Going retro has been the new thing in the toy industry.  You can relive your childhood memories by buying classic versions of the Transformers, order up a classic set of He-Man, or even swing by Target and pick-up classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures complete with the weapons still on the brown sprues.  Being a child of the 1980s was awesome.  While retro has its highpoints, this post is about the low points. 

As many of you can tell, Gundam is my collecting passion.  The numerous model kits and figures that surround my living room are proof of that.  When Mobile Suit Gundam first aired in Japan in 1979, it was a failed series and cancelled before the show could finish its intended 50 episode run.  The license to make toys was handled by multiple companies, not just Bandai.  That led to a lot of gimmicky toys and things that just make you scratch your head.  If the toys weren't scary enough, the commercials were there to ensure that.  Hit the jump for the fear that was the original MSG toyline.

During the 1970s, toy lines in Japan were dominated by the super robot genre.  These designs tended to combine numerous parts into one solid fighting robot.  Gundam would incorporate that design via the core fighter, a tiny plane that would serve as a cockpit and be inside the torso and tucked just above the legs.  Although Gundam would go on to create what's today known as the Real Robot Genre, the toy line would still retain the classic robot gimmicks.



Gundam was designed to be a lot different than we would later see it.  The red, white, and blue color pallete was done in order to sell more toys.  The now-iconic vented-face was also added to please the toy execs at Bandai.  Much to the dismay of Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, toy designs were then incorporated into the show.  This gave way to all of the various armaments and transformations given to the Gundam via the G-Armor.  Since Mobile Suit Gundam had been cancelled, a lot of developed gimmicks would not make it into the show.  Some of these designs would be made by the toy company, Clover.



The toys that clover produced were some of the most laughable of that era, hardly resembling the Gundam that we've come to know and love.  The Gundam was often painted metallic, as white just wasn't shiny enough.  It would be given random weapons and features that were never seen in the show.  For instance, the Gundam sported laser cannon on its shoulder and was rarely done in the correct colors.  It's interesting to note though that most of these toys were made before the line of Mobile Suit Variations was created, which had some of these toy gimmicks cleaned up and added as canon weapons.



A lot of the really bad things come from the suits that weren't the Gundam.  The best example of this would be the Guntank toy made by Clover.  The Guntank traditionally is a Core Fighter-based mobile suit, just it has tank treads for legs.  All of a sudden, this version would sprout legs and the shoulder cannons became the top of the tank treads. 



The ship which housed them all, the White Base, was not exempt from this treatment, as for a main weapon, it gets a giant version of the Gundam's beam rifle tacked onto the top of it.

This isn't just to single out Mobile Suit Gundam as many of the toy lines of that era were just as bad, if not worse.  It just sticks out though given the identity that Gundam now has as the innovative mecha series be subject to so many of the the gimmicks of the 70's super robot era.  Its hard to displace the legacy that the franchise has today when looking at its inception and bearing witness to these.



Like I mentioned earlier, the only thing cheesier than the toys were the commercials.  They were pretty standard fare, something we just don't see in the ads we get today.  The ads featured the toys replicating the scenes from the anime. There's Zakus flying, Gundam raising up its beam rifle, and launching.  Of course, the toys couldn't do nearly anything what the commercial showed you, but at least they did show the toys in them.



The Gundam line had humble beginnings, eventually making a theatrical run and the sequal Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam in 1985 due to the high ratings of the re-runs of the original series.  2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise and has certainly left a lot of impressions upon the toy and anime industries.

Some of those though, thankfully can be left behind.