The first and arguably the best play set released for the Micronauts was the Stratastation. Based on the Microman Road Station, and released in 1976 as a very large boxed item, this combination radar tower and racetrack set had many features, and was mostly powered by the car itself. The main 13" tall tower section consisted of 3 pieces; the Control Room, the Control Tower and Base.
 
 
The Control Room was a 2-seat compartment that had a flip up dome. This section could also rotate when one of the 2 small handles were attached to the Control Tower and cranked. 2 chrome "radar" units (that resembled cones) also fit into the sides of the Control Room.
  
 
This section fit into the top of the Control Tower, which in turn slid into 2 5mm holes on the Base. The Control Tower didn't have many features to it, but did contain a chamber with transparent flip down door on the back. The front also had small clips that helped hold the elevator vertically in place.The bottom Base section is where all the action was…on the inside were 2 small gear assemblies, one that operated the elevator in the front and one that operated the "spin trainer" in the back.
Actually, the Stratastation car powered both features by itself. The car was a 2-piece vehicle consisting of the blue plastic pop on body cover, and the motorized chassis. This chassis would later be used again as the basis for the Alpha, Beta, and Gammatron robots. The chassis was battery powered, and had an on/off switch on the side. Under the chassis was the 3-speed lever, slow, neutral and forward. The elevator in the front ran the length of both the Base and the Control Tower, and stopped at the bottom of the Control Room. The elevator had a rubber tread on it, and a black plastic chair could be fitted onto it by sliding it down from the top.
 
The tread would carry the chair up, and then would hit a small plastic lever in the front of the Control Room, which would cause the dome to release and flip up. The elevator was powered when the car would travel up the side ramp into the port opening of the Base, and held in place by the "stop/go" switch in the front.When the lever was pulled down, a small black stopper would pop up and hold the car in place. The wheels would continue to spin, and rotate the gears inside the port. The elevator would move either up or down depending on what position the "up/down" switch was in, located next to the "stop/go" lever.This action also powered the "spin trainer" on the back, which was basically 2 small pulleys with another thinner rubber tread between them.
 

"Spin trainer" from the instruction sheet
To use the spin trainer, you would connect the thin hollow plastic 12" blue tube to one of the 5 mm pegs coming off one of the pulleys. The tube had a red collar on the other end that would allow you to hold it while the tube spun. (Also included were 2 chrome caps that fit onto either ends of the tube when not in use) You would then attach the chrome twin connector accessory to it, and then affix 2 Micronaut figures to the ends of that with 2 small black 5mm pegs also included, to begin their…uh, spin training. Kind of strange, but a very neat little feature nonetheless. Lastly, the elevator could be flipped down horizontally and came with a small chrome support arm to hold it level with the ground.
When lever on the Base was pulled up in to the "go" position, the car was freed to travel around the other major feature in this play set, the track or Panel Roads. The track consisted of 2 white plastic ramps that fitted onto either side of the Base, 1 blue plastic straight section, 4 blue plastic curved sections and a central turntable section. The tracks has puzzle piece type connectors at either end of each piece, and fit snug together. Each track piece had numerous 5 mm holes and pegs on the sides, where you could fit the four road signs and the rotating chairs also included. The 2 chairs consisted of the black plastic setter, which fit the chrome arm that held the second style black chair.
 
The turntable section was an x-shaped piece of track that connected to the panel roads, and had small ramps coming off the other sides. The turntable had the same type "stop/go" switch that the Base had, and held the car in place while the turntable was rotated. Hitting the switch again allowed the car to roll off the ramp and onto the floor. Numerous Stratastation sets could be combined using the track pieces to create endless roads of fun.
  

 
Although Takara released a few different play sets for the figures over the years, the best one we got was the Stratastation and still today is the favorite among most collectors. The Stratastation also came with a sticker and instruction sheet. A brighter colored version called C.I.T.S. was released by the HourToy company and a silver toned version C.I.T.S. was released by M&D Toys under their Inter-changeables line.