Prometheus Rising Studios   Ben Mininberg's models, toy customs, and design work.

Popy is a now-defunct Japanese toy company who basically single-handedly started the die cast robot craze in the 70’s.  The initial Chogokin releases were around 5 inch tall action figures almost completely made from metal, with shooting fists and some accessories.  GA-05 is Great Mazinger, the successor bot to Mazinger Z, one of the grandaddies of the piloted giant robot genre.  One of the defining accessories of Great Mazinger is the Scramble Dash flight pack, which retracts into Great Maz (somehow :P) as opposed to the Jet Scrander on Mazinger Z, which was a separate dock-able module.

I received this Great Mazinger chogokin in a mixed lot of Transformers toys, so it is likely a Shogun Warriors release, from when Mattel imported a mix of Japanese super robot toys to the US.  The paint on the figure is pretty beat up, but the figure is intact and still tight, so I decided to make it my first fixer-up project, along with a number of others that are currently in the mail.  I purchased reproduction fists online, but was unable to find a Scramble Dash anywhere, so I decided to just make one.  I collected a couple of pictures from auctions online, and made the basic shapes from plasticard, with Green Stuff putty work for the wing tips and engine bodies.  After that, it was just a lot of Mr. Surfacer puttying and sanding… and in reality, I probably could have done more sanding and smoothing work.  The engine nozzles are Kotobukiya option parts.