A few years back I bought a lot of junior machinders from a friend of mine, including Dangard Ace, Jeeg and Gundam. As a gift, he also threw in a loose, incomplete Daikengo knock-off called "Robot From Outer Space".

I'd seen it for sale a number of times in the past and just never pulled the trigger on it for one reason or another. So it was nice to have this as a cheap placeholder. But eventually I would have to upgrade and that time came a couple months back when I saw one on Ebay with a 30 euro "buy it now".

I usually associate a bootleg toy with the robot whose head it borrows so that's why I consider this a Daikengo toy. But as usual, it also features the limbs from Robo Kress. The toy is 15" tall and articulated at the neck, shoulders and hips. The arms are hard plastic and the head is vinyl, with the rest of the toy made of polyethylene.

For weapons, both fists shoot and there is a single missile launcher hidden beneath the removable belt. Eight missiles can be stored at the waist and on the sides of the legs. The right hand can hold a chrome sword.

The box measures approximately 16"x9"x3.5" and is interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, it shows the toy with a different belt than the one that came with mine. This isn't much of a surprise since these toys often have variations (more on that in a minute). Secondly, even though the toy was made in Hong Kong and distributed in Italy, all the directions are in English! The only thing in Italian is the warnings on the sides and on the sticker placed on the front of the box.

I'm not sure what it means by the belt being used as an "arm ring". It doesn't attach to the arm or anything like that.

Ok, back to the variations and the toy I originally had. When I compared the two, it was obvious they weren't quite the same.

Disregarding the missing parts and stuff, the first thing you can see is that the arms on the new one are lower than on the old. Furthermore, the plastic missile holders on the legs and the launchers in the waist are different colors, too.

It's hard to see in photos, but even the heads are slightly different with the vinyl on the old one being smoother. It looks ever so slightly bigger too, but it's really difficult to tell for sure.

There seems to have been quite a few of these popping up mint in box lately and these differences made me wonder if this toy might have been re-cast and/or re-released recently? Or perhaps these variations have always existed and there's just been some old stock discovered? I can't say that I really care a heck of a lot either way. I'm just glad to finally have a complete one that doesn't need to be hidden behind other toys on my shelf.