Takemi

 

Takemi Bull Caesar
Takemi (タケミ) manufactured toys until the early 80's, for the most part refraining from marketing outside of Japan (why you don't see them as a viable manufacturer outside of Japan). Takemi is a bit of a red-headed stepchild when compared with other toy manufacturers of the time - most of the licenses were less desirable than those snagged up by Popy/Bandai and others. Also, their build quality and design was a bit questionable, especially in their metal lines (they produced a chogokin clone they called "Bigger-gokin" or "takemika" that were produced with very simple (some might say naive) sculpts and limited articulation). 

 Included in Takemi's licensing properties, we see Machine Blaster, Battle Hawk, Red Tiger, Gingaizer and Tekkaman (Nakajima was the primary license holder but somehow Takemi made a few toys as a secondary licensor). 

Perhaps the oddest and rarest of Takemi Jumbo Machinder toys are those made for Gingaiser:

  • Takemi Chogattai Majutsu Robo Gingaiser GranFighter Galaxy - this is about 15 inches tall with a red body and black and red limbs. The front of the shoulders have wheels and the feet bend backwards to expose wheels, presumably so the figure could roll on his stomach. There's a missile firing feature in his belly and a large sticker (sort of an upside-down heart with Japanese text) on his chest. I've only see this figure listed without arms a few times on Yahoo Japan, usually the starting price is very high so there aren't any bids. I've seen this on a styro insert - appears to come with a trailer of some sort (I think the toy is supposed to be an 18-wheeler type arrangement)

For Jumbo Machinder collecting purposes, the most  most common Takemi toys are the Machine Blaster toys based on the 1977 show "Blocker Army IV Machine Blaster"- these are more appropriately "Mini-Machinders" as they are only about 15 inches tall. There's also a target game that is often collected by JM collectors based on the same Boss Palder sculpt:

  • Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster No 1 Robocles
  • Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster No 2 Bull Caesar
  • Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster No 3 Sandaioh
  • Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster No 4 Boss Palder
  • Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster Boss Palder Target Game

The Machine Blaster toys are interesting as they are fairly well made and usually come with a missile firing feature, firing fists and a handheld weapon or two. They also look great when displayed next to the Italian Mattel Astrobots (same characters but in Mattel's case based on reused Mattel molds). 

Finally, as already mentioned Takemi also had a secondary license to Tekkaman and somehow made Blue Earth

  • Space Knight Tekkaman Blue Earth - while most of the parts to this large spaceship toy are made of hard plastic, there are a few softer plastic bits - along with the general size it's usually also collected by JM collectors.

All Mattel images and captions are copyright Mattel; all Popy images and captions are copyright Takemi, Popy/Bandai; all Funko, Super7 or Toynami images and captions are copyright by their respective license holders and as with the previous, used without permission. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2022 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton, by clicking here.

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