"Sure Bets" for Palisades Micronauts toys!

Palisades' Micronauts had a pretty wild hit-or-miss quality control record, which has understandably soured many collectors to them. But there are a lot of really great figures in the line that at least meet and very often exceed Mego's workmanship, in my experience.

I can advise some "sure-bets" among Palisades' Micronauts as far as reliable quality is concerned, so that collectors don't miss out on a lot of great Micronauts toys. These will give you a good crowd of Micronauts to enjoy shopping for, opening, playing with and maybe - dare I say it - sharing with the kids!

As a general rule, the transparent Micronaut figures were a constant issue for Palisades' Micronauts - which was a shame also since transparent figures were a keystone of the Micronauts' design style. But most of their opaque toys worked out quite nicely. Palisades produced 3 series of Micronauts toys: Series 1, Series 1.5 (which was sold via their web store), and Series 2. Series one has the infamously worst QC by far, but there are even some real winners in that set as well. Some figures in each series also had special editions unique to certain retail and hobby-interest sources.

Excellent Palisades Micronauts have great QC and compatibility with vintage Micronauts:

Red/White "Hero" Acroyear (series 1.5)
Red classic-style Membros (series 1)
Black Membros (series 1)
Black/Gold opaque Time Traveler (series 1)
Red/silver opaque Time Traveler (series 1)
Lee's AFN&TR Black "test-shot" style Time Traveler (series 1)
Green opaque Galactic Defender (series 2)
Blue opaque Galactic Defender (series 2)
Black opaque Galactic Defender (series 2)
Black/Blue classic-style Centaurus (series 2)
Black/Purple Centaurus (series 2)
Red/Gray Pharoid (series 2)
White/Green Pharoid (series 2)
Blue/Black Pharoid (series 2)
Green/Red classic-style Repto (series 2)
Blue Repto (series 2)
Blue/Red classic-style Red Falcon (series 2)
Military Green Red Falcon (series 2)
Black/gold classic-style Emperor & Megas set (series 2)
White/purple Emperor & Megas set (series 2)
Gold Baron Karza & Andromeda set (series 1)

Pretty-Good Palisades Micronauts have some regular flaws, but are absolutely worth picking up if you don't mind doing a tweak or repair yourself because they're otherwise great looking figures with decent QC:

Gold/Red "Hero Factory" Space Glider (series 1)
[may have loose elbow rivets]

"Space Commander" Space Glider (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing.]

"Time Medic" Time Traveler playset (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck and inner shoulder joints. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing. Delicate work, but the whole playset is great!]

Micropolis Embassy "Bioscan" Membros (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck and inner shoulder joints. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing. Delicate work!]

"Radioactive" Membros (series 1.5)
[Rubber sheath in torso between shoulders melts to ball-joint in neck and inner shoulder joints. Can be removed and replaced with aquarium tubing. Delicate work!]

Clear blue/white Pharoid (series 2)
[may develop cracked or broken transparent body parts]

Gold Acroyear (series 1)
[5mm sockets & posts are inconsistently sized, and not compatible with vintage Micronauts or for full interchangeability with itself!]

Grey/Silver Acroyear (series 1)
[5mm sockets & posts are inconsistently sized, and not compatible with vintage Micronauts or for full interchangeability with itself!]

Grey/Purple Acroyear (series 1)
[5mm sockets & posts are inconsistently sized, and not compatible with vintage Micronauts or for full interchangeability with itself!]


For collectors who repair, kitbash and take advantage of the play value of the Micronauts interchangeability, I'll note that any Palisades Micronaut is worth picking up if it can be had cheap. Each one comes with a stand with pegs for either standard Micronaut feet or the unique Micronaut alien foot socket (even Acroyear and Centaurus, who don't need stands), and lots of new and repro accessories and parts that are typically compatible with the vintage toys for play or repair. You'll often see some competitive bidding for lots of loose Palisades figures on eBay because of this. Also, all Palisades Micronauts were produced in lower quantities than their Mego or GiG counterparts - even Emperor and Red Falcon.


I'll also note that there are a few bugs in even the best of these toys:

Series 2 Pharoids and Galactic Defenders have forearms that are slightly too long, and may force the figures' hands out of their wrist cuffs. Compare them to a vintage figure and trim the forearm back a little with a hobby knife or nail clipper.

Series 2 Red Falcons almost always develop cracks in their clear torso fronts near the screw posts. This seems to be unavoidable.

Series 2 Centaurus may have a loose brain, which may require being glued on or it will fall off easily.

Series 1 & 1.5 Space Gliders have a small flaw in the inner surface of their left shoulder sockets, which may catch as you rotate the shoulder in the torso socket.

Series 1.5 figures (EXCEPT ACROYEAR!) have a rubber tube in their torsos that causes the plastic it touches to melt. This tube provides resistance to the arm rotation and the neck joint. Nearly all hollow-torso Micronauts have this part, but series 1.5's used a grade of rubber that reacts to ABS plastic, unfortunately, quickly causing a melting reaction similar to that seen in vintage 'mushroom missiles', but occurring in months rather than years. The part can be replaced with clear aquarium tubing. (Try it in all your transparent Micronauts for a nice look!) But it takes some careful work to cut it away from the plastic it has melted, and to carefully trim up those plastic surfaces.

This list is also made based on good old-fashioned play value, durability and the problems my oldest daughter has experienced with her collection of Palisades Micronauts. So most of the ones I'm suggesting in this article feature the kid-friendly quality I remembered from my childhood Micronauts. Rachael's Emperor and several of her Pharoids have spent over a week getting squashed under couch cushions and come away no worse for it. They've shared parts with her vintage Micros, and suffered some of the exact same normal play wear, part-loss and breakage my collection did when I was a child.

...So, as you can see, this gives you a list of between 20-30 excellent Micronaut toys to shop for. That's nearly as many as Mego offered in the full run of their domestic figure series!!!

AcroRay

Time to launch!

I've let this blog space languish unused for too long!

Shortly I'll begin posting articles of information I hope Micronaut collectors will find useful.

Coming soon, some "Sure Bets" among some controversial Micronaut toys...