Takara Watch-Q Colt Combat Custom

I've always had a soft spot for the transforming robot watches, mainly the Tokima brand, but I have a bit of a collection of the Takara watches too.

The Takara Co. Ltd are a Japanese toy company, founded in the 1950s with a moto of "playing is culture", and most famous for their transformer toys. They produced transformer watch toys under the Kronoform and Watch-Q names during the 1980s and this is one of those.

This watch is called the Watch-Q Colt Combat Custom, and is a transformer but not a robot which came out in 1984. It is a transforming toy gun watch with the watch head being the handle and barrel of the toy gun. It came with attachments of a scope, silencer, stand, and shoulder piece. The gun used a spring loaded system which fired small (3mm) plastic balls. The silencer also has a space for a LR1 battery (like a short AAA battery), and has a light in the end turning it into a torch.

The watch part is built into the handle of the gun and shows the time on a 2 line LCD display with 2 digits on each line (the display is just about 4 digits wide but they are offset so the minutes are 3/4 of a digit lower than the hours.

These models seem to be quite rare, and last month (May 2013), just the box and insert for this watch sold for just under $75 (-yes, just the box without the watch sold for that much!).

The number on the box is 203303-3-2800, and I think it would have sold for between 2,800 and 3,980 yen (based on the prices of other watches in the range).

Takara Watch-Q Take Off Dash Car 300ZX

On this fine Sunday, I thought I'd share another of my transforming watches. But this time it's not a robot!
The watch is part of the Watch-Q line of watches by Takara. The Watch-Q range, also known as Kronoform in the west, was released by Takara in 1983/84 and sold their transforming watches. As part of the line, they had a couple of non-robots in the form of a gun, an aeroplane, a stereo, and two types of car.

This one is modelled on the Nissan Fairlady Z 300ZX which was a Nissan sports car released in 1983. It looks like a special version of the 300ZX Z31 which came out to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Nissan in 1984, and this also fits the 1984 release date of the watch. The watch came in 3 colours, blue, black, and red.

The head of the watch is a mount for the toy car which sits although it's about to drive up your wrist. Time is displayed on a small LCD screen inside the car's windscreen, with 4 digits staggered so the hour digits are in the top left, and minutes in the bottom right. To change the time, you need to use the pin accessory to access the buttons through two small holes in the underside of the car. One button is used to change the display mode between the time, date, and seconds (although it's a bit fiddly for everyday use). The other button sets the time and date (but you should cycle through the mode button after setting to make sure the time starts).

To get the car off the holder without damage, you should push it to the right (with the short end of the strap at the top), and then lift the left side first. When taken off, the car has a small pull-back and go engine. The car model is quite detailed,with the car name on the back bumper, and the rubber tyres even say 'Goodyear GT radial' on the side.

The watch originally cost 2,800 yen when it was released in 1984.

Takara Watch-Q Gamera transforming watch

Today is another transforming watch day, but this time, not a robot, but a monster.

Gamera is a giant flying turtle monster, from the Japanese giant monster films (Kaiju) of the 60s and 70s (but still had movies as new as 2006) . He is 60-80m tall, around 5500t, can fly at mach 3, and can breathe fire.
The watch is part of the Takara Watch-Q line of transforming watches (released as Kronoform in the US), and was issued in 1984 for the price of 2980 yen. One was sold recently (Feb 2012) on E-Bay for $576.92

The monster is released from the base with two sliding switches on either side of the base (compared with two push buttons for the robot watches).
Once released, the head of can be lifted from the body, the arms pulled out, and the legs flipped open (by pulling out the tail). Gamera mouth can also be opened and closed.
Another difference with the robots is that the watch display is on Gamera back rather than the front.
The watch module is a basic LCD with time, date, and seconds, and runs off an AG4/LR626/377 battery.
The watch number shown on the box is 203357-4.2980

Takara Kronoform / Watch-Q Calculator Robot - Kaltor

One of the main sub-collections in my main watch collection are robot watches. The majority are Tokima robots, but I have a few Takara robots too.
Today's watch has to be one of the geekiest in my collection as it is not only a transforming robot watch, it is also a calculator watch too.

The watch is the Calculator Robot by Takara, which is part of their Watch-Q line issued in Japan, and Kronoform robot watch range in the US, and was released in 1984. For the Kronoform line, the name of the watch is Kaltor. I'm not sure if this is the Japanese or American version.

The module used has time, alarm, and calculator, and is powered by A CR1620 battery. Time setting is unusual in that you type in the new time using the calculator keypad.

The watch is connected to the strap by a spring loaded clip, with a release button on the left side. To transform to the robot, the following steps are taken:
-arms are folded out from the side (two hinges)
-legs are folded down (two hinges), the bottom sections rotated, and feet folded out from underneath
-head flipped over from the top.