One Eight

One Eight (ワンエイト) comes from the 1977 live action TV show, Daitetsujin 17, created by the legendary Shotaro Ishinimori. In the show, an alien named Brain attacks the earth with giant robots, but somehow 17 is wrestled out of his control. 18 is another of the robots, but he eventually turns good and sacrifices himself in episode 26.

This is the companion piece to the previously released Daitetsujin, and it improves on it in most every way.

The box shares the same aesthetic, breaking down One Eight’s design into a simplified pattern. It’s very sturdy, and inside there’s a cover to the styrofoam tray.

The toy stands about 30 cm tall, and has a significant weight to it due to the diecast metal. It is a joy to hold. Metal is in the feet, waist and chest panels.

The thing looks great and has no manufacturing defects or flaws. It’s mostly molded in color but what few paint applications there are, are crisp.

But the fun starts when you start to pose it. This thing will take any pose you can throw at it.

The head can swivel but it it can also tilt forward and backward in a really interesting way. There’s a small panel on the back that needs to be removed in order to insert the two LR41 batteries. Once installed, with a press of a button the eyes will light up.

The shoulders have a great range of motion. Starting with the shoulder armor, those rotate and click up and down. The base shoulder assembly swivels back and forth against the body, while the shoulder itself clicks around in all directions.

The elbows extend to give a wider range of motion, and the upper arm swivels at both top and bottom. The hands are on ball joints, and each joint in each finger is articulated.

And that chest joint… not only does it rotate and can crunch forward and back, but you can lift it up a click to extend the range of motion!

The skirts on the hips are all moveable, and the center one is diecast.

Moving the skirts out of the way gives you a good look at the hip joint, which is marvelous. It has clicky joints in all directions on each side, PLUS it pulls down to give an even extra range of motion.

The knee and ankle joint also extend, creating a ridiculous range of motion.

As an added bonus, those diecast feet really anchor the figure and adds a great feeling of stability.

The diecast chest doors open up to reveal the mechanical, weaponized interior. The translucent plate combined with the metal pegs really make this feel like a working piece of machinerey.

There is also a variant “damaged” plate that can be swapped out but it’s a bit of a pain. First you have to pry off the grey bar at top, then you have to unscrew two screws that hold the panel in. From there you pop out the circut board, pop it into the broken piece and re-attach in the same way.

Another feature is the interchangeable wing on One Eight’s back. The center part plugs into the back and you can swap out a set of short or long wings. The fit is very tight, so be careful!

The final accessory is a spiked crown that is used to gain control of Daitetsujin 17. This snugly fits around the top of D-17’s head should you have him.

And best of all, they look great together! They may be a bit too “clean” as opposed to how they appear in the TV show, but they are wonderful idealized versions of the character. I can’t get over how great One Eight is, and how much fun he is to pose and mess around with.