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Micro Machines: Past and Future
Thursday, December 14, 2006
By the Recovering Collector
Remember the Micro Machines by Galoob? Introduced in the 1980s, this popular line introduced scaled down miniature vehicles a little over an inch long. They were brightly painted and detailed. Often they were part of a series such as emergency vehicles, race cars, military vehicles and so on. But my favorites were the lines based on popular science fiction programs and movies like Star Trek and Star Wars. They even had lines from the Alien and Men in Black movies and the one from the T.V. series Babylon 5 and Power Rangers. The heyday for these kinds of Micro Machines was in the 90s.
These were well-rendered replicas of the futuristic space ships that had little plastic display stands to give the tiny toys an appearance of floating on air. You could buy them separately in a plastic packaging that held three vehicles or you could have held out for a collector set which is what I often did. The reason was that exclusive vehicles were included with that set as an incentive for someone who had a majority of the vehicles in that series. Sometimes variants of the exclusives would pop up which fueled demand for the items that continues to this day. An interesting take of the variants was in the availability of different paint jobs. Sometimes sets came with an all-silver or copper finish giving the vehicles a pewter or metallic look.
However collectors had difficulties when it came to storing or displaying their Micro Machines. The packaging took up a lot of shelf space and frankly the toys looked better and stood out more when they were taken out of the packaging (which for those that care ruined the value of their collection). This led to another problem in that since they were so small it was easy to loose them. This happened with the smaller craft like the tiny shuttle crafts seen in the shows. Also the stands bent too easily forcing you to just place the Micro Machine on the table by itself. Still the toys were fun to collect.
Sadly things changed when Hasbro acquired the Micro Machines line and it withered out. The Star Trek series ended in 1997 while the Star Wars finished around 1999. Today the brand name still lives on (and is still big in Europe) mainly with racing cars and the logo is seen as recently as 2005 for some Star Wars vehicles (featuring ships, vehicles and figurines from the original trilogy), but it is a mere shadow of what it once was.
But something new has emerged from the memory of Micro Machines, the Titanium die cast series. This collection is extensively used for the ever-expanding Star Wars line, but a handful of vehicles from the new Battlestar Galactica T.V. show are available as well as a good amount of Transformers. Now measuring about three inches and sold individually, the heir to the Micro Machines can be enjoyed by those who still remember fondly the original series. They too come with display stands that now have the logo of the film or show on them. The packaging is more attractive than the original but their bubble shape still creates a headache when it comes to storage but it's more durable. A nice touch is that the back of the packaging (which has the Micro Machines and Galoob brand logo) features technical specs of the ship and a bit on the story behind it. For instance, the packaging for the Colonial One space ship from Battlestar Galactica talks about how it was once a standard shuttle that became the fictional president's mode of transport.
Hasbro also sells the Titanium series in sets which was done for the more popular Star Wars ships. But an interesting version of the series is one about individual characters. Seeming more like mini-statues with attractive stands and enclosed in a bubble, they come off looking like small versions of the Star Wars Unleashed toys. Only a few figures have been made and are of the more colorful characters like Darth Vader, Boba Fett and the Cylon Centurion. They are poseable and listed as being a limited edition piece (they are kind of hard to find in stores). They are an interesting offshoot of the Micro Machines concept.
Micro Machines as collectors knew it may be gone but part of it still lives on. Maybe one day nostalgia for the series could bring it back.
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