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Daltanius-Bandai Meat and Potatoes; 5.0 Perks; 5.0 Homer Factor; 5.0
					Description; AWESOME Chogokin gestalt. Comes in three parts; robot, lion, and jet. The robot is composed mostly of die-cast metal with red legs and chest, blue arms, and horns on the head.  The lion is mostly plastic, colored yellow with black high-lights.  The jet form has a die-cast metal nose, mostly blue with yellow high-lights.  All three form Daltanious, which is approximately 10" tall when completed.  The lions head bends down 90 degrees, forming the chest of Daltanius.  The front paws of the lion are folded close to the body, and the read paws are extened, to act as the thighs of Daltanius.  There is a large open space within the lion's torso.  The robots chest expands and the legs fold 'up' towards the head, the piece then slides into the 'chest' cavity of the lion, forming the arms and head of Daltanius.  The jet splits right down the middle, forming two large pieces.  The nose of the two 'halves' of the jet fold 'up' by 90 dgrees, forming Daltanius's 'feet.'  The legs then attach to the lions extended rear paws. Daltanius is equipted with a ton of swords, shields, missiles, extra fists, and other weapons for all three parts.
		Time for a trip down memory lane.  This piece is ancient.  I got this from a Japanese import store in Honolulu, Hawaii when I was around 11 years old.  It is a Bandai chogokin from a super-robot cartoon called Daltanius.  Unfortunatley, the show isn't as well known as Mazinger-Z or Combatra, but the toy is superb.  No, this piece is not in mint condition.(As a matter of fact, I broke one of the ornamental horns of this thing just hours after getting it.  Nothing like some tape to help things along.)  Yes, this piece is priceless. The meat and potatoes of this piece are amazing.  A large portion of the construction is die-cast metal, so it's got nice heft to it.  Although the painting and sculpting aren't up to par with Beast Machines or MSIA Gundam, the sense of detail was very good for it's time.  The folds in the lion's mane, the paint details in the eyes and trim are all perfect for the time, and fitting for a super-robot.  The articulation.... well, it's a gestalt, so articulation isn't great.  Only the arms of the small robot really work well, and all four legs in the lion swivel at the shoulders, elbows, knees, and hips.  Fortunately, in gestalt mode, at least the shoulders and hips do swivel.  Oh, and one other nice touch; you have a working rocket-punch.  Hehehehehehehehe. The best part are the perks.  The merging of all three pieces to one giant robot is simple to do, but creates a dramatic change in appearance.  The final robot is over 10 inches tall, making for a large, heroic presence on your shelf, especially with the lion's head on the chest.  The other great perk is the plethora of weapons the piece comes with.  All three parts come with a ton of missiles, weapons, and tools.  In addition, Daltanius alone has three weapons; a shield, cross-bow, and a giant sword that is molded to look like flames.  Voltron, eat your heart out. The Homer factor, naturally, is over the top.  I love gestalts, but the sight of this robot with a lion's head on it's chest brandishing a sword and shield is hard for any toy collector to resist.  This goes without saying, but this is probably the favorite piece of my entire collection.  Granted, some pieces may  have better articulation, some may have better, cooler accessroies, but Daltanius brings it all together perfectly.  Now if I could just fix the horn on it's head.....