Bring on the bad guys...Takara introduced Microman's first enemies in 1975, the Acroyears. These guys were actually other Microman that also traveled to Earth, but their capsules landed beneath the ocean, and the toxic waste transfomed and twisted them into the evil beings they now are.

Having many removable and interchangeable parts made this guy very cool, and the mix of plastic limbs and die-cast metal for the torso made for a unique combination. The figure was packed inside a small box (which had about 3 different yet slight variations) and came packed with a multitude of accessories.

These accessories were used to transform the figure into some sort of attack "tank", a simple transforming feature that would eventually engulf the Microman line toward the early 80's, and turn it into another toy line with that verb predominately in the title...

Being the first of the bad guys created for the line, the Acroyear also had a few variations in the figure as well with the "new" Acroyears released in 1979 . In 1999 Takara reissued them as well, and the color variations continued. Acroyears were also given names and number designations just like the Microman: (from l-r) A303 Blue Star, A302 Silver Star, and A301 Red Star.

Re-issue A303 Blue Star (l) and vintage Mego Acroyear ll (r). Note the richer blue color difference with the Microman version

Re-issue A304 Green Star (replica of never released vintage protoype) next to the white Robot Station exclusive

The Birth of Acroyear set is by far the nicest produced. The green coloring represents the toxic waste that mutated the good Microman into the evil and twisted Acroyear.