1973
Mach Baron is the giant robot from an incredible late-Seventies live action television series of the same name (and which was the sequel to Red Baron.) The plot is totally insane: our bell-bottomed hero, whose father just got killed by a bunch of alien football players, is suddenly indoctrinated into this weird extrapolitical attack-team organization designed to repel the alien invaders. Of course, dad was a robotics engineer. Of course, he built a giant robot in this underwater base that's connected to his family's house. Of course, he left the keys in the ignition. So you've got this giant robot show with an amazing rockabilly pre-punk freak-out of a theme song, a groovy hero in an even groovier base with shag carpeting and funky "peace sign" chairs, and evil football players bent on world domination. Allright!

If this isn't enough to get you drooling over Jumbo Machinder of Mach Baron, I don't know what is. But it's a pretty amazing toy in and of itself. It's got a pair of shooting nipple-missiles (actuated by shoulder-mounted plungers) and a tiny car in the left foot (that's where our hero drives in to dock with Mach Baron; in the show, his seat raises up into the body of the robot to complete the launch sequence.) Just as with his predecessor Red Baron, Mach Baron's got this really refreshing all-red coloration, a total standout in any Jumbo collection. This is actually a fairly tough piece to come by in mint condition; loose specimens abound, but they're nearly always missing the missles and shoe-car.

Matt Alt