Once in a great while, the Soul of Chogokin Gold Lightan goes on sale again in some form, and every time, I feel tempted to buy it. The thing fascinates me, and not just because the anime is one wild and surprisingly violent ride. I think I’m just intrigued by how Gold Lightan defies the typical sensibility of the SoC toyline and makes it stick out like a sore thumb.

Soul of Chogokin is all about high-quality toys that aim to capture the coolness of a given mecha by finding a nice middle ground between the original toy and its representation in media such as anime or live-action. Over time, this has often meant trying to match body ratios, colors, and aesthetic details while retaining gimmicks like transformations. But Gold Lightan is a weird case because it’s a challenge to get him to look “anime-accurate,” “toy-faithful,” and also “cool” at the same time.

Conceptually, Gold Lightan is supposed to be a flip-top cigarette lighter that transforms into a robot. He is essentially a box with a head and limbs, and there is only so much you can do with that. He doesn’t have anything to tuck or fold in to give him a more dynamic appearance. If you look at the very first toys, his arms and legs are hilariously small in order to get them to fit.

The creators of the anime by Tatsunoko Pro clearly knew this, so they gave Gold Lightan more human proportions. However, if his limbs are that size, they can’t possibly fold into the torso without cartoon magic. The SoC toy compromised by making them longer to somewhat better match the anime, but they’re not thick enough to look good relative to the torso. The “chest” and “gut” stick out so far beyond the head as to be comical.

Then there’s the issue of actual physical texture. The original physical toy had that pattern because it was trying to mimic real cigarette lighters. This would have been a nightmare for the animators, so Gold Lightan in the show is generally portrayed with a bright, flat yellow. However, during close-ups, the anime implies that the textured pattern is still there; it’s just not being rendered most of the time. A toy likely cannot simultaneously achieve both the saturated “gold” of the anime and the look of the original toy/close shots.

The one portrayal of Gold Lightan that managed to achieve something of a visual balance between these two aspects is the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom fighting game franchise, but that’s in terms of non-physical 3DCG without the need to include the cigarette lighter transformation. There’s also the “Full Action” subcategory of the SoC line that eschews transformation and combination functions in favor of extensive poseability, but it’s probably very difficult to give a box with limbs and no waist the “Obari Masami” that defines the FA entries.

Consequently and perhaps more than any other Soul of Chogokin, the design of Gold Lightan prioritizes its toy-friendly qualities over everything else. It’s as if they abandoned any hope of making it look exciting. And let’s be real: Even if they managed to make it look just like the anime, it’s not like that animated design is all that exciting either. The appeal is precisely because Gold Lightan is so ugly and weird, that it is a curio that makes you wonder who even thought it was a good idea. 

Gold Lightan is awesome.