While still designed by Bandai, as part of Series 3, Night Fright was not released in Japan for Machine Robo.
One of the last Super Gobots figures released, Night Fright saw comparatively low numbers distributed in America and Canada. In Europe it's anecdotally reported that only a handful made it onto retail shelves and example photos show it sported a slightly different sticker sheet; details below.
It's suspected Night Fright was not released in Australia for Bandai's Machine Men line. The model doesn't appear in Machine Men catalogues and a boxed version has not been sighted. With the line winding up and limited release in the Northern Hemisphere of the last three Super figures it's likely they didn't see an Australian distribution.
Additional Details on the Super Gobots Index Page
Region Codes Used: US United States / CA Canada / AU Australia / EU Europe
NOTE: Location codes only shown where items were known to be released. This list is accurate yet likely to be incomplete.
Super Gobots Series 3 038 US/CA Tonka (red star sticker on tail boom) 1986
Robo Machine Super Gobots EU Bandai (red star sticker near cockpit) 1986*
Stamping:
US Gobots stamped (c) Bandai 1985 Japan
Robo Machine stamping unconfirmed
* The Robo Machine Super Gobots release sported a variant sticker sheet, in some ways matching the alt version of the original concept art. The red star is positioned just behind the canopy and the '80' sticker is not present. The camouflage green sections are more jagged in design vs. the US release.
Rotor Placement in Robot Mode While the marketing and packaging art does not show Night Fright with anywhere to place the rotor in robot mode, the original production sketch depicts the model with the rotors attached mid way up on its back. On the production figure there is a socket perfectly matching the rotor peg (not a screw hole) and so it's likely that this feature was forgotten somewhere during the marketing process.
Prototype The sketched and produced presumably first prototype for Night Fright was all over white with a red cockpit. A later version appeared in toy catalogues with camouflage similar to the final US release (likely to have been painted on) and a translucent blue canopy. The wheels included camouflage paint, there were various army green paint applications over the body and the rear rotor had red painted tips. This prototype was mislabeled, 'Warpath'. The same prototype model (correctly named) appeared as part of an assortment photograph on the rear of some figure packaging boxes.
CREDIT Prototype image, box, instructions and rotor kindly supplied by Jörg Zimmermann.
