Great Mazinger

Sometime in the late 1970s, Spanish toy makers “Nacoral” produced at least four bootleg versions of the Mattel Shogun Warriors Jumbos. Although the original toys were produced by Popy in Japan, it was clearly the US Mattel versions that were being mimmicked. The four toys that were released were Dragun (Robot Lanza Discos), Daimos (Robot lanza cohetes), Great Mazinger (Robot lanzamisiles) and Gaiking (Robot lanza punos).

The Nacoral version of Great Mazinger was based on the 3rd version of the Mattel toy, having a “V” sticker on the chest rather than a separately molded piece of plastic. The main differences between the two toys are on the head and hands. While Mattel removed the left hand from the Popy Great Mazinger Jumbo Machinder and replaced it with a missile launcher, Nacoral went all the way and replaced both hands. Now with no hand in which to hold a sword, the openings in the hips are no longer present. The box shows the original Mattel toy, with the right hand replaced by a missile launcher.

The next most noticeable difference is in the head. Instead of “L”-shaped yellow horns, there is now straight, red ones. Furthermore, the whole head is of significantly lower quality. The elegant lines and perfect symmetry of the soft vinyl original has been replaced with a sloppily molded hard plastic. The Brain Condor on the Nacoral looks too big to fit in the head and the eyes and mouth grill are now made of stickers.

The Nacoral version is slightly smaller than the Mattel, measuring at approximately 22.5″ tall. The sticker on my Nacoral is shinier than the one on my Mattel version, and the lettering for “Great” (????) is not colored yellow as well. Lastly, although the Nacoral is based on the third version Mattel Great Mazinger, it comes with a full compliment of 14 short-vaned Machinder missiles, where the Mattel had only 10.

Nacoral is known to have released two variations of this toy. The second has a different, all blue head. Another version of this toy was also made, but this time it was released in Venezuela by a company called “Famosa”. This toy is nearly identical to the Nacoral one, but does have a few minor differences, such as a slightly smaller head.

When I first started collecting Jumbos, it seemed that the Great Mazinger was the hardest to get out of the 4. But the last couple of years has seen them coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. Loose specimens are frequently seen on eBay (though often in poor condition) and boxed ones show up from time to time too. Meanwhile, Nacoral Dragun, Gaiking and Daimos seem to be getting harder to come by.