Getter Poseidon was designed to tie in with Toei's 1975 Getter Robo G anime. This was a sequel to the original Getter Robo series. Poseidon was designed to be a better selling toy than his predecessor from the original, Getter-3.

In Getter Robo G, the robots (Getter Dragun and Getter Liger being the others) were formed from three jets, piloted by the Getter Robo team. The different robots were formed depending on the order of combination, with each having a specialised field - Poseidon's was sea operations, as the name indicates.

The original GA-12 Chogokin had legs that could fold into tank treads, a spinning chrome collar (to represent the Getter Cyclone attack from the series) and retractable missile launchers. Poseidon was also turned into a Jumbo Machiner.

In 1979, both versions of Getter Poseidon were licensed by Mattel for their Shogun Warriors range, with the name shortened to simply 'Poseidon'. The toy was modified to cut costs, with the missile launchers now fixed in position and the collar rendered in red plastic (this version is the one I have). A second Shogun Warriors version went even further, removing the folding function from the legs entirely. Shortly after this, the Getter Robo G series was imported to America as part of the Force Five strand, and renamed as Starvengers. Which is probably the worst cartoon name ever, though the UK video title of the same dubs (Formators) runs it fairly close.

Nearly 25 years on, the figure was remade by Bandai for the Soul of Chogokin premium collectors line, coded GX-20.

Poseidon stands about 4.5" tall, and is the poster child for early Chogokin - rounded edges, primary colours, bare metal, 75% diecast, simple paint applications and built like a weightlifter.

The overall impression is rather charming, if inescapably dated. The barrel chest and long, stiff arms give him a comic-book feel, and yet the metal finish and sheer awkwardness of the thing tap into the same roly-poly attraction as Tetsujin 28. The bright colour scheme gels nicely with this naïve design to produce a chunky, cute robot.

For such an old toy, Poseidon actually has a few handy bits of articulation. The legs can move at the hips, while the movement at the knees (for the tank tracks) means a few simple 'striding' poses can be done by the legs. The arms move at the shoulder and rotate at the elbow too, giving the solid robot some effective, if simplistic, options. Shame the head can't turn, though.

Features-wise, Poseidon doesn't have much. Technology wasn't up to representing the character's anime transformation, so a very rudimentary tank mode is formed by simply folding the lower legs back to act as caterpillar treads. I'm guessing on the original version the launchers would also move forward in this configuration to give a little more variation, but even then it would be a bit of a reach.

Aside from that, it's the launchers themselves (I have no missiles, but I suspect the things are fairly potent), and the Getter Cyclone. The latter is just a spinning ring around the robot's neck, and doesn't actually do anything. So there's not really a lot to do with Poseidon at all, but sometimes simple can be a good thing.