I don't remember when or why I bought this, mostly likely an eBay impulse buy, but it's an interesting piece. Korean toys, at least bootleg ones are a strange bunch. They take a nice box with cool artwork, a Styrofoam tray, then stick the cheapest toy possible inside of it. And yet it's still cool somehow. I think the box is what really gives the toy it's charm. The toy on it's own, let's say you find it loose in some toy lot, ends up just being a horrid piece. It's just slightly above being party favor quality.
The piece I have for you guys today, is called Bican Robot made by a company unknown to me. It's mostly laid out in Korean so I have no clue what's going on. What I do know is that it's a bootleg of Baikanfu which is a nesting robot. So you have the outer robot, then you have a secondary inner robot called Kenryu. Then nestled inside of Kenryu is Rom Stoll. Yes, this is similar to Gordian/Gardian, another nesting robot. This toy however, does not have Kenryu built in. They pretty much bypass him and give you a teeny Rom Stoll.
The front of the box is actually pretty cool and very 80's. See the window where Bican is peeking through? That's actually cut out by hand! You can see the scoring marks from a pen and parts where they overcut.
The artwork on the back is awesome. Probably the best part of owning this. Notice how colorful Bican Robot is. Korean kids must have been very pissed onced they opened the box.
WTF? What happened to the very colorful robot depicted on the front of the box?!! That's what I meant before about Korean kids being pissed. There are two different plastics used. White and Blue. Bican takes up
Bican stands about 4" tall, not sure exactly. The amount of time required to measure isn't worth my time on something of this quality. Rom Stoll is there just chillin'.
Seeing as the front of the figure is boring, the back is even more so.
They've gone ahead and skipped the whole part where Rom Stoll nests inside of Kenryu that nests inside of Baikanfu. Although the rest of the toy design would give the impression that other body panels open up for fitment of another robot, only Rom Stoll is included... oh and nothing else really opens up, they are fake hinges on the sides of the legs.
Here is Bican with his included weapons. By the way, this is the actual color of Bican Robot, not the yellow the other pictures lead you to believe. I just had the white balance set up wrong.
I still like this piece regardless of how horrible it is.
Suppose it's like late 70's early 80's and you were a kid in Japan and you loved robots. You want a DX size robot but your parents can't afford it or they just plain don't wanna spend the money. Let's also suppose that maybe you had family visiting or your parents are coming home from a long day at work and they get off the train station and they wanna pick you up something cool without spending a lot of money. What is one to do?
Well it seems many Japanese toy companies saw that there was an opportunity to sell cheaper version of their toys at places where an adult may grab one to bring home or strategically place them where kids would come across them and beg their parent to buy them. And how about slapping a nice low price to it while still giving kids a quick Gokin fix?
That's exactly what Clover did. So as not to taint the Clover name with cheaper toys or to just plain differentiate different price points, a subsidiary of Clover was created. They called this sub Seven. Popy also did something similar with Victora where they made cheap little diecast figures. The example I have for you today is a case fresh Daitarn 3. Since this does not transform, Seven sold different small sets with Daitarn in Jet mode and another in Tank mode. I believe the fourth set was a small Mach Attacker. For now, I only have this one. I won one of these a while back on eBay for $8 shipped and the seller turned out to be a scammer. So forward a few years later and picked it up from seller redstarrobot for a decent price. Enjoy this little gokin.
What a delightful little box. It has no back, it simply clovers the tray underneath.
Even though the figure is small and meant to be a quick fix for a little child, they still lovingly use a Stryofoam tray which make it look a bit more important. The chrome bits are done very well.
Although there are factory stickers applied, Seven provides a sticker sheet and instructions to bring more life into this figure. No doubt a cost-saving measure.
The colors are completely inaccurate to the robot, but they work. The diecast metal is composed of the white section of the toy. The rest is just a durable type plastic.
Although the figure does not transform, it has steel wheels on it's back. Strange but cool. Another cost saving measure is the hollowing-out of the backs of the arms and legs- no doubt later inspiring Hasbro to do the same on Transfomers.
Well, my first video render of this review was going great until my laptop shutdown at 94%! Second render my render time shot up to 6 hrs, so I restarted and cut down a few tracks so it's moving along...probably another 2 hours before it's ready. 12:02am right now so I figured I'd at least show you some pictures of what's ahead.Get your Getter Dragon at BBTS
I just put up a post about the Takara MP-12T which I just recently got and no sooner is that up and I already have the KO version. Very nicely done. Pretty much identical. This is not one of those factory rejects, this is a full blown exact copy. Stay tuned for video comparison.
Straight from China in a padded envelope...really? Can't tell but back of box is crushed. Always aske seller if they are shipping in an envelope or box. Standard so far is $3 more for a box.
KO on top, Takara on bottom
Tray and layout identical to the Takara
Comes with full color manual, sticker sheet, spec card and a bonus accessory set of piledrivers
Anyone else have glue issues like this? Or am I the lucky one out of all the thousands of people who bought this that have this? I need luck like this when I play the lottery. Aside form that little crappy bit, the figure is really cool. Review coming soon.
"Breaking News from BigBadToyStore - You Heard it Here First!
The next release in Takara’s Masterpiece Series will be the MP-22 Masterpiece Ultra Magnus with Trailer - ‘Perfect Edition’!
Ultra Magnus will be based off the updated MP-10 Convoy mold and will at last come with an all new fully functional trailer that will combine with the Ultra Magnus cab for the ultimate display piece! Please note that the pricing is not yet finalized and may be reduced later."
