Gattai Saurer
One thing I really like about vintage Machine Robo toys is the fantastic 80’s mechanical designs by PLEX. They are so angular and sharp, yet colored in fantastical bright colors and chrome. Each truly is both “Machine” and “Robo”.
But there’s another side to Machine Robo that’s a bit more organic. These random Machine Robo releases shun the hyper detailed mechanics for a more organic and terrifying vibe. One example can be seen in the combiner “Devil Satan 6”, and in this toy, Gattai Saurer (ガッタイザウラー).
Gattai Saurer comes from the anime series “Machine Robo: Battle Hackers” which is the sequel to “Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos”. The toy was supposed to be included in the US line of Rock Lords as “Fossilsaurus” but instead was only released in Europe.
The box is huge and decorated in the style of the other Battle Hackers releases. From the photos on the box you can tell that this is going to be one imposing toy.
Inside the parts lie in a sturdy Styrofoam tray, with places for each part and accessory.
Gattai Saurer is composed of four separate robots
• Header
• Abarar
• Leggar
• Taildar
Creative names, huh?
Header is a purple monster that forms the head of Gattai Saurer. As you will see with all the components, Header is very loose and a pain to stand upright. It’s mostly plastic, with diecast in the supporting joints of the legs. Header also comes with a Gold weapon made out of softer PVC plastic.
Abarar forms the Abdomen and arms of Gattai Saurer. Metal in this figure is limited to the joints. This too comes with a gold weapon.
Leggar forms the legs of the giant beast, and he’s a particularly tricky one to pose. The hips have hexagonal joints that are supposed to bear the weight of Gattai Saurer, but there is not enough friction to reliably hold them in place.
A face only a mother could love
Taildar of course forms the tail, and probably has the most interesting robot mode due to the tail storage on the back.
All four robots make for quite the ugly team.
Their weapons look like they should combine somehow, but apparently the do not.
To begin the combination, start with Legger.
Transform and plug Taildar into the back. The back cover snaps in to securely connect the two.
Add Abarar on top.
Top it off with Header. The arms of Header plug in to Abarar to lock them together.
Here you have Gattai Saurer in his basic form. He is bony, for sure, with lots of vacant space in the abdomen. As he is here he is kind of fugly.
Articulation is limited to bending knees and ankles, and shoulder and elbow joints. There are hip joints, but as mentioned before, they plug in with a hexagon joint that can only be moved in certain positions, and only one of those enable it to stand.
The real fun however is in the accessories. See, Gattai Saurer comes with armor and weapons.
With this armor, Gattai Saurer becomes AWESOME. The armor is made out of the same softer PVC that the weapons are. While the box depicts the armor as a bone-white, it’s actually a metallic silver color, which I think looks much better.
Some of the armor stays on well, other parts not so much. The arm and leg armor just sort of fit on without any kind of plugs to secure them.
And if the armor wasn’t cool enough, Gattai Saurer also includes two cannons that attach to either side of the waist armor.
The cannon on the left is non-functional, but the one on the right shoots actual pellets!
This is a great toy, and it is a shame that it never saw release in the US. It’s not cheap, and it’s not easy to find, but if you can track one down you will be very happy with it.