Micro Machines, first introduced in 1987; were toy cars made from plastic, but the main
     feature was their size, 1/10th the size of a matchbox toy car putting them at a scale of
     around 1:152, the smallest toy cars ever seen on the market.

     Made by Galoob, the first year of production comprised of only eleven collections of
     cars, trucks, Military vehicles and planes. Over the following years Micro Machines
     expanded to include almost every different type of vehicle on the roads, rails, in the air
     or water including semi trucks, trains, monster trucks, boats, bikes, aircraft, military
     vehicles and more, totalling anywhere up to 50 collections in later years.
     In the early 1990s Micro Machines also experimented with a variety of different,

     special collections that were more than just representations of actual vehicles, these
     ranged from the more realistic collections such as vehicles with lights and sound,
     drivers, and custom paint jobs (Neon Beach, Classy Chromers, Super Sparklers) to the
     more unusual such as Insiders, Highway Warriors,  Shake and Sniff semi trucks,
     Private Eyes and X-rays.

     What most people didn't realise though is that in the early 1990s Galoob came very
     close to bankruptcy and the Micro Machines brand could have come to an end.
     Because of this, galoob rushed out as many collections as fast as possible into the
     shops, this is the reason why many collections from 1990 - 1992 can be quite hard to
     find and often there were collections which were sold in the incorrect blisterpacks.
     An example of this is a collection I recently obtained; Classsy Chromers collection #3
     from 1991 which is packaged in a spanish 1991 Adventures blisterpack (a picture of
     this collection can be seen on the 'Pictures of 1991 Blisterpacks' page - linked from
     the 1991 index page).

     The mid 90s saw a return to the traditional type of collections as in 1987 and 88, where
     collections were solely made up of representations of actual vehicles and new models
     would appear each year, this would continue until 1999 when Micro Machines as we
     knew and loved them would finally come to an end.

     Micro Machines were bought in 1999 by Hasbro, a large european toy manufacturer,
     who unfortunately did not continue the tradition of Micro Machines being
     representations of real vehicles other than their 2000 NASCAR collections, for 2001
     they reinvented the brand and made the vehicles more appealing to younger children,
     by recycling previous years vehicles and giving them simplified, bright paintwork
     with few details. The cars were now only racing, stunt and rallye cars and the military
     vehicles sometimes had ridiculously bright paint schemes.

     In 2003, Hasbro revisited the theme of emergency vehicles and themed collections,
     however they still largely had simplistic, detail-less colour schemes and odd vehicle
     groupings.
     More recently, Hasbro has introduced some brand new vehicle models, however
     some of these are 'fantasy' vehicles and not based on real world cars and trucks,
     but their colour schemes and detailing have improved which makes them look a little
     more realistic. The latest new vehicle models are now representing real vehicles again
     such as the Ford Mustang concept car and Ford Focus RS, however a nice feature is
     that these new vehicles are also "Deluxe" with opening bonnets and boots (hoods and
     trunks) similar to Deluxe Micro Machines of the early 90's.
     So, could Hasbro finally be restoring the Micro Machines brand to the former glory of
     the Galoob years? I guess we'll find out, keep watching .........