Ever since Bandai started out anew the Chogokin (Diecast) series, I was already praying for my favorite heroes to be revived. Die cast toys especially of the anime kind are unique to Japan and can be traced as far back as the early 70s. Chogokin which means super-alloy (what Mazinger Z was supposed to be made of) was popoularly introduced by Popy(later Bandai). In the 70s to the 80s, Japan's robot anime was on-air on almost all continents.
In the Philippines, anime was relentlessly streamed accross the airwave. To name some that i remembered; Mazinger Z, Voltes V, Daimos, Mekanda, Jeeg, UFO Grendizer (Goldrake in Europe) , Getter, Danguard Ace, Candy Candy, Heidi, Yamato , Macross,etc. Thanks to then President Marcos, it all came into a halt. That was the first time I remembered having concerned myself with politics.
Voltes V, Daimos and Mazinger Z were the three fore runners of the anime saga, at least from my perspective. Each having its own twist of drama and the most often predictable but still enjoyable fighting sequence, which I still know by heart (much like Fernando Poe Jr. getting beaten at first and rallying at the end to beat hthe bad guys) . Every kid in my block and at school would die to have a robot replica - which at that time only came in its original imported source and at an exhorbitant price. We had a schoolmate who had the Voltes V set and all the rest of us poor chaps can do was talk about how cool it is and how it can actually snap together to form a robot. It was the holy grail of toys. We pretty much managed with posters and stickers.
And now, behold, Bandai started churning out these Chogokins on the toy shelves again, re-introducing the robot heroes of our past. First came Mazinger Z GX-01- the all time favorite in Japan, then the series moved on with UFO Grendizer, Combatra V (the precursor of Voltes) , Getter Robot, and so on. I waited and prayed for Voltes V, and last year, prayers were answered as toy magazines announced the protoype GX-30. The international release date was May 22, 2006. I got it on the 20th : ).
And though it came 3 decades late for me....it still came. Dreams do come true.
1 comment:
For some reason, I never saw Mazinger Z. But I was a big fan of Voltes V, Mekanda and Daimos (Daimos is funny, as I remember noting in one of the first posts in my blog last year). I'm a big anime buff. In this respect, you're so lucky to be in Japan and have access to all the cool stuff without paying a premium for it.
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