Glossaly DX!

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ABS - Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene. A high quality plastic used when strength, detail, and paintability are important. See the article Plastics! for more info.

ABiA - "Aura Battler in Action." See the listing for MSiA

ARK - A tiny Japanese company that produced diecast monster toys under the brand name of "Arklon." These toys also saw release in America in the early 1980s. For more detailed information, also see the article The Lost Ark.

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BANDAI - Currently Japan's largest toy company, Bandai was the parent company of Popy Toy, the firm that singlehandedly created the robot-character toy market. Bandai re-absorbed Popy Toy in the early 1980s. Companies now part of the Bandai conglomerate of corporations include Uni-Five and Banpresto. (Bandai management refers to these last two firms as "the Banpresto Group.")

BANPRESTO - Banpresto, a spin-off of Bandai, is the main supplier of prizes for the numerous games of chance that fill Japanese video-game arcades. They also produce videogame software based on Bandai's character licenses for both arcade cabinets and home systems.

BIG SCALE - A moniker designed to "one up" the DX designation. Big Scale toys are usually impressively large. The most common Big Scale toys are the transport vehicles designed for DX Super Sentai toys. See DX and ST.

BRAVE - Designating a set of loosely related Sunrise animated television series (starting from 1990), each generating a line of toys sold by Takara. The Brave robots' character design was an attempt to leverage the waning success of the Transformers, and return to the time-tested Hero Robot formula. Brave robots are an amalgamation of Super Sentai robot, Transformer, and Hero Robot design. Many Transformer toys were recycled as Brave merchandise. Every Brave robot was designed by original Gundam designer Kunio Ookawara, which explains the similarities in design.

BULLMARK - A now-defunct Japanese toy company. Sometimes referred to only as "Bull," Bullmark was the dominant Japanese toy company of the mid-1960s. Their vinyl toys of characters from the Godzilla, Ultraman, and other live-action series are considered to be classics and are highly collectible. Bullmark also produced several series of diecast monsters and robots in the 1970s. Their name comes from the fact that their trademark was a bull. For more information about their diecast toys, also refer to the article Raging Bullmark.

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CHARACTER TOYS - the generic name for all toys based on previously-created, pre-existing characters. More specifically, "character toys" refer to the merchandising of characters from comic books, movies, and television shows. Chogokin, Jumbo Machinders, and many other collectible Japanese robot toys from the 1970s and 1980s are character toys.

CHEAP TOY - Toys of inferior quality and low price. Cheap toys are often found for sale in Japanese supermarkets and train station kiosks.

CHOGOKIN - Japanese for "Super Alloy." Originally coined by animator Nagai Go as a gimmick for his Mazinger Z series, "chogokin" was co-opted by Popy Toy of Japan for use as a brand name. In general use, it refers to most diecast metal robot character toys. More specifically it is the exclusive brand name for robot character toys produced by Popy Toy and Bandai, Popy's parent company. The success of the chogokin toy line spawned a host of competitors selling diecast character products under a variety of similar names, including but not limited to "Bigger Gokin," "Arklon," "Super Gokin," "Zinclon," and many others. Most, if not all, of these diecast toys were made from a zinc alloy.

CHO SHIN GOKIN/ SHIN GOKIN - "Super New Alloy/ New Alloy." Uni-Five's diecast toy line, starting from 1999.

CRANE GAME TOY - See UFO CATCHER.

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DETENT - Also known as a "click-stop" or less correctly as a "rachet", these are the momentary stops you feel when exercising the joints in some toys. Possibly a sign of quality, detented joints may be used to force a toy to hold a pose, to insure symmetry in a pose, or to create tactile feedback during play. Ironically, in a some cases, detents are also a cheap mechanical substitute for properly designed friction joints, which require close tolerances, and high quality control.

DIACLONE - An extension of the Takara Microman line, Diaclone toys consisted of vehicles that could transform into robots. These toys formed the basis of the original "Transformer" toys in the USA. Although the toys came to be sold with the help of a highly-popular American animated series, the toys were originally created without any pre-existing characters in mind. See also MICROMAN.

DIECASTING - A process wherein a molten metal (often a zinc alloy) is poured into molds ("dies") to form ("cast") objects. Hot Wheels toy cars, chogokin, and metal Shogun Warrior toys are all examples of diecast products.

