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Saxon's Toyland 1978

Saxon's Toyland - North Tonawanda NY Evening News 1978

This is a single page ad for Saxon's Toyland, from the North Tonawanda NY Evening News 1978. It shows "Mattel Shogun Warrior" with a grayscale photo of Gaiking.

• Invincible guardians of world freedom
• Choose from: Raydeen, Gaiking, Mazinga & Dragun
• No batteries! No electricity!
• Regularly $12.99

On sale with this add at for $10.99 (probably in red)

Alexander's Veteran's Day Spectacular 1980

Alexander's Veteran's Day - Yonkers NY Herald Statesman 1980

This 3/4 Page add for "Alexander's veteran's day spectacular super buys" is from the Yonkers NY Herald Statesman 1980. Buried in one small panel is an image of Daimos with "save up to $20" across one arm (pricing seems to apply to all items in the mixed toy-ad).

Daimos has an "E" which reads "Mattel's Large Shogun Warrior"

"fun-filled toys 9.99 ea."

TV Commercials

There are at least two video ads that I've seen for the Shogun Warriors plus some videos produced for the Japanese market. Many of these videos were uploaded to YouTube by Jumbo Machinder (and all around Anime/Manga aficionado Brad Walker - bwfaco) - I hope he doesn't mind me linking them from this new page.

Mattel Shogun Warriors 1977 (1976 copyright date)

This is probably the first Shogun Warriors commercial, featuring Raydeen, Dragun and Mazinga. Some interesting action displaying the firing missiles with there kids rolling the figures around in play. One token Asian kid (I can say that due to my own Asian heritage). I don't remember seeing this one on TV.

Mattel Godzilla 1978

 

I believe this commercial pre-dates the later Shogun Warriors commercial but I'm not positive - either this or the later commercial featuring Godzilla and his shooting fists were the first that I noticed - I seem to remember associating the figure with the Shogun Warriors so I'll go with the next appearance. This one is pretty cool, featuring kinds playing in the sand on a beach.

Mattel Shogun Warriors 1978 

 

In this commercial we're introduced to Great Mazinga, Gaiking and Godzilla. This is the commercial I remember seeing on TV. I always wanted that Godzilla just because I thought the firing fist was cool.

Second Commercial recently surfaced that introduces Daimos, also from 1978

Mattel Shogun Warriors Die-Cast

 

This seems to be the main Shogun Warriors commercial for the die-cast line - no mention of the Jumbo's although you can spot them int he background. The commercial seems a bit rushed to me and who is this Bozo in the suit introducing them? It's a bit odd.

Mattel Godzilla Game 1979?

Mattel did a few things that were interesting as side-lines to the Shogun Warriors - first they added Godzilla to the mix and shortly afterwards a really amazing Rodan as part of the World's Greatest Monsters. Next they came out with this Godzilla game. Finally, they released "Godzilla Gang" which included a nice Taiwanese rendition of the an earlier "Attack" Godzilla figure by Popy (the rest of the "Gang" were made up of Kamen Rider villains).

Popy Mazinger Z 1973?

 

I'm thinking that this is probably one of the first Jumbo Machinder commercials, featuring Mazinger Z. Some interesting shots villains (they don't appear to be the Popy bad-guys eventually released) and of the fists flying off and also some of the XX accessories.

Popy Mazinger Z

This commercial prominently displays Mazinger Z's villains being destroyed (love the "blown up" effects so I may be wrong in my assessment of the previous video of the villains being mock-ups. It also introduces the Jet Scrander.

Popy Mazinger Z

In this third Mazinger Z commercial thee emphasis is on the Jet Scamder and accessory fists for Mazinger Z.

Popy Great Mazinger

 

This is a fairly early Great Mazinger commercial from Japan that shows some of the Jumbo Machinder's actions like the ability to hold swords - interestingly it looks to be able to fire off its fists in a gout of flames and sparklers but I guess toy commercials had a bit more leeway in extolling make-believe features back then. The commercial also has the Scrambler Dash (the backpack that allowed Great Mazinger to fly).

