Fanmode interview: Bryan Wilkinson (part 1)
Long-time Micronauts and Microman fan, Bryan “MicroBry” Wilkinson, is one of the select few who’ve made the transition from toy fan to toy designer. His website was one of the earliest to draw attention to Transformers’ (then) little-known origins, and he was given the opportunity to work on Palisades’ Micronauts revival in 2002. As Transformers celebrates its 25th. anniversary and Microman celebrates its 35th., we thought it only appropriate to ask him about Micronauts, Microman, Transformers, fandom, and making the transition from consumer to creator.
(Due to its length, the interview will be presented in several parts.)
Who is MicroBry?
I’m a toy collector (and occasional toy designer) in love with 10 cm, 3¾ inch or 1/18th scale toys using sci-fi themes, focused mostly on Microman and Micronauts.
I grew up in the 70’s with the Micronauts toyline and comics. Living in the culturally diverse San Francisco Bay Area allowed me to meet Japanese-American kids who knew the “secret origins” of the toyline (along with the shows I enjoyed such as Battle of the Planets and Starblazers) and they piqued my interest in Japanese toys and anime. As I grew older, Mego Corporation went bankrupt and the Micronauts toyline evaporated, so I began to seek out the original Japanese Microman series along with more Japanese anime.
Later the first Micronauts and Microman websites started to appear and a small internet community of fans began to connect together. I found one circle of Japanese collectors and artists (“MicroGeneration“) that were starting to make their own Microman-inspired garage kits. Since I knew a little bit of Japanese by then, I took a gamble and introduced myself to them and became involved tangentially. When I did so, I called myself “MicroBry” to introduce myself, as I wanted to express that I was a foreign Microman fan. The nickname has stuck with me ever since.
Photo copyright © Bryan Wilkinson. Used with permission.
(T-shirt design by Eric Wilkinson.)
How did you discover Micronauts?
It was the commercials in Mego’s first advertising blitz that caught my attention, probably before I even saw Star Wars. I would have been about seven at the time.
Micronauts debuted at Toy Fair in late 1976. In fact it was because Mego was negotiating with Takara for the series (which Takara had been producing since 1974 as Microman in Japan) that the representative from Fox assumed that Mego would not be interested in a second space-themed toyline and went to Kenner with the Star Wars property instead.
Mego, learning about this state of affairs later, pushed the Micronauts commercials out around the same time as Star Wars’ release–well before Kenner had any product ready themselves–to ride the new wave of sci-fi enthusiasm. They even did a commercial aimed at parents that promoted Micronauts as more an “educational toy” (like a mix of Capsela and Lego).
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