Daijim - Yonezawa Corporation
Originally released in Japan by Japanese company Yonezawa Corporation as Daijim, this robot toy was not long after released under license by Village Toys as Trans-Bot-3 as part of their Convert-A-Bots line.
It was also released in Europe for the Grandstand Convertors toy line as Betatron, however this is in no way connected with either Convert-A-Bots or Select's Convertors line. The instruction sheet included with both the Convert-A-Bots and Grandstand releases make reference to the robot being called Daijim vs. what's shown on the box.
Trans-Bot-3 has three modes, although arguably the middle form is questionable at best. It form a sold robot, an off road vehicle and in an intermediate stage what the Daijim release referred to as Daijim Jr. This mode is essential the vehicle mode stood up vertically onto the robot's feet and the roof sections put in place on the robot legs with a sticker providing a face. Neither the Village Toys or Grandstand releases make significant mention of it and it's not shown in the instructions. The Jr mode is shown on the side of the Convert-A-Bots box, however you could be forgiven for thinking it's part of the transformation process and not an actual finished form. That said, there is a 3 in its name.
Trans-Bot-3 has a decent amount of play value and ships with a rocket launcher, four rockets and two claw hands. The hands can be swapped out for missiles but the hands won't lock into the launcher.
Most significantly, it's motorised! In both robot modes it walks/shuffles along making use of little struts under each foot that poke the ground and provide some up and forward movement with each step. It also travels along in vehicle mode.
The only real detractor is that to some degree, Trans-Bot-3 is a parts-former. The bull bar and roof sections need to be removed and placed in different locations on the robot to create the different modes. If lost the overall look is significantly reduced.
See Convert-A-Bots main index for further details.
Region Codes Used: US United States / JP Japan / EU Europe / CA Canada / FR France / IT Italy / AU Australia / NZ New Zealand - Location codes only shown where items were known to be released.
This list is accurate yet likely to be incomplete. If you are able to confirm release in other regions please get in contact.
Convert-A-Bots US/CA/AU/NZ Village Toys 1984
Technica Change Series JP Yonezawa 1983
Yonezawa US 1983
Euro Toy FR 1984
Convertors Grandstand EU 1984
GIG IT 1984
Manufacturer Unknown (black original colour scheme) 1984*
Manufacturer Unknown (blue body & arms with black legs) 1984*
Four Star US (red with black bull bar) 1984
Four Star US (blue body & arms with red legs and bull bar) 1984
* While there's no clear manufacturer shown for either of these releases, it's highly likely in comparison to the Four Star distributed A.T.Vehicle Robot-Car version that they were also released by the same company, quite possibly before it was called Four Star. Two box variations were released. One retained the die cut window and shape matching the Yonezawa Japanese box while sporting a so so redraw of the original artwork. The second was width reduced, tall box using only the full robot mode art; again redrawn.
Packaging Variant Trans-Bot-3 was sold with two different packaging inserts to support the figure; the cardboard and tie version seen below and a shaped styrofoam tray. The cardboard version seems to have been the first release with foam the second; likely packing labour and cost reducing option. The same card insert is used for 'N-4-SR' that also had a foam insert version and the card supplied with Trans-Bot-3 has N-4-SR printed on it in large black letters on one of the flaps.
