1973
Mattel sold this guy as a Shogun Warrior called simply "Mazinga," but it's actually GREAT Mazinger, the "sequel-robot" to the epochal Mazinger Z. Designer Go Nagai stated that he created Great Mazinger to exceed Mazinger Z in every way possible; it's sleeker, sharper, more heavily armed, and lasts longer with the ladies. Just kidding about that last one.

Mattel made a few other changes besides the name, though. The Japanese Great Mazinger Jumbo came standard with some twelve missiles and no built-in method of launching them. It LOOKED great, sure. But if the kiddies ever wanted to launch those suckers they'd have to go out and purchase an accessory missile-launching set to "complete" their toy. Mattel circumvented the issue by ripping off Great Mazinger's left fist and replacing it with a clunky-looking three-missile-shooter. This wouldn't have been such a crime if they'd just thrown the launcher in as an accessory, but unfortunate American and European children weren't given a choice. Their "Mazingas" would have to suffer through life without the sleek symmetry of the Popy version, fated to look like they'd just had a prosthetic arm from the Middle Ages clumsily grafted onto their left biceps. Let me tell you, this really, really bothered me as a kid. Yeah, I loved getting hopped up on oversweetened Kool-Aid and shooting missiles at my friends' faces just as much as the next red-blooded, robot-crazed kid out there, but Japanese robot designs are all about BALANCE. And even as a little kid, I knew that something was wrong. (Yes, I had way too much time on my hands.)

There IS a way around this, however, if you're totally obsessed: you can buy the Japanese ZZ-1 Jumbo Accessory Set and convert it into a left hand for Mazinga using a pair of pliers to remove the shooting mechanism. Voila! Problem solved -- although you've just spent $75-plus on what amounts to two cents' worth of polyethylene. Congratulations.

Popy also made an incredible accessory specifically for this toy called "Scramble Dash." It's a gigantic delta wing that clamps onto Great Mazinger's back and makes him look even cooler than he already does. Unfortunately, the cost of an original Popy wing can exceed the price of an entire American Shogun Warrior Mazinga. Fortunately for those not obsessed enough to actually drop that kinda coin on a simple accessory, Japanese reissue-makers Uni Five released a perfect reissue of the Japanese Great Mazinger Jumbo in mid-1999. Their version not only comes with the proper two fists, but the Scramble Dash is thrown in gratis as well. After all the dough I dropped on trying make my Great Mazinger complete over the course of the last five years.....don't even get me started. It's times like this that I feel like pouring gasoline over my entire collection and watching 'em melt just for fun. Such is the life of a Jumbo collector.

Matt Alt