The Energon Pub

So in a quaint vintage shop I found an intriguing curio, something that appeared to be, based on the boxart, either a pre-transformer or a knock-off of G1 Whirl.





Obviously when the box was passed down from elderly Asian tchotchke shop owner to slightly less elderly Asian tchotchke shop owner it got a little hammered. Opening the box led to surprises both good and bad.



The set came with instructions, stickers and three of the four weapons which was more than I was expecting for the price paid for it. Admittedly one of the weapons was pretty heavily yellowed...



Ah. That wasn't the only thing that was yellowed. Half of the helicopter was yellowed too.



Oh and it came with a little pilot. That was weird too.

So the plastic seems to be the same quality as any Hasbro figure of the time, and the diecast is there. All the joints are reasonable too for a product of this age. So what is it that I am looking at here? Does anyone know how to fix this level of yellowing? And what is this thing worth?

Thanks!

"Both Whirl and Roadbuster, the Deluxe Autobots, were licensed from Takatoku by Hasbro for inclusion in the 1985 line, and hence were not included in the Japanese line, the cartoon, or the US Marvel comics. Whirl was originally the "Oberon Gazette" from the Armored Trooper Dorvack toyline, although the toy's dark and light blues were inverted for the Transformers release."

The question is whether this is an original Armored Trooper Dorvack figure or a KO.

metaphorge wrote:"Both Whirl and Roadbuster, the Deluxe Autobots, were licensed from Takatoku by Hasbro for inclusion in the 1985 line, and hence were not included in the Japanese line, the cartoon, or the US Marvel comics. Whirl was originally the "Oberon Gazette" from the Armored Trooper Dorvack toyline, although the toy's dark and light blues were inverted for the Transformers release."

This one isn't the same thing...it's made by Kingdam rather than Takutoku. I'm just wondering if this is a licensed product like Whirl, or a cheap rip-off.

an interesting find. be positive, he's not yellowed, he's battle-damaged!

By the way if anyone wants to make me an offer, please hit me up by PM.

From what I can see, Kingdam did KOs from both Dorvack and Diaclone (Browning and the Seeker mold). Still, that's nice find.

Pics of robot mode please?

Looks like a Taiwan K.O.

I gotta say I'm intrigued, even with the yellowing. I agree it could be a KO, let me looking into Kingdam a little first.

Mykltron wrote:Pics of robot mode please?

I'll put some up when I get home tonight.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I gotta say I'm intrigued, even with the yellowing. I agree it could be a KO, let me looking into Kingdam a little first.

Thanks! I'm just wondering if I found a hidden treasure or a rightfully-hidden crapbot.

Sorry, it is indeed a KO. I tried googling "Kingdam" but it seems to be a common name in KO-land. Heck, a Dia-Battles KO is called King Dam
There is a legit company called "KingDam" in Taiwan, but it has nothing to do with robot toys.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Sorry, it is indeed a KO. I tried googling "Kingdam" but it seems to be a common name in KO-land. Heck, a Dia-Battles KO is called King Dam
There is a legit company called "KingDam" in Taiwan, but it has nothing to do with robot toys.

I suspected it might be...but since I got him for the price of a Big Mac I thought it would be worth it.

Diem wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Sorry, it is indeed a KO. I tried googling "Kingdam" but it seems to be a common name in KO-land. Heck, a Dia-Battles KO is called King Dam
There is a legit company called "KingDam" in Taiwan, but it has nothing to do with robot toys.

I suspected it might be...but since I got him for the price of a Big Mac I thought it would be worth it.

KO or not, they seem to go for serious dollars, on eBay at least. There's one like yours, in slightly better condition, up on eBay now for $179, and several Brownings have gone for $120-150.

Skyfire77 wrote:

Diem wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Sorry, it is indeed a KO. I tried googling "Kingdam" but it seems to be a common name in KO-land. Heck, a Dia-Battles KO is called King Dam
There is a legit company called "KingDam" in Taiwan, but it has nothing to do with robot toys.

I suspected it might be...but since I got him for the price of a Big Mac I thought it would be worth it.

KO or not, they seem to go for serious dollars, on eBay at least. There's one like yours, in slightly better condition, up on eBay now for $179, and several Brownings have gone for $120-150.

Ah...I wouldn't expect a yellowed one like this to go for nearly that much. But I wouldn't mind making a bit of profit of of it.

Kinda looks like it has a Zoid pilot figure, or at least something similar.
http://dimensionalarea.net/portal/zoids ... arison.jpg

Tyrannotaur wrote:Kinda looks like it has a Zoid pilot figure, or at least something similar.
http://dimensionalarea.net/portal/zoids ... arison.jpg

Yeah, it reminded me of a zoid pilot, though a lot bigger. It appears to be something unique to this production rather than something that came with Whirl or the figure Whirl was based on.

It might even have value for a customizer...definitely worth more than what you paid.

Mykltron wrote:Pics of robot mode please?

Behold my terrible photography!

I dreamt about playing with this figure last night.

He was better in my dream.

Mykltron wrote:I dreamt about playing with this figure last night.

He was better in my dream.

You're welcome!

Haha, I mean: thanks for the photo! It's a cool find, and I would have snapped it up myself.