Ugly, but beautiful.

Let’s get this out of the way: the Stone Wing looks like, ah, how to put this delicately? The stone wing looks as if it would be more at home in an outhouse than a toybox. If you can get past that, this is a terrific toy.

The same absurd premise of the Rock Lords affects the Stone Wing. If we’re imagining such a thing as an animate rock-monster, that’s fine. But what on earth would inspire a rock monster to build an aircraft out of rock? If the rock monsters have enough understanding of physics and engineering to build a jet-powered flying machine, you’d think that they’d avoid rock as a building material. Is it because they’re made of rock? Humans don’t build flesh bicycles just because we’re made of meat.

You need to suspend disbelief and just accept the Stone Wing for what it is: a heavy, fun, dung-shaped rock spaceship.

The stone wing has two configurations, a ground vehicle and an aircraft.

Transformation to aircraft mode is simple and intuitive. You rotate the spring-mounted wheel-base ninety degrees, pull out the concealed wings from the fuselage, rotate the wheels up, and pull down the landing gear.

As I said, this thing is heavy. Far heavier than you’d expect for a gobot vehicle (my bathroom scale says 1.6 pounds). It’s as heavy, or heavier, than most Popynica. There has to be some non-visible metal somewhere, because the visible pieces don’t account for the heft. Visible diecast consists of landing gear struts, wheel/engine struts and the battering ram arm.

The battering ram is activated by pressing a button on the fuselage.

A concealed missile placement opens from the rear.

The swirled ABS plastic used throughout is pretty unique. I’ve only seen it used on the Rock Lords.

This is a finely crafted and high quality toy, and worth picking up if you are into the Rock Lords or unusual toys.

Through no fault of its own, this toy was root of my childhood feelings of inadequacy. Look, it's not Optimus Prime and it's not Ultra Magnus and it's definitely not God Ginrai, but it's still awesome.

When I was a little kid around 3 or 4, I loved three things: trucks, jets, and robots. My dad used to take me to Selfridge Air Base to see air shows, so that explains the air planes, but that's not what we're talking about here.

As a young man in the late '60s and early '70s before getting married, my dad used to drive semi trucks from Michigan to California for my great uncle's trucking company. Then he would hitchhike home and pocket the plane fare. As you can imagine, this inspired many ridiculous tales of the open road. And remember, in the '70s and early '80s, pop culture had a serious love of truckers thanks to Smokey and the Bandit and the like.

So it's really no shock that Takara released Battle Convoy and Powered Convoy in their Diaclone line, or that Bandai released Big Trailer Robo in their Machine Robo. You're probably more familiar with them as Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus of the Transformers, or the subject of this review, Staks Transport, GoBot extraordinaire.

The History of Staks Transport

Before the whole GoBots thing took off in the United States there was a European release of Machine Robo called Robo Machine that pretty much followed the Japanese original. This line had simple packaging and was mostly the cheapy 600 series figures (so named for their 600 yen price) and the Scale Robo DX.

Much the same way Diaclone and Microchange were rebranded as The Transformers in the US, when the TV show went over to Europe, the Robo Machine line started to have the GoBots logo on it as well and eventually become GoBots completely.

This toy is from that awkward middle period where the toys were both Robo Machine and GoBots. It's also an interesting glimpse into the changes that were happening in Bandai's original Machine Robo line in Japan. What we know as the Super GoBots in the US came from a couple of different sources.

There are the Scale Robo DX toys, which are larger mostly metal cars and tanks. This includes retro-futuristic Psychoroid (Psycho to Americans) car from the manga and anime series Space Adventure Cobra. Like the Scale Robo name implies, these were intended to be scale model diecast cars that transformed into robots and did this quite well.

The rest of the Super GoBots (ignoring the mostly crappy western exclusives) hail from a different series known as Big Machine Robo. The first two Big Machine Robo toys were pretty much just Bike Robo (Cy-Kill) and Eagle Robo (Leader-1) from the 600 series blown up to a larger size. Big Apache Robo (Warpath) and Big Shuttle Robo (Spay-C) were based on 600 series vehicles but completely redesigned. Big Trailer Robo (Staks) ended up being the unusual one.

The 600 series Trailer Robo (Road Ranger) is a flat nosed truck like Optimus Prime, if Optimus Prime were a flatbed. Big Trailer Robo is not really based on this toy at all. Not even the trucks match. Big Trailer Robo also cost more than the rest of the Big Machine Robo toys due no doubt to the trailer it sports.

