I never knew how much I wanted a Boss Borot mini machinder until I found out one existed.

When I was a kid growing up watching Traanzzzooooooor Zeeeee, I always hated that stupid little bungling robot sidekick "Bobobot". He practically ruined the entire show for me. Later, after I'd been involved in this hobby for a bit, learned a bit about the original Mazinger Z show and Bandai released their excellent Soul Of Chogokin Boss Borot, I finally started to come around and see the appeal of this goofy little guy. And when a friend of mine told me he'd discovered a Boss Borot Junior Machinder, I pleaded with him several times to send me a picture of it. Since my friend lives in Italy, I just assumed what he meant was something along the lines of other known Italian Junior Machinders. I imagined something similar to the Pegas Junior Machinder. When he finally sent me the picture, my first thought was that it was a toy from the Phillipines, since it was a similar style to others I have from there. It turns out, though, that the toy was in fact from Mexico.

This Boss Borot bootleg stands about 10" tall and is articulated at the hips, shoulders and neck. Made from cheap blow molded polyethylene, the toy manages to capture the silly appeal of the character quite well, in my opinion.

Much of that is the result of a good job being done on the face, where nearly all of this character's personality comes from.

You can see in the picture above that the paint is a little bit sloppy on the chest and there is even an unsightly gap between the leg and the hip. The colors are all wrong and the plastic low quality. But I don't care. I love this thing.

So, as you can see, I've managed to get one for myself. But the one my friend has is a different color, closer to anime accurate than mine. So now I need to get that one (not too mention that little Aphrodai A!!)

I've been wanting to review this one for a long time and after years of searching for an upgrade, I finally get to share it with you all.

The world of bootleg Jumbos is one of my favorite things to delve into. I've always taken great pleasure in finding, and hopefully even acquiring, some of the strange toys that few others would be interested in, those toys that would offend the sensibilities of the collecting purist. This Mexican offering might be one of the strangest out there, perhaps rivaled only by the Mazinger Z: Paladin de la Justicia and the Ring Toss Mazinga for just plain blow your mind craziness. Or perhaps ugliness, depending on your point of view.

I've known about this toy for a long time, nearly as long as I've been collecting in fact. It was featured in an article on the old Cool Japanese Toys website. Unfortunately, the toy is extremely rare and it's been a real challenge to get my hands on one. I did manage it several years back, but the specimen I got was nowhere near complete and I chose not to review it for that reason. But I've recently been able to upgrade so I'm glad to finally be able to do it now.

This version of Mazinger stands 21" tall and actually uses a modified version of the body from the Reideen Jumbo Machinder. Some of the changes made include using a mirror image of the right hand for the left, both fists minus the shield. Also, the missile launching mechanism in the stomach has been removed and simply filled in, although you can still see the outline of it. And of course, a new sculpt of the head of Mazinger now rests on it's shoulders. And it's a, shall we say, "interesting" take on the subject.

As you can see, the colors of the face are painted right on to the polyethylene. Since paint doesn't stick to polyethylene as well as to something like vinyl, it's not uncommon to see it in poor condition. The paint of my last specimen was no where near as nice as this one. It should also be noted that the white of the stomach is painted right on.

Now, the best part of the head is the cockpit. It's very crudely made and all the more charming for that. The red upper part is shaped much like the bottom of a cup, with a clear dome in the center. What appears to be an action figure that has been cut in half is screwed into the bottom.

Mazinger's chest plate is a simple flat piece of plastic that has been screwed directly into the chest, despite the fact that there are two small holes in the chest that appear to be there to allow two pegs to connect. This is the way the wings on the back connect. And, oh man, those wings! BAT WINGS!!!

The thing I love about those bat wings is how small they are in relation to the rest of the toy. You would think that by choosing bat wings you would want it to have a sinister appearance, but by being so small, it ends up being somewhat cute, like a fairy.

Even though this toy is very rare (I only know of 4 as of this writing), not all are the same. Some have white hands, while some have black. And even amongst the limbs that should be all the same color, there seems to come in varying shades. Some pitch black, some dark grey, etc.. At least one that I've seen has the head piece cast in white.

A comparison of both specimens I've owned. Note the white fist and lighter colored legs on the left.

