Author: Dave

Here’s a picture of Jetfire – the Autobot air guardian.  He looks dramatically different from the cartoon.  He’s basically the same jet as the “Macross” series as they used the same mold. My cousin lent this one to me so that I could display it with the rest of the Macross collection.  I recall he had this as a kid but I don’t know if this is the original one – he may have re-purchased this one later on.

 

Here are two VF-1J’s “Hikaru Ichijyo” versions from the Macross series.  One is the Takatoku deluxe version, while the other is the smaller, ST version.  I cannot remember where I purchased the big one – I’m going to guess Japan, 1985.  The ST one, on the other hand, I vividly remember purchasing it at Longs Drugs in Burlingame (of all places). I remember when there was this big robot craze in the 80’s, you could find these toys in the most unlikely of places.  I think my cousin mentioned that he bought some Transformers from a carwash.

Anyway, the cartoon still is a picture of the VF-1J with the add-on armor. When has this armor, however, he cannot transform into a plane.

Hopefully the pictures come out ok (might be some daytime glare/flash glare) but here’s my display of all of my Transformers.  To the left of the t.v. you’ll see the Insecticons, Ultra Magnus (White Optimus Prime), Shockwave.  To the right of the TV, you’ll see the 3 280ZX cars (Smokescreen, Prowl, Silverstreak), Hoist, Trailbreaker, Grapple, Inferno, and Blaster.  One the 2nd shelf, you’ll see my four Dinobots.  I’m still looking for the Swoop (the Petradactyl) and the rest of the G1 Autobot cars for my Transformers Collection.  The bottom shelf has my collection of the 6 Decepticon planes.  Evidently, there is one more called Sunstreaker (he’s yellow) but I’ve never seen him as a child but I have seen recent versions of him.

 

So my pictures were so bad, I decided to get a few more that were still pretty bad. Oh well, at least they were not as blurry!

Here’s another robot from the Orguss series – the “Gerwalk Nikick.” I didn’t really do too much with him as a kid as it really only looks good as a robot. Still, I’m glad to have him as I have the two main robots from the Orguss series.

 

Here’s the original “Heavy Metal L-Gaim” that I purchased in Japan, 1985. I never saw the cartoon but I liked him nonetheless.  I actually saw this again in a 2nd hand store and was going to get it for my cousin as it was reasonably priced at 30 dollars.  Good thing I didn’t as he already has this.  Anyway,  I bought a later version under the “HCM – Hi Complete Model” series in 2004 but that one is much smaller than this one. I have customized my toy, however, by painting the leg flaps silver with black trim and the waist armor, black.

 

Here’s probably the holy grail of the Macross collection – the original Takatoku SDF-1.  Actually, I do not think they have re-issued this toy under the Bandai or Yamato line (unlike the various VF jets).  I bought this in Hong Kong in 1983 and I was very, very happy to have purchased him. When I look back at that trip to HK, I really remember there were more toy stores.  When I went again in 2011, I didn’t see anywhere near the volume that I recalled as a child.  I do remember though, that HK used to be a big maker of toys but not so much anymore and perhaps, that has something to do it.

This one’s a Bandai re-issue of the blue VF-1J “Max” model from the Macross series.  I never could find the Takatoku versions as a child but I was able to find the Bandai re-issues from the early 2000’s. Bandai and Yamato has since made tons of re-issues.