The other Big Machine Robo toys are largely plastic and the Scale Robo DX toys are largely diecast metal with bizarre faceless heads that are mostly just chunks of car. Big Trailer Robo has the strange faceless head made up of the upper part of the truck cab and is largely plastic except that, oh yeah, his legs are gigantic slabs of unpainted metal. The toy has a foot in each world.

The Aesthetics of a Robotic Car Carrier

The Japanese release of Big Trailer Robo was a darker reddish color with blue and white stickers while the American Staks release is orange with yellow stickers and came with either black feet and back coloring or blue foot and back coloring.

Don't believe it if someone tries to tell you the regular Staks always had blue and the Transport always had black or vice versa because when I was a kid I got Staks first and then broke it only to have it replaced by Staks Transport. I had both at once and regular Staks became my sister's toy. The cab part was identical and had black plastic both times. You can see here my second Staks, the one that actually survived my childhood.

Staks is a bright orange semi truck which is kind of garish but I have honestly seen trucks out on the road in these colors so it's not necesarily unrealistic. Orange was always my favorite color and as a child that was part of this toy's appeal. If you hate orange and are just an adult collector looking for a display piece, you may find the Japanese Big Trailer Robo's reddish hue the better choice, but be prepared to pay a premium.

The blue trailer actually goes well with the orange, providing a calming counterbalance. As far as the colors go, Staks works a lot better with the trailer than without. While I'm sure it's much cheaper to just get the American Staks solo, I really think the Staks Transport giftset is worth the extra money because it adds so much to the truck mode's appearance. Whether or not you are willing the shell out for the European release is basically a matter of how much you care about longer smokestacks and a unique box.

Staks is also an unusual robot. While the figure has the same strange faceless "windshields for eyes" head design as the Scale Robo DX cars, it's different when the head is a chunk of a semi truck. There's a couple of ways to interpret this head. You can look at is a more functional real robot style cockpit in place of a head, which is fun on one level, or you could look at as a cute big eyed robot.

Personally, part of why I dig Staks and the Scale Robo cars is that they look like very functional robots, almost like weird future construction vehicles. Granted, Staks does not have the Scale Robo spindly arms and grabbing claws like something out of one of those horrible crane games, but the aesthetic direction is closer to Scale Robo than it is to the other Big Machine Robo toys.

Staks is not really up to the quality level of the Scale Robos, either. Those toys all have rubber tires and Staks has these crappy all plastic wheels. If it weren't for the solid diecast legs, Staks would not have anywhere near as much metal as the Scale Robos.

The Scale Robo DX toys also have nicer stickers and more of them, which helps their appearance. Some paint would also go a long way. Staks doesn't really stand up to the Scale Robo DX toys in this department, but there are still some really nice scultped details, especially in the diecast metal legs and shiny vacuum metallized chest plate. In fact, there's a lot of vacuum metallized "chrome" on this toy and it looks great. Watch out though, as with most toys, repeated handling will eventually wear down this nice shiny finish.

Parallel Parking

This European release of Staks Transport is interesting because while it is colored orange and has the yellow stickers, it has a blue tint to the windshield and the smokestacks are longer than the American release. Obviously there were different toy safety standards at play here. I've never seen long smokestacks on an American Staks, but they are certainly long in the TV commercials!

Staks was even released in the Australian Machine Men line in a giftset with four 600 series figures.

Technically there are even two Japanese versions, one in the original Machine Robo style packaging and one in the Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos packaging with the shortened smokestacks of the American edition. While Staks is very common, neither of the Japanese versions seems to show up in the west very frequently. I have seen the Revenge of Cronos version a couple of times, so I suppose you could call it more common.

Finally, when the original Machine Robo line was in its death throes, Big Trailer Robo was recolored black and became the hard to find mailaway figure Thunder Mission.

Staks Transport Sizes up the Competition

Machine Robo and GoBots may have had more modest origins as a series of what could pass for Matchbox cars that turn into robots, but most of their career was spent in direct head to head competition with The Transformers. In the 1980s, it was impossible for children not to compare the two lines. This is something I experienced directly.

