toyboxdx toy blog brog: is graceful art of daily expressing japanese toy  

Compoboy, Product of Popy. It’s not a Chogokin, however. It falls into the same grey area as the Kikou Gattai Dairruger XV. As a matter of fact, it shares a lot of engineering characteristics of that toy.

Compoboy is from Batten Robomaru, which I know absolutely nothing about. Seems to be a weird show along the lines of Robocon. Compoboy looks to be an upgraded version of the DX CompoSensei, which is a darker blue version with a different head. There are some other accessory differences as well, but since I don’t have a CompoSensei for reference, I’ll just have to guess.

So what is compoboy? He’s an old school Hi Fi, straight out of 1982. Back when Reel to Reel was a valid format, tape decks were just getting introduced, and of course vinyl was king. Interestingly, the speakers are tiny; less than half the size of the enormous racks that hold the audio components.

These components are what make up the accessories: Tape decks, reel to reels, turntables, eq’s, amplifiers, VU meters, and more. The reel to reel players can even launch the reels as missiles. There is also a strange, inexplicable feature that involves shoving little strips of white cardboard into the main component of the toy. A hatch opens up to facilitate removing of these strips. It seems like they went to a lot of trouble for the feature, so I’m obviously missing something here.

All of the components are kept behind a smoked clear plastic door in the component rack, which has adjustable shelves. There are also shelving units that have “records” and other items, and a separate cabinet that stores the fists. Speaking of fists, the fingers are articulated much like the Chokinzoku T28.

The toy combines via a unique spring loaded retractable peg system. Starting with the feet, you push out the 1^st peg. Then you attach the lower legs, which pushes the peg up to attach the next piece. And so on.

The combined robot is about 16” tall, solid, but all plastic. That’s ok though, because if it were diecast, it would not be very stable. There are 12 individual components that have to hold together, and it would likely put too much strain on the connections.

The head has a neat feature: the top opens, and one of two included figures can be placed inside. Once the hatch is closed, a picture inside flips down and is visible through the window in the robot’s face. Very cool.

The box is a little different from most Popy toys, at least on the outside. It resembles a stereo box from back then, as opposed to a character toy. The inside, of course, is straight up DX Chogokin. A large, full color manual is also provided.

Compoboy is a great toy, somewhere between Godaikin and Microchange. Highly recommended for fans of both.