Sadly, Bandai's attempt to revitalise the Machine Robo brand with CG Robo was a failure. Lack of any media to support the new toys and define them from all the other transforming robot toys in the Japanese market was probably a factor, but whatever the reason, the series would conclude towards the end of 1993 with just 14 figures released.

Dozer CG was one of the last pair of figures released (alongside Shuttle CG), coded CG-13. The toy was only released in Japan, and is one of the rarest from the CG Robo series.

Dozer CG turns into, as you can probably guess, a bulldozer. It's a very modern design, and the first thing about it that struck me is that, well, it's Build Boy from Car Robots. Or similar enough to cause a double-take, at least.

Sadly, though, it's a bit if a misshapen thing when you look closer. The head and feet of the robot are fairly obvious in front of the grille for one - I'm no expert on bulldozer design, but I can't believe one would have a set of random, unnecessary bumps in this place. The cab is nestled just below the bonnet of the thing too, meaning the driver would struggle to see where he was going… It's a bit of a mess overall, especially disappointing as a more recent figure has little excuse for looking quite so much like a folded up robot. Still, it's got flashing lights, combined with a siren noise that sounds like a drum machine accelerating towards meltdown, which has got to count for something.

The transformation is a little different, moving away from the scaled-up '600 Series' ethos of most CG Robo figures, though it's still not particularly challenging. It is fiddly in places, though - lining the split bulldozer blade up correctly, for example, can be a pain.

The resulting robot is tall and rather imposing. However, Dozer CG isn't particularly great to look at. Most of the body is a bit featureless, with only the stickers and grey waist serving to break it up. The arms look nice enough, made up of the caterpillar tracks, through the split bulldozer plough looks cumbersome. The head cast is a good one (like most CG Robo), and the toy also has decent articulation for the line, moving at the neck, shoulders, wrists and waist. This does allow for a bit of variance, although again the plough parts interfere too much with the arms to really make best use of this. More thoughtful paint apps, such as maybe colouring the thighs and plough silver, might have helped the look a bit, but the main problem is that the body of the robot just isn't very interesting to look at, and thus the figure isn't good enough to cut it as more than a display piece.