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Sramble On!

words: Matt Alt, shapes: Yappy

May 2000

UPDATED: 05.05.00
 words: Matt Alt  shapes: Yappy

srungheads: Rob Duban, Roger Harkavy, Mike Parisi

Srungchange! It sounds like a lingering medical affliction, or a minor character from Beowulf, but we're talking about what might possibly be the ugliest sci-fi robot ever conjured up by the Japanese. A product of the post-Gundam movement to create ultra-realistic animated robot designs, "Srungle" takes the concept to an outrageous extreme. And in spite of ourselves, we just can't help but love the big guy. It looks like an ambulatory plumbing fixture. And the (count 'em!) two separate transformed modes look like a heavily-armed Xerox machine and a piece of industrial cooking equipment, respectively. But in the age of the iMac and the new Beetle, Srungle's obsessive focus on function over form is something akin to a direct protest of modern style. The designs are pure ugly -- and proud of it.

The Srungle toys were the product of a two-company tag-team: Clover (who'd previously produced diecast toys for the insanely popular Gundam series) and Poplar (a tiny company mainly known for cheapie supermarket and train-station toys). The large-size deluxe Srungle is satisfyingly heavy and quite detailed, but even the smaller sizes have a charm all their own. However, judging by their cool reception today, it seems that neither the show nor the toys were particularly popular when they first came out. In fact, both Clover and Poplar went out of business shortly thereafter.

The full title of the show roughly translates into "Outer-Space Mission Srungle." Rather than a straight-up animated robot series, Srungle was designed to be an SF-themed "Mission: Impossible," featuring the exploits of a special-forces team known as "The Gorilla." (No, not "guerrilla." Gorilla.) Founded to deal with the activities of unimaginatively-named criminal organization called "Crime," the Gorilla used a variety of robotic vehicles to get the job done. An auxiliary mecha, called "Mighty Shoulder," popped up towards the end of the series that could combine with our blocky hero and form "Hyper Srungle," but Clover/Poplar declined to release a toy of it.
SYSTEM MECHA COLLECTION
The System Mecha Collection (S.M.C.) is the core of the Srungle toy line. This line adheres to late-era Clover's design philosophies -- basically making mecha toys as chunky and as stylized as their diecast "Super Robot" predecessors (look at Clover's Gundam!). The S.M.C. line heightens the angular geometry of the Srungle robots to almost cubist abstraction. Design liberties aside, the beauty of this line is the amount of diecast packed in these relatively small toys-- these are hands down the densest "mecha" toys ever made.

There's been some dispute about whether Clover actually produced all the Srungle robots for the S.M.C. line. This data-file's currently only listing confirmed Srightings.

   

1:100 Srungle
The 1:100 Srungle is a great little toy, adorned with an odd arrary of rollbars, pipes and seemingly pointless fins. The feet fold-down, the gun fires missiles, and the legs have a wacky piston-like action. It's even got classic spring-loaded "rocket punch" action. Srungle's most salient feature, however, is its ability to sit and look menacing, in all its boxy glory.
-RD  
TOY
front, back
BOX
front, back
1:100 Britt Jetter
More akin to a bulldozer than a robot, the Britt Jetter is a virtually immobile hunk of diecast and plastic. The only play-features of this toy are three elevating guns, and that's about it. (Unless of course you consider the ability to place the meager quantity of stickers on the toy a "play feature.") The Britt Jetter is nonetheless a nice piece of toy design at possibly the most extreme end of the "mech" spectrum. With this one, Srungle's "industrial theme" is played to the hilt.
-RD  
TOY
front
BOX
front, back

1:100 Bombie
SRUNGCHANGE MODEL
While the the S.M.C.s embraced the "old school," the SrungChange Models were Clover-Poplar's attempt to ape Takatoku's revolutionary transforming mecha toys. The SrungChange toys are much truer in proportion and detail to their anime counterpart, but improved engineering comes at a price. These toys are mostly plastic and lack the rewarding "heft" of the S.M.C.s.

Ironically, Clover decided not to add scales to their more "realistic" toy line. However, the use of highly scientific guestimating has determined that the ST's maybe 1:72 scale and the DX's perhaps 1:48. This highly scientific Polaroid I-ZoneTM snapshot reveals the relative heights of the S.M.C and SrungChange Srungles.

   

Srungle ST
Proudly standing 7" tall, the SrungChange ST has the best proportions of its Srung-brethren. Unfortunately, only its feet and half its chest are diecast, so it's lighter than the smaller S.M.C. In fact, there's a train-station-toy chintziness to the toy; exposed screw-and-washer assemblies hold much of it together. The ST has two chunky, missile-firing guns, but lacks the quaint rocket-punch of the S.M.C. To make up for that, the ST transforms-- marginally-- into a gerwalk-y "Tank-Type" mode and the astounding "Ass-Roller" mode.
-Y  
TOY
front, back
BOX
front, back, side
Srungle DX
The Big Daddy of the Srungles towers over the others at slightly over 9". What it lacks in die-cast content (only the center and back torso plates and the insides of its shins are cold, loving metal), it makes up for in gimmicks-- a spring loaded missile launcher in each forearm, and two fold-out pilot/gunner seats with seperate pilot figurines. Strangely enough, this is also the only Srungle without a spring-action gun. The DX does undergo a "proper" transformation sequence, unlike the ST (which pretty much just folds over at the waist). Unfortunately, the hands have to be removed during the DX's transformation. As for the resulting "Flight-Type" and improved "Tank-Type" modes, words just can't describe them. Nor can any logic explain them.
-Y  
TOY
front, flight-type, tank-type
BOX
front, back, instructions
VINYL
Hard-edged industrial design meets synthetic leather substitute? Insane? You be the judge.    

'Treker Beagle' Srungle
Here's an incogruous toy: a Srungle molded out of soft vinyl. Vinyl isn't a particularly suitable medium for producing toys of high-tech robots, but Clover/Poplar gave it their best shot anyway. It's actually fairly interesting in that they used actual metal pieces for the "roll bars" on Srungle's knees, giving the toy a real "multimedia" feel. This piece is identical in size and scale to the 1:100 diecast toy, but the sculpt is much wider and flatter. It's articulated at the shoulders and waist, and has rotating elbows. In spite of the deformity, it actually manages to capture the mecha "essence" of our clunky hero fairly well.
-MA  
TOY
front
BOX
front

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