Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Reflections on a Talking Robot (part three) Popy Appears


And Toys International had a lot of other cool stuff as well…



Robocon opened the door to let the Arkrons in. The Arkrons, in turn, drew my attention to the Popy series. These small toys were marvels of precision engineering and quality, executed in die-cast metal and high grade plastic. Each robot made some sort of amazing transformation. And even though I couldn’t read them, it was obvious from the tech-sheets that came with these things that their designers took them very seriously.













It was that same kind of ostentatious imagination that had spawned Godzilla. Based on animated "super-robot" serials (none of which I have ever seen) these machines were working models of genuine weapons of outer-world warfare.

Like the No.17: a robot who folded neatly into a compact space station complete with landing strips and launchers.








Or the Dangard Ace: A latch here, a lever there, and the Mechanical Samurai separated into two modules which clicked together to form a perfect space ship. Secret hatches on the legs revealed tightly folded landing gear.


You’d never know it had been a humanoid robot.
And I had to have the demon warrior Gaiking, who for some odd reason could only turn himself into a robot skull. (More on him later)



The invasion was on.
Part Four

JWM

5 comments:

  1. And I had to have the demon warrior Gaiking, who for some odd reason could only turn himself into a robot skull.

    Only? ONLY? You try turning yourself into a robot skull. And besides, you would be surprised how useful robot skulls are.

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  2. Wow, those engineers really do a good job! That can't be easy to create.

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  3. Now, whenever I leave a comment, and in yer fertile mind ya ask, "I wonder what that guy looks like?" -- I want you to conjure up the image of the Demon Warrior Gaiking!

    Well -- that's how I feel!

    Maybe it's the caffeine ...

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