Taiwan Knock off/ Bootleg Daitetsujin 17 Jumbo review

I was happy to get my hands on this one. As far as Jumbos go Daitetsujin 17 is very rare and a budget collector like me would never have a chance of owning a real one. In come our friends in Taiwan with a very cool bootleg. I have heard other collectors complain about how cheap the plastic is, and how goofy the stickers are, but all things considered you really get the most Jumbo bang for your buck with D-17.
If I had to put D-17 in a catagory of robot he would be in the transformer catagory. This is really cool as most Jumbo's would be considered in the Heroic Robo catagory. Whats the difference?

Well, take a look D-17 and then compare it to Great Mazinger! GM is the perfect example of a Heroic Robo, rounded and stylized. D-17 on the other hand is blocky, and more robotic. Considering other transformer Jumbos very rarely "transform" like their smaller Diecast versions, D-17 stands out as it really transforms! It bends at the waist and feet, you attach wheels and a couple small accessories and you have a rolling robot fortress? Check out the pic below.

In Base mode two (2) small red planes launch off D-17's back. It really adds to the play value of this guy. D-17 also shoots both fist and has elbow joints. Compare this to Mattel's shoguns that at best had one shooting fist and one elbow joint.
On the downside the D-17 bootleg has red or green wings where the original had white. The bootleg does not have any weight (sand) added to the feet, so he is more apt to fall over. The plastic is thinner than the original and the bootlegers gave him funky stickers.
Does any of this take away from him? No. He is cool as a substitute for the original that most of us couldn't afford, and cool as a bootleg in his own right.
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