DX - A Japanese abbreviation of the English word "deluxe."

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ELDORAN - Loosely related set of animated series similar to the Brave series, but targeting an even younger demographic. Both were produced by Sunrise. Whereas the Brave series mainly featured combining vehicles, Eldoran centered on combining robotic animals. Eldoran toys were sold by Tomy. See BRAVE.

ETERNAL HEROES/ ETARNAL HEROES - Bandai's first major, coordinated attempt to revive and re-issue the classic Super Robot-era characters in the early 80s. Bandai re-released several older toys under this label, including the Mazinger Z and Kamen Rider diecasts. The original customers of these toys, now older and financially independent, created a market for a character revival that caused a still ongoing marketing bonanza. See SOUL OF.

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GASHAPON - Small toys found in round plastic capsules and sold through vending machines. Very similar to the vending machine trinkets found at western supermarkets, but of much, much higher quality. The name is an onomatopeia of the noise made by the vending machines: "gasha gasha."

GANGU - "Toy." Synonymous with OMOCHA.

GATTAI - "Combination." Process in which individual components (vehicles, robots) form a larger entitity (bigger robot, or space ship). e.g. Combattra and Voltes V (and all the 'Voltrons') are "Gattai" robots.

GODAIKIN - When Bandai of America decided to try selling DX chogokin in the USA, they came up with this brand name. Godaikin robot toys were widely available in independent toy stores in America in the 1980s. They often ended up on mark-down racks and cut-out bins.

GOKIN - literally, "alloy." Shorthand to describe all the die-cast science fiction toys we know and love. See also CHOGOKIN.

GUNDAM - Referring generically to the Gundam franchise, to any "Gundam" robot, or to the original 1979 Gundam robot. The "Real Robot" genre was unwittingly created in 1979 by the anime "Mobile Suit Gundam". This launched an animation, fiction, marketing, and cultural franchise in Japan that is still very strong today. The popularity of Gundam exceeds or is comparable to other major science fiction niches in Japan. See REAL ROBOT.

GUN-PRA - Japanese contraction of "Gundam Plastic." Used to describe any Gundam plastic model kit. Not to be confused with true Gundam toys.

GUTS POSE - The heroic poses certain characters are famous for, and are often depicted in.

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H.C.M. - "High Complete Models." A line of high quality mecha/real robot toys released by Bandai in the mid to late 80s. These were aimed at adult fans too busy or skill-less to build model kits. Featuring incredible detail and packaged in beautiful, archive-quality silver boxes, H.C.M.s are considered the apex of 80's robot toys. A small number of H.C.M.s (mostly Gundams) were re-released in the late 90s. The rest are still grails for most collectors. For a full listing, check out the H.C.M. entry in the Data Files.

HERO ROBOTS - [see also REAL ROBOTS] Exemplified by "Mazinger Z / Tranzor Z," hero robots are huge, invulnerable robots piloted by one or more humans. Their design and exploits often violate every law of physics. Also known as SUPER ROBOTS.

HENKEI - "Mechanical transformation." Term used to describe a robot's transformation. Not to be confused with HENSHIN.

HENSHIN - "Living transformation." Term used to describe the process a Tokusatsu character undergoes to become a super hero. e.g. when Hayato becomes Ultraman, he "henshin"s. See also HENKEI.

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INJECTION MOLDING - A process wherein molten plastic is injected under pressure into a mold. Plastic model kits are but one example of a product produced by this extremely widespread process. See the article Plastics! for more info.

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JUMBO MACHINE - A trademark of Uni-Five. "Jumbo Machine" is a play off the word "Jumbo Machinder," and refers to Uni-Five reproductions of Jumbo Machinder toys. (As of this writing, these include Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Garada K-7, and Gaiking.) See also UNI-FIVE and JUMBO MACHINDER.

JUMBO MACHINDER - A trademark of Popy Toy, in daily usage Jumbo Machinder has come to mean all large-size robot and monster toys roto molded out of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. See the article Plastics! for more info on roto molding. Generally about 24" in height, several of these toys were sold in the USA in the late 1970s as "Shogun Warriors." After Popy's success with the Jumbo Machinder series, several other Japanese companies began producing Jumbo toys as well. Although only a handful were released in the United States, the current total of separate characters produced is somewhere in the 70s.

