Origins of gunpla

[South Burning]

This is from a book titled "Super #1 Robot (Japanese Robot Toys 1972-1982)" published by Chronicle Books LLC (2005), photos by Tim Brisko, text by Matt Alt with Robert Durban, afterward by Saburo Ishizuki. "The end of the 1970's ushered in a period of massive change for the Japanese toy industry. During the first half of the decade, dozens of companies emerged to satisfy the public's growing hunger for robots and other character toys. By 1984, however, nearly all these firms were bankrupt or had been consolidated through mergers and acquisitions. Once the smoke cleared, the culprit was obvious: a giant robot warrior by the name of Mobile Suit Gundam. A company called Clover unleashed him on an unsuspecting toy world in 1979. "The key word for Clover is GLITZ. Shiny plastic. Foil decals. Reflective chrome. Clover was a product of its time,the ultimate toy company for the stylish excesses of the disco generation. The unswerving devotion to the 70's aesthetic makes Clover toys favorites among collectors today. But, as times changed, that dedication prover to be the company's Achilles' heel. "The problems began when Clover signed on as sponsor for GUNBOY, an animated series proposed by director Yosiyuki Tomino. Traditionally, animated robot shows were little more than thirty-minute toy commercials created for the express purpose of selling toys to young viewers. Tomino had grander plans in store for his creation. He pushed the limits of the genrewith an epic space opera that focused on human drama and relegated the robots to a sideline role as mass-produced weapons of war. "By the time the title of the series changed to Mobile Suit Gundam late in production, the mechanical characters had changed quite a bit as well. Perhaps because work on the toy molds had already commenced, Clover elected to stick with its GUNBOY-based product line. This decision proved to be a major miscalculation. "Until the titular robot in Gundam made its first appearance, animated fare centered on mythical, invulnerable, and largely one-dimensional "super robots." Tomino's new series updated the paradigm, portraying its human and mechanical characterswith a realism that bordered on the obsessive. Armies tangled and innocent civilians died. Robots got dirty and damaged and ran out of fuel. It was all terribly unromantic and realistic. Clover's clumsy-looking, chrome plated designs simply didn't match what viewers were seeing on screen: in fact, they ran counter to the very ethos of the show. "...Clover measured success only by how many toys it had sold. From that perspective, its association with Gundam was an abysmal failure. But an interesting effect was at work among the show's fans. Gundam's emphasis on plot over mindless robot action... was attracting an entirely new type of fan: teenagers. "As it turned out, teenagers craved accuracy and attention to detail; at the time, the only products that fit the bill were model kits. Produced in standardized scales to evoke a sense of realism, Gundam plastic models (or, in Japanese, "Gun-Pla") proved a surprise hit when they went on sale in early 1980. Shortages quickly created a feeding frenzy that sent several fans to the hospital, injured in riots that broke out in crowds lined up to purchase the kits at Tokyo department stores....Unfortunately for Clover, archrival Bandai had secured an exclusive license to produce them. "Bandai's fresh take on the portrayal of giant-robot characters revolutionized the Japanese character-toy industry....Clover limped along for several years after the Gundam fiasco, but its failure to adapt to the changing markerplace was tantamount to signing its own death warrant. The company declared bankruptcy in late 1983." Among the many pictures in the book is a picture of a Gunboy figure marketed as a 78-2 Gundam.