Daioja

Saikyo Robo Daioja is a Sunrise anime released in 1981 as a sort of transitional show that would ease fans into the world of real robots. Daioja himself is a Super Robot while the enemy mecha were more like real robots. He is comprised of three smaller robots that form Daioja when combined.

So fast forward to 2012 when Bandai has decided to release a big Chogokin Daioja. All we had before that were some expensive vintage pieces. Now that I have this new one in hand, I can honestly say I can transform this figure with my eyes closed. It currently holds the record for most transformations in my collection. A few were to complete the transformation video and a few more because it was just so much darn fun. Since we are dealing with 3 robots, there are lots of pictures. I’ve combined a few to keep the count down, but you can always see the entire shoot in the gallery.

Daioja comes in your standard big Chogokin box. Eye-catching graphics surround the glossy box. Inside, you will find a thick Styrofoam tray mounted on top of a plastic accessory tray.

Here is the crew outside of their Styro safe-haven and out of their plastic baggies. Quite a delightful group don’t you think? Very colorful to say the least.

ACE REDDER

Ace Redder is a bright red fellow that makes up the upper body of Daioja. I was a little thrown off by how light he was after being accustomed to handling heavier Chogokin pieces. His diecast lies in the upper body which makes him feel a bit unbalanced. Articulation is generous. Proportions are excellent. He comes with a sword and sheath which attaches to his side.

Ace Redder comes with a more anime accurate chest piece as his standard one is used to achieve perfect transformation at the expense of accuracy.

AOIDER

Aioder provides a bit of contrast to Ace Redder’s red. He carries a few blue hues on his body. Again, this is a relatively light Chogokin figure with most of his mass concentrated in the upper body. The proportions again are excellent. He comes with a giant bladed weapon that is beautifully chromed to a high luster.

Aoider also gets to wield a Beam Gun that can also be stored in a holster on his side.

COBALTER

You would almost expect Colbalter to be yellow or black, but like Aoider, he carries a lot of blue. This tends to give Daioja a jean-wearing look that turns off a lot of people. He is the chunky one of the bunch. Unlike the other two, he carries his diecast weight on his legs aside from his chest giving him a very hefty, well-balanced feel. His proportions are also very well done. Cobalter comes with a Hammer Chain which is a weapon with a spiked ball on one end and spikes on the other. Topping everything off is a nicely painted shield.

TRANSFORMATION

Now it’s time to have some fun. Before combining, each robot has to transform into it’s combine-ready form.

Ace Redder is first. His combination is fairly simple, but very nicely engineered. His feet fold into his lower legs, his legs fold out to the back, his arms fold into his chest, his “ear-muffs” unfold to become shoulder armor and finally a part of his wing set becomes his crest. His wings are set off to the side.

Aoider requires removal of his optional footplates which hide Daioja’s fists.

Next, you flip him upside down, pull his legs out and compress them to reveal the fists. Then fold them down to the side to form his arms and torso. His wings are set off to the side.

Cobalter requires removal of his optional footplates. His wings are set off to the side.

The next bit is a bit stressful when you realize you are handling a very expensive piece in your hands and you have to split it in half which is not the easiest thing to do in the first place.

After some hiding of arms, spinning of parts and folding of pieces, you are left with two legs.

The wings of all three come together to form one wingset. Then all you need to do is combine all three!

COMBINATION

Combination requires putting all the three combine-ready bots together. Let’s check out the transformation and combination into DAIOJA in this video!

DAIOJA

Once all three robots come together, you are left with this tall bad boy. It’s incredible how Bandai managed to pull this off. Not only did they engineer the combination to be mostly show accurate, but it comes together to form a solid robot.

Here you can see how the three wings come together to form one.

Daioja is for the most part “Perfect-Transformation” capable, but it leaves a few tings out of proportion. Bandai includes accurate looking pieces to clean it up a bit. Standard parts are shown on the left while accurate pieces are shown on the right.

If that unsightly backpack bothers you, you can remove it!

This is the end result.

WEAPONS

Daioja’s main weapon is the Thunder Sword. It is a gigantic thick piece of beautifully chromed weaponry. Stunning. He also comes with a shield which can also be attached to the side of his forearm.

I love how he can hold his sword with both hands. This is always a cool thing.

His other weapon is a Beam Bow Gun. The actual arrow does not shoot.

He also has a pair of bladed weapons. Again, beautiful chrome.

His weapons combine to form a weapon that I can only assume has the “F-word” in it somewhere.

I love how robots can open their mouths and not say anything. He comes with a mouth that allows you to do just that.

If you want to give yourself a headache or if you are immensely bored, you can always take a stab at attaching all the the accessories to the included base. The base doubles as a backdrop for Daioja and is basically just a huge Daioja logo which I sadly forgot to photograph.

Here are three similar Sunrise robots just chilling and hanging out. Daioja’s great proportions almost makes the Daitarn look out of proportion and makes Zambot 3 cry for a remake.

So in closing, I am pretty impressed. What started out as me disliking the unbalanced feel of the figures turned into “Oh, I get it now, it makes sense.” The figures had to compromise themselves to provide for a perfectly balanced combined form. The plastics seem a little brittle at first but the fear of breaking is soon gone after repeated handling.

Anything I can complain about is real just nitpicking and throwing salt in Daioja’s game. It’s expensive and the color combination is questionable for non-fans, but there’s no arguing that it is a well executed version of this robot.