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