Assembling "Gaudian the Fighter" (Bandai), the animal mascot and joint mechanism reform the common sense of 300 yen kits!　[80's B-Grade Anime Plastic Model Natural History Vol. 25

I see that "Gordian the Fighter" (1979) was on the air for a year and a half until 1981. This means that even after Gunpla was released in the summer of 1980, this "Gordian" was sold in parallel. As for the "Best Mecha Collection" series that Bandai was developing, it was No. 3, one before the 1/144 Gundam. It was a 300 yen kit that was released a little earlier than the Gundam models.

From the picture on the side of the box. Like a matryoshka doll, the exterior of the robot is layered two or three times on top of the human body, eventually becoming a giant robot. It is an excellent idea in the sense of a power suit, but at the time it did not interest me much because the world view was more like that of a hero robot.

This Best Mecha Collection only includes the outermost robot (Garvin) and not the smaller robots inside, but there was also a larger kit available for 700 yen in which the large, medium, and small robots combine inside.
At Wadachiya, a model store near Onoda Elementary School in Musashino-shi, Tokyo (......), children two to three years younger than I was at the time (about 4th grade elementary school students) were holding the 700 yen Gordian in their hands and discussing, "Will this one combine?" They were talking about it. Wadachiya's father overheard the conversation and assured them from the side, "They will be combined! Wadachiya's father was well aware of the conversation and assured him. It was that kind of atmosphere at a privately owned model store in the 1980s.
Having indulged in bittersweet memories, let's take a look at Gordian's 300 yen kit runner.

▲ Given the assumption that Bandai's 300-yen plastic model kits could be freely movable, I was surprised to see that the neck was molded as one piece with the torso. The fact that the crotch is not a V-joint, which is a familiar feature of Gunpla, but a mere "plate" that sticks out to the left and right is also unsettling.

The same goes for the arms. The fact that the wrists are molded together with the forearms almost makes you think, "That's the way it's supposed to be," but the elbow joints. The structure of the elbow joint is bare, or rather, it has the roughness of an ancient tool.

I see, plastic models in 1980, other than Gunpla, were like this. What is even more remarkable is that Clint, the black leopard robot carried by the main character Daigo, is included. Gordian is 15 meters long, which is too large in scale, but Clint is a "nice" mascot of about 3 centimeters in length.

The mascot has large holes in its front and back legs, so it seems to be movable. ...... This kind of small mascot may be a trend of character model culture in the 70's. A bit of a bargain.

I'm like, "A plastic model of a giant robot with an animal robot attached?" I'm freaked out, but speaking of Tatsunoko anime, didn't they have things like the dog-shaped robot Flender from "Shinzo Ningen Casshan" that came with their plastic models?　So it makes sense if you think of it as a remnant of the 70's culture. ...... I suddenly realized that this might be the first time to feature 80's robots that were released before Gundam plastic models!　So, let's build it with a fresh mind, Gordian!

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