'Powered Guardian Robot 4-Wheel Drive' - Battlancer and Winchers Ford Ranger
Unlike the bulk of Gobots figures the Power Gobots Secret Riders were not originally part of Bandai's Machine Robo toy line. They began life in the Bandai side line Zenmai Kahen (Spring-powered) Variable Winch Robo. It was only after the Machine Robo Revenge of Cronos anime was underway that they were offered as part of 'DASH Machine Robo' in Japan and Power Gobots in the United States and Canada.
Prior to that all three had been sold in Europe for Robo Machine and Australia as Machine Men under the sub-line 'Winchers'; even though the trike doesn't have a winch function.
Secret Riders and their global counterparts are a lot of fun, however on closer inspection do feel a little out of place in the Gobots line and are clearly sourced from a previous offering. The inclusion of the ride-on sled feature and that they cross over into self justifying as being interesting transforming puzzle models vs. robust play in the dirt action toys as desired by the West speaks volumes of their Japanese origins.
It's worth noting that in Japan, while the Variable Winch Robot toys were a lower price point version of Bandai's larger, battery operated 'The Winch Robo' line, in the West the toy were less connected. In Europe and Australia both loosely made it into Bandai's Robo Machine and Machine Men lines respectively and in North America Tonka didn't release them for Gobots at all and instead Mattel distributed them as Powerbots.
Region Codes Used: JP Japan / US United States / CA Canada / EU Europe / AU Australia (region list is correct however likely incomplete)
Power Gobots Secret Riders US / CA Tonka [Black, Grey Head and TORK text Stickers] 1986
Robo Machine Winchers EU Bandai [Dark Blue, Blue Head, Ford Ranger text Stickers] 1985 *
Machine Men Winchers AU Bandai [Dark Blue, Blue Head, Ford Ranger text Stickers] 1985
Zenmai Kahen Variable Winch Robo JP Bandai [Dark Blue, Blue Head, Ford Ranger text Stickers] 1985
Zenmai Kahen Variable Winch Robo JP Bandai [Red, Red Head, Datsun 4WD text Stickers] 1985
DASH Machine Robo MRB-Battler Revenge of Cronos JP Bandai [Black, Grey Head and Battlancer text Stickers] 1986
* the Robo Machine release was issued during a marketing transitional period seeing the Robo Machine logo prominent on the packaging. A much smaller Gobots standard logo was added near by, loosely linking the toy lines.
The blue Ford Ranger release is unfortunatley one of the blue models that can suffer from pigment darkening; other examples include Buggy Robo (Buggy Man) and Truck Robo (Road Ranger).
Third Mode: The Bandai released Ford Ranger for Zenmai Kahen Winch Robo was advertised as having an intermediate form called 'Walker Mode'. For Bandai's Robo Machine and Machine Men releases the mode was named, 'Street Fighter'. This form could be comparied in the thinnest possilble way to a Macross VF-1's gerwalk configuration. It involves simply pulling the doors out to reveal the arms, posing them with the fists facing forward and otherwise leaving the vehicle in alt mode. It could certainly have held the two weapons in this mode however in all release packagaing it wasn't shown doing so and looks a lot more like a truck with stubby tough-arms. This third mode was not advertised for the Power Gobots Secret Riders line.
US vs. JP Version: The Battlancer Japanese release IS the US Tork version with paper stickers that read 'BATTLANCER' placed over the foil Tork ones.
Prototypes: The European Robo Machine box shows a version of the blue Ford Ranger with a red eye and forehead triangle and a variant 'Winch Robo' logo text on the front below the winch rope opening. The 1985 Bandai 'Robo Machine Series' catalogue included a photograph showing a red eye, white forehead triangle, white wheel rims, variant blue and red side strip stickers, the production Winch Robo logo on the front of the alt mode as well as the doors, different shoulder stickers and finally a top of windscreen sticker with the text, 'Ford Bronco Ranger' in white on black.
Care note: The model has two inner leg plates that are easily broken if the knees aren't moved first when rotating the lower legs out of alt mode. Separate the legs, rotate out both grey knees from the back then rotate the legs.
Tork was released in Canada with no variation in name for both English and French.
The red Dutsun Trick was only released for Zenmai Kahen Variable Winch Robo.