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KADOU-SENSHI - "Fully articulated warrior." The name of Bandai's current line of highly poseable, Chogokin Gundam toys. The term is a word-play on Gundam's Japanese title, "Kidou Senshi Gandamu." "Kidou Senshi" literally means "mobile warrior" but is interpreted as the more familiar "Mobile Suit." The Kadou Senshi line is a reaction against the trend of Gundam revisionism; the toys are designed to remain as true as possible to the original designs.

KAIJU - Japanese for "monster," usually of the giant variety. ("Dai-kaiju" is literally "giant monster.")

KONG TONG TOWN - Founded in 1998, Kong Tong Town was a direct-sales spin-off of Bandai. They sold nostalgic and limited-edition Bandai, Banpresto, and Uni-Five toys, but went out of business in early 2000.

KUBRICK - Fueled by the Japanese interest in all things Lego and Playmobile, Medicom began its own line of little modular people in 1999. This abstract 4" figure line features characters from innumerable licenses, from Mazinger Z to Planet of the Apes. The word, Kubrick, can be translated as "Nine Bricks," and a base Kubrick does indeed consist of nine pieces. This line has no relation to the late, great film director.

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MAGNEMO - An innovative line of toys created by Takara in the mid 70s. The toys featured removable limbs and parts connected with magnetic ball joints. Takara originally used Magnemo in toys based on licensed characters like Jeeg and Ga-keen, but later introduced the technology to its own Microman line. Magnemo made its way westward in the form of Micronauts Baron Karza and Force Commander; Mego even licensed the technology for a line of magnetic Marvel superheroes. In the late 90s, Takara revived Magnemo for its Microman 99 line. There are two sizes of Magnemo toys-- Magnemo 8 and Magnemo 11. The numbers designate (in millimeters) the size of the ball joints.

MECHA - See the listing for REAL ROBOTS.

MEDICOM - Originally a small garage company funded by Takara, Medicom gained fame in the early 90's by aquiring old Tokusatsu licenses and releasing high quality 12" articulated and clothed collector dolls. In recent years, Medicom has grown to become one of the major players in the Japanese toy market, expanding to a new 8" doll line, vinyls, and plastic electronic robot toys. They are also notorious for unleashing Kubricks into the world.

MIB - "Mint in box."

MICROMAN - Takara Co.'s brand name for their extremely successful line of tiny, humanoid, highly-articulated figure toys and accessories. these toys were sold in America in the late 1970s as "Micronauts." They are original toys, and were not based on pre-existing characters. Microman was developed from an even earlier Takara toy line called "Henshin Cyborg."

MIRACLE HOUSE - Subsidiary of second tier model kit manufacturer Aoshima. Launched into the limelight in 2000 with the release of the impressive, diecast "Shin Seiki Gokin" Shin Getta One.

MSiA - "Mobile Suit in Action." A very successful line of low-priced, articulated 4.5" PVC Gundam action figures designed and produced by Bandai Hong Kong, LLC. The ever-expanding line currently includes robots from the original Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Turn A, and Wing. There are also notable differences between Hong Kong and Japanese editions of these toys. Bandai of America has also released Wing Gundam action figures domestically. These lack the finish and quality control of their more expensive Japanese and HK cousins, and should not be considered "true" MSiAs. By late 2000, the In Action line expanded to included Walker Machines from Xabungle (WMiA), Aura Battlers from Dunbine (ABiA), as well as classic Super Robots (SRiA).

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NAKAJIMA - A now-defunct competitor of Popy in the 1970s. Their trademark was a turtle. For more detailed information, also see the article Nakajima Die-Cast.

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OMOCHA - "Toy." Synonymous with GANGU.

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PET - Polyethylene Terephthalate. A type of ethylene plastic widely used for making shampoo bottles and Jumbo Machinders. See the article Plastics! for more info.

PLASTIC - A core material in Japanese toy making. See the article Plastics! for more info.

PLEX - In recent years, the firm responsible for much of the Bandai's toy concept, design, and engineering work -- especially tokusatsu toys related to Toei-produced programming.

