Dump Robo MR-09
Originally designed in Japan by Bandai and released for their Machine Robo Series line as Dump Robo the model was not long after issued as Truck for the European Robo Machine release and Truck Man as part of Australia's Machine Men. Tonka's US rebranded 'Gobots' distribution saw Dumper given his now most established name with the Australian Machine Men line adopting the Gobots character name on figure re-release; predominantly to benefit from the Challenge of the Gobots cartoon.
Bandai did not re-release this model for their European Robo Machine distribution and so he was always sold only as Truck with multilingual blister cards displaying both Truck and Camion in the name section.
Further details are below, on the Series 1 Index and for more in-depth reading see the Toy Line History page.
Region Codes Used: JP Japan / US United States / CA Canada / AU Australia / EU Europe / BRA Brazil / TWN Taiwan
NOTE: Region codes only shown where items were known to be released. This list is accurate yet likely incomplete.
Gobots 09 Series 1 US/CA Tonka 1983
Robo Machine RM-09 EU Bandai 1983*
Machine Men [Truck
Man] 08 AU Bandai Australia 1983*
Machine Men [Dumper] AU Bandai 1984*
Machine Robo Series MR-09 JP Bandai 1983*
Machine Robo Series Best 5 MR-09 JP Bandai [Blue] 1983*
Mutante BRA
Glasslite
Mutante BRA Glasslite (variant chest sticker) (all plastic) (legs, face & grille orange) 1999-2000
Mini-Changeable Bots YJ-6 KOR (black leg stickers not included)
Convertible Robots [Green Eye with Silver Leg Stickers] - unstamped
(suspected line) Convertible Robots [Gold Eye with Silver Leg Stickers] - unstamped
Diecast Robot Car
TWN [all metallic chest sticker] (Popy stamping removed)
* Machine Robo Series extra sticker sheet issued with this release.
Machine Robo Series Prototype: The Machine Robo Series and Machine Men production release packaging show what could be a late prototype with red arm bands and missing the 'POPY MR-09' grille detail.
** Gobots Prototype: For Tonka's Gobots distribution Bandai produced prototype / sample colour variants for US market consideration. While not confirmed suspicion is they were for potential Gobots Series 2 recolour offerings similar to the orange Buggyman and blue Leader-1. While not dated the Dumper has a Japan stamp vs. early release versions in the US bearing a POPY stamp. This places the brown prototypes beyond the initial US orange distribution. Whether it was planned for Gobots Series 2, a mail away or other promotion isn't known. Similar variant colour prototypes were created for models specific to Series 2 and 3 Gobots.
Chest Stickers: Machine Robo Series, Robo Machine and Gobots were issued with a flat metallic sticker while the Machine Men has a highly reflective sticker (see below). Diecast Robo Car and possibly other bootleg lines used the same reflective sticker.
CREDIT: Black Dumper bootleg images kindly provided by Kyle Worsfold.
Prototype image on packaging.
Chest sticker variant.
