Grendizer
Review by JoshB
This is an interesting vinyl produced by HL Pro in conjunction with something called "Grendizer World Dubai". I think this was a limited shop in the Cinema 1 store in Dubai Mall. It's a cool piece and it really brings home the fact that Super Robots are popular all over the world.
Of course I could be wrong about the Dubai connection - but at least this sample came from something to do with it.
Grendizer comes packaged like an old-school vinyl - bagged with a header card.
Anyway, this is a nice, 9-inch vinyl rendition of one of the classic Super Robots, in a slight super-deformed style. It reminds me of the old Popy and Bullmark vinyls, and it fits right in with the Retro Sofubi Mazinger Z.
The vinyl is good quality, and the paint is excellent. The paint however makes the joints very sticky so you really have to un-stick each joint to get them to move. Once you free it up there's a wide range of movement.
Swivel joints are head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist and hips. Not bad!
The default pose is pretty good, but his head looks down a little too much. Nothing major, but I would have preferred a straight-on head.
Overall though, this is a really cool vinyl, and it looks great paired up with the Arcarus from the same line. I'm not sure what he costs as I got them as samples from HL Pro, and I can't find them for sale anywhere. I hope they do more in the line!
Comments
3 comments postedHey Josh, that Cinema 1 store in Dubai is actually really cool. It caters to the high-end modern movie collectibles crowd. I know some folks that lived in Dubai and they sent over some shots of the store to see if if there was anything that I wanted for my collection. Look for the Dubai Mall and you'll find some pictures of the store (it's designed really classy.) Most of what they had that I saw was your Sideshow, Hot Toys, PG Gundam, statues, etc; your typical medium to high-end japanese collectibles (or stuff that caters to that crowd). I didn't know they had anything exclusive - their stock looked like the same stuff as what HLJ or Angolz offers - so now I've got to check it out again.
I have a feeling that "Grendizer World Dubai" is basically the licensor of Grendizer in the United Arab Eremites, or a name HL uses to keep them out of legal hot water? There is a huge amount of merchandise in Dubai based on Grendizer, specifically T-shirts, from what I can tell from friends's pictures.
This giant 7-foot Grendizer was what got my friend to send me pictures of the store:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.209349885743983.55901.145693715442934&type=1
I have family leaving for Dubai this week, they're staying right next to Dubai Mall so I'll ask if they can stop in and quiz the clerks about any other exclusive super robot items they sell.
I had the chance to buy this only a month ago in Dubai Mall (Virgin Megastore). I decided against it and instead got the Duke Fleed figure by HL Pro. It was a decision I soon regret because it can't even stand on it's own due to some deformation of the legs. This however now, after looking at the review it actually seems like a decent Grendizer collectible. I just wish it came in a box.
Since Grendizer was popular with the Arabic populace back in the day, I'm not surprised bout' finding it in Dubai ^^