The Micro Machine sets

[22 Stars]

I'm sure I'm not the only one here with fond memories of these little guys. To this day, I'll occasionally take a gander at that third set I was never able to acquire on eBay, invariably going for two or three Benjamins.

One thing I've always wondered is who exactly was in charge of picking which ships they'd make a toy out of?

Paula Block, head of Trek licensing back then would be your best bet for an answer as to 'who' at Galoob chose the ships, or 'who' at Paramount provided them with the designs to model the ships from. Maybe Rick Sternbach or Mike Okuda or Doug Drexler may know on the Paramount side as well. I can't think of anyone else who would have access to the designs of all the ships from that era.

 

[AggieJohn]

Still proudly display my micromachine fleet!

Think you can show some close-ups of some of the ones from Set III? I'm espeically curious about the Big "E", Voyager, and the Saratoga.

Plus I'm curious how the HMS Bounty stacks up with the regular Bird of Prey.

Looking at this collection, I'm suddenly reminded that for the initial 3-packs they came out with (1 TOS, 1 Movie, 1 TNG), the TNG came out with the Borg Cube, the Warbird, and the Vor'Cha before the Enterprise-D, which wouldn't come out until the second batch of 3 packs. What was up with THAT??? Could they not get licensing rights for it at first? Did they really think kids wanted to play with a Borg Cube before the "D"?

Nice. Still got mine too. I loop string around them and hang them on the christmas tree.

Kind of which they had created the following ships:

Klingon STI Battle cruiser and Kronos I from STVI

Saladin destroyer and Federation Dreadnought from TOS ( I know the cannon is questionable but why not give the nod to Joseph.)

A pack of the original 13 Constitution class star ships would have been pretty sweet too.

Those are some long shots, especially the non-canon stuff.

The movie Klingon battle cruiser might've looked too close to the OS cruiser to bother

Well then again the Entente is mention by name is STI so the Federation class is kind of cannon. I mean they did not refer to the class of ship but the Starfleet tech manual lists that ship as a dreadnought. Hell Paramount owns the rights to them all so why not capitalize on them since they are beloved among the TOS fans?

 

[t_smitts]

That's my 4 year old playing with my Star Trek and Star Wars Micromachines. I believe I have all but the 3rd large set in there, with several duplicates. Oddly enough, after going through myself and 3 kids, the only real damage is one of the Reliants had the entire rollbar/nacelle assembly come off, which is a real pain to try and put back on. I did remove just a couple that were my favorites, though.

I doubt we'll ever get another series like this, so I'm wondering, with all the 3D printing options available now, has anyone looked into getting some models made at about this scale?

Cutting it kinda close with the minimum age limit, but I guess if he's supervised, it's okay.

There have been some some other really good sets. Runner up would probably be the the Johnny Lightning series. I have a few of those too and they look really good (though, sadly, I accidentally broke a nacelle off my Voyager )

They too made some puzzling choices: The main one is that the ONLY ship from DS9 is the Miranda class Majestic, which which saw for about seven seconds, before being blown in half. No station, no runabout, no Defiant, no Cardassian or Dominion ships. That's the only one from the show. No idea how that happened.

Interestingly, besides doing a "D", they also made a Yamato, which I snapped up on eBay, when I saw it (no saucer separation, in case you're wondering). I would've thought if they do any other Galaxy besides the "D", it would be the Odyssey. I guess not.

Unlike the MM set, this one was recent enough to get some "Enterprise" ships. Actually, it's just the NX-01, but they did make a few versions of it: The normal version, the "battle damaged" version from the third season (they insisted on making "battle damaged" versions of nearly every ship they made), and the mirror universe version. (I have the latter two).

Interestingly, they also made a Constitution class Defiant and Excalibur. I read there were plans for a Constellation as well (One of the few times, if you ask me, when making those stupid "battle damaged" versions would actually be worthwhile)

The Furuta set in Japan looks really good too. (I'd REALLY like the Equinox and Prometheus).

According to Memory Alpha, Hot Wheels has an ongoing set out now that looks pretty good as well.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Look for the Hallmark mini-Defiant (it was part of a 3 set but I don't remember which other ships it came with.)

The mini-Defiant was grouped together with a mini-Voyager and mini-Enterprise-E. There was also an earlier trio that included a miniature TOS Enterprise, the Enterprise-D, and a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. All six can be hung from regular hooks, or from the hooks on the upper pylons and docking ring of the DS9 ornament.

 

[Nero's Shadow]

Still got all mine as well was a avid collector of these MM !!!! Still got them on show in my Star Trek spare room !!! I think MM at the time was at its highest popularity if I can remember they also did Star Wars sets as well.??

 

[t_smitts]

Still got all mine as well was a avid collector of these MM !!!! Still got them on show in my Star Trek spare room !!! I think MM at the time was at its highest popularity if I can remember they also did Star Wars sets as well.??

Yeah, they came out with a really nice 19 piece set for that as well.

I believe they came out with an even larger set that had all these and more.

They also came out with some 3 packs for Babylon 5, but I don't think they came out with a large set.

 

[ALF]

KirkPicard, I am jealous of that awesome collection!!!
I opted to try and collect most of the Futura series. They are of excellent quality. They are a bit overpriced, though.

