I know next to zero about Gatchaman. My mate used to collect Battle of the Planets and I guess they're related.
Part of a recent car boot bundle of cheap tackle were these two Japanese die-casts, which I've ID'd as a Jun motorbike and a Condor Attacker, mainly because that's what it says on them! 😂
Are these toys that you know?
A cool find. Yes these are Popy (a part of Bandai) diecast toys that made it to the UK in 1980. I had them all - I think they were reasonably cheap at the time. They were marketed as 'As seen on the BBC series Battle of the Planets' but the odd thing was they were from the 1978 series 'Gatchaman II' and the 1980 'Gatchaman Fighter' whereas 'Battle of the Planets' was a redubbed (plus some new dodgy animation) of the original 1972-74 series 'Gatchaman'. The original series toys were no longer being made by the end of the 70s when the BBC showed the series, so we got these newer ones we'd never seen on the show. Very confusing for kids so not sure how well they sold. In Europe they did get the sequel TV shows on TV so kids over there would understand what they were. The toys were -
ReplyDeleteFrom Gatchaman II - New God Phoenix (the main aircraft/spaceship); G1 Eagle Sharp jet; G2 Condor Attacker car;;G3 Motorsky bike; G4 Swallow Helicopter; G5 Hound Tank.
From Gatchaman Fighter - just the GatchaSpartan - but that split into 5 separate vehicles.
Fascinating Yorkie. Really. Stuff I just don't know. I'm amazed that these exotic series were on telly, when we only had 3 channels. Trouble is, by 1980, I'd stopped watching TV. I was in a local band and my head was filled with rock!
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