Alen Yen's ToyboxDX

February 1999

March 1999 | Ramble Index | January 1999

2/22/99: Magunemo Dreams

I'm engaging in electro-magnetic therapy to overcome my aversion to plastic. Despite my chronic and blinding need for heavy zinc and tubby feet, Takara's new line of sleek Microman magnetic figures is crawling piece by piece onto my shelf.

Thanks to a recent and generous gift from abroad, I'm the proud owner of the new #14 Robotman. This bad boy stands a healthy 7" tall, sans weapons, and is plastered with connection points. The figure is wonderfully intricate and sculpted, while being lean and poseable as well.

There's also a baroque bouquet of deadly weapons, including a huge chromed blade, articulating claw arm, Destroidy cannon, and -- bless Takara -- a massive Rocket Punch!

If you're a Geeg fan, try this: pop the Robotman arms and legs right onto that yellow-green clown-bod. Now it's Geeg on Creatine! (Unfortunately, Robotman's head don't come off. Now I wonder why they didn't make this available?)

Apparently, the red and blue Robotmen come with their own arsenal which can be used to form Voltr...I mean uh, a Really Big Figure (as shown on the back of the package.)

And finally, concerning that package: it's Japanese-style preservable blister-pack. All praise Takara! For the price and design, these top-notch toys are a steal!

2/18/99: Stealth Voltron

Nighthawk sends in a link and some buzz:

"hey alen, some new stuff I found: first, trendmasters has released another new voltron set. this one has the set broken up into 4 bubble packs, red/green, blue, yellow and black lions, and includes sword, shield, firing missles and little scale pilots (cool.) this set seems to be about 20% bigger than the diecast matchbox, trendmaster, bandai, etc DX size. all plastic though, damn..."

"also they have rereleased a small size voltron with weapons, it seemed to be an exact copy of my old small size 1985 release ( I didn't get it though.) they also have action figures of all the characters, good guys plus lotor"

"but the really cool thing is this 'Stealth Voltron.' the only pic I've found is on the trendmasters website. this one is rumored to be a diecast like the other big set!" -- Nighthawk

Also: check the Info Library for some updates. And if you haven't sent in your profile for the About ToyboxDX credits, do it! (Click on that red half-disc on the upper left of the nav bar...)

2/15/99: Robot Web-o-rama!

Check it out: Robot web-o-rama! [say it10 times fast...]

Have you visited Steve Chang's Nostalgic Anime Toys ? It's a excellent site with reviews, collection pics and multimedia. Steve is a great collector with a tremendous stack of toys...

Meanwhile, robot-website pioneer Ted Terranova has (ahem) finally UPDATED HIS SITE! Apparently, the 2 year gestation was worth it, as he's given birth to a plethora of new sections and images. He's also sprinkled on some beautiful design and navigation, and given new life to a digital classic. Go Ted!

I received my UNI-Five Jumbomachinder Mazinger Z the other day from Scott at Collection Connection. I know other people have expressed strong opinions on this toy, so I'll add my own: this thing is cool. Really really cool. Don't short-change yourself!

And speaking of UNI-Five: after the recent cancellation thread, Matt and I did some quick research on the JumboMachindification process -- aka Polyethylene Rotomolding.

Through a bizarre but fortuitous coincidence, we ended up conversing with a former Mattel Head of Product Engineering and Design who gave us some unofficial insight and numbers into what the tooling process would cost, stateside. Here's some breakdown:

The Jumbo Mazinger Z can be broken down into (10) uniquely molded forms, sans missles and wheel assemblies: (1) arm/shoulder unit, (2) forearm/fist units, (1) thigh unit, (1) calf/foot unit, (2) chest pieces, (1) head, (1) torso, and -- um -- (1) "Pilder."
A company contracting rapid CAD prototyping could expect to pay around $5000 for a functioning, detailed prototype.
For short-run machining (500-1000) with fair tolerances, a company could expect to pay between $2000-$4000 per mold.

Of course, manufacturing and tooling costs are cheaper in Asia and countries outside of the USA. And of course, the Bandai octopus maintains a series of in-house resources which also drop the cost. Nevertheless, tallying-up the expenditure for detailing (stickers and painting), accesssories (missles), assembly, packaging, shipping, storage, licensing, labor [design, engineering, modeling, and marketing] paints a pretty grim profit margin for an unsuccessful run of 800.

Throw into this mess the relative bulkiness of these toys, the problems associated with shelving them, as well as the choking Kong Tong exclusivity of the items, and it becomes more and more apparent why Bandai might kill the project if the 1st run didn't blow out. (But this is all conjecture. We'll have more 1st-rate 2nd-hand hype and speculation on the way...!)

Finally -- it's Cafe Chogokin chat tonight, 10PM EDT. Seeya there!

2/3/99: Jumbo Tragedy :(

Matt Alt sez: "Bad news from the land of the rising sun."

"After seeing the post from Felix Lu of Fantasia Toys in the Toybox BBS regarding future Uni-Five Jumbo Machinder releases, we cut to the heart of the matter and contacted Uni-Five directly."

"According to a staff-member there, Uni-Five plans NO additional Jumbo Machine releases. No Jumbos, no Scramble-Dash wings, no arm-attachments. Nada. When I mentioned the fact that the side of the box displays the arm attachments, he simply stated that there are no current plans to continue the series at all. More as news develops." -- Matt Alt

Some better news from Jake:

"Just a quick bit of news to pass along. FAO Schwartz is offering the Japanese release of the Gingaio main robot for $100 in its stores. That is to say, the original one with diecast parts and Japanese box (with an 'FAO exclusive' sticker in the corner.)

"I just thought some of my fellow readers might be interested in this. Thanks." -- Jake Fahy

Thank YOU Jake...

March 1999 | Ramble Index | January 1999