Imagine that it is the mid-1980s. Your mom drops you off at the babysitter's house. You clutch your favorite toy: a brand new orange semi truck GoBot. It's barely out of the package and you can't wait to play with the other kids and their GoBots. You get in there and the kids have a bunch of unfamiliar robots from a different series. They snort in derision when they see your orange semi and point at their red semi. "You must be poor, because why else would you have that sissy GoBot?! Optimus Prime is so much cooler." Ouch.

So what got me into Transformers? Peer pressure.

Okay, okay, GoBots came out first in America. Yes there were the prototypical Machine Men and Diakron/Kronoform lines beforehand, but who ever heard of those? It was a death match between GoBots and Transformers, and GoBots started to get a bad rap due to its cheaper price tags and a cartoon that definitely aimed lower. That's not to say the Transformers cartoon was some work of quiet genius, but it did skew towards a slightly older audience.

When I spoke to Transformers writer and season 3 story editor Flint Dille a few years ago, he told me the big retool of the Transformers TV show after the movie was largely because the GoBots cartoon had chipped away at the audience of younger children so they intentionally started aiming a few years older.

Now what does this mean for the toys and Staks particularly? Well, if you stick Staks next to Optimus Prime, they both make pretty realistic trucks. Optimus has the big hunk of diecast metal on the cab, but Staks' legs are entirely metal so Staks actually has more diecast content.

Another plus for Staks is that its arms are shaped more like arms and don't look so weird. Staks can also hold its gun without some weird side ways technique. Optimus definitely has better detail in robot mode and more elaborate stickers, but Optimus also has hands that are not part of the cab or trailer in vehicle mode that you have to attach. While this does mean the hands are better detailed than Staks' hands and you can turn them at the wrist, this is more parts to lose and that's a serious downside to most Dialcone toys. The extra parts do the toy no favors and were immediately lost by many children.

Staks' smokestacks-as-guns weapons are kind of a neat idea, but well, they are clearly just smokestacks. Optimus' gun looks cooler, but it's just another extra part for you to lose that doesn't go anywhere in truck mode unless you stick it on the little sidekick car named Roller.

Roller brings us to another point: the trailer. Optimus' trailer definitely has more goodies inside including a missile-firing repair robot, Roller, a spring loaded launcher, and some neat stickers, but Machine Robo had its own competitor, Tough Trailer. Tough Trailer's cab was a recolored version of Titan Boy, the semi truck robot from the sentai series Flashman. Titan Boy came in a set called Titan Flash with a totally different trailer that was a bigger bulkier robot Titan Boy could combine with. Tough Trailer's trailer was instead kind of a ripoff of Battle Convoy/Optimus Prime's trailer.

It's probably better to compare Staks Transport to Ultra Magnus and not Optimus Prime, since they are both car carriers. Ultra Magnus' trailer totally fails as a car carrier trailer. It doesn't look like a real trailer. It's bloated and awkward. Staks' trailer, on the other hand, is a pretty realistic likeness of a real car carrier. It looks functional and believable and can easily carry four 600 series cars, which themselves are realistic toy cars. If you compare the 600 series to the Choro Q/Penny Racer-inspired Transformers Minibots, well, the GoBots totally blow them away being largely metal and designed more realistically. Granted, the Car Robots are bigger and also contain metal and are generally more complex and interesting toys, but they also cost more than double and the Scale Robo DX cars are really their competition, not the 600 series.

I sort of wish Staks' trailer was scaled to the Scale Robo cars as they are way nicer, but that would make Staks totally gigantic and probably cost prohibitive. I have to admit, Staks' scale does make the toy stand out strangely in the Super GoBots.

One nice feature of Staks' trailer is if you push in little buttons on the sides, the platform that makes up the top of the trailer drops, allowing the cars to roll right out. It's smooth and a fun play feature. It's also a lot more interesting than Ultra Magnus' half-assed trailer.

Ultra Magnus' trailer does transform into armor for his robot to combine with, which is a really cool feature, but Staks Transport has different design goals. And like Optimus, Ultra Magnus requires a pile of parts that don't do anything in the vehicle mode to achieve this transformation.

You can accuse Staks Transport of being simpler but I honestly do not think that is a detriment. Is it better to have loftier goals and fall short or have more modest goals and totally knock it out of the park? Ultra Magnus or Powered Convoy is in many ways an awkward reworking of the original Battle Convoy toy. Staks was a dedicated car carrier design and while the car carrier does not have the added play value of transforming into anything or being useful for anything other than carrying cars, it is better at being a car carrier than any Transformers car carrier has ever been.

