[Takara Chorobo / タカラ チョロボ] Chorobo 02 - F-15 Eagle

Well well, I do believe it's just about time for my monthly blog post. I really do think of this blog as more of a periodical than a daily journal. It's like a magazine with one author, one article, no editing and zero production value.



Anyhow, you all may remember a recent post where I lamented my failure to purchase the second half of a pair of tiny transforming robots. Well not long after that someone wrote to me, offering to send me said second robot if I would just pay the cost of shipping! Now how could I say no to that? He even threw something else cool in the box (to be revealed later!) just because I mentioned it while we were e-mailing about toys. So, despite what I may say, there are still nice and generous people in the world. And as a showing of appreciation, I made certain to deliver an extremely tardy write-up, letting the photos ripen in my hard drive as one might a delicious peach. Let it never be said that Robot Loves Monster was made in a day.

So today we revisit the small world of Takara's Chorobo toys. As my original post was rather lengthy, I'll try to do this with minimal repetition.

Chorobo was a strange 1980s fusion of Diaclone/Microman and Choro-Q by Takara, involving small Diaclone-ish robots implanted with a pull-back motor adapted from Choro-Q cars. Datestamped '1984,' they technically predate Transformers in Japan (which were, however, essentially repackaged Diaclone and Microman toys from 1983). Chorobo ended abruptly after only two toy releases, descriptively named Chorobo 01 and Chorobo 02. I can't help but imagine that there was more intended for these diminutive hybrids, but perhaps this is a fantasy brought on by the endless stream of repaints indulged in by toy companies of the present day.





Chorobo 02 is largely the same as 01 in terms of packaging. Two things, however, deserve further discussion. First, Takara produced the box for 02 in mirror image of the 01 box. This has great visual impact when the boxes are displayed next to one another. Second, Takara even went so far as to have copy written for the side of the box detailing various statistics and abilities of Chorobo 02:



F-15 EAGLE (CHOROBO DATA)
WIDTH: 60 Qm* / LENGTH: 56 Qm
HEIGHT: 30 Qm / MAX SPEED: QM=5.0
ENGINE: TAKARA TKR02-a (COMIC PANSA)
WEAPONS: CHOROBO PUNCH (ROBOT MODE) / CHORO DASH ATTACK

*Note: I think these are 'joke' measurement abbreviations, the "Q" referring to Choro-Q.

The product sample used for the box photo is also slightly different from the production version. As the Transformers would prove, certainly Takara was no stranger to non-existent products appearing on package art.



As Chorobo 01 featured the compact British Harrier GR-3, Chorobo 02 takes the form of the iconic American F-15[E] [Strike] Eagle. Ah, the innocent days before licensing complications turned every F-15E into a "fighter jet" and every Ferrari into a "supercar." In the world of 1980s toys, the F-15 and F-14 were the flying machines of choice in the transforming robot and action vehicle genres. Transformers had the F-15 in multiples- Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, etc. etc. Gobots had Leader-1, also an F-15. I know very little about G.I. Joe toys, but I feel fairly confident extending this generalization to them as well. As further proof that Japan really can make anything cute, Takara took all of the screaming, missile-laden awesome of the F-15E... and condensed it down into this chubby widdle guy.





I learned while writing this post that F-15Es are still in service (I don't know anything about these, ok? I had to do research.), meaning that this toy can still be relevant to children today. No awkward moment where your child transforms the toy, only to end up with a box with wheels that was discontinued 20 years ago... in Japan. No, son, it's a Chevy Vanette.



The transformation to robot mode is again pretty unique among transforming jets. Wisely, Takara ditched those nerve-wracking pin joints of Chorobo 01 in favor of legs that slide out on plastic rails. The face is just the hidden portion of the center cockpit segment (it rotates to reveal the face). Finally, raise the arms, flip the wing tips around to reveal the hands, and that's it! The hands are a really weird touch that fills me with inappropriate delight. You realize that the engineers really could have taken an easier way out with this one, but no, they went the extra mile and sculpted tiny fists on to tiny, pivoting wing tips.





But man, is this guy short! Chorobo 01 absolutely dwarfs 02, which is kind of amazing when you consider that they transform into virtually identical vehicle shapes. Unlike 01, unfortunately, 02 looks mostly like a jet standing on its hind legs. It's not as much of a transforming faux pas as, say, those vehicles that have their entire robot mode stamped on their undercarriage, but y'know throw us a rotating wing or something. When a primary engineering constraint is the enormous brick motor strapped to the toy, you can't get too picky I suppose.







More troubling, perhaps, is their lack of individual names. Chorobo 01 and Chorobo 02... I mean, geez guys. Did the raw materials at the imagination factory run out after you came up with the fake Q measurements? There are no 'tech specs' to provide differentiating personalities, or even names to hint at such personalities. How are we supposed to begin to play with these? How will they fit in with the other robots in our toy boxes?? Are they good or bad? Do they enjoy flying or are they secretly afraid of heights? Are they sentient or are there tiny humanoids riding inside of their heads (or are there only cockpits, but no drivers)? I suspect that this would have mattered little to me as a child, because every toy other than my favorite characters ultimately ended up as cannon fodder and a contorted pile of limbs in some epic Wildman-esque battle or other.





