Clover Seven Daitarn 3 Mini Gokin

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.