POPINIKA/ POPYNICA - A word made by combining "Popy" with the Japanese spelling of the word "Mini-Car." (Mini-Car is the Japanese name for "hot wheels" or "matchbox"-style car toys.) Popinika are representations of the cars, motorcycles, rockets, aircraft, and other vehicles used by animated and live-action characters in their respective shows. The release of the first popinika predates the first Chogokin by several months

POPLAR - A tiny, defunct toy company that seems to have been operating in partnership with Clover. Poplar produced toys for the Srungle and Acrobunch animated series. See also the exciting Srungle Data File.

POPY - A company spun-off of Bandai in 1972 specifically to exploit the emerging market for toys made from characters licensed from animated and live-action childrens shows. In fact, Popy singlehandedly created and dominated the market until it began to falter in the late 1970s. Popy was absorbed by Bandai in the early 1980s. See also CHOGOKIN.

POWER UP - The notion of a piece of equipment moving from a less powerful state to a more powerful state, often illustrated in Japanese robot fiction. This is usually accomplished by the addition of equipment, or via transformation.

PRIZE TOY - Generic name for all UFO Catcher, Crane Game, and Gashapon toys. All are toys aquired through games of skill or luck.

PVC - Poly Vinyl Chloride. A type of soft plastic. Mainly used for making Godzilla, Ultraman, and other monster toys, but also used for robot toys as well. See the article Plastics! for more info.

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REAL ROBOTS - A term coined to mean animated robots that are treated as limited (and often disposable) tools rather than invulnerable, god-like superheroes. The "real robot" genre started in 1979 with "Mobile Suit Gundam." Also known as MECHA. See also HERO ROBOTS.

ROCKET PUNCH - A cliched robot gimmick involving some part of the lower arm detaching to become a self propelled weapon. The rocket punch was first seen in Mazinger Z.

ROTATIONAL MOLDING - A process wherein molten plastic is injected into a mold and spun at high speed to press the material against the walls of the mold. Jumbo Machinders are one type of toy made with this "roto" molding. See the article Plastics! for more info.

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SAKURA - A long-dead, tiny Japanese company that produced a handful of plastic and diecast toys. For more detailed information, refer to the article Sakura's Electric Gokin.

SD/ SUPER DEFORMED - The common Japanese trend of "cute-ifying" an existing character by enlarging the head and shrinking the limbs. "SD" is actually a Bandai trademark, so other companies have to use other catchphrases. CB is the most common alternative; it is a contraction of "chibi," meaning "mini" in Japanese.

SENTAI - The Japanese word for "battle team," Sentai has generally come to mean a genre of live-action television shows wherein a group of people use martial arts and giant robots to fight monsters. See SUPER SENTAI.

SEVEN - A defunct Japanese toy company that made a name for itself by supplying small, extremely cheap toys to train stations, supermarkets, and the like.

SHOGUN WARRIORS - One of the very first attempts to import foreign character toys for an American audience, "Shogun Warriors" became the all-encompassing brand name for the diecast and plastic robot toys imported by Mattel from Japanese company Popy in the late 1970s. Mattel picked a handful of the most successful toys from the Popy "Chogokin" and "Jumbo Machinder" series and repackaged them for American consumers, often with new names and simplified decorations.

SOUL OF - Bandai's second major, coordinated attempt to revive and re-issue the classic Super Robot-era characters. In 1997, Bandai released the first "Soul of Chogokin" toy, the GX-01 Mazinger Z. These are high-quality, high-priced toys meant to appeal to collectors. The designers went to the greatest lengths ever seen in Japanese toy design to faithfully reproduce all the gimmicks that the character is known for. Bandai went on to release a "Soul of Popynica" line based on non-robot designs. Adopted as an informal term to describe any revisionist collector toyline-- e.g. Uni-five's Shin Gokin line is informally considered "Soul of Takatoku." See also ETERNAL HEROES.

SRiA - "Super Robot in Action." See the listing for MSiA

ST - A Japanese abbreviation of the English word "standard." Not to be confused with a generic ST mark found on most Japanese toy boxes (and on ToyboxDX merchandise). That mark just means "Safety Tested."

