Random Ravings 7 - Kung Fu Kapers

I was in the midst of writing a piece on a certain 40th birthday party I attended last weekend but, it's turned into a much bigger piece than expected, so that's to come later. I've not watched any new TV series or movies recently and I only part way through my latest novel. What to do?

Well strangely my 87 year old father came to the rescue. I popped in to visit him yesterday morning and he was in the midst of a clear out of the loft space - specifically disposing of a number of old suitcases that he felt he no longer needs. Having helped him bring the cases down from the loft, a couple didn't feel quite so empty as he expected. Opening them up, we discovered that one contained my brothers "Hornby" electric train set. Trains, carriages, tracks - everything was there. The other case contained these:

I took that picture on my phone today. That's the majority of my "Micronauts" action figures from the 1970s - which I thought had been thrown away decades ago !

So I'm kind of breaking my own rules here slightly as this is not going to be a review of something recent, but more about something I've *found* recently - and sharing the giddy excitement that a nearly 50 year old man can still get when he claps eyes on a lost piece of his childhood...

I've written here before about how the "Micronauts" comic was one of the first full colour titles I ever discovered and how that led to a lifetime's interest in US format comics. I keep promising myself that one day I'll do a detailed issue-by issue look back at those stories and try and put into words exactly what they mean to me.

But these simple plastic toys, I'll be honest - I seriously *loved* them. Out of all the games and playthings I had as a child, the "Interchangeable World of the Micronauts" has always been the one I remember with the most happiness. Part was the otherworldly look of them and part was that thanks to the universal connectors and "magno-action" function you could mix almost any combination of parts to design your own creations. Add to that a brothers favourite thing of firing rubber and plastic missiles at his sibling and you had one of the best toy series in the world. Just looking at the names of the various sets and figures sends waves of nostalgia through me. Microtron. Biotron. Time Traveller. Baron Karza. Force Commander. Giant Acroyear. Phobos. the Astro Station. All brilliant.

Many years ago when I left my parents home to make my own way in the world I had rescued the evil Baron Karza from the clutches of my brother before he claimed ownership - but he had no box and was missing many of his pieces including his hands (which fired from his wrists) and most of the other accessories. Now here in this rediscovered treasure trove are all the lost elements, along with Karza's nemesis, the white clad Force Commander:

Looking across the items  laid out on the table it's clear to see that the cardboard containers have seen far, far better days. These were toys that were lovingly played with - not kept pristine in a sealed box. A few small pieces are missing or glued together and Phobos seems to have lost his cow-like silver head (that's Acroyear's head on the black body on the right of the picture) and one hand. But a bit of internet detective work proved that 99% of Acroyear and the Astro Station is there and Biotron still has his Time Traveller sitting in his chest compartment. I'm not sure I have the guts to try and find batteries to fit the compartments and see if either of the giant robots can still walk or travel on the rubber tank tracks attached to their backs. Microtron also looks a little dusty and worse for wear but nothing a little TLC won't cure.
 

There were a couple of other Micronaut toys that I remember we had at some point - in particular two vehicles called Hydra and the Photon Sled which you could wind up and make shoot across the floor. There was no sign of them in that suitcase so I have to assume that they were broken and thrown away. Still there is always a chance that they are laying abandoned in some other dusty corner of the loft...

These were the only ones that we ever were bought. There were many more released in the UK - including a whole range of vehicles - Crater Cruncher, Hydro Copter, Betatron, Gammatron, Aquatron and the Ultronic Scooter are the few I can remember - plus the huge looking Battle Cruiser and Star Defender and a 14 inch tall "Mobile Exploration Lab" There were also amazing looking "horses" for Baron Karza and Force Commander - called Andromeda and Oberon - that you could combine to turn the two leaders into centaur-people.

But you'll notice that the logo on these boxes is "Airfix" and not "Mego". That's because Airfix licensed the toys for the UK market from the US company. The problem with that is that the leaflets that accompanied the toys were the original Mego ones, and that meant British kids saw pictures of a vast number of weird and wonderful Micronauts that they had no chance of ever getting because they were just not released in the UK. Some of the smaller pieces didn't matter so much but who didn't want the simply mega-tastic "Stratastation" or the exotic Terraphant, Pharoid or Hornetroid. I know I did!

A quick look on eBay shows that good condition copies of these vintage toys can sell for quite a lot of money - one of the reason that I abandoned trying to rebuild the collection a long, long time ago. Even spares and odd parts seem to be popular. I'm so happy that they have turned up now. Maybe I can persuade my wife to let me buy just a couple more...