Robot-Car

Review by JoshB

I never knew his as Daijim.

As a child, I never knew his name at all. Back in the day, the place for us poor kids to get toys was a place in New Hampshire called PIP's. PIP's was the original dollar store. Most everything there was a buck, and if there was anything popular, PIP's would have a lower quality version there for a buck.

This was back in the mid to early 1980s when transformers ruled the playground. I had gotten bootlegs of Starscream, Soundwave and Omega Supreme, but there were also toys I didn't recognize. Mom would always agree to buy me toys a PIP's because they were so cheap. One of those toys was a black truck that turned into a robot. It was battery operated; it waked in robot mode and rolled in vehicle mode. At the time, I loved and hated it. I always thought it was cheap, and stupid because it wasn't a transformer. But still, it was pretty unique, and I had a lot of fun with it.

Flash forward to about a month ago, when I came across an auction for the Robot-Car. I instantly recognized it is being the same toy I had as a kid, but with a different color scheme. Could this be the original version of the toy I had as a kid?

Sadly, No. But it did lead me on the path to its true identity. The version I have is just called Robot Car. It's molded in blue, black and chrome, with a small bit of metal. The toy is actually pretty cool, much cooler than I remember it being.

Robot-car is a bootleg version of the Daijim Robot Car made by Yonezawa. The original version is all black, and may have come with a diecast bar in front of the front wheels. It was later imported to America, and sold in American packaging, but without the diecast bar. There was also a bootleg of the black version (which i had as a kid), and now this bootleg blue version, that keeps the diecast bar intact.

Daijim has three modes: two walking modes and one driving mode. In car mode, Daijim can go forward or backward. He has rubber wheels, and a side mounted missile launcher.

To transform Daijim, first you have to remove the two roof covers. There are three buttons on his chest. One button pops his head up, while the other two buttons pop the arms out from the side. Remove the front grille then swing the legs down. Finally re-attach the covers onto the legs. The missile launcher mounts to his shoulder, and his arms can accept either fists or missiles. Daijim can walk either forward or backward in this mod by moving a switch on top. 20 years and he still comes to life with a mechanical squeal.

What makes Daijim cool are the little neat things, like chrome insets on the arms, and spring-loaded head and arms. Yonezawa managed to take their expertise of tin robots and combine them with the transformers fad to make a cool, fun transforming robot. Even if this toy did not have the high nostalgia factor I would still give it high marks.

Robot-Car was distributed in the usa by Videl Distribution, Ontario Canada.