Sky Devilsaur Gaiking

Shogun

Sky Devilsaur Gaiking

From wikipedia:

Sky Devilsaur Gaiking (大空魔竜ガイキング, Daikū Maryū Gaikingu) is a Japanese Super Robot mecha anime series produced by Toei Animation. For distribution purposes, Toei refers to this television series as Dino-Mecha Gaiking or simply Gaiking.

It ran from April 1976 through January 1977 and consisted of 44 episodes of 25 minutes each. Gaiking was notable for being one of the few super robot series to take place in real places outside Japan, and for being the first Super Robot series to have a mobile carrier for the chief robots. In the US, Gaiking was part of Mattel's popular Shogun Warriors import toy line of the late 1970s and Jim Terry's Force Five anthology series. In 2005, a re-imaging titled Gaiking: Legend of Daiku-Maryu was produced. 

Mecha

Gaiking

A mecha defender robot consisting of three separate components: the Dino-Mecha's head, an arm unit, and a leg unit (the arm and leg units are stored inside the Dino-Mecha and exit from a gateway located below the Dragon's head). These three launch from the Dino-Mecha and combine, while in flight, to form Gaiking. Dino-Mecha's head forms Gaiking's core (i.e., chest and back) and contains Gaiking's own head. Gaiking is operated by baseball star Sanshiro Tsuwabuki.

Daikū Maryū / Dino-Mecha

A gigantic dragon-shaped robot that defends Earth from invaders from the planet Zela. It possesses numerous weapons and houses the sections of the Gaiking robot. Both Gaiking and the Daiku Maryu are composed of the super alloy Zolmanium Steel which was later reinforced with iron deposits from the Moon.

Nesser

A small tank-like robot resembling a Plesiosaur, Nesser is used for scouting missions in water. Its weaponry includes lasers emitting from its eyes, a flamethrower emitting from its mouth, and three mortar cannons located on its chest.

Skylar

A small jet-like robot resembling a Pterodactyl, Skylar is used for scouting missions in the air. Its weaponry includes machine guns and missiles.

Bazolar

A small, but very fast, tank-like robot resembling a Triceratops, Bazolar is used for scouting missions on land. Its weaponry includes laser canons, a drill, and a mortar cannon.

Force Five intro

John's Notes

Gaiking was and is still very popular in Japan. As part of Force Five in the US there was some limited exposure to English-speaking countries and in Europe.

Popy and Mattel

As with other popular anime and tokusatsu series, Popy and other manufacturers produced a plethora of toys related to Gaiking, eventually leading to a Mattel licensing deal as Shogun Warrior toys. I think we were pretty lucky to get so many Gaiking toys from Mattel - can you imagine actually getting the jumbo Daiku Maryu though?

Of the Popy toys that made it into the Shogun Warriors toys:

• Gaiking Deluxe Jumbo Machinder - Mattel #2441 Gaiking (jumbo)
  
• Popy GA-51 Sky Devilsaur Gaiking (wide shoulder version) - Mattel Shogun Two-in-One #2728 Gaiking
• Popy (unknown) Gaiking mini - Mattel Shogun Collector's #2514 Gaiking
• Popy Bazoler - Mattel Shogun Action Vehicle #2690 Bazoler
• Popy Nessar - Mattel Shogun Action Vehicle #2691 Nessar
• Popy Kondar - Mattel Shogun Action Vehicle #2693 Kondar
• Popy Daiku Maryu - Mattel Shogun Action Vehicle #2694 Kargosaur
  

All Mattel images and captions are copyright Mattel, all Popy, Banpresto, Unifive or Yutaka images and captions are copyright Popy/Bandai, images captured from various video segments are copyright Toei or other parties and used without permission. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2023 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton, by clicking here.