Who ripped off who? Metal Man- Roton or Super Joe- the Shield?

[acrovader]

The heads are uncannily similar. Logic would suggest the smaller toy company stole the design for the head. But I think Metal Man figures hit the shelves sometime in 1976- before Super Joe (at least, I saw a 1976 Christmas catalog listing Metal Man).

Assuming that Metal Man was released in 1976, is it fair to assume that those figures aren't a spin-off of the Micronauts, since the Micronauts didn't show up in the stores until sometime in 1977? Or that whomever designed Metal Man figures beat MEGO to the punch with the earlier release date.

I always assumed Metal Man was released as a result of the Micronaut popularity.

It's like, what came first- the chicken or the egg...

[palitoy]

The answer is the Metal Men ripped off some early Takara Microman stuff. I've spoken about them to Ray at Micropolis before but my memory cheats right now.

As for the uncanny resemblance to the shield, yeah it's pretty similiar..

[palitoy]

Look familiar?

Super Steel Microman Series - Geeg Gakeen

[acrovader]

Wow. Metal Man beat the Micronauts to the punch!

[Trappy Trek Freak]

Were metal men later like an Army soldier and an Astronaut? I had those I remember getting them at K-Mart.

[acrovader]

There was the soldier, astronaut, a policeman, 3 robots, and another figure. The only figures I never had were the soldier and the construction worker type guy. Metal Man toys were awesome and fit well with Micronauts/Microman.

[biotrontim]

http://www.bugeyedmonster.com/toys/metalman/

The Metal Man figure that you are referring to is ROTON who happens to be my most favorite 3 3/4 figure and the only one I still have from my childhood. Its funny you bring this up, I just discovered the Shield figure about 2 weeks ago. Me being a product of the eighties I wasn't too familiar with the Super-Joe line. I was going through a bin of 6mdm and Joe parts I got from my "supplier" and there he was! just his torso, head and shield arm. I was floored!