Dave's Microman Rant:

     Microman Izamu
     Microman Change Trooper SpinLee
     Acroyer Demon Blue

     Got this batch from www.astrotoys.com, which has a better selection and
slightly better prices than Mamer.  The site works as a sort of search
engine, which is both weird and very slow, and was presumably done to
simplify things from the webmaster's end.  I ordered last Tuesday night, got
the package today (Wednesday).  Postage STARTS at $6, however, so if you only
want one or two small things, Mamer may be a better buy after factoring in
shipping. 

CAPSULES

     Izamu: Good poseability, nice magnets, a bit lacking in other areas.
Mildly recommended.  $7.99 at Astrotoys.
     SpinLee: Good poseability, okay magnets, so-so transformation, okay
vehicle mode, interesting unintentional gimmick.  Mildly recommended.  $7.99
at Astrotoys.
     Demon Blue: Great poseability, looks cool, good magnets, great built-in
weapon.  A bit floppy, though.  Recommended.  $7.99 at Astrotoys.

     Note: I'm going to go out on a limb at say that the other four Microman
characters (Arthur, Edison, etc) are about the same as Izamu.  And, of
course, Demon Green and Demon Red are identical to Demon Blue except in
color.  

RANTS

     Packaging: Same as with DrillJoe.  The entire front of the card is
covered in plastic, and the card can be slipped in and out, making it a lot
easier to reuse this package for storage once you've taken the toy out to
play with.

     Izamu: She stands 8cm (3.5") tall and is molded from clear plastic and
grey plastic, with violet paint and gold chrome bits.  The jointing of the
legs and the right arm are pretty much GIJoe-ish, although her waist doesn't
move and the head is just on a swivel, not a ball joint.  The left arm has a
universal joint shoulder, but the rest of the arm only has a swivel for
turning the weapon hand.  Disappointingly, the left arm not only lacks an
elbow, it's also significantly shorter than the right arm, as shown by the
tiny fist molded into the side.  Too bad they couldn't have gone the extra
step and made the arm weapon removable, since this figure is totally lacking
in any accessories as it is.
     Izamu and the other Micromen MagnaWarriors have four magnets in them.
Both feet, left hand and chest.  Thanks to its casing, the chest magnet isn't
strong enough to keep the figure from sliding down a metal wall, but the
figure can dangle from it on the corner of a table.  Three of the magnets
have the same polarity.  For the sake of argument, I'm going to say that
these three have the North side facing out.  The one with South facing out is
on the right foot.  However, since a picture on Demon Blue shows Arthur
sticking to an Acroyear's chest with the "wrong" foot, I'm not sure this is a
consistent pattern.  Maybe one foot at random is South while everything else
is North.  The reason I think there's some design to this is that Demon Blue
has opposite polarities, meaning that Microman and Acroyear stick together
easily, but, well, like repels like.  }->
     Being lighter than the Change Troopers and having two foot-magnets
rather than one, Izamu and the others are much more stable walking on metal
surfaces.  Oh, and because they have GIJoe-style right hands rather than peg
holes, they can hold spare GIJoe or Star Wars weapons you may have around.

     SpinLee: I've seen this listed as Spinri, Spinly and other variants, but
I like SpinLee because of the ties to DrillJoe (which I've seen as
DrillShow).  His robot mode is the standard 8cm (3.5") tall and is from the
same mold as DrillJoe.  The only variation is in the chest, head and weapon.
However, for some reason, possibly related to the batch of plastic used, it
doesn't hold together quite as well as DrillJoe.  His chest has a big
sawblade on it, making him VERY front-heavy and diffcult to stand up on a
non-ferrous surface.  He has the same two North-facing magnets DrillJoe has.
His hand weapon is interesting because it can be held either as another
sawblade or as a big fist...since it does become a fist when the vehicle mode
is attached to a MicRobotMan.  Oh, and because of his chest weapon, he cannot
ride any of the other Change Troopers in their vehicle modes.
     Transformation is quite simple, and again things don't quite snap
together as firmly here as on DrillJoe.
     The vehicle mode is a pretty good sawblade-wheeled motorscyle which
DrillJoe can just barely ride and whick Izamu rides with ease (especially
since her chest magnet sticks to the metal stud on the vehicle mode.  The
robot arms normally extend over the fork of the front wheel, but can be used
as kickstands.  About my only real problem with the vehicle mode is that
while it looks like a dirtbike, the handlebars are so far down that it can't
be ridden like a dirtbike.
     There's an extra little "science toy" trick you can do in vehicle mode
(or in robot mode, but not as well).  Roll the rear wheel over any rigid
surface, like the floor or a tabletop while keeping the front wheel off the
surface.  The front wheel will start to spin on its own from the vibrations
of the rear sawtooth.  This works roughly the same way as those wooden
propellor toys you may have seen.  A propellor at the end of a notched stick
will turn when you rub another stick over the notches.  

     Demon Blue: A gigantic 9cm (a little over 3.5") tall, Demon Blue's
design makes him look bigger than that.  Especially the big feet and small
head.  He has ball joints for shoulders, elbows, neck, waist (although this
is a limited motion ball), hips and knees, plus a sort of swiveling right
wrist.  Unfortunately, the joints are a tad loose.  He can hold a pose, but
it takes very little to knock him out of position.  Made from silver chrome,
dark grey and translucent blue plastic with metallic light blue paint, Demon
Blue combines both robotic and skeletal aspects.  Just on looks alone, this
is one cool action figure.  And while his hands are just peg holes, he has a
slot on his left forearm that will hold the grip of a Star Wars pistol or
rifle. 
     But that's not all!  He has the same magnetic gimmicks as Izamu, but
with opposite polarities so that he can cling to Micromen.  His magnets are
strong enough that he can hang by one of them while Izamu clings to him,
which is cool.  Plus his big feet make him more stable in hanging poses by
reducing the mechanical advantage gravity has using his body as a lever.  And
the big toes let him pose non-magnetically in a variety of stable poses.
     And that's STILL not all!  His right hand is a big spherical BB launcher
that works under the same basic principle as other marble shooters (and
Cyberjet missiles, etc).  The range is, well, don't fire it in a cluttered
room.  I launched one about 5-6 meters down the hall, being smart enough not
to try it in my cluttered room.  Woulda bounced off the wall anyway.  It
comes with four translucent blue balls 6mm in diameter.  One reason this toy
would never come to the U.S....the ball shooter wouldn't make it past child
safety laws.  So even if a miracle occurred and someone brought Microman 99
over intact, the Demons would have to lose the launchers.  Or maybe get one
big missile with a ball at the back.

     Dave Van Domelen, maybe a big plastic shield would snap into the
launcher and fire a few inches....