While I've surely beaten this point to death by now, there was a lot of work put into two toys that would be both the beginning and end of their line. Maybe there was more intended for Chorobo. Or maybe this was just lavish 80s toymaking at its height (before every new toy had to be repainted into oblivion, gripe gripe). In any event, whether you are a Choro-Q, Diaclone, Transformer or model airplane collector, these are worth picking up if you happen across them. They are both interesting as a historical enigma and immensely charming without being childish; proof that an good toy does not need 36 points of articulation.

Takara's Chorobo [タカラ チョロボ]

The year 1984 saw the last vestiges of the Diaclone and Microman/Microchange toyline, and the emergence of western-branded Transformers. At the same time, Choro Q- a popular line of stylized mini-cars- was enjoying a diversification into Super Robot territory. Somewhere in the mighty Takara empire, the tinder must have caught fire in the mind of a product designer (or savvy marketing type, perhaps). In a fusion of transforming robots, little cars and little robots, we were given two toys called "Chorobo," which combined the pull-back motor and kiddish styling of Choro Q with the transformation gimmick of the popular robot line.



This is Chorobo 01, which came from one of the many Mandarake storefronts in the Nakano Broadway. I bought it on sight, knowing almost nothing about the toy. I thought it was a little pricey at 2100 yen, so I didn't pick up the 02 figure, which was also for sale (stupid stupid). I'm always game for obscure transforming robots, and the fusion of Choro Q and Takara's transformation gimmick was too good to pass up.

Packaging is compact and simple. The instructions are printed on the back of the box, commonplace among cheaper toys. In particular, the package art is well done- this is always a treat when buying vintage toys since most modern companies will substitute CG art or toy photos for actual hand-drawn artwork on toy packaging. Note the parallels to G1 Transformer artwork in the stance and style of the drawing (more on this later).



The era of delicious styrofoam inserts. No crappy, finger-cutty plastic trays for 1984 Japan. Mini toys were still sold in full boxes in Japan (e.g., Microchange cars, Transformer Minibots) well into the late 80s.



Foil paper decals (oh god, yes) unapplied. Note the Diaclone-esque "Chorobo" logos. They kind of stopped this practice with Transformers, presumably because of the "robots in disguise" thing. Which one is Optimus? Maybe it's the one with "AUTOBOTS" written on the trailer. Naaaaah.

...although if they really wanted to be 'in disguise,' shouldn't they have all been beige Toyota Corollas, and not million dollar supercars? I wonder about these things.





Chorobo 01 is packed in its jet form, probably for good reason. It is a Choro Q styled Harrier GR-3 fighter plane. This model of plane, more properly called the Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR-3, was heavily used by the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (hence the RAF insignia on wings). The toy does a fairly good job of capturing the main features, particularly the enormous forward intakes. Rear wheels equipped with a pull-back motor feature are hidden under the body of the plane.



Transformation of the plane to robot mode is simple, but nerve-wracking. I've put up a lazy mid-transformation photo to give you a general idea. The legs need to be pulled out on thin metal rods to allow them to the clear the body when being folded down in robot mode. This can put a lot of stress on a very small point, and I'm sure that a good number of these were broken by impatient child-hands. I honestly feel like I am going to break it every time I transform the toy.



So here's the robot mode. Not much to look at these days, I guess, but it was pretty damn good for its time. Chorobo 01 is on par or better than most small transforming robot toys of the day, especially when you consider that the Choro Q motor had to be figured into the design. Discernible head, arms and legs are pretty much a bonus in the early 80s era of robot toy design. As someone has noted, he is apparently quite well-endowed.



Later pull-back-and-go Transformers (Throttlebots, I'm looking at you) became pretty crude. Most times, there was only a passing suggestion of things like arms and hands. This one even has little hands sculpted on to the arms. Nice touch.



I particularly like the head sculpt. The whole toy is only a touch larger than the Transformer Minibots, so there is quite a bit of detail packed into something about the size of a pencil eraser. The head has a very combat-oriented feeling- appropriate to the design.



Several times throughout this write-up, I've mentioned similarities between the Chorobos and Transformer Minibots. The reason for this is that I find it puzzling that Takara would create an entirely new line, blending Choro Q and Microchange engineering, and then promptly can the endeavor after only two toys (the other is a F-15 Eagle). The shared features with Transformer Minibots make it even stranger, since Chorobo probably could have been easily wrapped into the Transformers toyline.

I have to chalk it up to a poorly timed release. Chorobo was likely intended to be a tie-in with the Microchange vehicles (note that Microchange consisted entirely of land vehicles, while both Chorobos are planes); unfortunately, it was introduced as Diaclone and Microman were being phased out, and was probably caught in the resultant whirlpool. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that distribution was probably pretty limited as well. If they had been produced a year later (Transformers began in Japan in 1985, not 1984), you can almost bet that they would have been "Transformers" and made successful by association.

This is purely speculation, since it could have been the case that Chorobo was scrapped due to incompatibility with other Choro Q toys. But it is interesting to wonder what might have happened had a few key decisions been made differently at Takara HQ. Maybe Twin Twist and Top Spin would have been small planes with pull-back motors. But then I doubt we would have this review.