This toy is probably the rarest known Jumbo to originate in Mexico. It's very, very difficult to find, but due to it's crude sculpt and inaccurate portrayal of such a popular collector, it's not one that I think too many people desperately want. Like many of these bootleg toys, it's a curiosity and desirable more as a historical artifact than as a toy. I believe this toy is rumored to have been sold in a bag with a header card. If there are indeed two others in the series as the old CJT article suggests, they have yet to surface. But if and when they do, you know I gotta get'em!

It just keeps getting more and more bizarre...

The latest oddity to arrive from Argentina is this unnamed robot. While it contains many of the features of something from the Machinder family, it's so strange in it's design that most likely wouldn't group it with them. Nevertheless, once I saw it, I was pretty sure it would end up in my collection. It's just too bizarre not to.

Besides it's completely foreign appearance, the first thing that jumps out at you is that it has a missile launcher for an arm and yes, that missile does indeed fire. And pretty well too, I might add. The mechanism by which it operates is quite simple. You simply push the missile into the arm until the end sticks out of the back and twist it to hold in place. When you want to fire it, twist it again and push it. Once it clears the plastic holding it back, away it goes. And like I said, the spring is actually pretty strong so it'll probably go about 10 feet.

It's tough to see in pictures, but the left and right arms are slightly different shades of red. One thing that I do not like about the arms is that they attach at an angle. So when you raise them up, they get progressively closer and closer to it's face. It can smell it's own armpit.

Besides being standing 13.5" tall and being made out of cheap polyethylene, what really attracted me to this toy is that it reminds me very much of a Horde Trooper from Masters Of The Universe. Yes, I know it isn't the same, in fact not even close, but the face gives me a similar vibe. So, in my twisted brain this is a Horde Trooper Junior Machinder. Or as close as we'll ever get. And I was a big fan of the Evil Horde as a kid. What's happening now is you are listening to me try to convince myself that this was a worthwhile thing to buy.

While I have no idea what this thing is supposed to be called, there does appear to be a manufacturer name ("Khumak") imprinted in the plastic on the back. Here's to hoping that Khumak made many more toys, all with crazy stickers like this one.

As promised, the world's worst Combattler...

I have sunk as low as I can go.

I can't say that I have any particular love for the character of Combattler V, but even if I hated it, I would never wish this sort of rendition on him. This is almost a slap in the face to the poor guy. Galba's Robo Kress toy was bad, but at least it stole the overall design from the Takemi Big Robo toy and just dumbed it down a bit. This....this is atrocious...

But for as bad as it is, in a way, I love it. Because it reminds me of the sort of cheap, generic toy you might see drawn into animated Christmas special. Yes, I'm pretty sure this thing was made by elves. A human mind would just never conceive of something like this, much less create it with the belief that you could sell it for money. Nope, no human would make this and no right thinking human would buy this.

I said "right thinking".

It almost looks like it's laughing at me, doesn't it?

Combattler V stands 14" tall, is made entirely of cheap polyethylene and was sold in a bag with a generic header card. It features SEVEN dots (4 yellow, 2 black and one red!) among it's very elegant stickers. One sticker even says "Star Boom".

Star Boom, indeed.

Header Card

At least it has legs.

Although ugly in it's own right, this representation of Mazinger Z may actually look nicer than the previously discovered toy from Argentina, the Paladin de la Justicia. At least it has legs. And I have pictures to prove it.

The toy is about 15" tall, though maybe just a bit more if you measure all the way to the tip of the horn on the head. That horn is interesting, too. I wonder why it was added?

The body of the toy was cast in blue polyethylene with painted red and silver highlights, but the fists and head were cast in silver, with just the eyes painted red. There is limited articulation as usual. You can rotate the head, arms, fists and I think even the legs. I'm not digging this guy out again to check. No one cares anyway. ;)

I've also seen this toy with a yellow head with black highlights.

Not long ago, I commented that I'll occasionally publish a review for no other reason than to show the world "this exists". This has been one of those times.

The official whipping boy of Jumbo Machinder collectors, this toy is probably better than you've heard. Video inside!

