Shogun Warriors

Shogun Warriors line from mattel

The Shogun Warriors were one of Mattel's most successful lines in the 1970's, much like the Mego Micronauts, they were licensed from a Japanese Company (Popy) and were actually a series of toys called "Jumbo Machinders" that were based on several animated and live action series from Japan. The Robot designs proved to be so cool that they sold themselves in North America without a tv tie in.

The four main Machinders, Gaiking, Raydeen, Mazinga and Daimos went through a few variations over the years and are still, highly collectible.

The lower cost 3" Shogun Warriors were all I ever saw as a kid, these were knocked off in the early eighties and rereleased. The Leopoldan figure (pictured with Mega Dragon) is actually the Robot from the Japanese Spider-Man TV series, note his web pattern.

I think every kid I knew wanted this Godzilla when they first saw it on TV, eventhough Mattel had made some fundemental changes to the original Japanese version (which actually looked like Godzilla) they were correct in the assumption that kids would want it any way. Who can forget the awesome launching fist and flicking tounge?.

Whatever gaffes Mattel made with Godzilla, they made for with Rodan which was not taken from a Japanese base. Rodan is a tough cookie to find mostly because he's desirable in Japan. I had one of these over my dresser in high school, it had sunglasses on and a smoke in it's mouth, I miss it.....

Back to the Mattel 1980 Catalog Index