Another issue is durability. How many kids broke their Optimus Prime or Ultra Magnus at the hips? Every kid I knew certainly did. I remember my cousin's double amputee Optimus accompanying us to a drive-in theatre for Star Trek IV. Staks' legs are big hunks of metal. You are not going to break that.

The part you might want to watch out for is the place where the head connects to the cab. I managed to break that on my original toy at four years old, but I had to beat the hell out of it to achieve this.

Another issue to watch out for on a second hand Staks is that the shoulders can get kind of loose if you abuse the toy too much, but you would have to do the things I did as a kid, like swinging the toy around while holding it by the hand all the time. To Bandai's credit, the shoulders never broke; they just got a little floppy.

One interesting design choice is that Staks' elbows are spring loaded. You can lock them at the mid-point so Staks can hold the classic gunfighter pose or like them with arms down in a neutral position. By default when you unclip them from the shoulder, they want to swing open, which is cool.

Staks also has some clever transformation tricks. Optimus Prime's arms make up part of the front of the cab, leading to some ugly seams when viewed from the front or side, which are probably the primary viewing angles. Staks' arms wrap up behind the cab so you don't even see the seams unless you are looking from the back.

Four of Optimus Prime's wheels are just hanging out there on its legs, but Staks' wheels fold up inside its backpack, nicely hiding them. Optimus Prime's wheels at the hips are plainly visible, but Staks' wheels are neatly hidden by the curve of the fender when viewed from the front. Optimus Prime's robot viewed from the back has... well, no back, just a bunch of flat, undetailed plastic. Staks actually has a back! It's a pretty common problem for Diaclone toys to just have flat undetailed plastic when viewed from the rear.

Some additional stickers would really help Staks, but this is still a pretty nice toy. It's not the best of the Super GoBots (the Scale Robo DX toys like Psycho, Zeemon, Herr Fiend, Bug Bite, and Baron von Joy take that award), but Staks Transport is still one of the premier GoBots toys.

It's easy to criticize the GoBots and compare them unfavorably to The Transformers, but I feel a reevaulation of the GoBots is needed. There are some really nice toys in this line.

I suppose you could look at Staks and call it cheap compared to Ultra Magnus (and it will definitely cost you less), but Staks Transport has a lot of charm, better colors, and is a tougher design. It has good looks (especially truck mode), an inventive, fun, and simple transformation, and quite a bit of naked diecast.

Sure the robot has the proportions of a big burly truck driver with a beer gut and thin chicken legs, but those chicken legs are big hunks of zinc. To the modern toy collector, Staks Transport has that ineffable old school funk.

Maybe the slow southern drawl Staks had in his few Challenge of the GoBots cartoon appearances is fitting. The toy doesn't have the prestige of Optimus Prime, but Staks is the one you could metaphorically toss back a few brewskies with. 10-4, good buddy!

Leonardo Flores Reviews Rock Lords leader Boulder aka Battle Rock "Like Matchbox the beauty of Machine Robo is in its simplicity."

Rock Lords Boulder/ Battle Rock

After shifting around hundreds of plastic baggies of toys at a local thrift store a few months ago I came across a figure from a line of Bandai toys that I had completely forgotten about called Rock Lords. Rock Lords was a subset of Popy's Machine Robo toys that transformed into rocks instead of vehicles and repackaged in the United States by Tonka.

It is easy to know why I forgot about the Rock Lords line. Although I remember seeing Shogun Warriors and Micronauts as a kid they were mostly my older brothers and cousins toys. GoBots were actually the first line of Japanese robot toys that I feel were marketed in a big way to my generation.

GoBots originally blew me away but about a year later Hasbro would release their Transformer line and suddenly GoBots line looked too simple for my tastes. GoBots also had a terrible cartoon to push the line especially compared to Sunbow’s Transformers cartoon. By time Rock Lords were released I had no interest in GoBots and the fact they transformed into rocks did not thrill me too much. By that time I saw GoBots as kids toys, I had already moved onto Godaikin and Spiral-Zone.

