The Mighty Atom

Before watching the AstroBoy Animated Movie in the theatres, I had mixed feelings, is it gonna be another retold story with ideas from another producer or will it stay true to the original Astroboy from the past.  
 To my astonishment, It wasn't half as bad as I expected it to be, kinda like a Disneyised Japanese Animation. Though still quite true to the original minus certain details, the movie is really not too bad, well, enough of my review, if you love astroboy, you just have to have this...
Bandai's 2004 Osamu Tezuka Interactive Astroboy 

 The box art is kinda crappy and though it maybe a Bandai mold, there's a Maxifun at the corner of the box. My guess it's marketed by another company here.

Standing roughly 12 inches tall, this is one cool Astroboy boy with a fair amount of playabilty, the chest has 2 buttons, one opens the chest, the other creates some sound effects. The eyes light-up when turned to one side.

The feet has panels that opens to reveal the mechanics in Astroboys feet, there's button on the back of each boot which ejects the jetfire when Astroboy goes airborne.
The right hand ejects a reader which reads the biocards that came with the toy, the right hand has articulated figures.

The left arm has a button which fires the left fist from the spring loaded arm and also opens to reveal the blaster arm.
The left blaster is molded in transperent blue plastic.
This is not a bad Astroboy toy much similar to the chogokin one but in a larger scale, the only bad point is the articulation on this figure is not the best and not that good in poses. Lack of elbow joints and the leg joints ain't the best around but overall impressive mold and size.

The Lightans

Golden Warrior Gold Lightan ( 黄金戦士ゴールド ライタン Ōgon Senshi Gōrudo Raitan) was a popular animation series aired in 1981 to 1982 in Japan. There were 52 episodes and half hour per episode.
The story is about a little boy named Hiro who accidentally found a gold lighter which turned out to be the giant Golden Warrior Gold Lightan with the mission to save the earth from every invasion of King Ibalda. Gold Lightan joined forces with his robot teammates to ruin the plots of King Ibalda and destroyed invading alien robots by using his surpassing hands and leg strikes.
Heres Bandais reissue of the classic vintage pieces. Lotsa of diecast and lotsa robot love!!!
GB-37 Gold Lightan
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Here's the main robot, Gold lightan is the leader of the Golden Warrior team. His trademark hand stab move of reaching into the heart of the enemy to grab the heart energy device makes him a leader and finisher in battle. Though he transforms into a block, its not a working lighter but its solid metal and a good paper weight.
GB-38 Gold Version

One of Gold lightan's companions, heres Scope Lightan, transforms into a real scope though you cant see very far.

In the show, Scope lightan has the ability to find weakness in enemies. Also reissued in a Silver version.GB-40 Time Lightan

Another one of Gold Lightans friends. Time Lightan transforms into a timer capable of freezing time for a couple seconds. One of the more important allys as he proves that freezing time does has many perks in their fight against King Abalda.  He's also was reissued in a Silver version, one my faves in the series.
GB-41 Denji Lightan

Denji Lightan also called Map Lightan though the translation is more of an Electromagnetic Lightan. He transforms into a reconnaissance device containing a magnifying glass and a compass. He provides directional help as a reconnaissance expert.
GB-42 Mechanic Lightan

He transforms into a tool chest box containing the necessary equipment for damage repair and other mechanical functions. Mechanic Lightan acts like the medic in the team and repairs most of the damages incurred in battle.
GB-84 Cutter Lightan

Looking somewhat like Disney's Pizars Walle, Cutter Lightan transforms into a real working pencil sharpened.
GB-86 IC Lightan

He transforms into a processing unit. The I.C stands for "Interpret Computer". IC Lightan is a robotic computer acting as a translator and database who the team relies on for information. The toy is battery operated and has lightup eyes.


GB-37 Gold lightan also came in a limited Black version.

No difference from the regular GB-37 except for the colour scheme.


Im missin another 3 more of these diecast guys, I'll post em when i get em!!

Yamato GN-U (Hagane) Danguard Ace

Planetary Robo Danguard Ace (惑星ロボ ダンガードA(エース) Another vintage anime with a fighter pilot Winstar and his transformable Danguard Ace battleship do battle against evil alien invaders.
One of my fave childhood animations, Ive been waiting for this bot for quite awhile,
finally a updated version of the classic....I will gladly suffer months of instant noodles for this bot!!!

The Feel is great!  Its quite a heavy gokin with loads of diecast and real good anime accurate head sculpt...

Transformation is split into 2 parts just like the actual anime....



Theres also a stand for the satelizer mode, the feet that form the thrusters just look damn cool.

Note that the screws are covered with small plastic tabs, thats one flawless feature for chogokins...



There are lotsa accessories, extra fists, missiles and loads of other stuff. The articulations is not bad as well, for such a bulky bot, ball jointed upper thighs, knees, ankles, waist, ball jointed neck to head, ball-jointed wraists, elbows....this is as close as it can get to Danguard Ace....