#1055 GO-BOTS - HANS-CUFF (MR-13) and SLICKS (MR-32) (1983 and 1984)

The first model today is a police car called Hans-Cuff or Police-Robo (MR-13). It belongs to the first series from 1983. It represents a Toyota Crown S110, which I tend to guess that it was used as a police car in Japan in the 80s. The car looks great, and the robot transformation is simple and nice. It has the same construction as many transforming robots that turn into cars.

As a general rule, I think that Go-Bots took special care on the alternate-forms of the robots, which are much nice than the alternate forms of Takara/Hasbro´s Transformers (personal opinion here).

The Formula 1 represents a Renault F1 from the early 80s and its called Slicks, although it is also known as F1-Robo or Renault Man (MR-32). It was part of the second series from 1984. As you probably know, the term slicks refer to the tires used in the speed racing championships, especially those used for good weather conditions which had no thread pattern at all (they are completely flat for a better grip). 

 

The Go-Bot behind it is rather complex, and difficult to transform. Due to its many parts, it is difficult to let it stand in a particular position, as, with the use, some connections or articulations are a bit loose. Still, as shown in the pictures, it looks truly great also in robot form.

Both robots were designed and commercialized by Tonka in 1983 in US, Canada and Japan and one year later by Bandai in other parts of the world, maybe with some colour changes or variations. The original Slicks was partly black, while this European Machine Robo version is completely yellow.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: HANS-CUFF (MR-13) and SLICKS (MR-32)
• Toy Line: Go-Bots
• Year: 1983 and 1984
• Company: Bandai (Japan)
• Size of the figures: Approx. 7-9 cm length

#937 BANDAI - TURTLES CHARACTER MINI-MACHINES - PARTY VAN (1990)

With the Ninja Turtles craze came many related articles, some of them from Bandai directly, other from other brands that acquired the rights to put the characters in their products.

I recall seeing these in a shop back in the early 90s in Spain, also coincident with the micro cars trend started by Galoob´s Micro Machines. Note that the car is advertised as a "Mini Machine"!

This van is slightly bigger than a Micro Machine, but considering it is a van, it would still display nicely together. The van comes with a motorised pull-back motor. Such a toy is, of course, very cheap to produce, by the stickers that simulate the Turtle-wagon add a lot of money to the final retail price. Considering the price tag, this is an expensive toy, I guess they did not sell many of it.

The van came is a small blister card, with some interesting indications on the back. The toy seems to have been imported to Europe by Bandai UK, and then to Spain by Bandai Spain and has the rights from Mirage Studios directly to reproduce this van (copyright from 1989). The blister card comes in English and German, but there are several errors in the German text.

Apparently a complete series of Mini Machines with famous characters was planned, but I only found this one and another one with Postman Pat. The toys are made in China. Remember that Bandai actually distributed the turltes figures in some European countries, so they maybe made a move to offer other related products as well in addittion to the ones made by Playmates.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: TURTLES CHARACTER MINI-MACHINES - PARTY VAN
• Scale: 1:150 (approx.)
• Year: 1990
• Company: Bandai (Japan)
• Size: approx. 2’’ or 5 cm

#580 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE – METEORBS - ORBEAR (1987)

When the Masters of the Universe fame was decaying, Mattel decided to introduce a series of 10 figures that did not fit the rest of the series. These were 9 animals and one robt that could transform into eggs.

HEROIC METEORBS

• Cometroid – Heroic meteorb with mechanical power.  
• Ty-Grrr – Heroic tiger Meteorb.
• Astro Lion – Heroic lion with amazing brute strength.
• Comet Cat – Heroic panther. The fastest of the Meteorbs.
• Tuskor – Heroic Mammooth who busts force fields with tusks.

EVIL METEORBS

• Dinosorb – Evil brontosaurus who stomps to start quakes.
• Crocobite – Evil crocodile with crushing jaws.
• Rhinorb – Evil rhino with horrible ramming horn.
• Orbear – Evil grizzly who bashes enemies with his claws.
• Gore-illa – Evil ape with monstrous muscle-power.

The story created to fit the Meteorbs into this series was that they were powerful creatures from space that reached Eternia together with Rokkon and Stonedar (two figures from series 5). They appeared in a few comics, catalogues from different countries and also in one chapter of Princess of Power.

The figures are not even a Mattel toy. They were manufactured by Bandai in Japan. They belonged to another toyline called Tamagoras, that reached a certain popularity by the beginning of the 80s. Unfortunately, the Meteorbs didn´t sell very well, and were discontinued after only one wave/ year. The MotU were already in their end phase and the concept was too different. It didn´t work, although transforming toys were some kind of fashion back them.

I own only one of these, Orbear, the bear.

I also have several figures from the Huevox series by Phoskitos. Phoskitos is a biscuit and chocolate dessert intended for children at school. They always have some promotion running with stickers or whatever. In this case you could win these figures. They are from the late 2000s and made in China. One of them is identical to Tuskor the Mammooth, only in another colour.
 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: ORBEAR (Ref. 1415) + Some HUEVOX
• Toy Line: Masters of the Universe (Wave 6) / Huevox
• Year: 1987 / Around 2008
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.) / Unknown (Phoskitos promo)
• Size of the figures: 6 cm

#555 JIRAIYA/GIRAYA NINJA - BARON OWL and DOKUSAI (1988)

This series by Bandai was very advertised in 1992 when Bandai arrived to Spain. The Japanese company brought a lot of new toylines, each of it with its own TV ad. Most of them were very small lines (just a few references, like this one) and didn´t have much success. The most successful line was Saint Seiya, while almost all the other toylines are today forgotten (in Spain at least, in Japan most of them are very popular even today). The toys however were manufactured a few years earlier, and introduced earlier as well in other markets, like France in 1989.

I bought two figures the summer of 1992 as some kind of cheap replacement of a real Saint Seiya. The figures are made of a jelly-like sticky plastic, that could be stretched, launched against the wall or the ceiling (where it would stick to), but that is not what caught my attention in the first place... it was the armour, which was, in a way, similar to Saint Seiya´s. The figure also came with some accesories, like swords, bows, knifes, and a figure stand. Even with the armor, it would be difficult to place them in standing position without the stand. The drawback of the armour, is that you cannot really play with the stetch feature... which in the end is the cool thing.

Blistercard Images taken from todocoleccion.net

The collection comprises 5 characters, all of them are actually the same figure with different heads. The main character is Giraya, the hero. Giraya fights together with two other characters: Baron Owl, the "brain" of the organisation and Wild, the young apprentice. On the other side, there is some evil organisation, whose leader is Dokusai. The baddies are only two, being the second one Habrun. As in most good vs. evil stories, the bad guys want to rule the world, and the good guys have a hell of a lot of work stopping them.

Pic: todocoleccion.net

Despite being a nice toy, they are not collectable, because the figures won´t withstand the test of time, and will degradate at some point. So my advice would be not to spend much money on these figures.

In Spain they were sold in blíster cards, like those in the pictures, but in other countries, they were sold boxed.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DOKUSAI and BARON OWL
• Toy Line: Jiraiya/Giraya Ninja
• Year: 1988
• Company: Bandai (Japan)
• Size of the figure: Around 15 cm