Although there were previous Jumbos that were from Sentai shows, the Jumbo Astro Megazord is the first one to be released in the United States and bear the name of the Power Rangers. It was released in 1998 in support of the "Power Rangers In Space" series. It's an interesting piece because unlike the subsequent Jumbos released in the US, this toy actually has a transformation gimmick like the DX version. The method is different here though and requires a small amount of parts swapping, but the end result actually looks pretty cool. It's certainly better than many of the vintage "transforming" Jumbos, which often just lay down to transform. My only real gripe with the vehicle mode is that the feet don't connect in anyway. As a result, the nose of the ship doesn't line up quite right.

This toy was not very popular among Jumbo collectors. There are probably a few reasons for that. First, it isn't a full sized Jumbo. It measures only 18" tall. Secondly, many people didn't like the design of the robot itself, particularly in comparison to the old school super robot aesthetic that most Jumbo collectors know and love, although I think they'd prefer this to the later designs with all the animal parts.

Another problem with this toy is the feet. To allow for the transformation to vehicle mode, the feet need to rotate down. Where the toy fails is that there is nothing really holding the feet on the toy. They just slide sideways onto a peg, and more often than not, slide right back off again. This also causes the toy to lean just a tiny bit forward, too. Lastly, I can't help but think there is just a little bit of Power Ranger hating going on, too. As popular as the show was with kids when this came out, I seem to remember just as much hate for it from adults. I know I couldn't even stand to hear the name back then. I just can't help but think that if toys like this were on the shelves at about $20 a pop now, they would get more respect than this did at the time of it's release. Many collectors disrespect it by spelling "Astro" with an extra "s" and I think they are giving it a bum rap.

In addition to transforming, the Jumbo Astro Megazord comes with a sword and shield that can be placed in the hands. The head turns and the arms move up and down. Simple like all Jumbos.

Although this toy was released initially in the United States, the overstock was later shipped back to Japan and sold there. Everything was exactly the same, except that the box had a gold foil sticker slapped onto the lower right corner with Japanese writing on it.

US box

Japanese box

Additionally, it seems that this toy was released in Korea, too. I've only seen the box for that release, but judging by that, it looks like the exact same toy. However this time a whole new box design was created and the show was called "Mega Rangers".

While I can't say I love this toy, I do think it's better than it's generally given credit for. And it really makes me wish that Bandai had gone ahead and followed through on their plans to release a second toy in the line. The Jumbo Mega Voyager sadly never made it past the prototype stage. It's a shame too since it looks like it might have been an even better toy.

Although the transformation is simple, I've recently been given a video camera so I figured I'd join the fray and do a quick video to show you how it's done. In the process, I actually managed to break the knob on one of the arms. And here I was thinking that polyethylene was practically indestructible.

Made in Hong Kong, released in Italy, this Junior Machinder is based on Combattler V and Robo Kress, with just a dash of Great Mazinger. No, not that "dash".

Space Hero is another "Junior Machinder" based off the body of Robo Kress, but featuring the head of Combattler V. In my opinion, the two do not combine well and the toy ends up being a rather ugly mishmash.

It stands about 14.5 inches tall and comes with a variety of weapons, including a sword, a sheild, a missile launcher in the waist and disc launcher just above that. These last two pieces of artillery are obscured by behind a removable belt and the opening chest compartment.

I'm not really even sure what the point of the chest piece is. It doesn't close all the way and seems prone to breakage, though mine is luckily still intact. Each door has a red piece that when closed is seems to be suggestive of Great Mazinger's chest V. In my opinion, this toy would look better if they did away with it entirely and just had one shooting mechanism in the waist. Less is more sometimes. Although to be honest, there are so many different variations of these toys it wouldn't surprise me if there is one out there like that.

You can store two missiles on either side of his belt and two more, along with 4 discs, on the hooks on the side of the legs. Both fists launch as well. This one came packaged in a box that really doesn't even show the toy inside. Instead, it has artwork showing the more common toy that features the head of Atoranger and the body of Jeeg.

Perhaps the only thing that makes this toy notable is that head. Until recently, it was believed to only be on Junior Machinders. But awhile back, a full sized Robot Factory style bootleg Jumbo turned up with this head on it. Maybe there are other Jumbos out there featuring parts previously only seen on Juniors. There's still so much to be discovered...

A cheap toy, but a worthy placeholder for the real thing.

