"The Fearsome Myriapod From The Far Off Galaxy Of Thoraxid"

Hands down the best creature/machine hybrid design done for the Micronauts line, Hornetroid was released in 1979, and came molded in menacing black, orange and purple plastic. A semi large boxed item that featured beautifully rendered artwork by Ken Kelly, Hornetroid had many interesting features. Clearly inspired by a insect with a similar name, this amazing ship had no Microman counterpart.

Hornetroid had 2 sets of 2 piece wings.These wings were a translucent purple color that snapped together and had slots that fit over a tongue piece on the main body. A wing flap control arm fit under an orange rocket housing piece, which popped into the main body. When pushed down, the wings would flap upward. But the cool features didn't stop there...the body had 3 legs on each side, which fit the two 3 section roller legs, that snapped on at the knee joint. The feet of these contained 3 orange cones/rollers which were held in place by an orange wheel through the back. This allowed the legs to retract and fold under the main body.

The black tail structure slid into the back of the main body, and held an orange fin with 2 orange wings. A rear gun with elbow joint (based on a Microman accessory) also fit into the tail piece, and a small and often missing purple plastic bulb fit into the end. Some Hornetroids were packaged with 2 purple bulbs, but most only contained 1. The instructions stated there were 2 included, but a small card was added inside the box which read, "Dear customer, the instructions on this item refer to...a purple colored bulb. This bulb is interchangeable and can be used at either end...only one bulb included in this toy-Sears Roebuck and Co." Trivial at best, but hopefully clears up any mystery as to what some die-hard collectors claim.

The best feature on this dynamic flying creature was indeed the head. Doubling as a cockpit for the Alien pilot, the top section flipped up, and resembled an insect head with purple translucent bug eyes. The top of the head held a small orange antenna unit, and out from the front came a tongue like lever and 2 gripper claws. When the tongue was pushed in, the claws would tighten to capture a figure. The underside of the head also contained a retractable support leg with 2 orange cone-like wheels.

The Hornetroid was topped off with a piece bonded missile launcher that was based on the one used with the Microman M-115 Conning Tower. The original design shown in Ron Pringle's Micropola magazine shows a more yellow Hornetroid that also had a brain section that followed along with the "glow-in-the-dark brains" theme that ran through the Aliens line. Hornetroid also came packaged with an instruction sheet.