Moero Robocon DX Slotroid 01 Robocon Gallery

"Ganbare, Robocon!"

It's been a while since we had the opportunity to share a gallery of a vintage release with you. But you may recall that for last years' Toku Toy Box giveaway, we posted galleries of the final 2 leads of the Metal Heroes franchise, Kabutack & Robotack! I mentioned this back then, but truth be told the technical final metal hero was the lead of the following years' series, Moero Robocon.

A reboot of the 1974 classic children's series Ganbare Robocon, Moero followed the adventures of Robocon, a curious robot with an interest in humans. from the Gantsu Academy. Generally adventurous but a bit absent minded & clumsy, Robocon tended to find himself in incredible situations that often involved the other robotic denizens of town. It was only officially labeled a Metal Hero series after Super Hero Taisen Z prompted Toei to release a timeline of the franchise. But in retrospect, it makes a ridiculous amount of sense. Robocon aired the week following the finale of Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack (funny enough 1 week before the premiere of Kamen Rider Kuuga). Robocon was also very much in the spirit of Kabutack & Robotack design wise with the more child friendly and cartoonish characters. The character was also featured prominently in the Double Heroes Stage Shows of the time, which generally only featured Toei Heroes from the big 3 franchises. In any case that's how I see the series my self these days as well. The final Metal Hero.

Read Below for the review of this figure.


Packaging
Robocon comes in a pretty fun box that's really kind of bright and garrish, but I really dig it. I feel like packaging for "gimmick line" tokusatsu toys these days isn't really terribly interesting. So when I take a look at vintage releases, I always yearn for a return to the fun and kind of whacky packaging of those days. In any case Robocon like the previous Robotack line, comes packaged in a foam tray. You'll need to dust him pretty well to get the foam particles off him, my only real complaint.

Main Figure
DX Robocon is a bit of an odd release. Basically he's a giant accessory for another figure released in his toyline, DX Gantsu Sensei. Which you'll see in some photos below. Each of the Slotroids from Robocon featured a rectangular port on their backs which could link up to DX Gantsu Sensei's right arm. Switches depressed on either end of the gimmick would then provide readouts through Ganstu's chest LCD screen. The gimmick basically functions like a minigame using the character's stats.

Robocon himself actually has his own LCD screen built in underneath his chest flap with a few buttons to interact with this minigame. The only reason i haven't photographed the readouts is that it's actually quite difficult to photograph each screen as it moves along rather quickly. There's not much to it really if you don't understand Japanese either. The instructions however do include a full breakdown of the images and messages he can display so I've included pictures of those. But the physical part of the gimmick pictured below gets the point across well enough.

Now Robocon also features some mostly useless articulation for his robot mode. We get swivel fists, rotating shoulders, and back/forth hips with rotating feet which are by-products of a transformation. You can't get much use out of these joints in robot mode but it's serviceable enough for a toy of this age. But Robocon has what could generously be termed a "super mode". Unlike his predecessors Robotack & Kabutack rather than transforming from a cute SD style robot into a more proportioned fighter, he transforms into a kind of silly 4-wheeled vehicle. Simply rotate the feet backwards and the legs back up behind the torso, then rotate the front wheels down from under the main bot and you're done. This goofy little mode may not win you over, but it's fun enough that I can get behind it. Robocon does techincaly have a proper super mode, but it's really only achievable with the aid of his tiny robotic friend Robopuru. You can see the tiny yellow Robopuru featured in the last 2 photos of this gallery, he has a pull back motor gimmick.

As I've said before I'm a pretty big fan of obscure and vintage tokusatsu in general, so while DX Robocon won't greatly excite you, and isn't terribly complex, I find it to be pretty good fun for the affordable prices it commands. Frankly the entire Robocon toyline is ridiculously cheap. Most of the slotroids sell for $1500 yen or less on auction sites like Yahoo Japan.

Accessories
Robocon doesn't actually include any physical items as accessories. This line, much like the 2 before it, featured figures that were more or less complete already, or included accessories for further use with other figures, or could even swap parts like in Robotack. In Robocon's case the only additional item he came with was a label sheet of extra hearts. There's already one painted on his lower abdomen but these extras can be helpful if, like mine, they had poorly applied paint from the factory.

Final Thoughts
The Moero Robocon toyline is still a rather basic one. Focusing more on the interactive electronic gimmick than anything else, the toys themselves don't do much. However DX Slotroid Robocon does have an interesting if simplistic transformation that saves him from his other gimmickry. As a fan of Metal Heroes and obscure toku in general, I still love the overall aesthetic of this line. If you enjoyed this gallery I'd be more than happy to feature more Robocon figures down the road. Just sound off in the comments!

He’s adorable