Personally, I have very little recollection of that huge robot actually. I don't really remember watching it when I was young, but that huge skull on Gaiking's chest and the the two horns on his head do seem somewhat familiar to me (alongside Voltron, Saber Rider, Daimos and others ^^), not to mention his huge dragon-like carrier with sharp spikes and blades.
Image from Toei Animation.
Anyway, Gaiking is a Japanese sci-fi anime from the '70s, formally called Great Sky Demon Dragon Gaiking (大空魔竜ガイキング, Daiku Maryu Gaiking). You can read more about him on Wikipedia.
Apparently, there was a remake of Gaiking last year (which I totally missed ^^;), featuring the same robot, but with a completely different story and a new cast of characters. The quality of the animation is of course way better than what could be offered more than two decades ago, but most importantly, two more robots are added more fun and excitements for the viewers. They are Vulking (some sites call him Balking instead) and Raiking. Apart from the similarity in names, they look quite close to Gaiking as well, with the signature skull design on the chest. I suppose their transformation sequence are similar to that of Gaiking as well.
Raiking started off as an enemy to Gaiking. Also, it's so fun to watch (again) robots fight with the names of their moves shouted out loudly, with subtitle effects some more XD
Video clip from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
To top it all, all three 'Kings can combine to form Gaiking the Great! This is something you don't get to see in the '70s, as a particular sci-fi anime series usually featured one giant robot only.
Totally hot-blooded! ^^ And note how similar Gaiking the Great looks like as compared to the original Gaiking.
Video clip from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
And of course, hot-blooded robots demand toys of equal level of coolsome-ness as well ^^ Studio Half Eye will be releasing the Perfect Docking version of Vulking that comes with Serpent, the 'mini' Daiku Maryu ^^ which can transform into Gaiking's cannon - you can watch him using this weapon in the first video clip above.
The price of this Perfect Docking Vulking + Serpent is a whopping 41,000 Yen (around RM 1220)! Release date is this month.
The Gaiking is of course sold separately, at 28,000 Yen (?) o_0
* I can't find the normal color version of Studio Half Eye's PD Gaiking - the one from the link to HLJ here is the Face Open Ver. instead, so I'm not sure if the price is the same or not.
Images from Toysdaily.
Raiking is also under development, and if you get all three 'Kings, you will be able to build Gaiking the Great.
Make sure you know your budget before planning to get these monsters ^^
Images from Toysdaily.
Luckily, if you're a fan of this new Gaiking series, you can opt for alternatives from CM's Corporation which are 'smaller' in terms of their price tags ^^; Each of these figures lack the docking and transformation function featured in the offerings from Studio Half Eye, but they can combine to form Gaiking the Great.
Gaiking, 5,000 Yen
Raiking, 6,000 Yen
Vulking, 6,500 Yen
Images from Toysdaily.
P/s: this is posting number 400 on my blog! ^o^
