Introducing R.O.C.K. Reviews!

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What’s up, Realm? Welcome to R.O.C.K. reviews. This is TJ a.k.a. Kuma Style, and I’m going to be doing occasional articles here focusing on mecha toys, swag, and series that aren’t Transformers or spinoffs. From the Brave collection to Mazinger, I’m here to talk about (and possibly introduce some of you all to) a lot of the Super and Real Robot series I collect and enjoy watching. This is a great community and I’m excited to contribute a bit.

I think a good place to start( for intro purposes) is by defining what Super and Real Robots are. Both are robots featured in Japanese animation and comics (manga). “Super” robots are normally robots “found” by the antagonists and have more mythical origins (i.e. “Mazinger Z” or “Gurren Lagann”) while “Real” robots are built by humans for purposes of war (i.e. “Mobile Suit Gundam” or “Macross”). Both of these sub genres feature extremely large mecha and larger-than-life scenarios.

In terms of toys, there are a wide variety of products from a wide variety of companies. I collect mostly diecast (“gokin”) mecha products, and the main companies that I collect are Sentinel, Bandai, and Art Storm. Note that Bandai calls their diecast products “Chogokin” (a term derived from “Mazinger Z”) meaning “Super Alloy.” It’s a term that Bandai coined and copyrighted for use with their older “popy” diecast pieces and have kept using through current lines. Bandai’s lines such as “Soul of Chogokin,” “Metal Build,” and “Super Robot Chogokin” focus more on being very faithful to the designs of the original anime/manga and toys while companies like Sentinel and Fewture models tend to take more artistic liberties with the designs of their products.

It needs to be noted that not all mecha are under these two genres and not all mecha toys are diecast. All things robots are mecha, even Transformers. I’ll be doing all kinds of stuff in these articles but wanted to highlight a couple of things that will be focused on more than others. Really looking forward to getting this going with you guys and hopefully you enjoy it too. Here are a few pics from some of the toylines I’ll be looking at.

Pictured: Fewture EX Gokin Energer 1969

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Pictured: Max Gokin Godannar

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Pictured: Volks Variable Ryu Ko Oh

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Pictured: Soul of Chogokin Tobikage

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Recognize any of them? Anything in particular you want to see me go over? Either let me know in the comments or shoot me an email!

Kuma

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