07/28/99: Uni-Five Bullseye!

Y'know how sometimes you get a toy, something you've always wanted, something you've been waiting months or years to find, and it's JUST NOT RIGHT? Something's missing, perhaps. Or the colors are slightly off. Or the proportions. Sometimes it's obvious; sometimes you just can't quite put your finger on it. But it's ANNOYING. Depressing. Frustrating. Unsatisfying. (Okay, okay, I know, I need to get a girlfriend.)

And then there's the occasional piece that hits it so dead-on, scores such a bull's-eye, that it takes your breath away.

The Uni-Five Gaiking 'reissue' is such a toy.

There is not a single thing about the Uni-Five Gaiking that could possibly have been done better. It helps that it's a reissue of one of the most revered Popy Jumbo Machinders of all time. And just as with the original piece, the colors, the proportions, the built-in 'gimmicks' - everything about the toy screams 'Quality." Yes, with a capital Q. It's especially satisfying in the face of the emasculated, bastardized Mattel version of the toy that American kids had to suffer with throughout the Seventies.

Everything that was wrong with the Mattel Jumbo, everything that was half-assed, everything that showed the world just how pathetic and lazy American toy-designers can be when they really put their minds to it - all of the problems have been addressed and redressed by the reissue.

Where the Mattel version featured a flat "dragon face" chest detailed with decals, the Uni-Five version features three-dimensional, multicolored relief. Where the Mattel Jumbo lacked a wing, the Uni-Five has a huge red one.

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My God, JUST LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT IT! IS THERE ANTHING COOLER OUT THERE THAN THIS PIECE? (Too bad the legs don't come off to complete the transformation. Ah, well.)

There's only one caveat potential buyers need to keep in mind: just as with the previous three Uni-Five Jumbo Machine pieces, there are specific and subtle differences between the new toy and the old. Once again, the missiles are incompatible with old Popy launchers. And Gaiking's robot head seems to be slightly more angular and 'realistic' than the original. Presumably Uni-Five is doing this to prevent unscrupulous types from swapping the reissues' parts for damaged or missing originals.

Whatever the case, there's no question that this is a spectacular toy. Satisfy that craving for hot, sweaty Gaiking action you've been lusting for for the past twenty years: Gaiking's in the house!

--M.A.

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