Zoom Robo

Mark’s Gokin Robo line was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Takara’s MicroChange line, at a fraction of the cost (and quality!)

Many of them were imported to the US as part of Select’s Convertors line, but I like to track them down in their original packaging.

Zoom Robo was imported to the US as simply ZOOM, and it the color changed to black.

Look how glorious the Gokin Robo packaging was. Absolutely stunning.

The toy rests in a styrofoam tray, and includes missiles and a sticker sheet. The US version omitted both.

The sticker sheet is very reminiscent of the “Real Robot” stickers used by Takatoku in the 80s. You know, all those tiny stickers that say CAUTION and NO STEP.  However, there is no guidance on where to put them, and honestly, the toy isn’t large enough for them.

Binocular mode is tiny and compact, only about 2.5 inches long. The main sectopm is metal, but the rest is plastic. The lenses are actually transparent, and you can see through them!

The nub in the center works as a knob in binocular mode, but it’s just the head. Turing it over ruins the illusion.

Robot mode is fun, and is more involved than you would think. You need to pull the arms out then the “fists” down, turn around the head, fold down the chest plate, pull down the legs, and then pull out at the hips.

He’s not bad actually. The missile goes in the chest hole, and pushing down on the head fires it.

Here you can see the comparison with it’s US conterpart, although my black one has a fair amount of wear. You can see that even the stickers are the same, it’s just molded in a different color.