You can Clearly see how awesome this Gavan toy is.

While I am not a huge Metal Hero fan, I have always had a soft spot for Gavan (ギャバン), the silver armored warrior from Space Sheriff Gavan (宇宙刑事ギャバン).

I spied this cheap little toy at Kimono My House, and knew I had to grab it. It’s a translucent PVC figure with hard plastic translucent plates that clip on to the body.

Gavan stands about 6” tall and separates into 8 pieces. The clear plastic has a green tint and has great mechanical details etched into it. The hard plastic shell parts snap onto it acting as armor plating. The two levels of plastic really adds a nice dimension to the toy. Also included with the toy is a sword and three small erasers. There are different versions of this toy with different color plating, background foils, and different erasers.

I absolutely LOVE the packaging on this toy. Victora is quickly becoming one of my favorite companies for vintage box art.

Bigfoot is larger than most of the other Mecha in the series at 3.5" tall. It is made almost entirely of metal, the exceptions being the chest, head and shoulder pads.

The Combat Armor Bigfoot HT-128 comes from the anime series Fang of the Sun Dougram (太陽の牙ダグラム Taiyō no Kiba Daguramu).

The story follows the action of the guerilla freedom fighters known as "The Fang of the Sun" who are in a war with the Earth Federation, who are ruling the colony Deployer with an iron fist. It’s kind of confusing.

Bigfoot comes packed with a gun, sticker sheet, 2 small figures and a catalog. The toy has limited articulation - only the legs, arms and waist move.

Takara had the initial rights to manufacture merchandise based on the show. They produced three main scales of mecha – 1/48, 1/72 and 1/44. There was only one 1/48 made (of the Combat Armor Dougram) and three 1/72 scale toys. It was only in the 1/144 line that most of the mecha made it into toy form. The 1/144 scale toys are only about  3 inches tall and made almost entirely out of diecast. Despite their small size, they have a suprising amount of detail and articulation. Each toy features various bits of removable armor and weapons as well as a sticker sheet and catalogue. Packed in Styrofoam and encased in some of the most beautiful boxes ever, these toys are just wonderful.

It was the summer of 1982. This was before my younger three siblings were born, so it was just my Mom, my Dad, my Sister and I. They took us to the theatre to see E.T. at the Showcase Cinemas in Lawrence, Massachusetts. I was nine years old.

I remember waiting in line while my Dad went up to go get tickets. He walks back to us and says there are exactly two seats left for E.T., so he also got two tickets to Tron. It was decided then that my Mom and I would see Tron, and my Dad would take my Sister to see E.T.

And with that decision, a lifelong obsession began. I fell in love with Tron, and to this day, it is one of my favorite movies.

At that time, back in 1982, my aunt was living in California, and when she called to ask what I wanted for my birthday, I asked for a Light Cycle. She got me one and to this day, she still tells me what a pain in the ass it was to find that toy.

I still have that Light Cycle today. Sure, it is beat up and missing the ripcord, but it was - and is, one of my favorite toys.

The Tron Light Cycles were made by Tomy in 1982. They released two versions '“ Red and Yellow; Red being harder to find. Each cycle was made of hard plastic and featured an opening cockpit and rip-cord action. You would insert a long ripcord into a hole near the rear wheel, and then 'œrip' it out. The heavy weight of the wheel made a wonderful noise, and made the Light Cycle act like a gyroscope. I remember placing that thing on the ground and watching it fly across the room; inevitably to smash into some appliance in the kitchen. No matter what I did to this toy, it never broke. Eventually the ripcord got brittle and cracked, but the cycle remained intact.

One of the things that made this toy great is that it looks almost exactly like it did in the movie. The only discrepancy is in the cockpit. In the movie, the drivers ride lying on their stomach, but the toy requires the figures to be in a sitting position. Any of the four Tron figures could fit in the seat.

In 2002 NECA reissued the Red and Yellow cycles, along with a previously unreleased Blue Light Cycle

Grande Astro Robot is an Italian bootleg of the Clover Walker Galliar ST toy.

This is a great bootleg of the ST Clover Walker Machine Galliar, from the series Blue Gale Xabungle.

It's basically the same toy as the Clover version, but of lesser quality. The toy comes packed in a nice Styrofoam tray, his arms outstretched in some kind of Christ pose.

