Space Skyhawk - Robot Changers
Originally designed by Takatoku in Japan for their Super Dimension Century Orguss line and sold as the 1/80 scale, 'Variable Type 3 Drifand Orguss-Orgroid 1', the model was later licensed to the Japanese company MARK.
MARK in turn distributed this figure via Select in the United States, Canada and Australia (and likely other regions) as the Convertors Maladroid, 'Zardak'* . MARK also released Zardak for their Robot Changers line sold in Europe renamed to 'Space Skyhawk'.
*NOTE: Both the SDF-1 model and the black and purple Orgroid (Zardak release 2 shown below) were sold on cardbacks with the name 'Nofka'. Confusing things further the later released black VF-1S Super Valkyrie model Maladroid was also named Zardak.
Presumed to be an error, the diagonal top half of the card is identical in both instances with the lower half changed giving some insight into how the art department composited the card graphics.
See main Convertors & Robot Changers index page for more details.
Region Codes Used: JP Japan / US United States / CA Canada / EU Europe / AU Australia
NOTE: Location codes only shown where items were known to be released. This list is accurate yet likely to be incomplete.
Convertors Maladroids Release 1 US/CA/AU Select tan and light blue) 1984
Convertors Maladroids Release 2 US/CA/AU Select (black, purple and gold) 1984
Robot Changers EU MARK (tan and light blue) 1984
Super Dimension Orguss Variable Type 1 JP Takatoku Toys 1983
School Robot US (dark green and brown) - modified to include a pencil sharpener
Convertible Robot US/IT (light green and brown) - packaging sometimes shows a large number 1
Convertible Robot US/IT (dark green and brown)
- packaging sometimes shows a large number 3
Convertible Robot Variable Type 4 in 1 #OR-01 US (light green and brown) - packaging sometimes shows a large number 1
Convertible Robot Variable Type 4 in 1 #OR-03 US (dark green and brown) - packaging sometimes shows a large number 3
Convertors US 3 US (light green and brown)
Bootlegs There are two common bootlegs (shown below) mistaken for genuine Convertors; one light green one dark. Adding to the confusion one Taiwanese bootleg line is also called Convertors; not the Grandstand line. Bootleg releases include, 'School Robot' (modified to included a pencil sharpener), Convertible Robot and Convertible Robot Variable Type; the later is also the name of a genuine release by Takatoku pre-MARK owning the moulds. Each release show minor paint detail or sticker vitiations; green eye vs. red, white sticker sections replaced with transparent, etc.
** a Maladroid Sunyak / Gerwalk Nikick bootleg made up the number 2 model in these lines.
***
The light green 'Convertors' Taiwan bootleg was issued individually as well as in a three pack with the Battle Armored Battalion Dorvack 'Mugen Calibur' (Wheels) and 'Ovelon Gazzette' (Chopper) models. The three pack text show 'Mucen Calibur' (with a 'c') while the box's front and rear images are an Orgroid. The Mugen Calibur model was also issued in this three pack in place of the Orgroid with no changes to the images.
CREDIT: Red and white Orgroid KO example kindly provided by Tenzi.