SUPER ROBOTS - "Super Robot" typically refers to any large, ficticious Japanese robot. Most agree that this tradition started with the mainstream Mazinga Z, although some would argue it all started years earlier with ground-breaking Tetsujin-28. The robots may be animated (Gaiking) or live action (Sun Vulcan), large (Ideon), human-scale (Votoms), or small (Lightan). Such robots are usually divided into two families, Hero Robots and Real Robots. Typically, robots that have only appeared in print or in toy form are not referred to as Super Robots. Most fans use the term "Super Robot" to refer to the characters generated in the golden age of Japanese animated robots, running from about 1971 to about 1983. See HERO ROBOTS and REAL ROBOTS.

SUPER SENTAI - Toei's annual tokusatsu/sentai television offering, beginning with Battle Fever J (1979). Toys from this series are produced by Bandai/Popy. Often, chogokin toys are created from the hero's robots and equipment, while vinyl figures are created from the monster du jour. Note that "Super Sentai" is merely a specific type of the broader "sentai" category. See SENTAI.

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TAKARA - Japanese production company notable for the production of numerous robot toys, including Henshin Cyborg, Microman, Dougram, VOTOMS, and Beast Wars. In the past, Takara has served as manufacturers for various US toy lines, including MEGO's Micronauts and Hasbro's Transformers.

TAKATOKU TOYS - Defunct. Takatoku Toys is most well-known for their Macross Valkyrie toys, although they produced many other types of robot toys. Their diecast toys were known as "Z-Gokin." They went out of business in 1983. See the exhaustive Takatoku article in the Data Files.

TAKEMI - A defunct competitor of Popy in the 1970s. They are mainly known for their Machine Blaster series of robot toys. Their diecast robot toys were sold under the "Bigger Gokin." See also Takemi's Big-Ass Gokin.

TOKUSATSU - Literally, "Special Photography." General term for all Japanese live-action science fiction. I.e. Ultraman, Kamen Rider, etc. Sentai is a subgenre of Tokusatsu.

TRAIN STATION TOYS - A toy, usually extremely cheap and blister-packed on a hanger card, packaged specifically for sale at train-station kiosks, supermarkets, or the like. They were intended as "impulse buys." Many of the early Popinika vehicles were sold this way.

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UFO CATCHER - A trademark of Sega, "UFO Catcher" has come to generally mean any claw-machine type game of chance. The user deposits a coin, maneuvers a claw mechanism, and attempts to grab a prize (often a character-related toy.) The name is derived from the fact that the claw mechanism has a UFO-like shape riding atop it. Supplying UFO Catchers is a big business in Japan. UFO Catcher prizes are generally larger and more complicated than the similar Gashapon toys. See GASHAPON.

UNI-FIVE - As of this writing, the latest spin-off company of Bandai. Uni-Five is a part of the Banpresto Group. They are most well known for their reproduction of several Jumbo Machinder toys. As of late 1999, Uni-Five has also expanded into the field of die-cast toys and has released high-quality versions of old Takatoku licenses. See also JUMBO MACHINE, KONG TONG TOWN, and CHO SHIN GOKIN.

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VICTORA - Also known as "Victola" and "Victorer," Victora was a small Bandai spin-off company dedicated to selling very cheap versions of Popy character toys. (They were created as a seperate entity so as not to sully Popy's name, which was synonymous with quality toy-engineering, with the cheap nature of the toys.) For more info, check out the Victora article in the Data Files.

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WMiA - "Walker Machine in Action." See the listing for MSiA

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YONEZAWA - A long-since-departed Japanese toy company known as a major producer of tin robots in the '60s, and a not-so-major producer of sleazy diecast robots in the '70s. (They continued making toys well into the '80s as well.) For more info, check out the Yonezawa article in the Data Files.

YUJIN - A subsidiary of Tomy. Mainly a manufacturer of Gashapon and UFO Catcher toys, it shares many of Takara's licenses.

YUTAKA - Another Bandai spin-off. Now infamous as makers of low-priced, usually low-quality train station toys. They did however release a die-cast, combining Getta Go toy in the early nineties.

YUUSHA - Meaning "brave", the title of several heroes, including Raideen (1975). Also refers to a specific line of animation. See BRAVE.

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