Reflections on a Talking Robot (part three) Popy Appears

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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

Reflections on a Talking Robot (part two) Arrival of the Arkrons

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"They had some other Japanese robots at the toy store," my girlfriend said. "But they were complicated looking things with a million parts, so I didn’t think you’d be interested."
I had my second Japanese robot within the day.

This one was like a mecha-dinosaur crossed with a Lego. It was a blast to mess with.

But the Black King (I know. He’s not black) was only one of a series, and I found out that they had most of the others at Toys International, which was not far from where I lived.

The Red King came home to fight, and then combine with the black.














Soon King Joe (right) and Gomorra joined the fray.
I have fond memories of sitting up late watching movies on TV and reassembling those little guys in all sorts of ways.
Sometime later Baltan Seijin, and King Kong completed the set.














I didn't know it at the time, but all these monsters were villains from the Japanese television show Ultraman. Here's a clip of King Joe and Gomorrah in action. (The Black Joe is an ally.)

It wasn’t long before the top of one bookcase was set aside to display the Arkron family.

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

JWM

Reflections on a Talking Robot

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Sometime late in 1977 my girlfriend gave me a talking robot. It was partly a gag, and partly a not too subtle dig at my lack of maturity. I was twenty-five. I had a laid back job working swing shift, and I was more concerned with surfing and partying than career, and marriage. The box was all in Japanese. The robot was a silly looking thing like a bright red trashcan on stilts, and when you pushed a button on his chest he sang a little song, or yelled at you in Japanese. The talking mechanism was a tiny phonograph, with three different records. The thing was a crackup. You couldn’t push the button without laughing.

Robocon was the name of this ridiculous creature, and he turned out to be a Trojan horse. He would soon open my imagination, and my home to an invading army of interplanetary war machines.

"They had some other Japanese robots at the toy store," my girlfriend said. "But they were complicated looking things with a million parts, so I didn’t think you’d be interested."
I had my second Japanese robot within the day.

Part Two

JWM