DINO ROBOT - HORIKAWA - JAPAN

By any standards this is a classic robot. At first sight this is a large, boxy tin and plastic black-brown battery operated robot with a little litho detailing. As soon as it is switched on, however, it undergoes an impressive transformation as the head spits in two to reveal a lighted, roaring dinosaur head. The heads snap shut, and the robot walks on. The transformation had been attempted before but never with such success or with such an unlikely subject. It is a design that has been much copied but never bettered. 11" 28cm This appears in the 1972 Horikawa catalog where it is described as new.

This has been reproduced in the original colors and in green. Reproductions have a serial number stamped into the plastic head shells. In addition the plastic heads have a distinctive molding line running around the eyes and mouth. Reproductions do not have this