FANG OF THE SUN DOUGRAM
Contributions by: Adam Contrino, Robert Duban, Tom the Greek, Roger Harkavy, Johnyaya, Kimono My House,
Ray Miller, David Morton, John Wohlwend, Alen Yen
Dougram was a surprise success, especially considering the heavy emphasis on
military tactics, which slowed the pace of the show. It enjoyed a lengthy
two-year, seventy-five episode run and spawned a 1983 feature film, Dougram:
Documentary of the Fang of the Sun.
Takara was Dougram's main licensee, and produced a very successful model
series and a large number of diecast Dougram toys in a variety of sizes.
Takara also released several strategy games based on the Dougram world.
These games included a fistful of tiny, unpainted diecast robots for use as
playing pieces and seperately-sold sets of foliage in scale with the playing
field.
Neither the film nor the television series were released in America.
But in a strange twist of events, a large portion of the merchandise was.
Model company Revell released many of Takara's Dougram kits as characters in
their "Robotech" series, and Takara sold much of their diecast toy line
through American toy stores in the mid-Eighties. The detailed construction
of the toys, the lack of any background info on the characters, and the odd
little revolutionary slogans printed on the boxes ("Fight! Dougram to save
independence of the Deloyer!" "We will never approve independence from our
federation!") must have captivated and confused many a young American buyer.
Takara's diecast Dougram toys were produced in three sizes. There is a small
1:144 scale "Collection Series," most of which feature a hollow diecast body
and leg structure with plastic detail parts. There is also a "Dual Model
Series" in two scales, 1:72 and 1:48, which featured a zinc-diecast
endoskeleton upon which plastic armor pieces could be fit. Although the
imported toys were physically identical to those released in Japan, the
packages were modified for American shelves. The 1:144 scale boxes were slid
into sleeves that let them be hung from pegs, while the 1:72 and 1:48 toys
featured large English-language stickers glued over the original Japanese
box-tops. The 1:72 Soltic toy was reissued in 1999 in a new box.
In addition to the diecasts, Takara also produced a "magnemo"
magnetically-jointed
Dougram and several soft-vinyl Dougram toys as well. Although the vinyls
weren't pegged
to specific scales, the smaller
ones appear to be 1:100 scale, while the larger Dougram seems to be roughly
1:60. And toy manufacturer
Seven,
a Takara spin-off devoted to low-end toys,
produced several "cheapie" plastic and rubber Dougram toys as well.
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