As most, if not all of you will know, many of the first G1 Transformers started their life as Micro Change figures: robots that would change into everyday objects or toys. According to TFWiki fiction was created for these figures in the shape of text and manga included in the pack-in catalogues.

Does anyone know if the Micro Change figures were supposed to be sentient or, at least, have cognitive abilities that allowed them to operate independently? I have a small collection of Diaclones which were, of course, supposed to be controlled by the Diaclone pilots/drivers. Were figures like pre-Soundwave and pre-Megatron somehow controlled by the Micromen which they accompanied, or were they simply their allies or companions?

 

Yes, micro change robots were sentient.

 

Thanks! Is there a source or translation I could consult? I cannot read Japanese, and have never seen any of the original catalogues.

 

You can watch the commercials on YouTube where they are moving. Micro change is a spinoff of microman toys. They are tiny robots.

 

Thank you for your answer.

I have seen quite a few of those, but usually you cannot tell much from them apart from the fact that they're devices that change into robots.

I believe the Micromen were supposed to be cyborgs (like the Henshin Cyborg from which they are derived), but the Micro Change figures are fully mechanical. What I am curious about is how they were portrayed in the fiction that was created for them. Can they function independently?

 

They probably are.

Diaclone isn't. That I know for a fact!

 

The micro change robots had a level of interactivity with the associated microman figures. Micro Scope (the perceptor and magnificus mold) had an artillery mode that the microman figure could operate. P38's (Megatron) removeable pieces could be reconfigured into a cannon micromen could sit at. Cassette robo(Soundwave) originally came with tapes that transformed into little vehicles that could be operated by microman figures. I don't know if the lesser-known weapon robots (browning and co.) were designed with that play pattern in mind (they might have been designed just before the ones that became Transformers were repurposed by Hasbro in 1984 for The Transformers.)

 

I'm willing to bet they are sentient

 

Thank you for your answer, strangeguy32000. This implies that they were primarily tools, but it does leave open the question of whether they could function independently. I think it likely they were like the Transformers or those droids in the G1 TV episode Sea Change, but the commercials and toy interactions so far referred to leave open the option of more immediate control (think Tetsujin 28-go).