
Way back in December, I posted this
article spotlighting Studio HalfEye: Led by Mr. Hajime Takashima who is perhaps THE best engineer in the toy industry, Studio HalfEye is a little known, garage toy company that produces some of the most amazing, intricate, and expensive toys on the market today. Studio HalfEye is known for it's $500 transforming die-cast Getter Robots. I have posted a couple of their fantastic feats of engineering marvel before including their stupendous transforming Go Dannar Robot. They should also be known for what they bill as the "smallest fully transforming robots" including the tiny four (4) inch Getter Robot below. Yikes! That's like a transforming mini figure!
Text and pictures courtesy of Hobby Link Japan:

"Studio HalfEye's engineering in making Getter Robo's transformation a 3-D reality is second to none--but such precision work doesn't come cheap, with their masterpiece sets usually priced at over 25,000 yen. Now Studio HalfEye comes through with a transformation of a different sort: a line of mass-produced, more affordably priced Getter Robo sets! This entry in the line is the transformable 11cm Getter Dragon, formed by combining the Dragon, Raiga, and Poseidon vehicles. Add the included two Getter Tomahawks, and Getter Dragon is ready for action!" 5 inch transforming Getter Dragon above for $73 not including overseas shipping.

At the time, this little gem was backordered and only recently did it arrive on my doorstep. I am impressed with Studio HalfEye's more expensive transforming robots so when they came out with a line of mini-transforming robots at a somewhat affordable price, I coudn't resist, but didn't quite know what to expect. The first thing I noticed when i pulled it out of it's plastic box was that it was made out of some kind of plastic-resin material. It was separated into the three vehicles and I immediately picked up the red one which forms the head and shoulders of Getter Dragon. I was a little thrown off when I realized it was just a shell of a vehicle. There wasn't any mass to it at all. The same could be said for the other two vehicles. Like I said, I wasn't sure what to expect, so when the three vehicles actually turned out to be what seemed like three, cheap, flimsy gumball toys, I was slightly put off. However, I decided to put my judgement aside and transform the vehicles and form Getter Dragon. A few origami-like moves of twisting, turning and folding the various parts of each vehicle and it was in a state where you could put each piece together to form Getter Dragon. The head/shoulders of the Dragon Vehicle combined the best with the blue Liger vehicle arms/torso section. The bottom and legs formed with the Poseidon Vehicle but was not secured very confidently. The resulting Getter Dragon is about 4 inches tall so indeed very small and much like a mini-figure. Add the hands, feet and weapons and it looks very much like an action figure with very little hint of it's Frankenstein pedigree. Sacrifices were made with the separate vehicles to make a very compelling Getter Dragon figure in the end. Like I said, I didn't know what to expect, but am overall impressed with the engineering of the whole thing, especially given the size. However, I think being raised on old-skool transforming die-cast, I would have preferred the meatiness of transforming die-cast vehicles to make up a die-cast Getter Dragon.
At over $70, it's quite expensive for what you get, but if you're into the novelty of transforming mini-figures and a hard-core Getter collector, this is not a bad addition to your collection. I think my investment of $35 for a set of
3 inch mini transforming Votoms was a much better deal. What do you guys think? Leave me a comment with your opinion!!




