Did Mego release the first Acroyear in the 'Mad Blue' color?

[acrovader]

Once in a blue moon I come across the first Micronaut Acroyear figure, not in the usual pale blue chrome, but in the Microman 'Mad Blue' color. Could've Mego done some of these in the original Microman color? Rarely do I find these, but they are passed off as the Micronaut figure and not the Microman figure- usually sold in a lot with other Micronaut toys. I wonder if Mego produced a small number of Acroyears with the Microman Acroyear 'Mad' colors. In fact, I think I might've come across an American seller selling the green Mego Acroyear that looked more like the 'Mad Green' Acroyear.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I think they did.... I can remember one from my youth. They might have repackaged some Microman ones too.

Don C.

[biotrontim]

Yes, the early release were the three Mad pink, blue and green. I have seen the pink and blue in the flesh and have heard of the green being produced also.

[geotroid]

Micronauts collector "Facehammer" sought out loose samples of Mego Acroyears with the deepest color saturation that he could find. He photographed them in a light box and did side-by-side comparisons with the common Mego Acroyears with the "faded" hues. You'll be pleased to see that he has a rich Mego "Mad Green" as well.

This is the first photo in his Flickr photo stream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/facehammer/5170599639/in/set-72157623789422153/

To see more "Mad" Mego Acroyears, click the right arrow under "This photo also appears in" on the right sidebar.

Its unknown why there are Acroyears with the richer color saturation. Maybe Takara chromed the parts for Mego before Mego got their Hong Kong factory into full production, but then they'd have to ship them of to Hong Kong which would negate cost efficiency. Or maybe Mego started out with the rich colors and then the QC went downhill or it was deemed cheaper to use less pigment. Or they were removed from the chrome bath too quickly in order to speed production.

Ray or Facehammer probably have better hypothesis as to why, but the exact reason may never be verified.

[ctc]

>Its unknown why there are Acroyears with the richer color saturation.

I think there were some cases of the earliest runs of Mego figures being repackaged Microman ones. As I recall there were a few Pharoids out there with the original Microman head as well.

Don C.

[AcroRay]

Takara provided production services in Japan for the initial releases of Micronaut toys derived from Takara's Microman products. Those Takara-made toys sold by Mego are usually marked simply "Japan" on their backsides, and were produced under the same QC as Takara's Microman toys, with occasional tooling changes for safety at Mego's request. Using Takara as a manufacturer proved too expensive, and Mego eventually created their own tooling for the Takara-originated toys and manufactured the toys in Hong Kong, resulting in both intentional and unintentional changes. For whatever reason, Mego's coloring on the Acroyears' chrome was less-intense. Perhaps they simply spread the paint more thinly to conserve dyes.