I believe that a reevaluation of Machine Robo/ GoBots is happening with collectors right now. Today I think they are a great line of toys that are almost the Japanese equivalent of classic Lensley Matchbox line of die cast cars. Machine Robo are nearly the same scale, they are numbered and they are highly detailed for the scale that they are in. Like Matchbox the beauty of Machine Robo is in its simplicity.

Boulder comes carded with the action figure and a red laser gun that is missing from this example. His original Japanese name was Battle Rock.

I am still not a fan of Rock Lords but having picked up Rock Lords leader Boulder I was quite impressed with the some of it’s features and I can see why some collectors like the line as much as they do. For example Boulder is an action figure not just a robot with no articulation that just stands there. The head turns, the arms rotate at the shoulder and elbow, and the legs move. Also I love the color and the texture of the Boulder when it is in the rock configuration. Another great detail is how Bandai painted the screws to match the color of the plastic around it.

©2009 article and pictures Leonardo Flores and Collection DX.

I like this figure for one reason and one reason only: That it is an accessory to one of Matchbox's coolest toys that they accidentally got right in a way: The Spartas/ Veritech Hover Tank.

Dana Sterling

When Matchbox decided to produce their own figures and accessories for Harmony Gold’s Robotech series in 1986 little did they know that many of their releases would be ill conceived for hardcore Macross/Mospeada/Southern Cross collectors. Lack of proper knowledge and art design led to nearly an entire line of action figures and accessories that was misguided but at best accidently releasing items that filled a void that the original Japanese market never marketed.

Take for instance Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross an Anime that was originally canceled after only 23 episodes in 1984. If you are a Southern Cross/ Robotech Masters fan you are only too aware of the lack of items released in Japan, especially toys. I personally built nearly all the 1/12 kits of the various armor character kits of Southern Cross and besides a kit of the Hover Bike and Sol Bioroid no other items were manufactured. That includes the main vehicle of the Series: the Spartas/ Veritech Hover Tank and Auroran. But when it came to actual toys, no manufacturer picked up the mantle for any of the properties from Southern Cross in Japan.

A few years later when Matchbox decided to produce Robotech toys it was great to see some Southern Cross / Robotech Masters items being produced. Only four figures were produced from Southern Cross: Dana Sterling/Jeanne Francaix, Zor/Seifriet, Bioroid, and Robotech Master/The Zor. Although nearly all the cast was reproduced for Mospeada, Southern Cross only had one “good guy” produced, Dana Sterling and seemed to be top heavy with “bad guys,” including one of the worst designs for an action figure ever, the Robotech Master.

Dana Sterling comes Carded with: 1x Figure, 1x Rubber helmet, 1x Shield, 1x Laser rifle. There are no options.

Dana figure is an OK sculpt, the problems lay mostly in the body proportions. It seems that all the figures that were sculpted for Matchbox’s Robotech line were all sculpted with small waists and bodies, and most of the time the proportions were made up in the neck area of all places. Dana’s face sculpt is ok, but does not look anime enough for my tastes. It also looks like the eyes are on the side of the face like some sort of bird.

The quality control was not the best, with many Robotech toys falling apart at seams and paint masks not on register, with this figure being good example of the paint mask being off center. Also the shoulder movement is limited to side ways action because of the armor shoulder pads. Be wary of putting the rifle in the hand as the rifle handle is to large and thumbs are known to be broken off like my original figure I bought all those years ago.

The rubber helmet sculpt is off a bit as well but it is a cool little accessory that really fills out the figure especially with the shield that snaps onto the figure's arm.

But here is the real kicker, I like this figure for one reason and one reason only: That it is an accessory to one of Matchbox's coolest toys that they accidently got right in a way, The Spartas/ Veritech Hover Tank. If you own the Spartan Hover Tank this figure is a must have for your Southern Cross/ Robotech Masters collection.

As stated before with my Scott Bernard/ Stick Bernard review I would pass on the Robotech Matchbox figure series unless you are a hardcore completist of Macross/Mospeada/Southern Cross. It is a shame that Matchbox did not see the line through and release other figures of the 15th Squadron as it would have been great to see all the other great and colorful Southern Cross characters and armor in 1:18 scale.

The huge irony of all this is that the figures were manufactured in Japan for Matchbox although I do not see the workmanship that we expect of toys made in Japan. Many of these Robotech figures were later reissued under Harmony Gold’s own brand with even less quality than before. I bought this figure from a dealer at Frank & Sons for $10.00 but you can get still sealed figure for under $35.00, especially the Harmony Gold produced figures.

