Tuesday 8 July 2014

FIGHTING ANIMAL / ROBO-KATS / ANIBOTS

Now let's begin with the first set.


FIGHTING ANIMAL / ROBO-KATS / ANIBOTS
( Front and back view toy packaging by LH, PAT.P.LEADER SHINE ENT. CO., LTD.
Single card-back collectible.)


MY COMMENTS
This is the very first discovery and toy from this whole toy line and what started it all for me to get into this toy line series. It reminded me of Transformers G1, the Predacon, Razorclaw and Voltron. The front view toy packaging appealed to me in terms of being colourful with the design lay out and the back view drew me in the most with its beautiful toy art work which made me more curious to own the rest and see how they felt in hand. A big thank you to ebay seller "harlock-toys" for putting this up for auction, if it wasn't up I wouldn't of ran into this wonderful toy line!

( Front and back view toy packaging by LH, PAT.P.LEADER SHINE ENT. CO., LTD.
Single plastic seal box card-back.)

MY COMMENTS
This is another interesting type of toy packaging of the FIGHTING ANIMAL series. When I stumbled across this I found it so attractive as a whole with the colours used, lay out of design , toy art work placing, and how its sealed with a lot clear plastic instead of a whole card box covering it up. What I also grabbed me about this is the toy inside which is a different type of variant colour scheme that have not seen before.


( Toy art work of FIGHTING ANIMAL. Item number LH-801)

( FIGHTING ANIMAL / ROBO-KATS / ANIBOTS - "CHEETAN" the Cheetah. ) 
STRONG POINTS
• It has some tight joints and is simple to transform from Cheetah to robot mode and back again.
• Has a good amount articulation.
• Cheetah/robot arms can rotate forward and backwards 360° and outwards 360°.
• Cheetah/robot elbows can rotate around the sides 360°.
• Robot legs can rotate forward and backwards 90°.
• Robot knee joints can rotate backwards 70
°.
• Cheetah rear legs can rotate forward and backwards 360
°.
• Cheetah secured inside cheetah/robot back and folds out with the tail on double swivel joints.
• Robot head slides in and out securely and tightly.
• Weapon accessory can be plugged in the cheetah's mouth as a weapon and can attach to the robot modes back.
WEAK POINTS• The cheetah has some potential parts that break off to its colouration and brittle plastic.
• The cheetah front feet can break off due to the brittle plastic and it has a slight swivel joints on my mine.  (First hand experience)
• The robot leg hips are either too tight which makes the crotch split slightly open thne breaking off one leg from one of the hip joints. (First hand experience)
• Half of the cheetah's tail that swivels out can break off due to the brittle plastic. (First hand experience)

The weapon accessory's chrome connector for cheetah/robot mode can scrape off through over time if used constantly.

( FIGHTING ANIMAL / ROBO-KATS / ANIBOTS - "SIMBA" the Lion. ) 
STRONG POINTS
• It has very tight joints and simple to transform from lion to robot mode and back again.
Has a good amount of articulation. Lion/robot arms can rotate 360°. Lion/robot hands are on a ball joint to rotate and multiple positions.  • Robot legs can rotate forward 90° and 80° backwards. 
Robot feet folds out from bottom of lion mode and positions out tightly.
• Lion tail folds out from the back left robot leg and positions out tightly.
• Robot head folds in and out simply from top section.
With his 2 weapon accessories you can change them around by plugging them either in his lion/robot shoulders or you can plug them in his 2 rear lion legs. 
WEAK POINTS
The lion is on a spring mechanism that allows you to rotate it all the way to lock into place for lion mode and same for the robot but instead it locks into place for the robot's chest. This is the place where you can end up damaging the the lion's head, if you don't pull it up or down as gently as possible it could easily damage the spring mechanism.
The ball joint for the lion/robot hands can possibly get more loose as you play with them more leaving them floppy and less tighter.
The 2 weapon accessories are painted chrome which means when plugging them in and out of the places for lion/robot mode can slowly scrape off through over time if used constantly.

( FIGHTING ANIMAL / ROBO-KATS / ANIBOTS - "LYNX" the Wild Cat. )
( FIGHTING ANIMAL / ROBO-KATS / ANIBOTS - "SARGE" the Tiger.) 

