Micro Machines

Hey, did you guys know that Galoob Toys, the makers of Micro Machines, had a
Web Page?! They have all kinds of cool stuff I didn't know they made. The
cheapest source of minis around I think.

> Hey, did you guys know that Galoob Toys, the makers of Micro Machines,

Yeah, if you can *find* them. The B5 minis weren't on the market very long
before they vanished, and I noticed that suddenly all the Star Trek minis have
disappeared, too. And I never saw *any* of the Aliens minis out.

<sigh>

It's my understanding that you can order individual minis from Galoob, but the
cost is...high.

Mk

> At 07:46 AM 3/23/97 -0500, you wrote:
According to the most recent issue of Mars magazine (which also has a nice
article on Full Thrust, BTW) "...at the request of the major toy retailers, no
new Babylon 5 sets will be produced" by Galoob. I cannot fathom why the
retailers would request such a thing; it can't be bacause they weren't
selling! I've never, not once, seen a B5 pack for sale at Toy Liquidators, or
put on sale in any other toy store. Truth be told, I've only seen them in the
store on one occasion, before I was watching the show, and I had no interest
in them at that point. At least the AOG figures will fill the void; I can only
hope that the sizes are compatible with Full Thrust.

> Hey, did you guys know that Galoob Toys, the makers of Micro Machines,

Well, for the UK list members, check out your local Toys'R'Us - mine
(Ipswich) is currently clearing out the Aliens and Predator Micromachine sets
at half price (£2.49 a set). The only thing in the Predator sets that is
worth having is the Pred Ship itself, but the aliens packs are better
-
one has a (near enough 1/300) Dropship and an FT scale Sulaco, another
an
FT size Nostromo and a Narcissus that could be used for a fighter/scout
ship in 1/300, Silent Death etc., while the third pack has the Alien
Derelict (great for an FT alien ship) and an APC which is (IMHO) about 10mm
scale - could pass as a small 15mm vehicle?
At the price, these are pretty good value, so get 'em while they're
hot....

Oh, and they also have packs 5 and 6 of the B5 series - the ones with
the Narn warships in...:) They are charging £4.99 each, which is a load
better than (say) Comet Miniatures who have been ripping people off over eight
quid for a set by saying they'd not be available anywhere else...:(. Aside
from the Narns, you also get a Marie Celeste (which makes a lovely generic FT
merchant) and a very nice Earthforce One! Less useful items are the Centauri
passenger liner (looks like a purple slipper...) and an EA atmospheric
shuttle, which although a nice model is not really in any
useful scale (too big for FT, too small for 1/300).

Hope this info is useful - rush down there now!

> Well, for the UK list members, check out your local Toys'R'Us - mine

<heavysigh>

Alas for us poor saps over in the States.  :-(   All the T'R'U carry
here are StarWars stuff, and not many of the basic ships, mostly the
10/15mm(?) figs. And other stuff.

Enjoy 'em while you can get 'em, guys.

Mk

> On Sun, 23 Mar 1997, Ground Zero Games wrote:

> Well, for the UK list members, check out your local Toys'R'Us - mine

Personally, I've never seen the point in the micromachines. Every time I've
considered them, the miniatures have had huge ugly mold lines, not that
accurate detail and generally a paintjob that looks splashed on. Seems like a
lot of work carving off the mold lines and repainting them.

Am I a perfectionist, or have I just seen a particalarly bad bunch?

And the local price is around $12 per pack, which makes it not exactly cheap,
especially if the pack has one unusable item.

> At 09:05 PM 3/23/97 +0200, you wrote:

You're a perfectionist. I like them because I was able to get a bunch cheap in
order to first try Full Thrust. The paint job isn't great, but it's good
enough and looks better than bare metal figures. They are also about the only
source of Star Wars and ST:TNG ships in this scale. Star Trek and Star Wars
figures are the best for demo games as they have a ready made audience and a
high recognition factor.

> Personally, I've never seen the point in the micromachines. Every time

No-one pretend the MM stuff is as good as metal gaming models - they
are,
after all, injection-moulded kids' toys. However, they are relatively
cheap (at least in the UK and USA), tough (you can sling a whole load in a box
to take along to a show) and at least painted after a fashion. I've seen

Having talked to the person in charge of the B5 Micro-Machines at Galoob
I found that the B5 figures just weren't selling. They would sell after a
while, (mostly because I was buying them) but took up shelf space for quite
some time, thereby getting in the way of Star Wars etc. Therefore the
retailers look at the results in their computers and see an item that was just
taking up shelf space and not making profit, hence they were no longer
ordering them... Phil P. P.S. Galoob is not the best in updating their
website...