Popy Great Mazinger Accessories

 

The commercial features Great Mazinger and a list of many of the XX and ZZ accessories (you can see a list in my Shogun Fists page off the Jumbo Machinders menu). I think this was probably produced to herald the ZZ accessories release. It also talks a bit about collecting the ZZ to send away for the Jumbo Keeper (vinyl storage box).

Popy Great Mazinger

 

This is a nearly complete commercial that is quite short but different from the previous two. As this stuff goes the quality isn't very good but at least we have this to speculate about - there's 11 seconds - I'm thinking it was originally a 15 second spot (maybe it was tagged to a retailer?)

Popy Great Mazinger (*Drunk Dad)

 

This is a fairly interesting commercial with a little story about a drunk dad picking up a Great Mazinger at a toy store. Staggering into an ally he momentarily changes into Great Mazinger and is able to escape a growling dog. Dad places the Jumbo next to his sleeping son so there's a happy ending - I can't imagine something like this being produced in the US, especially during that era.

Commercial also shows some accessory fists so I'm placing it later in the series.

Popy Brave Raideen 1975

 

This overly excited adult extolling the virtues of Popy's Raideen from 1975. Interesting to see a toy advertised without a kid involved.

Note the bow-fist rather than the "Iron Cutter" that was provided by Mattel's version. It's fairly sought-after by US collectors but I've found that boxed versions of the Japanese toy are fairly common (it was the first Japanese-version Jumbo Machinder I purchased). Seems it was sold in some US outlets.

Popy Daiku Maryu and Gaiking

 

This commercial may be the most interesting as it shows the rare Daiku Maryu in action and how Gaiking's horns (in that form) become arms in the Robo form.

Popy Grandizer with Spacer

This is a really interesting commercial featuring Popy's Grandizer. It also shows the action of Grandizer with his Jumbo-sized Spacer, ending with a small Japanese kid riding the dam thing. Way cool.

We really got rooked by the Mattel Golderak version of this toy, in my opinion.

Dangard Ace

 

This starts with a bit of Anime then transitions to the Jumbo Machinder version of Dangard Act. At the end it also teases us with two others.

Getter Robo 1-2-3

 

Man this commercial makes me want to seek this set out - the idea is that there are three different robots with interchangeable parts - the tops/bottoms swap out for many combinations.

Getter Robo G with Dragun

 

You'll recognize Dragun as part of the sequel to Getter Robo called Getter Robo G. Pretty cool commercial showing the treads being deployed from Poseidon. I wish they marketed these to the US.

Popy Toy Commercials 1/4

Some of the commercials posted above are part of this 14:57 Minute segment featuring classic Popy toys. I've never seen the Voltes V segments, nor have I seen the Evel Knievel wind-up set combined in Sentai heroes on bikes!

Popy Toy Commercials 2/4

Now we start seeing the Gotchama toys, Daltanius, Gordian, Golion, Ultraman and other Sentai toys in this 14:40 minute segment. Lots of cool missile-firing vehicles like the Yamato. Also some of my favorites - Lightan! Transforming cigarette lighter robots, of course!

Popy (Bandai) Toy Commercials 3/4

Now we're seeing Dairugger 15 and Dynaman with Dyjupiter as we progress into the mid-80's. 13.04 minutes of Popy toy commercials. The toys become much more plastic and less metal. Kaiju appear about half way through with Godzilla and others as the commercials transition to Bandai. Also the first Mobile Suit Gundam toys and some cool model kits.

Bandai (Popy) Toy Commercials 4/4

In this final segment you get 8:09 minutes of toy commercials, with more Lightans, GoLion, Tetsujin 28 and several Mobile Suit Gundam segments, as the transition to Bandai completes (oddly the commercials start with Bandai then go back to Popy). Some at the end are repeats.

Chogokin Selections with Toy Commercials

I'm not quite sure what this is as it starts with some of the same early Popy commercials as the 4-part series above, then it moves to a  toy identification of some sort. Some of the commercials are different (for instance there's an interesting Grendizer Jumbo Machinder commercial). There are a few different live-playset commercials as well.  The cataloging starts at 19:13 - I believe it's a toy identification of chogokin toys. 31.28 minutes in length.


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