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Original Microman Series

1978 Police Keeper & Hoodman

Police Keeper

Microman Series

1974

Microman Zone
The first year included the Founder Microman, Micro Kit Machines, and Conning Tower.

1975

Project Victory
The second year saw more Microman and several new sub-series such as the Acroyears, Titans, and Victory series.

1976

Spy Magician

The line finally came into its own during the third year with new figures and the classic Microman Transfer Fortress.

1977

Command
A watershed year for the Microman series, this year saw some of the best toys for the line. 

1978

Police Keeper

Takara tried new designs and directions for the series with the release of Hoodman and Arden. 

1979

Rescue Team
Takara's "rescue" attempt for the series with the Rescue Team Microman.  This year also saw update of the old favorite like the New Tower Base.

1980

Punch & Blizzard Man
The last year of the original series saw the shift in the line to a more robot-like look and larger figures.

New Microman Series

1981

New Microman
Takara reset the line and relaunched the series under the New Microman banner.

1982

Micro Robot
Micro Robot series became the main focus of the new line.  Takara also tried to cash in on the "pla-mo" popularity with Real Type and Micro Borg.

1983

Micro Change
The "transformation" for hte Microman series began with the Micro Change series.

1984

Transformers

Takara continued with the successful Micro Change series but the changing of the guard was inevitable.

If 1977 was the height of the Microman series. Then 1978 surely marked the decline for the series.  This year saw heavy competition from other series especially in the sci-fi space theme with the popularity of the Star Wars movie and many that followed. Only one Microman type was released this year, the M23X type Microman Police Keeper. However, Takara introduced two new series of figures for the line, the first was the diminutive size Microman called Micro Hoodman and the second was the Ardens - a newly arrived enemy from planet Arden.

ACTION-FIGURES

 

Micro Hoodman Series
  H70X Type
  H71X Type 

  H72X Type (1979)

Microman Series
  M23X Type Police Keeper

Arden Series 

  A35X Type Cosmo Satan Arden

Titan Series
  T53X Type Titan Space Knight
  T54X Type Titan Space Condor

  T55X Type Titan Space Dober

 

Micro Knight Series

  MC-X Type Micro Knight

VEHICLES & PLAYSET

 

Hoodman Kit-Machine Series
  1 Hood Liner
  2 Hood Gyro
  3 Hood Cart
  4 Hood Cessna
  5 Hood Racer
  6 Hood Jetter
  7 Hood Roader
  8 Hood Fighter
  9 Hood Buggy
  10 Hood Winder

Police Keeper Car Series
  Climb Leader
  Air Roader

Hoodman Space Series
 
Micro NASA

Speed Machine Series
Speed Jumper

Base Series - Play Build Series
  Build Base

  1 Build Lancer
  2 Build Crane

  3 Build Bazooka

Mecha Series
  Arden Robo

Robotman Series
  Robotman 2

 

  Mego - Micronauts Phobos

 

PREMIUM & EXCLUSIVES

 

Store Premium Microman
 
Gold Plated M134 Type

  Silver Plated M144 Type

  M131 Type with black pelvic

  M133 Type with gold-plated legs

 

Microman Police Keeper Story

Micro Hoodman were seafaring Micro-race who had shrunk themselves into  smaller size by using the alpha H-7 energy.   Their small size allow them to conserve food and supply while they travel the stars in RCB Noah interstellar ship. Each Micro Hoodman come with a special hood helmet that allowed them to function in hash environment.

Micro-Comet was detected to enter Jupiter orbit.  When Microman went to investigate they found the Police Keeper Microman emerged from the Micro-comet core.  The Police Keeper Microman are well trained in the art of weapon.  They each came with special pulse wave energy gun and power generator backpack.

There were actually two themes running this year. The first was the arrival of Microman space colonist - Micro Hoodman and the second theme was Police Keeper, Microman who emerged from Micro-Comet. The Hoodman began as a spin-off series from Microman but was soon incorporated as part of Microman's line. Takara actually introduced Hoodman toys toward the end of the Command series in late 1977. The Hoodman were a long-lost Microman race that set out on space exploration long ago from Micro Earth and became space-faring Microman. The Hoodman figures were slightly smaller than standard Microman figures, and they stood only 8cm tall. Each Hoodman came with a protective Hood "Armored" helmet that resembled an astronaut's suit.  The Hoodman also had a painted face instead of the usual chrome. During the second half of 1978, Takara introduced the Police Keeper Microman. The Police Keeper were standard style Microman with the usual chrome head and standard 10cm size. Each figure came with weapon and backpack accessories.

 

 

This year's focus was not on the vehicle or robot but rather on the big playset called Build Base. The Build Base was a large Microman base that utilized the construction toy concept. Though Takara never released any more sets besides the three Play Build accessories, the design was used extensively by Mego for their Micronauts City series. Besides the Play Build series, Takara also released ten small rubber band power vehicles - the Hoodman Kit Machines.  There were also two battery power vehicles; Air Roader and Climb Leader, both utilized the magnet activation system. Takara also released an unusual "display" piece - a Space Shuttle vehicle called Micro NASA for the Hoodman.  Takara released only two big robots for the Police Keeper line, the first was Arden Robo and the second was a retooled Robotman toy called Robotman 2.

By the end of 1978, Microman's popularity was on the decline and many of the Police Keeper and Hoodman series of toys were canceled such as the rest of the Play Build toys, a small bike that would be a companion piece to Speed Jumper, and the large remote control vehicle - Hoodman's RCB Noah. Takara also released the last of the Titans series in 1978 called Titan Space Knight. The Space Knights consisted only of two new figures and a repaint of the old Titan Condor and Titan Dober. In the early part of 1979, Takara released the remnants of the Police Keeper toys such as the second Microman Police Keeper type and the last Micro Hoodman type (the chrome heads). The second Police Keeper Microman were metallic plated medieval knight armor suit figures called Micro Knights.  Micro Knights were, however not Microman in the truest sense, they were actually androids built by Microman Police Keeper to fight the Ardens. These Micro Knights figures were some of the most decorative and elaborately detailed figures in the Microman series.

1978-79 Microman Catalog insert