Popy released a Daitetsujin 17 Jumbo Machinder in 1977, but your average collector is much more likely to own this Taiwanese bootleg than the much more expensive original and you can count me among them. I'd love to have the real deal, but for the time being, this guy will have to do. This toy has affectionately become known as the "Disco Daitetsujin 17" (or just D17, for short) due to the hilariously loud stickers on it. And since the same company made a bootleg Giant Gorg Jumbo, that toy has assumed the same nickname, deserved or not.

Now, as I said, I have no original D17 to compare this to, but just by looking at this and knowing the high quality one expects from Popy, I think I can confidently say that this one is lacking refinement. The plastic feels cheaper and has all sorts of bumps all over it it. The paint on the head is not very good either.

One problem that is very common on these is that the springs used in the firing fists are too strong and crack the tab on the fists, which then fire off on their own. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to just unscrew the arms and remove the springs entirely. The fists will stay on ok and it'll still display well, without it attacking you unexpectedly. I kid you not, I literally got hit in the head with a random flying fist just walking by this thing one time.

Even though the quality is not up to par, the toy itself did come with the same features as the original, including the aforementioned launching fists. Additionally, the toy can transform into a ride-on fortress. It's a bit of a silly gimmick (like most "transforming" Jumbos) in that you just bend the ankles back and the legs forward and add the tower to his back and an extra set of wheels between it's legs.

I guess it's neat that they maintained this feature, but on my specimen at least the toy has a tendency to lean backwards a bit because of the joint at the ankles. And the seam at the hips where the legs bend doesn't match up quite right, which makes it look a bit awkward from the side. Personally, I'd rather have a more stable toy than a gimmick I'll never really use. But maybe the kids in Taiwan liked it. The artwork on the header card sure seems to suggest that they would have.

And yes, this is one of the very few Jumbos to have been packaged in a huge bag with a header card. At 23" tall, I can't imagine there are bigger toys out there sold bagged.

This toy was released twice. Although neither version has a manufacturer name or date on it, the general consensus was the the first release was in the 1980s, with the second in the 90s. In fact, I think this version was being cranked out even into the new millennium, causing it to be the far more common of the two. Later releases came with just the robot/wheels and not the wings and tower. If I remember right, the factory had a bunch of the robots made, but stopped production without ever finishing all the accessories and the overstock was sold off anyway. I got mine during this time so that's why mine is incomplete. (JoshB has pics of his old complete one that he contributed to this review.) Most that you see on Ebay these days are like that.

This release featured red wings, while the other had green. Furthermore, and this may be hard to believe, but the green wings version actually came with stickers that looked even uglier than those shown here. Unfortunately, it's been years since I've seen one of those for sale, I don't have a picture saved and I can't even remember what it looked like. But I remember thinking it was hideous. Just awful. (And of course now I really want it!)

Fortunately, for you collectors who are more discriminating than I am, you'll sometimes see sticker sheets for sale on Ebay that reproduce the stickers from the original Popy version, so that you can make it look much nicer. Tempting, but for me, I like to keep all my toys in their original condition, regardless of how much of an eyesore they may be.

Another cheap, ugly knockoff that me and like 3 other people care about...

Unfortunately, no official full sized Jumbo Machinders were made of the Machine Blaster robots (Robo Kress, Blue Caesar, Sandaio and Boss Palder). Mattel Italy released their "Astro Robot" Jumbos that were based on the characters, but those toys used primarily parts from existing Jumbos with new heads and weapons. Takemi did make a line of 16" toys called "Big Robo", though. These were repeatedly copied and released in Italy and both the originals and the subsequent knockoffs have become commonly known as "Junior Machinders". All sorts of robots combinations were made, many of which used the body of the Takemi Robo Kress. The arms in particular are often used on various Junior Machinders, such as Dangard Ace and Pegas, to name just two. There is at least one toy that is nearly identical to the Takemi version and then there is this.

This toy uses the same mold as the Takemi toy, but is greatly simplified. As you can see, it's cast entirely in cheap, squishy blue polyethylene with just some stickers slapped onto it for "detail", if you can call it that. All firing fists and missiles have been removed.

