The Rise and Fall of Matchbox's Toy-Car Empire

This article made me wonder what ever happened to Micro Machines. They just sort of dissappeared from the public consciousness. It seems like the brand (Micro Machines) was stopped from production, and its IP sort of died away when Galoob was bought by Hasbro [1]

I used to have a huge collection of them. My mom amazingly kept them around, and now my kids have a huge collection to play. What a present!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Machines

I had so many Micro Machines, and I've been wondering the same thing about their fate for years. I thought they were so much cooler than Matchbox or Hot Wheels. There were tons of Micro Machine airplanes too!

Micro machines were awesome! I still remember the commercials with the fast talker.

It's funny how a random thing can date you so specifically, it seems like their heyday was only from 1987-1994 or so.

I think there was a consumer safety issue that made it hard for to hit their core demographic. iirc their small size got them a "5 and up" recommendation.

Or perhaps it was a consumer perceived safety issue. I notice parent these days seems very concerned about choking hazards compared to 20 years ago.

Same!! My mom still keeps one of my micromachines on the windowsill in the kitchen, it’s at least 30-35 yrs old.

I was older when they came out, but I loved them even though they were on the expensive side.

I still have a pencil case full of cars and its pretty much the only toy that I've managed to keep. I guess being small helped!

As someone born under Iron Curtain I had no idea Micro Machines were real toys and not just a video game :o We had smuggled Matchbox cars, Lego, bootleg Star Wars figurines, very lucky/wealthy/with politically connected parents kids had G.I. Joes and Barbies, but I dont know anyone from my generation who had Micro Machine toys.