Tag: Robot

Tornado Number is from Polyfect Toys. It is another dollar store find. It appears to be a knockoff of a series that never made it over to the US. Granbird  from the anime  Brave Fighter Sun of Great Fighbird back in 1991-1992 came right after Transformers Generation 1 ended. I am not a fan of the Brave Series robots design wise. Takara made some robots for this in DX deluxe or STD standard versions. A lot of the robots from the series are recycled and modified from the Transformers cartoon.

Sorry, I won’t be putting up any images of this in robot mode as I will not be adding it to my collection. But the quality and build looks better than most robot knockoffs I have seen. If I actually liked the robot it would be on display now. It may be cheaply made, but it does not look cheap. They are fun additions to the site, so I will put them up on my site until they stop making them.

Polyfect Tornadonumber

Polyfect Toys makes a number of knockoff toys or KO for short, but the quality is much better than I would have thought initially based on Construction the Devastator KO I picked up from them. Even if they do not last, $5.99 for a cheap plastic robot will not break the bank for a nice little display robot.

Polyfect Tornado Number

I put an image of the Takara Granbird below. Look familiar?

Yuusha The Brave Fighter Of Sun Fighbird DX Granbird Takara 1991

Polyfect Tornadonumber Tornado Number

Meet Power Goldan or Ougon Gattai Goldran from the anime Ōgon Yūsha Goldran from 1995-1996. I had never heard of Polyfect Toys till I bought Construction(Devastator knock off). They seem to be the fine purveyors of knockoff robots. Power Goldan will not be a part of my collection, but I find this toy line fascinating. The quality is not terrible and these are not the worst robots I have ever seen. But they are all plastic, the color is terrible, and this one looks kinda cheap. The instructions show he can turn into a dinosaur/dragon type robot and back.

Polyfect Power Goldan Powergoldan

I always find cheap robots fun and really tacky(which is the fun part). So if you don’t mind spending a few bucks on Power Goldan you can add him to your collection on the cheap. I hope they keep extending this line until I see something I like robot wise.

Polyfect Power Goldan Powergoldan

Polyfect Power Goldan Powergoldan

My cousin Dave is in Japan now hunting for robots and he made it out to the Bandai Museum in Mibu 100 km from Tokyo. He was a little miffed it was 2.5 hours away by train. 5 hours on a train both ways would drive me nuts. I guess they do not want a lot of tourist traffic as it is so far off the beaten track.

It does not look like much based the the pictures he took. I have a feeling it is a really small museum. His picture taking skills need a little work based the image of the Sentai robot display. Guess I will have to make it out there myself if I want better pictures.

Bandai Museum Sentai robot display Mibu, Japan

Due to the quality of the image, I can only make out a few of the Sentai robots. Along the top i see the older ones. On the top left going right I see, Battle Fever J, Daidenjin, Sun Vulcan, Goggle V, Dyjupiter, Dyna Robo, Bio Robo, Change Robo. On the second row from the top I can make out gold robots, Turbo Robo, and Super Turbo Robo. On the third row Star Five, Turbo Robo the, Magma Base just dominates, it is just huge Jet Garuda, Jet Icarus . On the fourth row I can make out VicTrailer, MegaVoyager, BullTaurus, GingaiOh, Giga Phoenix

Bandai Museum Vavilos Space Sheriff Shaider robot display Mibu, Japan

Bandai Museum Daltanious/Daltanias robot display Tochigi prefecture Mibu

Bandai Museum Jumbo Machinder robot display Tochigi prefecture Mibu

So listed from the top left to right are Daimos, Daitetsujin 17, Five Robo. On the bottom row are Daltanious, Combattler V and Tetsujin 28.

Bandai Museum Popy robot display Mibu, Japan

Muteking on top, Eva Police, Postoller, Robot 8 Chan(Robo Hacchan), dol Giran, Godsigma ST on the second row

Prowl is a nice piece to add your Masterpiece collection(probably the best one this year). I have yet to own one of the Masterpiece Editions, but this one is making me think about it. I usually try to add the cheaper new Transformers or pieces from the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.

