Giant Robo Highly recommended

Manufacturer
Yamato
Year
2001
Materials
Die-cast, plastic
Height
20cm

Giant Robo: Bazooka Version

By John Huxley
13th May 07

If you’ve read my review of the excellent Giant Robo OVA, you’ll know how much I love that particular series. So naturally any time I see any Giant Robo merchandise on the shelves - which unfortunately is a depressingly rare occurrence - I’m all over it. Yet unlike several of my favourite series that are seemingly limited to maybe super expensive garage kits, old phone cards and a few posters, this particular Giant Robo toy satisfies my nerdy lust for memorabilia in one stroke. I’m still after a decent cel, but nothing Giant Robo related I’ve seen since has made me want to pick it up in place of this little beauty. The Revoltech version of Giant Robo was tempting I’ll admit (and it’s a fantastic product now I’ve seen it up close), but I’m still more than happy with this one.

One of the aspects that made Giant Robo so appealing in the first place was the unique mecha design. At first glance the Giant Robo himself appears to be a very strange design - those round, bulbous limbs make him appear almost clumsy looking, while the Egyptian head dress, man-skirt and that grumpy expression all over his face are just...odd. Next to an Evangelion he’s not exactly the most elegant of designs, but that’s kinda missing the point here. Giant Robo is of course at the forefront of the recent retro revival in mecha design and a superb example of exactly how it should be done.

Though it could well have been, this isn’t the design from the original 1960's manga (the live action TV series is actually closer). Like most things in the OVA, it has been subtlety (or maybe massively) tweaked to better suit a modern impression of what should comprise a retro design. This is Giant Robo as you’d hoped he’d be, rather than the Giant Robo that actually was. Not to say there’s anything wrong with the original design; it has its own unique charms even if it is a little square for my tastes, but for the purpose of the OVA this update was an inspired move.

With huge bolts, bold lines and an industrial colour scheme, this Frankenstein’s monster of a mech is as imposing as it is strikingly beautiful. It’s as if it were constructed in an era when everything had to be made with big fuck-off slabs of iron...you could just imagine it sitting next to the Titanic in the Liverpool docks. And that’s exactly the feeling this figure captures so perfectly, mostly being made of out die-cast metal and all.

The moment you take the figure from its box, the weight and build quality becomes apparent. Standing at an impressive 8-9 inches tall and not exactly being the slimmest of figures, it weighs an absolute ton. After a while holding him in my hands to get him in the right pose I had to put it down to give my poor weedy arms a rest. And although I’m too much of a wuss to find out, I’m pretty sure this could survive a few surprise trips to the floor and back. Exactly how it should be.

His arms, torso and legs are all made from a surprisingly well sculpted metal that has all the rights notches, bolts and other details. Although the join marks and screws needed to hold it all together are obvious under close inspection, none of this detracts from the overall feeling of quality that could only be achieved with metal. I hope you can see this from my rubbishy photos (these were the good ones, trust me!)...it lends the whole figure a sense of weight both real and perceived that’s just perfect for such an imposing robot.

Which is unfortunately where my main gripe comes in to play...not enough of this toy is really metal. Fair enough not many people would expect the hands, head and rocket attachment to be made from metal because of the level of detail required in the sculpt of these areas, but perhaps the biggest omission is Robo’s skirt. As you can see this covers a large chunk of the body, and for this to be moulded in plastic is slightly disappointing and somewhat detracts from the overall appearance of the figure. Best efforts have been made to match the colour up with the painted metal which means it’s maybe not so noticeable at first glance; however it does have a different quality about it, reflecting the light differently and lacking that certain sheen that makes it stand out after a while.

The other gripe that comes about thanks to the weight of the metal is the articulation and stability of the figure. Although it supposedly boasts around 24 points of articulation, most of them are utterly useless, not only because he looks natural in only a few positions, but also because he’s prone to falling over if any of his joints are even slightly out of place. This is understandable given the sheer weight of his limbs, but the problem is compounded massively by the smooth metal used for the base of his feet. If one area should have been made out of plastic (or better yet, rubber) this should have been it. As it is, the such a smooth surface has little or no grip which means you have to have the feet firmly planted in order for it to stand for any length of time. Even a stand would have been appreciated.

Still, these few drawbacks pale in to insignificance when you consider just how cool this figure really is, and how much of that appeal would be taken away without the problematic metal.

Giant Robo is available in two versions, the other with an assortment of rocket attachments that pop out of various locations around his body. I’ve not seen it close up, but I’d imagine it’s pretty similar. The rocket launcher on this version is optional and can be replaced with an alternate plain cover if you’d prefer to display him without it, but personally I think the massive cannon on his shoulder looks fantastic, and the fact it’s used in one of my favourite scenes from the OVA (where he fights GR-2 and fires off a rocket right in his face) just adds to the appeal.

The paint job is simplistic, using only a few colours maximum, and there’s little or no detailing besides the face and the back of the rocket pack. Perhaps it’s a pity they didn’t decide to put more effort in to this area and maybe give him some battle damage or a textured surface, but in my opinion the simplistic paint job shows off the metallic surface a whole lot better, and any extensive detailing would have only detracted from this.

Both version of the figure also come with a small Gin-Rei figure, the sexy spy from the series who was fond of Chinese dresses (in this case a mini skirt, in the rocket version a full length dress). She’s way, way, waaaay out of scale (she should be able to fit in Robo’s hand) but it’s still a nice little bonus. It might have made more sense to provide a figure of Daigoro since he’s the one who actually controls Giant Robo (and would have looked kinda cool alongside him as if he were controlling him from a distance), but one look at Gin-Rei and it’s obvious why they went down that particular route.

But make no mistake, Robo is still very much the main attraction here. And the big, lumbering piece of metal he is, it’s kinda difficult to miss him. Any Giant Robo fan should be proud to have him in their collection despite his faults, and maybe even just fans of good mecha design in general. Giant Robo is a seminal piece of animation for many reasons, and this is the perfect accompaniment.

-- John Huxley 13th May 07