© 2008 pictures & article by Leonardo Flores and CollectionDX.

We've all seen this one around, but I never actually owned one until now.

This little Godzilla vinyl was released in 1985 by Imperial and for my money is one of the worst looking Godzilla toys out there. Yet I know some people love it since it was readily available, cheap and most everyone had one at some time or another.

But not me. Nope, I never saw this thing until I was an adult collector and already familiar with the much better toys by M1, Marmit and even Bandai.

So, why did I buy it now then? Well, the same reason I buy a lot of crap. It was cheap. It was from the same seller I was buying something else from (the Imperial Kong to be specific) so I could combine shipping. And it had the tag.

Yes, the tag. The tag is probably the best thing about this toy. It's got a nice picture of Godzilla...that actually looks like Godzilla. And it says "King of the Monsters", like the old US posters.

This Godzilla is just 6" tall and is articulated at the hips and shoulders. The vinyl is very soft and squishy. Just like the King Kong, Imperial made two sizes of this toy, the other being larger, a foot tall or more. I'm not sure since I don't have that one yet. Interestingly, both Godzilla and King Kong were sold separately, but also together in a box, along with Dracula and Frankenstein, in a set called "Clash of the Movie Monsters". This has also been bootlegged, with alternate color schemes showing up in dollar stores recently.

The design of Spiral Zone's Act 2: Hyper Boxer has grown on me over the years, mostly due to the fantastic colors the armor was molded in, the lime green combat suit and the protect suits odd features and detailed weapon accessories.

Spiral Zone Act 2: Hyper Boxer

The second SFG Spiral Zone deluxe figure protect suit set to be released by Bandai in 1985 was Act 2: Hyper Boxer. Compared to the other protect suits, Act 1: Bull Solid and Act 3: Sentinel Bear, Hyper Boxer was the medium weight armor and weapon set of the Spiral Zone line.

I originally bought Hyper Boxer new from Pony Toy Go Round back in the late 1980’s for $25.00. According to the product box, Hyper Boxer was produced for combat in the then future date of 2002 AD.

The design of Act 2: Hyper Boxer has grown on me over the years, mostly due to the fantastic colors the armor was molded in, the lime green combat suit and the protect suits odd features and detailed weapon accessories.

Act 1: Hyper Boxer package includes the following: 1x Systeminjection 36 Point articulation figure, 1x Helmet, 2x chest armor, 1x belt armor, 2x shin armor, 1xgenerator backpack, 1x real cloth suit, 2x rubber boots, 2x file cards, 1x instructions, 1x grey vinyl sprue, 2x rubber bands, 2x gloved hands, 1x clear visor, 1x headphones, 1x backpack parts sprue, 2x shoulder armor, 4x arm armor, 1x buckle, 2x shoulder armor pins, 1x weapons armor sprue, 1x black parts sprue, 1x rubber hose, 1x antenna, 1x display name.

As with most all of the Spiral Zone box art, I admire the Autumn green and brown colors of the splinter camouflage on the box and the impressive oil painting on the back of the box of a squad of HB on patrol under a foreboding green smoked sky near some abandoned skyscrapers.

As the entire Spiral Zone action figure line was a balance between model kit and toy, one should take about two hours of build time out to assemble the armor parts and fitting them to the figure. I suggest purchasing a good set of sprue cutters from a local hobby shop for getting a good clean cut of the parts off the sprue.

As stated before there are some great features that are included with the HB set. First off HB includes two weapons, a sub-machine type Laser Hand gun and a well detailed M50 40mm Grenade Launcher. The Grenade Launcher seems to be the weapon of choice for HB combatants as the HB squad on the back of the box is featured carrying only Grenade Launchers. I really love the look of the Grenade Launcher as it is one of the most impressive pieces of artillery in the entire Spiral Zone line and looks great when any of the figures are displayed with it.

Perhaps because of complaints from customers who bought Bull Solid, many of the connecting belts and other fragile parts were redesigned to be less prone to breakage for HB. For example the fragile easily broken antenna that was included on Hyper Boxers helmet were replaced with soft rubber parts for HB’s helmet parts. Also the belt connectors on the protect armor were redesigned using a pin system that puts less stress on the armor’s plastic loops. This is great when your taking the figure apart and putting it back into the box, as I am always extremely stressed out when taking Bull Solid apart but with HB I have no worries.