( FIGHTING ANIMAL / ROBO-KATS / ANIBOTS - "SLICK" the Black Panther. ) 

( All in robot and kat modes. )
COMPARISONS
( Simba next to G1 Razorclaw. Something I always wanted to do when first obtaining Simba and the resemblance is there! )



TOY INFORMATION

Company Manufacturer - LH PAT.P.LEADER SHINE ENT. CO, LTD.
Series name - V WORLD
Group name - FIGHTING ANIMAL
Toy/Character names in letter order A, B, C, D, and E -
A) CHEETAN - Who can convert into a cheetah mode. Comes with 1 silver chrome weapon accessory.
B) SIMBA - 
Who can convert into a lion mode. Comes with 2 silver chrome weapon accessories.
C) LYNX - 
Who can convert into a wild cat mode. Comes with 1 silver chrome weapon accessory.
D) SARGE - Who can convert into a tiger mode. Comes with 2 silver chrome weapon accessories..
E) SLICK - Who can convert into black panther mode. Comes with 2 silver chrome weapon accessories.
Release - Single card back collectibles. A total of 5 ROBO-KATS to complete the set. Each sold separately.
Year - Around the late 1980's and early 1990's
Designs - Japan
Made In - China


OTHER VERSIONS
( TEK TOYS - ROBO-KATS - Tiger - Front and back packaging. Slight difference in packaging design. )


( ROBO-KATS Complete set individual card backs. Photo credits: The Pop Top Shop )

( Toy 4-pack box set. All 4 ROBO-KATS included except for SARGE the tiger which was included only on single card backs as far as I know. )

Company Manufacturer - TEK TOYS, SAN FRANCISCO. CA
Group Name - ROBO-KATS
Release - Single card back collectibles. A total of 5 ROBO-KATS to complete the set. Each sold separately. Also 4-pack box sets were available.
Year - Around the late 1980's and early 1990's.
Designs - Japan
Made In - China
(  ANIBOTS toy packaging. Single card back. )


Company Manufacture - TRENDMASTERS, INC. 
Series Name - MASTERBOTIX
Group Name - ANIBOTS
Release - Single card back collectibles. A total of 5 ANIBOTS to complete the set. Each sold separately.
Year - Around the late 1980s and early 1990s
Designs - Japan
Made In - China

( Toy package first photo. All 5 FIGHTING ANIMAL members. )
Photo credits > https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww22.pos.to%2F~butto%2Ftthbio.html&edit-text=
 
 



Company Manufacturer - TATSUMIYA CO., LTD.
Group Name - FIGHTING ANIMAL
Release - Single card back collectibles. A total of 5 FIGHTING ANIMAL to complete the set. Each sold separately.
Year - Around the late 1980's and early 1990's
Designs - Japan
Made In - China


REVIEW

GOOD SIDES> These toys are really fun for their simple play-ability transformations and chrome accessories they come with.
> Each have unique consistent looking designs from robot mode to cat modes and their colour schemes are very bright and colourful which is another appealing feature about these toys.
> In robot mode each have basic articulation from the arms and elbows. 
> In cat mode each have basic articulation like 360 rotation in all 4 legs and sliding up and down head movement mainly for the transformation to robot and cat modes.
DOWN SIDES
>  - For their time they are fragile toys and I have had experiences where parts broke off, so be extremely careful when handling them!
CONCLUSION
Being a Transformer G1 fan, I fell in love with these toys and their wide range of packaging. They have inspired me to dedicate more to them by doing a illustration project based on all their toy designs and toy art work.



Sunday 6 July 2014

"Robo-Synergy" is a fan made name I created for this toy line since there is multiple toy companies that manufactured these toy molds with their own stylized releases of packaging and different names.



INTRODUCTION
This blog is a fan tribute to a transforming robot toy line created by Japanese toy companies called "HERO, MARK, and SELECT". The toy line series was called "Sacred Beast Legend Bioroid" and it had at least 18 collectible 
action figures which had their own original toy designs and character profiles. All the toys had half human and half robotic designs that could change into either a robot animal, reptile, or insect.

To see more information, click the link below to find out and see!




My main focus for this blog will be to share and discuss my own personal experience through the worldwide international versions done by a company called "Champion Crown Industries Ltd" who created slight redesigns of the original versions. I'll explain what I've learned over the course of collecting this toy line and how much I really love them now after discovering their origins. I hope you enjoy reading and viewing!

To find out more, click the other blog links under "Archives" on the right hand side of the page!