Micronauts








Voltron

have to go with the toy that had the bigger impact in the 80s, and is still remembered today, far more than the other. Voltron.

Voltron left such a lasting impression on me that I hated power rangers because I thought it was a straight live action rip off, unaware of the plethora of robot combiner type shows from Japan. but yeah Voltron all the way

This. Plus power rangers sucks anyway.

yeah but I kinda felt like that goes without saying

Voltron FTW

Golion

Going with Micronauts, without their influence Kenner would not have made 3-3/4" Star Wars and going by that, Hasbro would not have taken that influence onto GI Joe A Real American Hero.

And I'll form the head

Wow, could this be true?! Still going Voltron.

Back when Micronauts was brought over, Kenner realized the potential of the 3-3/4" scale and made the Star Wars line at that scale. When the powers at be at Hasbro were deciding to relaunch the GI Joe brand, they saw that Star Wars toys were doing well due to the high playability by interaction of 3-3/4" figures with vehicles and playsets(again this is from Micronauts too).

Unlike Kenner though, Hasbro still had GI Joe with full articulation like the 12" predecessors, only at 3-3/4" scale, and vehicles/playsets inspired by a mix of real-world military hardware and imagination. So instead of the sci fi of Star Wars, you could opt for more movement and military stuff with GI Joe A Real American Hero.

I don't think any of that would have happened without Micronauts. I voted Micronauts mostly due to the legacy(Microman in Japan) and influence on subsequent action figure brands such as Star Wars and GI Joe.

Micronauts/Microman was also a huge influence on the first few waves of G1 Transformers (being that some of the same toys were used for both lines).

So yeah, going with Micronauts too.

I disagree. I think Star Wars was more influenced by Fisher Prices Adventure people. Better point though is both Adventure people and Star Wars broke big in the 70's not the eighties.
All Voltron

That's the thing, Microman(which was brought over as Micronauts), predates Star Wars by a couple years in Japan. It's been written in books that Microman was an influence on the Star Wars line and that the latter was an influence on the GI Joe ARAH line.

This isn't to say that the Adventure People line wasn't an influence but from what I read Microman was a big influence on Star Wars.