Raydeen: Popy VS. Mattel Fight like a Brave! Like I have said before,after buying every Mazinga I can get my hands on, I have decided to go back and get some of the common and easy to come by Shoguns. I jumped into buying Draguns, Raydeens, Gaikings and Daimos(es?). After putting several incomplete Draguns together I got a complete Version 1 and moved on to the others. Gaiking and Daimos were easy as their was one Shogun version to get (excluding the Europe, slightly different Gaiking). I then set to work getting a version 1 Raydeen. I got a version 3 (no shoulderpads, clip on wheels) and a version 2 (shoulderpads, clip on wheels) and last but not least a version 1 (Shoulder pads, molded wheel trucks + more). What I found was that aside from the difference that I just mentioned once again, just like Mazinga and Dragun, the 1st version(Repackaged Popy)was a completely different figure! Big Bird?. Seems that the version 1 is a good 1/2-1 inch shorter then the version 2. He is about the same height at the shoulders as my Tall Head Mazinga. Getting to the bottom of things. Version 1 has the trucks for the wheels on his feet molded on the feet while version 2 has them attached with clips.

Shield/Buckler/Go God Spike thingie. Version 1 (right) has one rivet that is covered by the yellow sticker and Version 2 (left) has three screws. Hat Rack?. A close examination of the head also shows that The headsculpt is different. The version 1 has more slender and sharper points as well as more detail to the face. What did we learn? It would appear that Raydeen, like Dragun, was shorter in the popy version. This seems odd as Mazinga is not. However Raydeen and Dragun are comprable in height to the popy version 1 (tall head Mazinga)? What did I learn? In a pinch Raydeen can be used as a frog Gig!