Goggle V

Review by Showapop

It is fascinating how some series are just going on for years with each new generation discovering a particular program every year and making it theirs. Series like James Bond, Dr. Who, Godzilla, and Super Sentai are reaching or have passed their 40-year mark and still going quite strong. We all have our favorite Bond, Doctor, Godzilla, and Super Sentai programs and have gotten in heated debates with our friends about the subject.

Take Super Sentai for instance. My favorite Sentai group is JAKQ Dengekitai and I just cannot get into Super Sentai starting with and after Maskman. I don’t know what it is but starting with Maskman the art design of the Chogokins and uniforms just don’t do it for me, as the late 80’s designs and music is just too late 80’s in my point of view and the 90’s and 00’s the Robot art design is just too busy for my modernist mid-century tastes. But I am sure that some younger fans who grew up with the 90’s Super Sentai shows would feel the early Super Sentai designs are dated and crude.

I like the simple clean and colorful look of the early Super Sentai robots such as Goggle V, Sun Vulcan, Dynaman and Changeman.

Bandai’s Godaikin range of re-boxed Japanese Chogokin robots for the export market was the transcending line of toys that kicked up the benchmark for kids that were infatuated with Japanese robot toys. Godaikin said, ”respect” and I respected. Even at an early age I somehow grasped that Godaikin toys were important even though nearly all the releases did not have any TV shows to promote their figures.

Somehow we had to piece together what Godaikin toys were all about. Regardless if they were from an anime or tokusatsu program the robots were just amazing. Godaikin figures were nearly all die-cast, with chrome plastic details, colorful stickers, bright painted features, huge boxes with foam trays, shooting missiles and fists, cryptic names in Kanji on the chest, full-color instructions, and bonus figures that confused matters even more. To this day Godaikin toys are some of the finest ever manufactured and the great success of Soul of Chogokin owes their pedigree to Godaikin.

I bought Goggle V at the toy discount store Kay-Bee Toy store at the Montclair Plaza back in the 1980s for what I remember $15.00. Because Godaikin toys did not have TV programs to help promote the line, many uneducated kids saw these as Transformers and Go-Bots knock-offs, similar to something you find at a swap meet. Accordingly, you could find many Godaikin products at the toy discount outlets, marked down to sometimes more than 50% of its retail price.

Figuring out what Goggle V or Super Sentai in general was quite another matter that would be cleared up when Friday Night Flight debut its comically dubbed version of Dynaman. Although I first saw Dynaman on a lazy Sunday afternoon in 1986 on channel 11, it was Friday Night Flight, an alternative TV cable show that aired each Friday night to Saturday morning, that regularly showed Dynaman.

When I saw first viewed Dynaman I flipped out and thought I already had the robot in my collection, but it later turned out that I had a different robot but I somehow knew they were connected in some way. It would be years later that I would know the true connection between Dynaman, and Great Squadron Goggle V and many of the other Godaikin releases and its relation to a genre called Super Sentai.

Here's the opening for Goggle V and the theme is also in my top 5 Super Sentai Themes ever and Goggle Pink is way hot! ...And if I only knew the Goggle Dump flew when I was a kid.

Goggle V Comes with: 1x Goggle Jet, 1x Goggle Tank, 2x Goggle Dump halves, 1x Earth Sword, 1x Goggle Cutter, 1x Goggle Hand, 1x Goggle Spindle, 1x Goggle Shield, 2x right fists, 2x left fists, 3x kaiju cards, 6x Missiles, 1x Godaikin Catalog,1x color instruction booklet. Goggle V is packed in a slide tray box. There are no options.

Goggle V is made up of three vehicles, Goggle Jet, Goggle Tank and Goggle Dump. Goggle V is one of the smaller of the Godaikin DX sized releases. Small that it might be it still stands quite tall especially compared to recent Soul of Chogokin releases. It is made up of about 75% die cast and accordingly it is a bit heavy for its size. The paint is bright and thick and applied well. I love the chrome stickers applied throughout.

Goggle Jet is a cool little vehicle. To convert the jet into the head and chest area for Goggle Robo just telescope the wings into the body of the plane and fold down the stabilizers and rudder. I think the face sculpt is one of the best of the series. To reveal Goggle V Robo’s face just turn the cockpit around and the face will be revealed.

Goggle tank is a fun little eight-wheeled vehicle typical of the 1970’s and 1980’s Super Sentai / Chogokin era. It is a nice die-cast solid vehicle with a turret on top, which shoots two yellow missiles that are provided. The detailed chrome sticker underneath the turret is a nice touch by Bandai. To transform the Tank into Goggle Robo body just open the bottom of the tank fold out the arms and fold in the wheels.

As much as I love the Goggle Tank and Goggle Jet I just do not understand why Goggle V’s legs are a dump truck, which even threw me for a spin when I was kid. Everybody knows the legs are supposed to be some kind of submarine! Nevertheless, Goggle Dump is still a nice little vehicle made with some solid metal content with two rotating carriers and a dump bed which folds to a dumper. The Goggle Dump solidly snaps together and apart with two yellow folding pegs and to convert it to Goggle Robo legs just fold in the dumping beds and snap apart the dump truck and fold up the feet.

All the vehicles snap together quite firmly and once it is in Goggle Robo mode it is a solid toy. Unfortunately, there is not much of articulation to speak just the arms having the ability to move up and down. But in today’s contemporary days of ultra articulation this might seem like a bad feature but back when I was a kid I had so much fun with this toy and it was one of my favorites. Do not get me wrong I hope a Soul of Chogokin version is released but this version of Goggle V is excellent as it is.

Goggle V also comes with some great weapons. A nice large plastic chrome Earth Sword is included. Four shooting fists are also included to shoot at your cat or small dog, and a Goggle Shield is included to defend yourself from that same cat or small dog.

Three others weapons are included: a Goggle Cutter claw that snaps into the fist, a Goggle Hand mace on a real metal chain and Goggle Spindle. It looks like the Spindle should fit into something and I never figured out how the Spindle fitted with any other part, if at all. The Spindle is just a strange accessory that does not lend itself to the rest of the toy.

If you notice one part is missing, the chained Goggle Hand mace. When I was younger I had to share a room with my older brother (Yes you Michael) and I had all my robots displayed on the headboard that had a shelf above my bed. One day I get home and all my robots were gone! My brother Michael decided to “clean” our room and threw out my now thousands of dollars worth of robots in a box and threw out all the loose accessories in the dumpster.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going through the dumpster retrieving GI Joe, Spiral Zone, Godaikin, and Robotech parts. I never did find the Goggle Hand mace. Am I still angry with my brother Michael? Of course, I’m still quite angry about that, we’re talking Godaikin here! I lost a lot of cool things that day and maybe I should ask him to replace it, that is something a brother would do!

You simply cannot go wrong with any of the Godaikin line of Chogokins. The packaging is always excellent, and the figure and accessories are top notch. Although Goggle V is a bit smaller than the other Godaikins it still a nice even release that is still quite impressive nearly 25 years later.

Article & Pictures ©2009 Leonardo Flores & CollectionDX