Tidbits on C-310: God Ginrai and D-307: Overlord

Over at OZ Formers, we were discussing the issue of how to tell if Super Ginrai and Godbomber were vintage 1988 releases or whether they were the reissue (there were Takara and Hasbro reissues in the early 2000s).

To be honest, I didn't know how to tell and what the date stamp would say.

So, I went and took out my vintage C-310: God Ginrai giftset to find out.

There is no date stamp on the cab section of Super Ginrai. The date stamp on the trailer section of Super Ginrai says:

(c) 1987 HASBRO Inc.

(c) TAKARA . 1987

JAPAN

Photo:

The date stamp on Godbomber says:

創作 . 著作物

(c) TAKARA . 1988

JAPAN

Photo:

Quite interesting that Super Ginrai (aka Powermaster Prime) is stamped 1987 instead of 1988. Maybe the mold was designed in 1987. Also, the presence of the "Hasbro" stamp meant that this piece is for US and Japan release.

Godbomber on the other hand is stamped 1988, means possibly designed later to compliment Super Ginrai and only stamped Takara, because it was only meant for release in Japan (or at least meant for non-US release).

Both were made in Japan.

I suspect that the reissues are going to say "China" somewhere.

Another interesting aspect of C-310: God Ginrai is it's box size - it's identical or at least 99% identical in terms of size, with his arch-nemesis in the Masterforce series, D-307: Overlord!

Don't believe me? Check these out....

Box top size comparison

Box side size comparison

Wow, this is very prolific and I'm disappointed with myself for not discovering it earlier...