Getter Robo

The Getter Robo franchise started as the brainchild of Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa (manga illustrator) and introduced the concept of vehicles that could combine to form a giant robot. Each vehicle had a separate human pilot and depending on the configuration would produce a different giant robot. The pilot sort of reflected the vehicles (short fat guy driving the tank) which seems to be a common thread in Japanese manga and anime.

Getter Robo

• Getter Robo 1 is the Eagle concept designed for flight agility (the cape I guess). This configuration was armed with a big axe for combat.
  
• Getter Robo 2 is the Jaguar concept designed for ground combat, configured with a giant claw hand on one side and a huge drill on the other.
• Getter Robo 3 is the Bear concept designed for marine combat. Instead of legs the bottom below the waist is basically a tank that could blast foes from shoulder-mounted cannons.

Getter Robo G

Getter Robo G was the second of Go Nagai's Getter series and the successor to Getter Robo. In the original series Getter Robo would reconfigure into three different robots by coming apart and recombining in specific configurations to combat whatever the menace was at the time. Each of the three parts were piloted by a teenager - the series ends with the death of one of the teens, but continues in Getta Robo G. 

• Getter Dragun is the land combat version that uses and axe to great effectiveness. Note that this is an evolution of Getter Robo 1 continuing with the Axe as the primary weapon. The configuration was simply called "Dragun" as a Shogun Warrior and was one of the original three "keystone" figures released by Mattel (shows up as a jumbo machinder, action figure, collector figure and in much of the print literature)
  
• Getta Liger is the evolution of Getter Robo 2's Jaguar concept replacing the drill/claw with a "star" fists that could shoot missiles (the star would reverse and act as a drill or saw). This configuration was called "Raider" as a Shogun Warrior (shows up as an action figure only)
  
• Getta Poseidon is the marine combat version with tank treads making up the shins that fold down so the robot can bulldoze over obstacles. This updated configuration would convert more to a standing robot when needed or a tank when the going got tough. It was called simply "Poseidon" as a Shogun warrior an was sold as an action figure only.

Getter Robo Go

Getter Robo Go was a much later successor to Getter Robo and Getter Robo G that first appeared in Japan in 1991. It was seen in limited markets as "Venger Robo." Getter Robo Go released sometime after the Shogun Warriors so there is no equivalent US toy as part of the Mattel toyline.

 

John's Notes

The Getter Robo franchise includes many crossovers and restarts through today. To me the robot configurations and episode plots are more a rehash of Mazinger Z/Great Mazinger rather than the original Getter Robo series.

Popy and Mattel

As with other popular anime and tokusatsu series, Popy and other manufacturers produced a plethora of toys related to Getter Robo, eventually leading to a Mattel licensing deal as Shogun Warrior toys. For some reason Mattel only licensed Dragun from Getter Robo G as a jumbo machinder. We did manage to get each of the chogokin ST figures as part of the Shogun Warriors Action Figures line

• Popy Getter Robo G Dragun Jumbo Machinder - Mattel #9858 Dragun (jumbo)

• Popy GA-10 Getter Dragun - Mattel #2106 Die-Cast Metal Dragun
• Popy GA-11 Getter Lyger - Mattel #2105 Die-Cast Metal Raider
• Popy GA-12 Getter Poseidon - Mattel #2104 Die-Cast Metal Poseidon 
• Popy (unknown) mini - Mattel Shogun Collector's #2515 Dragun
• Popy (unknown) mini - Mattel Shogun Collector's #2513 Poseidon
  

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