Test of Time: M.M.M. - assorted pieces

Micro Machines - Military
Galoob Toys
Middle 80s to late 90s
Original Price: $5.99 USD (3 piece pack)
Now Price: Varies - mint or new expected to be scalped
Availability: Mint - rare, used - not plentiful, nor scarce





Toy Story: 
So back in the 80s to 90s there was this toy maker that dabbled in various licenses and would become a known company in the legal world (this story is for another day). This company was known as Galoob, a U.S. based toy manufacture, that created a line of miniature vehicles and play sets. Initially these designs were pretty basic, but as the line aged and technology the product became better. Then the product would split between traditional non-military vehicles and play sets to military themed sets (all of these were based off real world designs, too). Such sets had hidden compartments or could open up for a wider field of play. Where included vehicles could roll around and kids could replicate cit life or create their own imaginative adventure. One of the pluses of such small toys was that it was extremely portable, i.e. it would fit into a pocket of a coat or jacket easily allowing room for a couple of additional pieces to go.
Some of the play sets even included latching and handle mechanisms for ultra portability and storage. All of these innovations even led the company to produce some small scale sized Star Wars and Star Trek toys.
Alas the company would be sold to Hasbro in the 2000s and most of licenses and toys produced by the company would disappear from the shelves.
Also for the crowd old enough to remember the commercial the unofficial spokes person for Micro Machines was a man that could talk clearly and concisely at incredible speed...

So out of the small collection available for review five pieces were randomly chosen.
- Armored All Terrain Vehicle
- MRL (Multiple Rocket Launcher)
- F-16 "Fighting Falcon" - special silver deco.
- Chinook - heavy transport chopper
- F-14 Tomcat

Features: 
-Real rolling wheels
-Landing gear
-Actual paint modeled after real world counterparts
-Detailing
-Helicopter blades actually spin

If you're wondering about the scale, these toys are around the N scale though slightly larger.

Unlike today's toys that have some sort of interactive gimmick (firing weapon or electronics) Micro Machine vehicles did not possess that. They included move-able parts like the Tomcat's wings that could sweep forward or back Other vehicles like some of the military vehicles had parts that could detach or move, while holding to the very large amount of detail on a very small surface.
Granted by today's standards the details are fairly lacking, but back in the 80s and 90s this was probably as close as a kid got to a playable toy that wasn't a model with a ton of detail - and the durability of a rugged toy.
If you had the play set(s) you could host a small scale war.
Granted a lot f the vehicles were made to the same scale, but some of the different vehicles like aircraft carriers and bombers were not scaled against each other at all. So a small boat was the same size as a fighter, as a car is the size of a tank.
Gimmick wise it's a pretty lame toy, but when en massed with other pieces and a very good imagination this brought hours of entertainment and for the price a decent toy that didn't drive parents broke or mad from the gimmickry of electronic sounds and/or projectiles.

Time's Toll: 
The majority of toys are in decent condition. Some of the landing gear on the air vehicles have fallen off, or possibly forcibly removed, all of the wheels on the land vehicles still work without a hitch. The only noticeable wear is on the MRL the rocket pod is merely a very small bump in a hole, and it's suppose to be caught on a flap that sticks out that lands barely atop of two small pegs representing hydraulics. This (even when it was brand new) is a design flaw that has not improved nor really worsen over time.
The F-16 has seem some wear on the nose where the black paint has begun to expose the plastic nose cone. The silver color is part of a play set that I relinquished years ago, but kept the fighter. This one is probably one of the best ones to demonstrate the detailing. On the bottom you can see the various armaments from Side Winder missiles to napalm.
The Chinook's blades still spin without issue, and you can see this toy was introduced to water at some point as one of the wheels' metal axle has rusted slightly. Paint wise on the other vehicles, everyone st like they were bought on day one in one piece with little sign of wear.

Grade: A 

For a toy that is still being sought after today, and still retaining all functionality as well as little to no wear this is one of those toys that will be around for future generations to enjoy. It demonstrates that fancy gimmicks aren't required just imagination. Also aside included as a bonus comparison I snuck in a Core Fighter from the 2001 Gundam figures and as you can see the Core Fighter is slightly larger, but they're almost the same scale...yet plastic wise the Micro Machine is smaller than the more recent toy, and detail wise is lacking.