1975
Robocon's a love-it-or-hate-it kind of design. He looks like one of those new Volkswagen Beetles, and he's got "cute" written all over his googly-eyed face. Fact is, most giant robot fanatics -- macho tough guys, all of 'em (ha!) -- don't want to be bothered with a cuddly l'il guy like Robocon, who's a refugee from a mid-70's television series that was kind of like a robotic version of "H.R. Puffinstuff." No missile-firing mechanisms, no death-swords, no ninja stars. Nor even a single photon-beam. But little Robocon's got a trick up his sleve (or chest, actually) -- he's among the most complicated of the Jumbos. Lift up that chest-plate and you'll find a bunch of mechanical-looking parts; there's even a set of three colored pistons that move up and down when a propeller on his back is rotated. No other Jumbo has a feature like this. (Okay, so maybe I'm reaching. But I happen to LIKE cute-looking robots, dammit, and I'll make no apologies for it!)

The series that Robocon is from -- "Ganbare, Robocon!" -- was created by an incredibly talented Japanese guy named Ishimori Shotaro, who also invented the first Power Rangers style show ("Goranger"), Kamen Rider, Kikaider, and piles of other famous live-action heroes. Robocon was his first attempt at a "sci-fi comedy," and it was an incredible success in 1974. (A sequel, called "Burn! Robocon," began airing in Japan in 1999.)

There's been a lot of interest in Robocon recently from a nostalgia standpoint, leading many to speculate that a reissue of the Jumbo couldn't be far behind. The mechanism in the chest is pretty complex, though. Perhaps because of this, Bandai started selling a series of large-scale (but not Jumbo) vinyls of Robocon instead. Ah, well.

Matt Alt