Trivia / Micronauts (Marvel Comics)

• Executive Meddling: Bill Mantlo never wanted to do the goofy stories where the Micronauts wind up on Earth and are four inches tall (the size of their toys, get it?), but his bosses insisted.
• Exiled from Continuity: As of February 2023, Marvel has no comic book rights to Hasbro's Micronauts characters, which are now licensed to IDW Publishing. As a result, don't expect to see Acroyear, Biotron, Microtron or Karza reappear. Time Travellers are now simply referred to as the "Enigma Force", a name introduced by Mantlo. On the other hand, Hasbro and IDW are unable to use characters such as Marionette, who were created by Marvel.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: After Marvel lost the comic book license to Micronauts, they could not legally reprint the original comic. In 2023, after an agreement with Hasbro, an omnibus reprint was finally announced.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Director James Gunn has revealed that Bug was in early drafts of the Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) script. The suggestion is that he was dropped to keep the number of characters manageable. Gunn also hinted that sequels would allow more characters to meet the Guardians, but Bug didn't appear later in the trilogy.
  • Marvel's 1997 Micronauts relaunch series written by Shon C. Bury, with pencils by Cary Nord and ink by Dan Green. Five issues were scripted, three penciled, but was cancelled when the Micronauts license was not granted to Marvel.
  • The cancelled Micronauts animated series, set to air on the Sci Fi Channel from 1998-1999, including a five-part miniseries, 26 episode syndicated series, action figures and a Marvel tie-in comic.
  • Around 2011, Hasbro attempted to revive the franchise as a part of a Mega Crossover franchise called Unit: E (which was intended to have been launched via Transformers: Prime). It didn't happen.