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[Yonezawa Gokin]

Yonezawa: Lords of Tin, Losers of Die-cast

text: Matt Alt, graphics: Robert Duban

January 2000

updated: 03.31.07

Additional images provided by: Ato Punch (not currently on-line), Todd Stadtman, Yutaka Ishida & Kaikodo, Yappy, Alen Yen

[old school tin robot] Simply put, Yonezawa's story is the tale of a company that wasn't quite "with it." Although they had been a very successful tin-toy manufacturer in the 1960's, Yonezawa didn't fare particularly well in the emerging diecast character-toy marketplace of the 1970's. In the face of declining tin sales, Yonezawa knew it was either sink or swim, and finally made the big decision to gamble for a piece of the character toy market segment. Their efforts were a mixed bag at best.

Yonezawa managed to snag the license for an obscure live-action Go Nagai creation called "Star of Pro-Wrestling: Astekaizer," and created a series of ten or so diecast portrayals of the show's characters. The general response to these pieces remains tepid even today, which is a shame considering how insane the designs are. Their "ZnDc Diecast" series of robots were throwbacks to an earlier age -- in fact, they were little more than diecast representations of old, generic, and tired tin-toy robot designs -- and are as widely ignored by toy-collectors today as they were by children of the day. Yonezawa fought on bravely with a few more releases and even tried their hand at some all-plastic pieces later on, but never recaptured the glory of their years as the lords of tin-toys.

[Astekaizer logo] ASTEKAIZER[Astekaizer plays with matches!]
Astekaizer was an odd television series that featured a live-action story interspersed with animated fight-scenes.

Yonezawa sold toys of three Astekaizer characters in a variety of scales. The standard sized Astekaizer diecast is an incredibly colorful, insane-looking toy with an unusual missile launcher placement: the projectiles fire from the soles of Astekizer's feet! [Star Mites comparison] (Years later, a company called Empire Toys would acquire and re-work the molds, and sell completely modifided versions of this diecast in the US as "Star Mites.") The Mach Beat is Astekaizer's preferred mode of transportation in the show. And the standard sized toy of Goriking, Astekaizer's robotic sparring partner, features beautiful design but fragile engineering: the weak-kneed piece tends to topple over at the slightest provocation.

There's also a fairly common "mini-sized" diecast Astekaizer piece, and a difficult to find set of three "REALLY mini" diecasts of Astekaizer, Goriking, and the Mach Beat. Interestingly, and unlike the toys made by almost every other Japanese toy company, the Astekiazer pieces didn't feature a fancy brand name -- they were simply labled as being "made of diecast" on the package.

["Diecast ZnDc Gokin Series"] ZnDc ROBOTS
Shorthand for "Zinc Diecast Robots," the unimaginative name of this series suits the totally derivative nature of the toys themselves. Although they're solid chunks of missile-firing metal, these three little guys are simply diecast renditions of robots in an old tin style. There are multiple color variations of each piece.
[Hattori-kun] NINJA HATTORI-KUN
Ninja Hattori-Kun was a mid-Seventies comic serial created by "Fujio F. Fujiko," the same two-man team who was responsible for the insanely successful Doraemon series. Although it never reached the commercial heights of Doraemon, Ninja Hattori-Kun was popular enough to warrant both an animated and a horrible-looking live action television show in Japan. The diecast Hattori-Kun toys were sold in at least three versions: "Pocket Gokin," "Junior Gokin" and "Daiya Gokin." The last two terms seem to have been used interchangably for both large and small toys. Yonezawa produced other Hattori-Kun toys as well, including a large plastic "ninja castle" and a "ninja ladder." The Hattori-kun series remains all but unknown outside of Japan.
[Rainbowman] DIAPET SERIES
Yonezawa's Diapet seires consisted of every-day cars, steam shovels, trucks, and other construction equipment. The Rainbowman car and a handful of others seem to be the few exceptions.

Astekaizer Series
[Image] no.1 - Astekaizer Additional Images:
box, box back, box side
[Image] no.2 - mini Astekaizer Additional Images:
box, box back, box side
no.3 - really mini Astekaizer
[Image] no.5 - Mach Beat Additional Images:
box
no.6 - mini Mach Beat Additional Images:
box
no.7 - really mini Mach Beat
[Image] no.8 - Goriking Additional Images:
with armaments, box, box back
[Image] no.10 - really mini Goriking Additional Images:
box, box back
[Image] no.11 - Astekaizer tin Additional Images:
box
no.13 - Mach Beat with "Magic Motor" Additional Images:
box
no.14 - Astekaizer vinyl Additional Images:
box, box back
ZnDc Robot Series
[Image] no.1 - Missler
(blue version)		 Additional Images:
box
no.1 - Missler
(red version)
no.2 - Vegatron
(green version)		 Additional Images:
box
[Image] no.2 - Vegatron
(orange version)
[Image] no.3 - Dia-Beamer
(yellow version)		 Additional Images:
box
[Image] no.3 - Dia-Beamer
(green version)
Ninja Hattori-kun
[Image] Ninja Hattori-kun -
pocket gokin		 Additional Images:
box
[Image] Ninja Hattori-kun -
junior gokin		 Additional Images:
box
[Image] Ninja Hattori-kun -
daiya gokin		 Additional Images:
box
[Image] Shinzo-kun -
daiya gokin		 Note: same size as Hattori "junior gokin"
Additional Images:
box
Diapet character toys
[Image] Meteor Man Zone - 1/56 scale Mighty Line car Additional Images:
box
Meteor Man Zone - mini Mighty Line car Additional Images:
box
[Image] Rainbowman mini car
[Image] Red Baron motorcycle

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