DX Robo

Victory Robo Gogofive 1999 Yutaka from Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive from 1999-2000

I am looking at this robot and I have no idea why I got it. It’s another decent Sentai robot, but it’s not really from the late 70’s, the 80’s or even the early 90’s. I think it was because it was just $10 and did not take up much space. Which really is not a good reason. This robot is made up of the 99Machines. They are five rescue vehicles which can combine to form the Victory Robo from Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive in 1999-2000(The 23rd entry to the Super Sentai series).  Some of that footage made it into Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue here in the states. I am a little surprised the robot is by Yutaka instead of Bandai. Its the first Super Sentai robot I have ever seen that was not made by Bandai or Popy.  All the other GoGoFive toys show Bandai branding on the box.

I found a pretty cool video of the transformation process. Like I have said before I do like the robots, but I am not a fan of the Super Sentai shows. This video made me smile. I guess I can take it in small doses.

Victory Robo Gogofive 1999 Yutaka from Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive from 1999-2000

Macross VF-1J ST 1/100 scale Hikaru Battroid Valkyrie by Takatoku Toys 1983 from anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross( 超時空要塞マクロス)

The Takatoku 1/100 scale Valkyries as a whole are a lot harder to come by than the 1/55 scale version. Except for the Hikaru VF-1J ST. This appears to be the only one that keeps coming up on the sites I usually buy from. I hope to add a few more of these to my collection next year. This is actually my first Takatoku Valkyrie. I actually added the brown cannon fodder 1/55 scale this year as well from David’s trip to Japan. Before this I only had the 1984 Bandai VF-1A, so it is nice to have one of the original Takatoku toys that started it all. I consider the these the gold standard of  robots from the 1980’s.

The toy captures the robots from the anime in great detail. The VF-1J looks fantastic both as a robot and a plane! The toy is solid with a great design and fun to transform. Normally when the robot looks good the form suffers. But  this is definitely not in this case.  The Valkyries easily outclass any transforming robots from the 1980’s with their perfect transformations(kanzen henkei). Plus it helps that the anime was one of the better ones to watch in 80’s. I like this particular color scheme as I can imagine an actual combat jet with these colors.

Macross VF-1J ST 1/100 scale Ichijō Hikaru Battroid Valkyrie by Takatoku Toys 1983 from anime Chōjikū Yōsai Makurosu( 超時空要塞マクロス)

Macross VF-1J ST 1/100 scale Hikaru Ichijyo Battroid Valkyrie by Takatoku Toys 1983 from anime Choujikuu Yousai Macross( 超時空要塞マクロス)

So I have not been putting out any posts. But I found some of these only at Target Exclusives pretty cool. The Transformers Perceptor and Blaster. They look like exact reissues of the Generation 1 robots. Plus Perceptor come with three tapes Steeljaw, Ramhorn and Eject. All 3 tape robots transform and the tapes have always been fun to transform. I have not seen any of the exclusives at the store, only on the site here. It is a pretty sweet set if I had $99.99. It also comes with 6 slides and a slide case you can view when Perceptor is in microscope mode.

The Transformers Platinum Edition Seeker Squadron 3-Pack is the one I want to pick up. It comes with all 3 conehead seekers Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet. It is a sweet set of Generation reissues. I have a special place in my heart for jets that turn into robots. I can’t wait to get mine.

Transformers Platinum Edition Seeker Squadron 3-Pack 2015 by Hasbro includes Thrust, Ramjet, and Dirge

Transformers Platinum Edition Seeker Squadron 3-Pack 2015 by Hasbro includes Thrust, Ramjet, and Dirge

The last exclusive is a nice looking Optimus possibly one of the movie versions Transformers Platinum Silver Knight Collector Exclusive. You can see him here.

