Monday, February 27, 2012

Micro-review! Microman Biomachine: Machine Force Hack and MachineTiger

Man, it's been a while since I did a review, on the Microman front we've got three figures, Comic Supes, Comic Batman, and this guy and his trike. 

Microman Biomachine is a subline of four figures and their vehicles which combine into this freaking awesome exo-suit. 

Not much to say about the individual vehicles, personally I only like the one I have and the gorilla-armed one. The rest of them look too odd.   

(Detail of the combined exo-suit and the individual components)
 I have no idea what I got myself into. It'll be hell trying to complete this set to make that giant robot, but it'll be soooo worth it.


Since this is a 2004-2005 release i was a bit wary of breakage but it turns out all he needed was a nice stretch to get his joints moving. 


The vehicle looks really nice with it's chrome finish and transparent parts, though the design looks something between a trike for an old person and a space rover-type vehicle  it's still definitely futuristicky, which is nice.  

 Tiger himself is very detailed. The basic blank body has received new molded parts and details to make him more machine-like and  the engine detail on the chest is well sculpted and designed. The chrome parts really work on this guy, as opposed to just having a chrome head and a fully transparent body.  Speaking of, the smoke colored plastic is very nice, with the gold working as a complementary color on some parts. It gives the illusion that he's not hollow at all and that there's machinery underneath, which is close to the henshin cyborg origins of this figure. 



You can only really appreciate the homage when it's standing next to a vintage (or in this case reissue) Microman figure. 

In the articulation department.... no problem there, it's all pretty tight too, and doesn't wear out too quickly.



Parts of the machine tiger also break off to form armor parts for hack. The armor is distracting, mostly because it's too opaque and covers up the chrome parts.  I don't mind it too much but I wish it combined into a weapon instead. 


Of course you gotta love the play value that comes with being compatible with the original line. 

 And this is what the robot parts look like when transformed. you can use the legs to a degree with the figure but to do it is just too silly. 


Microman Hack and Machine Tiger is a nice set to buy, and a good start for anyone trying to complete the biomachine line, but overall he gets boring real fast, with no other thing to bolster his cool factor except machine tiger itself. the bio-armor mode is meh to say the least and again, a weapon for Hack would have been great.

If you're getting the complete set in one go then I'm highly recommending it, but if you're hunting them down one by one I suggest waiting for a good price. 

I got Hack and Machine Tiger for  500php (roughly 11USD), and it's unlikely for me to manage to find the individual sets nowadays at that bargain as well, so I'm starting to save for a complete Biomachine set. 

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