I first became aware of Dangard Ace as part of the Shogun Warriors comic book and accompanying Mattel diecast toys. I didn't know much about the actual origin until much later as part of Jim Terry Productions Force Five during the 80's.
Popy Danguard Ace Back
The Planet Robot Danguard Ace(惑星ロボ ダンガードA (エース) was an anime series created by Leiji Matsumoto with Dan Kobayashi. It originally aired in Japan from March 6, 1977 to March 26, 1978, there are 56 episodes. Seems it had some air time in Europe, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan in the early 80's.
From wikipedia:
Danguard Ace takes place on a future Earth in which natural resources have been depleted. People have begun looking toward other planets to survive, in particular to the fictional tenth planet, Promete. Although people had hoped to peacefully settle there, disaster strikes as the first explorers are destroyed by betrayal.
After this event, an individual named Mr. Doppler announces that
all attempts to reach Promete surrender to his command, those who do not
will be destroyed. Using his own resources, Doppler constructs a vast military force greater than that of Earth's. He forbids anyone from approaching the planet, under the insane belief that only he is entitled to it.
To gain control of Promete, the governments of Earth
begin constructing massive combat robots. Doppler is able to attack and
destroy all of them before they are completed, except for Danguard Ace.
The forces sent to attack Danguard's base were destroyed because of the
efforts of Captain Dan. Nothing is known of this mysterious man, except
that he previously served Doppler while under mind control.
Takuma Ichimonji, son of the man who betrayed the initial Promete exploration team, becomes a cadet at Danguard's base. Ichimonji hopes that he might restore his father's honor by fighting against Doppler's forces.
Popy Danguard Ace 1977
I'm pretty happy with the example I own, pictured - it does have an issue with the chest hinge (it's torn from the chest compartment door) - at some point I'll need to cast a new one to replace this defective one. Mine comes complete with the helmet and often-missing shin-guards that double as weapons that can be held in each hand or combined into a single double-pointed weapon (sword?). The chest firing mechanism is basically the same as what was used in the US version of Gaiking, only cast in blue plastic (I've seen a variation cast in the same yellow as Gaiking). Other features include the harder plastic backed clip-vane missiles sometimes found on Canadian Shogun Warriors (all 10 are present with mine), wings that clip into the back, a removable helmet and two firing fists extending from bending elbows.
Both Elbows Bend, Both Fists Fire
Head with Removable Helmet
Head Detail
Shooting Mechanism
Copyrights
Back and Wing Detail
These join in the middle
En garde!
Backed Clip-Vane Missiles
Backed Clip-Vane Missiles
Also available are several different knock-off versions of Danguard Ace - they're all blow-molded that I've seen, usually at a much smaller scale and made of very thin plastic. The best examples are the ones that were made in Peru.
I've been writing about stuff that interests me for many years, initially with some free web space provided by my ISP back in the 90's and continuing with various blogs and websites today, separated by interest. Many I haven't touched in a few years due to time constraints but the subjects are still on my mind.
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