Robonyan
Yokai Watch is the multimedia franchise that is currently dominating the wallets of many Japanese kids and their parents. The story of Yokai Watch revolves around a young boy who acquires a mysterious watch, the Yokai Watch, which allows him to see and interact with Yokai that live in his town. The Yokai (spirits) take many different forms, and range in their abilities and personalities. The mascot Yokai of Yokai Watch is Jibanyan.
Robonyan is Jinbanyan’s robotic-cat counterpart from the future. From the two flame-tipped tails to the notch in the left ear, Robonyan shares a lot of physical attributes with Jinbanyan.
However, being the Mecha Sonic to Jinbanyan’s Sonic, Robonyan is of course constructed of metal parts and rivets. So it is fitting that this mechanical Yokai see a release in the Soul of Chogokin line.
This emotionless robot has some pretty adorable aesthetics that will no doubt elicit joy from any person that spends time with this toy. Much like the Hello Kitty Chogokin and the Jibanyan Chogokin, the Robonyan Chogokin is no doubt aimed at the hardcore fans of these charming mascots.
Robonyan has some very small feet. Luckily, he comes with two different display bases to help keep the toy upright.
A clear stand.
The other is as “blasting off’ stand that lets you display Robonyan taking to the skies.
This stand comes in five pieces, the base and four booster pieces, but it’s rather easy to put together. Once assembled, it plugs into the boosters at the back of Robonyan.
The stands aren’t always necessary. If you like, you can put the tails in a downward position to support this small-footed feline.
Robonyan features three different sets of eyes. I was so glad to see this gimmick incorporated into the design of the toy, rather than being separate bits that required swapping.
To change the eyes of Robonyan, one simply has to pull the six-sided piece on the back of its head and turn it in either direction. He has the normal eyes, the “low on power” eyes and the charged up eyes.
Since Robonyan is a mechanical cat, he of course needs to charge every now and then. The tips of the tails can be removed to reveal electrical plugs.
Of course, these are only for show, as the toy does not require charging.
Another gimmick of this toy is the chocolate factory that is hidden in the chest of Robonyan. When one presses the piece that connects the tails to the body of Robonyan, the belt opens up at the middle and the chest hatch opens.
The only downside of this setup is that it’s pretty easy to accidentally activate this mechanism when one is handling the tails or even just attaching the booster’s to the “blasting off” effect stand.
The mouth acts as the delivery place for the chocolate and thus can open up to store both of the chocolate bars that are included with this toy in the mouth of Robonyan.
One chocolate bar is fully wrapped, the other is partially unwrapped.
For holding the chocolate bars, Robonyan comes with two slotted hands.
Have I mentioned how adorable this toy is?
Besides these two hands, Robonyan also comes with a separate right arm with built-in rocket punch action.
The little fist shoots out rather fast and it can be super-easy to lose due to its miniscule size. In order to capture these shots, I had to take the pictures at 1/4000 of a second.
Articulation for this toy is pretty good. The waist can rotate a full 360 degrees and the legs can move around slightly.
The shoulder features a double socket joint, and the elbow has a simple hinge.
The head can move 45 degrees to the left and right. You can move the head up and down, but this range of motion is very limited.
The tails are connected to the rest of the toy using a ball joint, which gives the tails a wide range of vertical motion. They can actually go lower than what is shown in the picture.
While this is a Soul of Chogokin release, the actual metal content of this this metal-based Yokai is less than I would have expected. Only the torso, mouth and chocolate bars of this toy are made of metal. While this is still a decent amount of metal content, I was personally expecting more metal like we got with the Hello Kitty Chogokin release.
While this toy isn’t perfect, it is still a darn fun little Chogokin. It looks good and it pulls off its gimmicks fairly well. So if you are a fan of Level-5’s Yokai Watch or just looking for an interesting novelty Chogokin, this would make a great purchase for you. Just don’t expect to be able to use it as a self-defense weapon, like you can use the Hello Kitty Chogokin.