Giant Robot Review: Bird Knight Griffin Thingie Non-Transforming Transformer

This time, I'm coming back with a feature I had debated whether continue at all after introducing Retrobots Review. I decided to bring it back because the "giant robot" is a concept that goes beyond time. The toys that established the genre (especially in the 1980s) might be "retro" now, but they are still in the same tradition as much later items. And few examples are more egregious than the specimen under consideration here. Here's more pics with the Truckstop Queen, her boyfriend Ken and the Lido army guy.

I picked up this guy very early this year, and this time around I had no trouble at all finding a provenance. He had very bad wear on his various points of articulation, a problem that would loom very large in subsequent investigations, but evidently intact and clearly robust in overall construction. The toy was made in 1984 by a company called Zima (no apparent relation), and by some accounts sold through Sears. It was given the name Transposer, and evidently sold in enough numbers that specimens still in the box can be found in the $20-50 range. Photos show that it was sold two different color schemes, with further evidence of one other bot sold in Japan.

Now, so far this may seem an unremarkable 1980s bot, with a Shogun Warriors influence that would have been a bit retro even then. But this was sold as a transforming toy, at the same time Transformers and Gobots were hitting US markets, and that is where things get weird and ugly. To start with, there is a strange trapdoor in the back to move the head, along with a pair of wings that get in the way even more than might be expected. (These were the parts where the joints were completely shot.) If you fiddle just right, the knight's head drops out of sight and the figure becomes a kind of bird-headed hunchback.

I have no idea what this bit is for.

"Him belong dead."

But this is clearly just preparation for a greater transformation, and that is where even pics of the original box won't help. The knees are double-jointed, while the feet fold, so the figure can drop into a pose that could pass as a griffin.

But, you are surely saying, this can't really be it? Surely, there is something more? Well, even the box doesn't show an intended final "alt mode", let alone how to get there. However, if you finagle some more, you can get the thing to rest on its feet instead of dragging its knuckles. This is what I have to show for it.

Is that... doing a Catwoman dance???

And this is where I gave up when I got this thing and am giving up now. If I can't figure out how to turn it into something that looks like anything, it's because the people who made it didn't know either.  People made fun of the "G1" Transformers then and now, they ridiculed the Gobots even worse, but this makes the lousiest knockoffs of the 1990s look downright functional. The only good that can come out of this is that it shows just how much creativity and thought went into the transforming bots that we remember. But it's still going back on my shelves, because a robot space knight with wings is still pretty cool.

For the source/ links, here's a web forum with as much information and images as I could find.

As a bonus, here's an excellent Shogun Warriors page at Toys You Had.

Plus, my original Giant Robot Review and Retrobots Revisited parts 1 and 2.