One thing that disappoints about the Micro Machines series is that some of the ships were horribly warped, and they came that way out of the box. I have a couple of Klingon birds of prey with super warped wing tips.

 

[t_smitts]

KirkPicard, I am jealous of that awesome collection!!!
I opted to try and collect most of the Futura series. They are of excellent quality. They are a bit overpriced, though.

One thing that disappoints about the Micro Machines series is that some of the ships were horribly warped, and they came that way out of the box. I have a couple of Klingon birds of prey with super warped wing tips.

Yeah, I had an X-Wing, whose lasers were like that. Also the nacelles on the "future" Enterprise-D are kind of warped (no pun intended).

I actually just casually put a small bid on Set II on eBay, not really caring, and not assuming I'd win, however I did. Oh well. When it gets here, we'll see if that version's any better. (If I see another Set I or Star Wars set that's not too pricey, I might bid on that too, seeing as so many of mine are broken).

Still want that Set III, though. In fact, I think this thread's making me want it more!

 

[sunburn800]

i have multiples of just about every star trek mm ever made brought them so i could use them for miniature war gaming.

 

[t_smitts]

i have multiples of just about every star trek mm ever made brought them so i could use them for miniature war gaming.

Does that include the ones in the elusive third set, or the even more elusive three that were never in any set (Kazon torpedo, Caretaker's array, Sisko's solar sailing ship)?

 

[sunburn800]

No sorry i never did find that set there a few others that were limited 3 packs i missed too. if i ever find any of these sets i'm going to use shape ways to make a few copies.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The elusive Micro Machines Set III by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


Micro Machines Set III - back by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


Micro Machines - Rare sets containing a few Voyager ships not in the collector sets by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

 

[Brannigan]

The elusive Micro Machines Set III by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


Micro Machines Set III - back by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


Micro Machines - Rare sets containing a few Voyager ships not in the collector sets by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

Wow I had all of these. I still have the ships, but sadly not the boxes. I do have (still in box) the Excelsior with registration NX-2000. Does anyone know how rare this is?

 

[backstept]

I had a few of the 3 ship sets, but since I was 12 at the time I ended up kitbashing them . . . my HMS bounty lost the wings, I misplaced the lower half of my 1701D, my Farragut's sensor wing went missing, my 1701B broke in half etc
I think I threw away my kazon ship away because I thought it looked like a potato

 

[t_smitts]

Notice the Cardassian ship's upside down.

I had a few of the 3 ship sets, but since I was 12 at the time I ended up kitbashing them . . . my HMS bounty lost the wings, I misplaced the lower half of my 1701D, my Farragut's sensor wing went missing, my 1701B broke in half etc
I think I threw away my kazon ship away because I thought it looked like a potato

You threw a Micro Machine away???

I was pretty young when I got the first Star Trek and Star Wars box set, so some of them ended up in rough shape. Pretty much anything with a saucer section ended up breaking. Set II is in much better shape, but some of the them were pretty shoddy to begin with.

 

[sunburn800]

I stand corrected i do have all of the big sets just not the 3 packs you had there.

 

[sunburn800]

I could dig these out of boxs and take pictures if anyone wanted to see them out of the packages. but i can't until next week some time, it will take a while to find them.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Notice the Cardassian ship's upside down.

That's only because the wire tag is detached inside the packaging and I bounced the wayward ship into place for the pic. Just your luck that it ended up anywhere near the right place!

I had stopped buying all the three-packs when the second and third boxed sets (w/ bonus new ships) were announced, but then I had to scurry and track these last two packs when I heard they included a few ships not in the sets.

Normally I'm an "opener", but I figured these needed to stay sealed, 'cos I'm not really much of a ship collector.

 

[t_smitts]

This discussion thread's gotten me checking out sets on ebay. I actually just casually bid on a Set II a couple of weeks back for a pretty low price, assuming I'd be outbid and not really caring that much, but I got it. Yay? Anyway, it just arrived today.

I haven't pulled them all out from under that plastic wiring yet, but it's interesting to compare ships from my old Set II with the new one.

For one thing the saucer-separating "D" in this new set looks MUCH better. The paint for the top phaser ring on my old one was completely off and the "neck" was only half attached. This new one doesn't have either problem. The 3-nacelled Enterprise is a bit less bent too.

The new Pasteur's nacelles are a bit straighter and the paint on the new Defiant is a bit better

Conversely, the "B" and "C" in the new set are noticeably bent compared to the old ones. The saucer and nacelles on the "B" are a good five or so degrees off. The saucer on the "C" is quite warped.

The saucer on my old Grissom tilted down a bit, whereas this one tilts up a bit, enough that there's a bit of a split in the strut under the right nacelle. The paint on the new one is sharper and more where it should be.

As I said, I haven't pulled most of the rest out yet, but they look on par with the old ones. (They also look much sharper, not having the 15 years of wear and being handled by grubby fingers that the old ones have.)

I'd still like another Set I, cause all my broken ones were from that set (though even that can be pricey on ebay). And, as God is my witness, someday I'm gonna get one of that Set III...

 

[t_smitts]

I also noticed that some the ship descriptions on the back of the set I just got are different. The one for the Farragut describes the ship Kirk was on, and the one for the Defiant talks about the Constitution-class Defiant.