1978 Police Keeper Series

Micro Hoodman - Kit-Machines Series (c.1978)

Micro Hoodman

Microman Series

1974

Microman Zone
First year of included the Founder Microman, Micro Kit Machines and Conning Tower.

1975

Project Victory
Second year saw more Microman and several new sub series such as the Acroyears, Titans and Victory series.

1976

Spy Magician

The line finally came into its own during the third year with new figures and the classic Microman Transfer Fortress.

1977

Command
A watershed year for Microman series, this year saw some of the best toys for the line.

1978

Police Keeper

Takara tried new design and direction for the series with the released of Hoodman and Arden. 

1979

Rescue Team
Takara "rescue" attempt for the line with the Rescue Team Microman.  This year also saw updated of the old favorite like the New Tower Base.

1980

Punch & Blizzard Man
The last year of the original series saw the shift in the line to more robot like look and larger figures.

New Microman Series

1981

New Microman
Takara reset the line and relaunch the series under the New Microman banner.

1982

Micro Robot
Micro Robot series became the main focus of the new line.  Takara also tried to cash in on the "pla-mo" popularity with Real Type and Micro Borg.

1983

Micro Change
The "transformation" for Microman series began with the Micro Change series.

1984

Transformers

Takara continued with the successful Micro Change series but the changing of the guard was inevitable.

Hoodman Kit-Machine sticker sheet

Takara released new spin-off series from Microman toys called Micro Hoodman in early part of 1978.  The series centered around space explorer from Micro Earth who shrunk themselves down to 8 cm tall as a mean to conserve their resources.  Micro Hoodman was initially marketed as its own series (note the lack of any Microman reference on any of the Hoodman toys package) but the series was later fully incorporated into Microman line by the time Microman Police Keeper was introduced in late 1978.  Takara released two Micro Hoodman series - H70X Type and H71X Type, along with several Hoodman vehicles called Kit-Machines in March of 1978.

Hoodman Kit-Machine #2 Hood Gyro

Hoodman Kit-Machine #3 Hood Cart

Hoodman Kit-Machine #5 Hood Racer

Hoodman Kit-Machine #10 Hood Winder

Kit-Machine #10 Hood Winder

Hoodman Kit-Machines were series of kit-style vehicles designed for Micro Hoodman figures. The toy was sold in kit form and must be put together. The kit was relatively cheap and the toys gimmick center around the idea of rubber band power to propel the vehicle. There were total of ten Hood Machines released by Takara.  The Hood Machines were nice design but lack the compact and elegant of the early Microman Zone Kit-Machines toys.  Each vehicle was pretty big once assembled and requited plenty of space for storage or display. Dead-stock of Hood Machines can easily be found in secondary market as they were not all that popular then. They made nice display piece but the lack of the interchangeability and their elongated design made them seem out of place in regular Microman toys.

Hoodman Kit-Machine Instruction Sheet

Each Hood Machine toy came with large fold out poster with full color spec and story on one side and instruction on the other.  The sheet detailed Micro Hoodman story and the construction of the Hoodman Kit-Machines.