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Joel's avatar

The Henshin Boom/Second Kaiju Boom was kind of the reason for both the rise and fall of Henshin Cyborg, interestingly. Takara's G.I. Joe wasn't a failure; it was actually fairly popular, but when the Henshin Boom kicked off with Kamen Rider and Return of Ultraman, everybody only wanted transforming superheroes. In fact, Takara's first hero costumes were made for Joe; they called it the "Allies of Justice Series". Takara switched to Cyborg in '72 because it could be sold as a character separate from the costume packs. Cyborg actually managed to ride out the Oil Shock into '74, but when the Henshin Boom couldn't do the same and became a Henshin Bust, Cyborg was pincered by both chasing a dying trend and being too expensive to justify selling. Microman was a win-win for Takara: smaller toys are cheaper to produce and easier to sell, AND they could chase the hot new robot anime craze.

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