Penbot (Bootleg)

A while back Josh posted a review of Gakken Boy’s Series Penbot. The article immediately brought be back to the mid 80’s when I walked into a shop killing time before a family dinner. Right near the front desk was the Penbot all lined up in a cardboard box tray. There was no individual wrapping. But those soldiers all stood in front of me. I remember begging my dad for it. I remember saying something like “This PEN will help my grades! I’ll use it everyday!” The ink has dried up, but that memory of that shop and my Dad will linger with me forever.

After looking into this series a bit more, from what I gather each robot in the original series had a particular function. Byros was a pen. Barsard was a pencil sharpener and Myzar a eraser

This Bootleg has stronger similarities to Byros. But the bootleggers modified it so that this robot has all 3 functionality (pencil sharpener, pen and eraser).

It has almost all the articulation as Byros. Feet rotate front and down, legs rotate to the side to about 45 degrees. Arms can rotate 360 degrees, and elbow rotate 90 degrees. But what is lost is that the arms do not fold back at the shoulder.

Here’s pen mode.

Without the arms folding backwards, it makes it a little harder to hold. But this was made for children hand’s, and it’s not too bad to hold with smaller hands.

The ink has dried out, but one leg used to be blue ink and the other was red ink.

There’s a little button on the back of the heal. When rotating the feet straight, the pen nib pops out.

Though the forms are very similar to Byros, the detail work is very different.

Especially the head. Unfortunately the head is UGLY, but in that charming 80’s boot leg kind of ugly.

It’s very simple, but it doesn’t have the cool factor of Byros face, nor the detail.

Let’s get into Eraser mode.

The Head and the Red section of the chest rotate back.

There’s a slight nick on the eraser (a fellow classmate took Penbot off my desk and started to use my eraser. Luckily my teacher saved the day, and that’s why most of the eraser is still intact).

The rotation makes for some nice flying mode.

Now Pencil Sharpener mode

The chest hole is where you can sharpen your pencil. The sharpener can be removed for easy cleaning.

Here’s a close up for the back.

I had a lot of joy taking this to school as a kid. I don’t think my dad realize how fond I am of this robot. I don’t think he would have remembered it even if I explained it to him. It’s not my most prized in my collection. But it marks a special moment in my memories of my dad.

Thanks Dad. (I dedicate this review to my Dad. R.I.P)