Compare them to a vintage figure and trim the forearm back a little with a hobby knife or nail clipper.

Series 2 Red Falcons almost always develop cracks in their clear torso fronts near the screw posts. This seems to be unavoidable.

Series 1 & 1.5 Space Gliders have a small flaw in the inner surface of their left shoulder rotation joints, which may catch as you rotate the shoulder in the torso socket.

Series 1.5 figures (EXCEPT ACROYEAR!) have a rubber tube in their torsos that causes the plastic it touches to melt. This tube provides resistance to the arm rotation and the neck joint. Nearly all hollow-torso Micronauts have this part, but series 1.5's used a grade of rubber that reacts to ABS plastic, unfortunately, quickly causing a melting reaction similar to that seen in vintage 'mushroom missiles', but occurring in months rather than years. The part can be replaced with clear aquarium tubing. (Try it in all your transparent Micronauts for a nice look!) But it takes some careful work to cut it away from the plastic it has melted, and to carefully trim up those plastic surfaces.


This list is also made based on the play value, durability and problems my oldest daughter has had with her collection of Palisades Micronauts. So most of these feature the kid-friendly quality I remembered from my childhood Micronauts. Rachael's Emperor and several Pharoids have spent over a week getting squashed under couch cushions and come away no worse for it. They've shared parts with her vintage Micros, and suffered some of the exact same normal play wear and breakage my collection did when I was a child.

...So, as you can see, this give you a list of between 20-30 excellent Micronaut toys to shop for. That's nearly as many as Mego offered in the full run of their domestic figure series!!!

[ironmanfan]

I only have the red/white Hero Acroyear and the Time Traveler Medic(I have two each carded and two each opened).They are very well made and are just as good as Megos.I had a Baron Karza boxset and that was a nightmare along with a clear Time Traveler.The arms broke off at the elbows when I tried to take it out of the package and the Baron Karza with the Horse had the same problems.

[AcroRay]

.I had a Baron Karza boxset and that was a nightmare along with a clear Time Traveler.The arms broke off at the elbows when I tried to take it out of the package and the Baron Karza with the Horse had the same problems.

Yep - that's common. Not only was the plastic too brittle and the rivets often pressed in far too tightly (or too short and loose for the metal joints on Karza) than they should have been, but the twisty-ties (the factory's doing) torqued the limbs until the often broke or cracked so badly only the packaging was keeping them together. Note that the next two series of figures eliminated them completely.

Did you change the inner shoulder tube on your Time Traveler Medic? PM me if you need help or materials.

[Mok]

I`m still a fan of the vintage guys , Palisades just didn`t interest me but if i had known then that the time traveler medic had extra hands and feet i`d have bought a few .

My mission to fix up my few surviving figures still continues .

[AcroRay]

I`m still a fan of the vintage guys , Palisades just didn`t interest me but if i had known then that the time traveler medic had extra hands and feet i`d have bought a few .

The extra hands & feet are BLACK, however, not white.

So their usefulness is best for customs or for Galactic Defenders.

[samurainoir]

I really dug the display at the Museum this weekend Acroray.

Really wish I had more time for drink it all in.

[danadoll]

Seeing this thread reminds me...Must check Palisades' figures again for the melt issue...None of mine showed any melt, when I checked about a year ago (at least in the figures I had opened)?

I'm hoping they're still fine.

Dana

[danadoll]

Yeah...Some melt going on (some was severe), I admit it, I'm stubborn.

I removed all the rubber tubing from the specific figures from the list...I hated opening the packages, though.

Dana

[tmthor]

Hey ray I have a question my son want's some of the Micros should I give him Palisides or vintage. He is 5 yo He has a couple already (2 vintage & 2 palisades) but he wants some magnos & some of the sets (even the aleins). Just curious what you thoought were better?

[AcroRay]

Well, I'd be careful what you give a 5-year old. Many Micronaut designs are inherently fragile in the hands of a 5-year old no matter who the manufacturer is. And they've got tiny accessories and small missiles that shoot very far and don't meet current toy industry safety standards, particularly for young children. Keep that firmly in mind when you hand over one of these to your kids. Also, be prepared for the disappointment of lost parts.

As for Aliens, you'd be good with the Palisades figures as noted above for Repto and Membros. In the case of Centaurus - it's a fragile design but a neat toy. Palisades' Centaurus brain has a tendency to fall off more easily than Mego's. So keep that in mind if you get him a Centaurus (No pun intended...).