Prowl is one of my favorite Autobots and one of the better Generation 1 toys.  I never had one and this piece is so much nicer than the original G1 robot by far, but for the price I wish it was a little taller than 7 inches.  It looks so close to the cartoon version it is making me itch to see the old cartoons again. From the pose on the box it has much more articulation than the original, so poses will be much more fun than what you could do before. The police car transformation really looks great, but the robot form is where the toy really shines. What a beautiful version of Prowl. Though it seems a lot of people prefer the Takara version. The only big plus I can see is that the missile launchers shoot( I actually prefer the white missile launchers to the original black ones. They look too big). One other plus I see is the Takara box is so much smaller. The Hasbro box seems like a space waster. You can get either version on Amazon, eBay or ToysRUs.com.

Prowl Masterpiece MP-04 2014 Autobot Hasbro Intelligence Specialist

If you are going to pick up a Masterpiece robot Prowl blows away Sunstorm. And the Masterpiece Grimlock re-release is just another reissue. So they will likely put him back out again in some form or other.

Prowl Masterpiece MP-04 2014 Autobot Hasbro Intelligence Specialist

So I bought the Yamato Shin Getter Robo Repaint in San Francisco in the early 2000’s. I am thinking 2004 since the anime for Getter Robo: Armageddon/Shin Getter Robo came out then. I don’t see much info on it out there, so I don’t know when it came out. I may need to run a search in Japanese to find out more.

You can’t tell by looking at it, but it is a big piece. I like to think of it as a Mini Machinder as it is a big vinyl Japanese robot. If you check out the back image of the box you can see it comes with a humongous axe!  The pole on the axe is like 15 inches long and with the Tomahawk blade  it is 20 which is awesome. The robot runs about 12 inches tall. Shin Getter 1 Robo is a pretty nice looking robot and the wings are really a nice touch. I almost think they are there to help Shin Getter stand. The wings remind me of an dragon, the wings on Great Mazinga or Mazinkaiser.

It’s a good looking revamp of the old anime robots from Getter Robo. I like the deep blue color, more than the red one you usually see on this robot.  I will have to check the anime on it as I was a fan of the old anime. I am afraid I only bought this because it was cheap($29.99!), but the anime sounds interesting as it supposedly goes in a more serious, darker path than the original anime.

This robot was made by Yamato/Toycom. I don’t have many robots by Yamato. I think I only have two. It’s hard to tell when the writing is all in Japanese. Oddly enough, I never opened this one.

Yamato Shin Getter Robo Days of Apocalypse – Repaint Version 2004

Shin Getter Robo Days of Apocalypse Yamato – Repaint Version 2004

Yamato Shin Getter Robo Days of Apocalypse – Repaint Version 2004

The Clover Dunbine rears its head one last time. This one is a bit smaller. The 1/86 scale Dunbine appears to be a much smaller ST version and the  1/46 scale is likely the DX size of this robot. The figure is much smaller with a lot less detail than the 1/46 scale. It reminds me a bit of the 1/100 scale Giant Gorg I had. It is a small clunky robot with very little detail and was a disappointment that had a surprising amount of die cast metal. Sadly, the robot is poorly conceived, negligible articulation, and robot size is a bit small. I think it would have made more sense to make the 1/46 scale an ST model and a slightly larger model the DX version.

For me, the packaging is my favorite part of this toy. It is a great box and the cover art eclipses the toy itself easily. It’s sad when the best thing you can say about a robot is that it has a nice box. In fact the robot looks quite a bit better on the back of the box than it does in real life. Anyway, the fact that this is the last hurrah for Clover before they went out of business is telling.

Aura Battler Dunbine 1983 Clover 1/86 Scale

Aura Battler Dunbine 1983 Clover 1/86 Scale

Aura Battler Dunbine 1983 Clover 1/86 Scale styrofoam insert from anime Holy Warrior Dunbine 1983-1984

This is a pretty nice Toys R’ Us exclusive. The Transformers Age of Extinction Grimlock Evolution 2-Pack comes with a classic Generation 1 like Grimlock based on the classic 1984 cartoon and the Age of Extinction 2014 version from the movie.

If you don’t want to pay big money for a G1 Grimlock, here is a cheaper option you can pick. I do not have Grimlock yet, so it is an option I am thinking about. I have been eyeballing the dark blue Generation 2 Grimlock as my cousin already has the G1 version. But what I like about this one is that the head is not a teeny weeny wee little thing like the original Generation 1 release. The new Grimlock looks really nice, but I haven’t gotten around to seeing the movie yet. So I do not have any attachment to it like I do for the G1 Grimlock redux.

Transformers Grimlock Age of Extinction Evolution 2-Pack 1984 to 2014

Both robots change to Dino mode or into a tyrannosaurus rex.