3. Superlink Kicker variations
    Posted by: "Martin"
    Date: Tue Oct 3, 2006 7:58 am (PDT)


Don't know if this has been covered already, but I doubt it, as that
would
have been something I would have made a mental note of.

Back when Superlink Kicker was announced, I was thrilled because it
gave
me an opportunity to get a glimpse of what Microman was all about. I
knew
the legend and all, but hadn't ventured into any of the toys, so this
was
a perfect cross-over possiblity.

So I quickly pre-ordered one from Hobby Link Japan, and waited for it
to
arrive. Upon arrival, I took him out of the box, and as I was trying
to
bend his knee for the first time, it crumbled and broke.

This kind of put me off of Microman right there. How could they make a
whole toyline comprised of easy-breakable toys like this? Soon, I
started
reading other reports about others' Kickers braking just like mine,
and
even after a poor attempt at repairing the knees (the other one broke
afterwards as well) I put Kicker into the box and in storage.

Fast forward to last week, where I decided to do inventory. Found my
old
Kicker, and remembered that I actually got a spare one from our very
own
Jeff in a trade some time earlier. Figured I might as well check the
second one for faulty knees, to see if I could sell him.

Bad pic:
http://www.hum.aau.dk/~mslu97/ebay/Haul/P9280014.JPG

Nothing weird here -- and I can't remember which one is which on that
photo. Turned them over, though, and found this:

http://www.hum.aau.dk/~mslu97/ebay/Haul/P9280016.JPG

Hmmm... a sticker covering up some text on the left one, but saying
the
same thing as the sticker-less version. The one without the sticker is
the
first-run version I bought from HLJ, the one with is the (apparently)
later run version from Jeff.

On the bottom they look like this (sticker indicates the 2nd version):
http://www.hum.aau.dk/~mslu97/ebay/Haul/P9280015.JPG

Wondering about what this was all about, and since I didn't want to
rip
off those stickers, I opened up the toys and started to look for
differences.

And lo and behold: There was a difference with the toys -- and an
important one, to boot.

Looks like Takara had wisened up and made a revised version of Kicker,
because the 2nd version with the sticker turned out to have joints
made
from smoke-clear plastic, which is much stronger and (as I know now)
more
in tune with regular Microman construction, as compared to the
all-black
plastic used on the first version.

http://www.hum.aau.dk/~mslu97/ebay/Haul/P9280017.JPG

Yes, that's the crumbled up botched repair version at the bottom, but
this
was the best I could do. AFAIR (I don't have these in front of me
right
now), the elbows and neck joints are smoke-clear on the 2nd version as
well.

/Martin


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