It's a big hunk of metal that fully transforms into its two separate vehicles. The gun has one missile that does not shoot.

Although the tray looks as if there is a part missing - there isn't, as far as I can tell, the disc-shaped part that is not in its place is actually attached to the robots back. I could not get the part to separate.

This piece is worth checking out, if only for the poor English on the back, with such phrases as "Please play by proper method to prevent causes of trouble".

Your eyes are not deceiving you. It's a combining rubber Dairugger XV (aka voltron 1). Bandai released this series of capsule toys in 1982.

There were 8 sets released in all. 7 of the sets came with a small pilot, catalog and 2 or 3 vehicles. The 8th set was a miniature combining yellow Dairugger XV.

All the little erasers could combine to form the towering Dairugger XV, or each of its component Land, Sea and Air teams (Rickrugger, Kurugger and Kairugger).

It is interesting to note that this toy is different than the Voltron Assembler, the US released rubber combining Voltron.

That's the tagline for the Godaikin series from Bandai America which started in 1982. Guardian was one of the first released to American children, and possibly the most unique. Its design is based on matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls).

GODAIKIN: An Innovative Series of Super Robots.

That's the tagline for the Godaikin series from Bandai America which started in 1982. Guardian was one of the first released to American children, and possibly the most unique. Its design is based on matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls).

There are 3 robots included in the set; 1) Protteser, the smallest, 2) Delinger, the middle size, 3) and Garbin, the largest. They all combine to form Guardian. Protteser is piloted by the show's hero Daigo (a small yellow rubber figure), which is then loaded into Delinger. Delinger is then loaded into Garbin to form Guardian.

In the completed form (and as separate pieces) there is limited articulation in the legs (they only bend back at the knee), but the arms have 2 swivel joints at the shoulder, and one at the elbow. The fists fire from a spring loaded mechanism in both Garbin, and Delinger.

There are many accessories included in the set. There are 2 melee weapons for each robot, and a sword/spike/club (Laser Screw), and shield (Shine Shield) for the combined Guardian robot. The full list of accessories is as follows:

For Garbin:

1. White Light Sword
2. Yellow missiles that shoot from the shins
3. Garbin Hooker hand spikes

For Delinger:

1. Red Light Sword
2. Magnum Hatchet

For Protteser:

1. Double Knuckle
2. Green Light Sword
3. Bomb Drill

The set also comes with Daigo's robotic panther Clint.

The set displays nicely, if rather static due to the leg articulation. Combining and taking apart Guardian lets you really admire the detail, and engineering. The inner detail in each robot is above and beyond what you would expect since when combined you won't even see it. You certainly won't see this level of detail in a modern toy aimed at children, and not adult collectors.
Guardian truly was a marvel for it's time.

For those eager to run out and acquire this piece please be careful. There is a very common knee joint problem in Garbin. The blue plastic made to make the shins gets rather brittle over time. When opening the knee joint look inside to where the blue meets the white plastic. Often you'll notice that the blue plastic chips there. It won't affect the toy other than having the knee joint flop back when picked up, but it will stand very firm with this problem. No tumbling.

The Dairuger XV Pla-Dela (or Puradera) toy is one of the rarer toys of this character. It's about 10" tall, and made out of plastic. This toy does not separate into its individual vehicles, although the feet and chest ship are removable.

The toy comes with 2 red propellers, 2 silver propellers, two sets of fists and a sword. Both propellers and fists fire.

Puradera translates to "Pla-Deluxe" (plastic deluxe), a cheaper line of robot for the Japanese market. The line is designed to provide an affordable alternative to Japanese consumers.

Postoler comes from the 1981 series Robot 8chan, a live action kids show. Designed by Ishinomori Shotaro, Postoler was one of 5 chogokin released from Robot 8Chan.

I use the term Chogokin lightly, because Postoler is almost entirely plastic. The only metal is in his feet and wheels.

This is one of the more articulate chogokin robots from that time, with joints at the head, shoulders, elbows, legs and knees. Postoler came with chrome keys that opened his mailbox torso to retreive mail that had been deposited eariler. Little mail cards are also included.

For a great history of Postoler and the 8chan show, check out Matt Alt's article on ToyboxDX.
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