Two of the most rememorable features most collectors remember about HB are the leg armor shields and shoulder armor. The leg armor humorously reminds collectors of armored leg warmers. On the whole, with the black kneepad protectors, the leg armor looks good with the over all concept of the figure. Remember to double check if the two black kneepads are included with the set as they are most always missing when I see them up for auction. The large football pads style shoulder armor also builds up the look of the figure, the best feature being the left armor pad has two rubber hoses that attach to the backpack for nice integrated armor and backpack look.

Some more armor features include four parts of armor that snap on the upper and lower arm with the nice touch of a trench knife being fitted to the one of the pads. But keep in mind they have a tendency to come off the arm and in my opinion the only feature that could be bothersome when displaying the figure.

The fine paint details of both the chest armor and helmet look great and like all the other Spiral Zone releases the helmet features a thin clear lens that looks in scale and gives the figure that extra little detail that I love about the entire Spiral Zone line. Headphones are included to help keep the helmet snug to the head but are not needed unlike the Bull Solid figure.

While Bull Solid was predominately two colors of grey and Olive Green, the color spectrum of HB is made up of black, grey, lime green, dark green and silver, making for a very subtle but colorful figure. The color spectrum of Spiral Zone figures would reach its zenith with Act 3: Sentinel Bear, but HB is a fantastic effort.

The 36-point articulations Systeminjection figure included with HB is another remarkable face sculpt with its youthful anime looking face and fashionable Brit-pop haircut. Like all the other Spiral zone sets, HB comes with grey plastic molded hands to simulate grey gloves, that can be attached when the flesh colored hands are removed. The hands also feature the famous Spiral Zone moveable trigger finger, so it can grasp the gun correctly.

The backpack is surprisley smaller and compact when compared to both Bull Solid and Sentinel Bear. I like the small details of the simulated cloth and zipper WWII style pouch on the backpack and the stretched sprue plastic radio antenna that is included with the set.

Overall I think Hyper Boxer is one of the most even and well though out protect suit design in the entire Spiral Zone line and these days expect to pay between $60 and $120 for a Hyper Boxer figure. It is a great looking figure when assembled and displayed and does not have all the breakage points that Bull Solid is known for. Another legendary release from Bandai’s SFG Spiral Zone line that is a must for the Spiral Zone collection.

© 2008 Leonardo Flores ModCineaste and Collection DX.

Bandai’s SFG Spiral Zone released only three optional weapon sets for their Spiral Zone deluxe figure sets and optional Coating Armor sets. Acts 8, 9 & 10 would be allocated for those releases.

Spiral Zone: Act 9 Bazooka Pack

Bandai’s SFG Spiral Zone released only three optional weapon sets for their Spiral Zone deluxe figure sets and optional Coating Armor sets. Acts 8, 9 & 10 would be allocated for those releases. They are:

Act 8: Personal Floater
Act 9: Bazooka Pack
Act 10: Type Scout III Monoseed

Act 9: Optional Backpack Unit Bazooka Pack was a “Monopole Accelerative Rail Gun / Missile Launcher” that was developed in 2005 that fired a 70mm round. The entire unit carried 20 rounds total with four being carried in the breech and the other 16 in the backpack storage area (as stated on the box). Although all the Spiral Zone figures can use this backpack, it is colored for Act 1: Bull Solid of dark OD green.

Typical of all the Spiral Zone release the front of the box has clear windows that display some of the parts and the other side of the box illustrates a beautiful painting of Bull Solid in action with the Bazooka Pack.

The small box contains: 2x green sprue, 1x preassembled back pack, 1x barrel, 2x metal springs, 1x rubber hose, 1x thin plastic wire,1x red wire, 1x sticker sheet, 1x instruction sheet, 1x file card.

I bought this toy from a dealer for $15.00 at the San Diego Comic Convention back in 1987 and it had already been assembled. This purchase was also my last Spiral Zone toy purchase for many years until I bough an Act 12: Figure Type II (Brown) from Ebay about two years ago.

Assembly of Bazooka Pack is almost pure model kit with some nice added touches that take it to Spiral Zone levels. I suggest buying a good pair of sprue cutters to cuts the parts off the sprue. Some of the great features are metal spring tubing that connects the gun to the backpack and the twisted red wire that is very simply assembled but very effective in scale. I also love the antenna that comes from the top of the unit.

