ROBOT 5 LIGHT BLUE VERSION - SANKEI - JAPAN

A limited run color variation of the rare Robot 5. It lacks the "sheet metal" lithography found in the grey/black and red versions. The reason for the limited run has led to speculation that the regular and more frequently occuring version had two advantages over this one:
#1 it just looked better
#2 you would not see press damage so much on surfaces covered with a wild pattern. A smooth, light coloured surface, specially going towards the curved edges of the pressing, is a nightmare. Die's deteriorate in a run, they become rougher which is fatal to the litho. So after 500, maybe, they had to do too much "Factory touch-up". (Henk G)


Pressing also used for the TV Robot by Sankei and the Mighty Robot by Mitsuhashi.

Regarding the Sankei/Kanto confusion. On the face of it there is a possibility that Kanto and Sankei have near identical trademarks. A -K-in the middle of 4 quarter moon broken circles. The difference is that the Sankei K has serifs coming off the ends of the K and the Kanto K does not. Therefore it is easy to see why the Kanto trademark was misidentified as a Sankei trademark. Both the Robot 5 and the Sankei Televsion have the trademark K with serifs aka Sanke