You'll almost certainly want to only get vintage Mego magnos for a 5-year old, except perhaps for Palisades' gray and vintage Emperors, which are just as good as Mego's. Red Falcon is NOT a good or safe toy for a 5-year old, and Palisades' version specifically notes 'adult collectible only, not for children' on the packaging. If you can score a Palisades Series 1 Baron Karza on the really dirt-cheap, you should do so... but not for his 'primary' figure since it'll almost certainly fall apart but it will make for a nice assortment of extra parts and accessories.

If he needs some Time Travelers, then the Palisades red & black ones might be good bets. Mego Pharoids are durable and plentiful, so I'd suggest those. Palisades' series-1 gold, gray-silver and gray-purple Acroyears are OK, and the Series 1.5 red Hero Acroyear is outstanding. Palisades' series 1.5 Time Medic is also good, but you will need to repair the inner shoulder-tube as discussed above, as is Radioactive Membros with the same caveat.

As for playsets and vehicles and whatnot: you can find plenty of basic ones on eBay cheap. Just be aware that many loose ones might suffer from some yellowing plastic, some brittleness, and maybe bad black rubber parts or broken motors. But there are some really good deals regularly, like this:

LOT OF 2 1976 MICRONAUTS CRATER CRUNCHER & RACE CAR - eBay (item 140433960523 end time Aug-04-10 05:49:14 PDT)

[tmthor]

Thanks
I know I was 5 when I got my first Micros.

He's been good with keeping the parts together .
I did give him a Red Falcon he loves it. But I remember my first was Giant Acroyer Then the aleins.

Which leaves me a new question I read somewhere there were no American release Centaurus in the original line yet I got one.

I remember the Cristmas I got it
My Grandmother & I And my Aunt were at Kings (a now defunct retail chain) they tricked me with the "I'm going to a Birthday party for a boy your age what do they like" line.

I remember picking out Centarus. Acroyer, Membros, Antron, Baron Karza.. then I thought to myself wait I want Acroyer (for some reason he was one of my favs) so I put him back thinking if I did I would have a chance at getting him & picked Space glider in stead. (they also got me Hornetroid)
Man you know I never did get Acroyer untill 2 years ago

But then again I was a funny boy I still have most of my toys even from way back then.

[AcroRay]

Thanks
Which leaves me a new question I read somewhere there were no American release Centaurus in the original line yet I got one.

That's completely untrue. The second series of aliens had a much more limited release, but they were released in the US in normal, mass-market retail channels. I have a Kronos and a Centaurus with their original packaging cards, which both came from people who had them surviving from their childhood collections and both came from US chain stores during the line's original run. No surprise you had one, but were still a lucky kid!

Later Mego Micronaut toys just tend to fewer in proportion to the earlier toys in the line, because Mego never deleted anything from their offerings year after year. So the second set of aliens only got a brief year or so of manufacture before the entire line was canceled.

There are more Italian-packaged second-series Aliens because there were greater quantities of them offered in Italy, where they seem to have survived as deadstock rather longer. (The Magno-power toys were the most popular Micronauts items by far in Italy. Perhaps much more than the other toys.)

Green Baron, King Atlas, Lantaurion, Pegasus, Red Falcon & Blizzard were completely exclusive to the Italian Micronauts line by GiG**. Emperor and Megas were intended to be exclusive to GiG, but wound-up released by Lionrock during their odd run of Micronauts products. Ampzilla, Lobstros, Sharkos and the Hyperion wind-up vehicle were intended to be released in North America and quantities of them were packaged with Mego markings, but they were left out when Micronauts was canceled. Some quantities did make it to US stores as a fluke, and they were released in larger quantities in Canada. Most of that quartet found their way to Europe, specifically packaged or re-marked for GiG in italy and sold in both Mego and (iirc!) Airfix packaging in other parts of Europe.

(** After Mego, all of the Micronauts Magno-power figures with the exception of Red Falcon were also offered by ElGreCo in Greece as "Astro Warriors".)

[tmthor]

Thanks for clearing that up I don't remember where I read that but I always thought it was weird that I had one when a website said it was impossible (I got it at kings dept store goes to show you how long ago I got it)
I have vague memories of seeing a Micronauts Emperor at Child World once I remeber asking if I could get it I was told my birthday was comming so no. Never saw it again untill the Interchangeables.

Is there a site that has alot of magno info I know the micro & some of the Takara ones but looking for info on the Knock off & forign release ones.