The ultimate miniature toy. Micro Machines were very simple but very popular. Simply put, they were a wide range of vehicles (machines) that were in miniature format. Although they were small, they were mighty.

Let’s take a look back at what made these mini toys so great.

History of Micro Machines

Micro Machines were founded back in the 1987 by Clemens Heeden, whose main aim was to produce a reasonably priced toy car line. He originally manufactured 24 micro cars and went on to send prototypes to Galoob (a successful toy company in California) who instantly snapped up the miniature figures and made Micro Machines what we know and love today.

Micro Machines had a very successful decade until Hasbro bought out Galoob and since then the sales and manufacturing of the well-loved toy has slowly declined. Although there has been a remake of the video game fairly recently, it has failed to live up to expectation and Micro Machines are ultimately not easy to get your hands on today.

Micro Machines Toys

There were a wide range of different Micro Machines including cars, boats, tanks, motorcycles, emergency vehicles and many more. As well as your standard vehicles there was also many different series of Micro Machines including Monster Trucks, Star Trek and Star Wars additions, as well as Power Rangers and Men in Black! Even Indiana Jones and James Bond got in on the action.

Micro Machines were everywhere. The Micro Machine collection then extended into larger vehicles that carried the smaller vehicles which also turned into play-sets for the vehicles. Over the years there have been thousands of different Micro Machines available to collect, some of which are still now considered collectables.

Video Games

As well as the popular Micro Machines toys there were also a range of video games that were created by Codemasters and released on a variety of different video game consoles in the early 1990’s. These included Sega Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Game Boy and later on the Nintendo 64 and even Xbox and iOS.

The first video game was released in 1991 and was formatted as a racing game with a variety of different tracks and settings which were usually based on household scenarios such as kitchens, tables and gardens. The aim of the game was to win the race whilst avoiding several hazards that came your way and also trying not to fall off the track! Many different editions of the video game were released from 1991 – 2006, all based on the same premises of racing with slight updates with every new release, including additional vehicles, tracks and multiplayer.

After a decade of no new video game releases, Micro Machines returned in 2017 with a new video game ‘Micro Machines World Series’ which was available on Xbox, PlayStation and Windows. The reviews for the new game are not great with critics suggesting the game was mainly designed for players who wanted to remissness about the old school game due to its lack of new features and no ‘career’ mode.

Micro Machines Today

It’s not looking likely that there will be any new releases of the video games any time soon or any new Micro Machine toys. Let’s hope that one day they make the comeback they deserve.

Check out range of toy vehicles!