I never thought I would be saying this. But the Transformers Platinum Edition Insecticons Figure 3-Pack is a K-Mart exclusive. I have seen Walmart and Target, but K-Mart is a new one on me. Go figure. Anyway it is a nice looking set. To bad the price is way outta whack. Who wants to pay $89.99 for this at Toys R’ Us or the $67.99 sale at K-Mart? Still it is fun to see. The 25th anniversary edition was $35 from what I hear and that pricing makes more sense. I saw this set on the box of my Transformers Platinum Edition Seeker Squadron 3-Pack. I was so excited I ran a quick search and found out where to find these. Anyway, looks like you can find these at K-Mart if there are any still in business around you or you can pick it up on their site.

Gyakutenoh ST Takatoku Toys 1982 Z-Gokin Gyakuten-oh from the anime series Gyakuten! Ippatsuman (逆転!イッパツマン) from 1982-1983

Here is the Gyakuten-oh by Takatoku Toys in 1982. It is one of the standard size Z-Gokin from the anime series Gyakuten! Ippatsuman (逆転!イッパツマン) in 1982-1983. It is an old fashioned 80’s super robot with huge amount of die cast metal goodness. It’s built like a brick with arms and a head. The fists shoot using the red fins off the arms. It comes with 3 red missiles which can be shot from the arm where the fists are now. Gyakutenoh comes with a ridiculously large sword(but I just love it!) and one of the nicer shields I have seen on a robot. It reminds me of a Vikings shield as it is oval shaped with 4 spikes coming out of the shield. The head of the robot itself looks like a Viking(think Odin) or maybe a samurai helmet. Either it is a good looking robot.

Looking at this robot reminds me a little bit of Gaiking. The chest looks like there is a golden skull and the head has two large golden horns coming out of it.  It reminds me of a shorter thicker Gaiking. The robot is 5” ½, about the size of my standard sized Getter Robo robots. The arms, chest plate and head are plastic. But the legs and body are solid metal. If you toss this at someone, you can hurt them with this thing! You can attach red booster rockets to the back of the robot so it can fly(just kidding). The arms rotate at the shoulder and the legs bend at the hip. Other than that, there is no articulation on this bad boy. The head wiggles a little bit, but no actual rotation. Despite the fact that this robot does almost nothing, I love the design and look of it.

I caught a bit of the first episode on the link below and had a few chuckles. Here is the first episode of Gyakuten! Ippatsuman. Looks like the person who put these up has all 58 episodes if you want to binge watch the show.

Gyakutenoh ST Takatoku Toys 1982 Z-Gokin Gyakuten-oh from the anime series Gyakuten! Ippatsuman (逆転!イッパツマン) from 1982-1983

So this is my first post in a while. I have been meaning to put up some of my new robots. Here is a new one from my cousin’s trip to Japan.

Aura Battler Billbine 1/46 scale SF Fantasy Figure from anime Seisenshi Dunbine 1983-1984

My cousin found this Aura Battler Billbine in a Mandarake in Akihabara. I was surprised it was only 1,080 yen(about $10 ) for an 80’s die cast metal robot. When I got it, I realized it may be a knock off. I was looking for the little Clover leaf emblem like I see on my other Aura Battler robots. But I did not see one. See the box on the bottom right? Usually the ST icon is there. The Aura Battler Dunbine robots were the last toys made by Clover. I have read conflicting reports that this Billbine may have had the molds created by Clover, then manufactured by Tomy who picked up their licenses when they folded. The box looks a lot like the Clover boxes for Aura Battler Dunbine robots. The ST icon is a Japanese safety standard not required on exported toys. So this is likely a Tomy toy made for export, as the box was unbranded/unmarked with English instructions,  but the box and robot markings indicate it was made in Japan. So yay! I have a Tomy produced Billbine.