> On Mar 24, 9:13, Ground Zero Games wrote:

And at about $1.75 a piece, I can deal with some questionable paint jobs.
(Some are admittedly really shitty, and the yellow StarGazer is a laugh! But
the rest are serviceable.)

> (at least in the UK and USA), tough (you can sling a whole load in a

Hell, I even put 'em in a _bag_ half the time. Can't do that with metal
ones.

In a message dated 97-03-23 23:22:16 EST, you write:

<< Star Trek and Star Wars figures are the best for demo games as they have a
ready made audience and a high recognition factor. >> In our club Full Thrust
demos we have six fleets using the scenario from the first rule book, three
frigates and two light cruisers. We have a Star Wars fleet, Star Trek fleet, a
B5 fleet (all three are micromachines), a GW fleet (Space Fleet minis), a
mixed fleet (two Travellar minis and three Silent Death) and top it off with a
GZG fleet (six of my NAC ships. I find that the micromachines help bring
players over to the demo table and them you have a chance to tell them about
the game and get them playing. It also lets you show them how "generic" GZG
are which can be a big selling point.

In a message dated 97-03-23 11:26:08 EST, you write:

<< Oh, and they also have packs 5 and 6 of the B5 series - the ones with
the Narn warships in...:) They are charging £4.99 each, which is a load better
than (say) Comet Miniatures who have been ripping people off over eight quid
for a set by saying they'd not be available anywhere else...:(. Aside from the
Narns, you also get a Marie Celeste (which makes a lovely generic FT merchant)
and a very nice Earthforce One! Less useful items are the Centauri passenger
liner (looks like a purple slipper...) and an EA atmospheric shuttle, which
although a nice model is not really in any
 useful scale (too big for FT, too small for 1/300).

 Hope this info is useful - rush down there now!

Jon (GZG).
> [quoted text omitted]

Arrgggh!!!

I have been searching every Toys R Us and Kay Bee Toy for packs five and six
and no one here in New Jersey (USA) has them. I even kept a few unopened packs
of the older series for trade purposes but to no avail. If anyone in the US
knows a location to get B5 packs 5 and 6 I'm very interested.

> Mikko Kurki-Suonio wrote:

> Personally, I've never seen the point in the micromachines. Every time

Probably a bad batch. I have a collection of 1/3788 Enterprises, from
FASA, Gamescience, Starline 2300, and Galoob. The Galoob one is, against all
expectations, the best of them. Which surprised the heck out of me. The FASA
"Reliant" model is about 3% smaller than the Galoob one, but the detail is
similar. Galoob paint job

> Mike J. Murtha wrote:
:
> Death) and top it off with a GZG fleet (six of my NAC ships. I find

Yep. There is also a reduced risk of damage to your minis. Every time I've run
demos with my metal minis, at least one or two usually suffer damage from
accidents.

> Mike J. Murtha wrote:

A friend just picked up a couple of sets for me from WalMart. I've been
looking for a while as well and the only MM stuff around is usually SW and ST.
However, I just recently found some collector sets of the Alien line, but they
only had the fold out scene type with maybe one ship. I was lucky to get all
the Alien ships a while back when a local store ordered several copies of
each.

Exactly. I love the detail of metal minis but the expense and durability
sometime make them seem less than ideal. With MM you can toss a bunch into a
bag and have a game and not worry if your opponent is getting
greasy pizza fingers all over your ten hour/ten dollar paint job/mini.

Paul

Hi, Me again

For the Star Trek and Babylon 5 gamer, I have some dicountinued Micro Machines
to trade. I am in the process of completing quite a cross section of Star Trek
ships and need a few more. Below I'll list the ones I need and the ones I'll
give up. I will consider any reasonable trade (even 2 or 3 to
one on some ships). All ships are w/o packaging.

I have for trade:
    Babylon 5
Earthforce One Babylon 5 Green Ship Marie Celeste Personel Shuttle Star Furry
Raider Centauri Transport Minbari flyer Minbari Cruiser Vorlon Transport
Vorlon Cruiser Narn Fighter Narn Transport Narn Cruiser (one to one trades on
these please)

    Star Trek
Space Dock (2) DS9 (3) Borg Cube
Enterprise-D
Runabout Miradorn Ship (3) Klaestron Ship Space Dock Shuttle Vulcan Shuttle
Surak Stargazer (2) Voyager

I need two or more each of the following:
Enterprise-C
Maquis Ship Jem' Hadar Ship Cardassian Galor Cardassian Obsidian Kazon Fighter

Micro Machines-Star Wars & Aliens