Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Micronauts....


For some reason, today I was thinking about another toy that I enjoyed in my Childhood. They were called the “Micronauts”, small metallic colored figures from a alternate dimension.


The first I ever got, and by far my Favorite was “Space Glider” He had a helmet and a spring loaded “flight pack” that the wings sprang up when you pressed a little button. Then there was Acroyear, The evil alien who was always battling Space Glider. I only ever remember having those two of the normal guys but I had “Force Commander” and “Baron Karza” (who was the Black overlord of the bad guys) who were larger figures that had magnetically connected parts that you could swap around.


As much as I loved the Toys, I have to say I was a nut for the Marvel Comic tie in. I remember buying the first issue at the 7-11 off the revolving Comic rack and would go there every visit looking for the next issue. The story was, The Micronauts came from another Dimension and crossed over into ours (fleeing Baron Karza) the problem was, they were only action figure size here in our world. I ate it up, I loved that book.


I am amazed at times, when I watch my (or other) children play, and a simple block becomes so much more, a car or a space ship, A knight or a astronaut. It always has me thinking of when I was a kid. I wonder sometimes if Children are losing that “Imaginary spark”, with toys like the Micronauts, when they first came out, there was no manual of “how to play with” or “press f1 to” things... besides maybe a 2 sentence blurb, it was your imagination that built their world and fought their battles. I’d like to think that Imagination isnt just the “property” of the young and besides the obvious (films, art and books) Imagination is the fuel of progress.... to loss that spark would be awful.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had Glider Guy, and I have to thank you. I never had any idea of who he was, where he came from, or even who he belonged to. I think maybe my brother stole or found it and it ended up in my possession. Now I know! And knowing is half....

Dave Starks said...

I, too loved the Micronauts toys back in the day...the toys were aesthetically quite beautiful and the ability to take them apart and re-assemble them in myriad ways fired my imagination big time...I remember asking for the Battle Cruiser one birthday and then getting it...I was happy as a clam for days...they are based on a japanese line of toys called "Micro Man" and are a direct descendant of the Transformers, if you can believe that...