Aura Battler Billbine 1/46 scale SF Fantasy Figure from anime Seisenshi Dunbine 1983-1984

Even if this is a bootleg, it is solid/decent die cast metal robot. Nothing about it wows me, but Clover robots rarely do. I am guessing it was probably made in the same factory as mold seems pretty solid for this robot. I do not care for the color scheme (white, red and yellow plastic with some metallic metal stickers). The legs, arms, wings, and head are plastic. But the body is mostly metal. It would have looked a lot better if the robot was bluish gray as it shows on the images in the back and box art instead of the white plastic and paint application. The hands have big bird claws on the end, but they remind me of Wolverine’s claws from the X-Men.

Aura Battler Billbine 1/46 scale SF Fantasy Figure from anime Seisenshi Dunbine 1983-1984

It’s interesting how much time they spent on wrapping this. That is a lot of time to spend on a $10 robot. I am trying to figure out if they did this to protect the packaging from water or for some other reason. After spending some time with the box, it is pretty musty. I am starting to understand why it is under wraps. As with most of the Clover robots, the box art and images are one of the nicest parts of the toy sadly enough.

Aura Battler Billbine 1/46 scale SF Fantasy Figure from anime Seisenshi Dunbine 1983-1984

Aura Battler Billbine 1/46 scale SF Fantasy Figure from anime Seisenshi Dunbine 1983-1984

The toy comes as a robot and transforms into as some kind of flying bird form. The bird form reminds me a bit of the Brave Raideen’s transformation. The feet can be squeezed together to resemble bird feet.  The wings on the back actually provide the largest range of motion and I think this is my favorite part of the robot. I was able to pose the robot with various wing configurations. The robot comes with 2 cannons you can mount on the back or put in his hands. It comes with 3 orange yellow missiles. The sword on the box illustrations is nowhere to be found though. It would be nice to pop one of those into Billbine’s hands. The robot itself barely moves or has any articulation,  but the knees and hips rotate.

I will put out some pictures from the robot itself when I get the time…

Aura Battler Billbine 1/46 scale SF Fantasy Figure from anime Seisenshi Dunbine 1983-1984

About 10-15 years ago I picked up a few cheap Aura Battler Dunbine robots when I really did not know much about robots. Mostly I was just curious as I had never seen them before. These were not robots I wanted when I was young(like the Macross and Transformers robots), so I picked up a few for fun. None of them were amazing and I really didn’t care too much about them until I learned more about the history of them and the company that made them.

Clover made a few cool robots like the Daitarn, Zambot III, Daioja and the first Gundam robots. So having these robots now is a little bit of history. So even if I cannot pick up the Clover DX Gundam’s anytime soon, the Dunbine robots will do for now.

I found the first episode of Aura Battler Dunbine on YouTube which is kind of a kick. I did not think they ported it over to English. Go figure.

Here is another Polyfect robot, the Slusher Car. The names for these are so bad I don’t know what to say.  So far I have put up the robots Construction, Tornadonumber, and now Slusher Car from good old Polyfect Toys. That last one is just terrible. I really wonder who came up with these names. Was it the one guy at the company that knew English or what? I mean when I read that, I see Slushee Car.

This robot took forever to figure out which robot it was a copy of. I love the mystery this presents. After digging, this is the Transformers Sixbuilder Micromaster in 1992 from the Generation 1 series. At first look, I do not particularly care for the color scheme. Design wise it does remind me of Devastator a little bit, but more solid(which I like).  Especially the wing on the chest. So it may grow on me. While the colors really throw me off, there is a version of Sixbuilder comes in Devastator green that I would pick up. If you are going to make a knock off, you could at least try to improve it by using  a better color scheme. At this point I cannot say it will ever grace my display shelves. It is 6 robots that combine into one, so if each robot transforms it may be fun to play with. I can bring it to work and transform it on my desk when I am bored.

Slusher Car Polyfect Toys

Anyway, it is hard to beat the cheap fun of a combiner Transformer for $5.99. Checkout your local Dollar Store for one of these cheaply made plastic robots.

Slusher Car Polyfect Toys

Polyfect Slusher Car