The Gun also has some nice features as well such as moveable handles for better positioning the Spiral Zone figure with it. When the Bazooka is not in use it can be folded in half and fit neatly into the backpack unit. The bazooka is held to the backpack with a folding arm from the backpack.

My only problem with this backpack is how the gun tends to fall apart in the middle when you are folding it in half. That can fixed with a couple of drops of glue, but I elected to keep together without glue.

Later a very cute looking Gashapon version of Bazooka was released that also fitted on a small Gashapon Spiral Zone figure that could be placed on the figures hand and being able to fit into a backpack that also connected to the Spiral Zone Gashapon figure.

This is one of my favorite Spiral Zone releases, as it looks great when displayed with a Spiral Zone figure. It is an impressive looking gun when deployed and I like to think that one of the parts on the side of the Bazooka is a small machine gun, which gives it even some more play value. I do not see the Bazooka Pack for sale that often on either Ebay or Yahoo Japan Auctions, in fact the last one I saw for sale was the one I bought back in 1987 that I used for this review. A great toy definitely worth picking up for the Spiral Zone collection!

© 2008 Leonardo Flores & DX Collection.

After releasing four SFG Spiral Zone extra Coating Type uniforms without figures, it would be expected that Bandai would release basic figures to go along with their coating armor sets. Spiral Zone Act 11 Figure Type 1 (White Man) and Act 12 Figure Type II (Brown) would fulfill those expectations.

Spiral Zone Act 11: Figure Type 1 (White)

After releasing four SFG Spiral Zone extra Coating Type uniforms without figures, it would be expected that Bandai would release basic figures to go along with their coating armor sets. Spiral Zone Act 11 Figure Type 1 (White Man) and Act 12 Figure Type II (Brown) would fulfill those expectations.

Leonardo Flores (MonCinesate)

Two Spiral Zone figures were created to be paired with one of the four Coating Type extra armor uniform sets. While the other three figures looked Japanese in their face sculpts, Bandai choose to release two figures with an African ethnicity and European ethnicity.

Spiral Zone Act 12: Type II Brown

SFG Bandai’s Spiral Zone toys can be split into four categories:

Deluxe Figure Kits (Acts 1-3)
Coating optional Clothing sets (Act 4-7),
Vehicles & Optional Backpacks (Acts 8-10)
Super Real Action Figures (Acts 11 & 12)

This review will focus on one of the two optional figures and last Spiral Zone release Act 12: Figure Type 2 (Brown).

Leonardo Flores “Modcineaste”

Special Forces Group Spiral Zone was a very short released series of action figures and equipment manufactured by Bandai in 1/12 scale in 1985. Not many pieces were released with only 12 releases, which were numbered on each box as “Acts”, with Bull Solid as Act 1.

Act 1: Bull Solid

Special Forces Group Spiral Zone was a very short released series of action figures and equipment manufactured by Bandai in 1/12 scale in 1985. The figures were only produced for a couple years and were quite expensive for their day and now rare and highly sought after Japanese toy today. When GI Joe figures went for 2.95 each Spiral Zone figures were $25.00 and in 1986 that was a lot of money. Not many pieces were released with only 12 releases, which were numbered on each box as “Acts”, with Bull Solid as Act 1. Spiral Zone was one of the first hi-brow toys that were geared towards adult collectors rather than children.

The Spiral Zone package consist of:

1X Systeminjection action figure, 1x helmet, 2x arm pads, 2x armor plates, 1X Real cloth suit, 2X rubber boots, 3X sprue (1x vinyl, 1x silver, 1x green), 1x backpack, 1x rubber hose, 2X grey replacement hands, 1X clear vinyl, 1X belt buckle, 4X rubber bands, 1x instructions, 2X file cards.

Building Spiral Zone figures is very straightforward. Although following the instructions should produce a great end product, I believe since Bull Solid was the first release there are a couple of engineering problems that if you are not careful you can break some weaker points of the figure.

My friends little brother also attacked my Bull Solid when I was in school one afternoon and broke off the head, this was finally repaired a few years ago with Yutaka’s own Spiral Zone body reissues which Ninja uses the exact same molds as the original Spiral Zone figures of the 1980’s.

© 2008 Leonardo Flores “Modcineaste”

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