Diamond Planet Robot
Maker: Yonezawa

 

 A real eccentric. This is a designer robot, the work of Tanaka. As such it owes as much to the Japanese tradition of super hero styling as to the Western robot blueprint, in particular Robot Commando, the large plastic robot. It seems certain that the Diamond Planet is later than Robot Commando and that it is directly influenced by it. Key evidence is the shape of the hands which mimic the cup design of the ball-throwing plastic robot.

Yonezawa have a unique piece here. Firstly you would expect a toy of this size to be battery powered, but it's clockwork. (Though there is a panel on the back clearly indicating a possible battery placement.) Secondly the shape is utterly unlike anything else: the ears are complex shell-like structures (in fact, as two sharp eyed collectors noted, they are the shoulder sockets of the Yonezawa Moon Robot!), the eyeballs shake about in their frames and the tapering body perches on a pedestal base. Only the ear antennas are familiar, they're the Robby rings.
 


This is a rare robot. There are two colour variations: red with blue arms, and blue with red arms. This toy rarely surfaces in the west and when it does it commands a very high price tag.

EXTRA!

Nov 2001: The guess about the battery box was right. There is a prototype battery op version sitting in a Japanese museum.


Thanks to Gernot Muenck for the photo.