Robo Kress stands 14" tall and is articulated at only the shoulders. It came packaged in a clear plastic bag, but with no header card. It was just tied off with a twisty tie. There are no manufacturer markings on it, but it does share some stickers (the "UFO" and black dots) with a very cheap and VERY ugly Combattler toy that I have. That toy did come with a header card and appears to have been made by a company called "Galba", so I think it's a good bet that this one was, too.

Ok. You may be thinking that this toy, and by extension this review, is not worthy of attention. But just be glad I didn't show you the Combattler! UGH....

Space Valour is a composite Jumbo Machinder bootleg, utilizing parts from Daimos, Leopardon, Daikengo and others...

I admit, I have a bit of a soft spot for Space Valour because it's one of the very first Jumbos I ever got when I started collecting, right after all the Unifive Jumbo Machines and some Shogun Warriors. I suspect I'm not the only one that this was the scenario for since this one is often on Ebay at a relatively cheap $100. It's far and away the most common full size Jumbo bootleg so it's often a quick way for the new collector to add something to their lineup.

But is it a good toy? Well, not really. Most bootleg Jumbos are pretty poor quality and these Robot Factory style ones that were released in Italy are often among the worst. Because there are so many pieces, many of which were taken from molds that were never intended to be combined with other pieces, they often don't line up very well. When an original Popy Robot Factory Jumbo is put together, it feels like one solid piece. Not so with Space Valour. Everything stays together, but nothing seems to "fit", if you know what I mean. If any of you have a dad who isn't a carpenter, but likes to imagine he is, then you know what I'm talking about. That homemade bookcase he made looks like a bookcase and it does hold books, but owning it only makes you want to get a real bookcase. That's Space Valour.

The arms and legs both feel floppy. The plastic is not high quality and tends to crack, especially the clips that hold the missiles on the legs and sometimes the clip that holds the firing fists in place. This can cause the fists to shoot off themselves and they can be a pain in the neck to load, too.

With that said, the makers of this toy were at least ambitious. They loaded it up with tons of firepower. Almost too much. Both fists can shoot, it shoots two spinning discs from launchers in the midsection and the legs also have missiles launchers. All the missiles and discs can be stored on the sides of the legs, which makes the toy look even more heavily armed. A sword rounds out the weaponry.

On top of that, they actually sculpted an original head for this toy. Most of the other Italy Jumbos, and most of this toy, are cast right off of existing molds, but Space Valour has his own unique look. Not only is the mold original, it's even an original design. No other robot has the same head as Space Valour.

Ok, so now you may be wondering where the rest of Space Valour originates. Well, you probably recognize the main torso from Daimos, even though it's been modified to hold those disc launchers and the shoulder shields. Speaking of which, both them and the legs come from Battle Fever Robo, but four small wheels have been added on the bottom. The arms are from Leopardon and the fists...well, I just noticed the fists seem to be unique, too. Although they are very similar to the fists from Battle Fever, Daltanious and GodSigma, they are in fact different. The circular "layer" nearest to the elbows is actually raised up, whereas it's lower on the others. Interesting.

Anyway, back to the rundown, the sword is from the Takatoku "Daikengo" Jumbo and although I'm not sure if it's the exact same mechanism, the "Super Jumbo Jeeg" from Takara utilizes the disc launching gimmick. It wouldn't surprise me if it's from there considering the popularity of Jeeg in Italy. The missiles look very much like the missiles from the Nakajima line of Jumbos, but are a different size and usually not interchangeable. Of course, there's always slight variations on these things so your experience may be different, but I wouldn't count on it. Lastly, you can see nods to both Dangard Ace and Daltanious among the sticker designs. Oh, speaking of the stickers, you'll notice that mine is missing the stripes that go around the forearms.

Back to variations for a second here. Although this toy is most often called "Space Valour", you might find it from time to time in other boxes. The second most common one is called "Zork", but there is a third. I can't remember the name of it right now since I've only seen it once and apparently forgot to save the picture. But I think it's something like "Warrior Of Space" in Italian or something like that. I'll try to find out. All three boxes feature similar artwork on the front.

So, basically, if you're looking for a quality toy, you can give Space Valour a pass. If you're just looking for a cheap jumbo to tide you over until something more appealing comes along, it might be a good option for you. Just know what you're getting into ahead of time and don't expect too much.