Shogun Warriors – 3 Inch 1978-1980

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Mattel’s Shogun Warriors line was released in 1977, with focus on the 24 Inch figures, but other series began releasing in 1978. One of them was the 3 inch series, which was released in two separate waves. This series allowed Mattel to expand their character selection even further, as they continued to borrow from an impressive lineup of Japanese robots. A total of ten different 3 inch figures were produced, with all six of the Series 1 figures being released in two different packaging formats.

For more information about Mattel’s Shogun Warriors 3 Inch Figures, please see bottom of the page for a complete summary.

Shogun Warriors (1978-1980): 3 Inch Figures – Wave 1

Mattel released six different characters as part of their first wave of basic 3 Inch Shogun Warrior figures. Unlike their 5 Inch counterparts, these figures did not do much of anything with very limited articulation. The figures were made of die-cast metal, but all extremity pieces were made of plastic.

Shogun Warriors (1979-1980): 3 Inch Figures – Wave 2

Mattel released four more characters for their second wave of basic 3 Inch Shogun Warrior figures. Like the first wave, these figures did not do much of anything with very limited articulation. The figures were made of die-cast metal, but all extremity pieces were made of plastic.

Shogun Warriors (1978-1980): 3 Inch Accessories

Mattel did not release any accessories to be used with the metal 3 Inch Shogun Warrior figures.

Shogun Warriors (1978-1980): 3 Inch Playsets

Mattel did not release any large scale playsets to be used with the metal 3 Inch Shogun Warrior figures.

Shogun Warriors (1978-1980): 3 Inch Vehicles

Mattel also did not release any vehicles to be used with the 3 Inch Shogun Warrior figures, but there were rumors of a proposed vehicle line for them. Sadly, no illustrations or prototypes have surfaced to substantiate this rumor.

By the mid 1970’s, the toy industry had changed in a big way. Action Figure lines were dominating toy sales and every company was trying to get the next GI Joe or Six Million Dollar Man line. Mattel Toys was enjoying massive sales and success with their ultra popular Barbie Doll line for girls and Big Jim action figure line for boys. Mattel’s Big Jim line was winding down in the U.S toy aisles, but it was dominating across the rest of the globe on the International market. This huge success in foreign markets allowed Mattel to take some chances on other foreign properties as well. They saw that Anime and Tokusatu shows were huge in Japan, and across many Asian markets. Many of these shows focused on giant robots that fought giant creatures. That gave Mattel the idea to create a new series of toys based on similar giant robots and creatures for the North American market. Thus, the Shogun Warriors were born. Mattel’s initial Shogun Warriors line was released in 1977, and focused exclusively on the giant 24 Inch figures, but in 1978, they began releasing other lines featuring other sized figures. One of those lines was the 3 Inch series, which was released in two separate waves.

Mattel had a huge already established universe of characters to chose from when it came to putting their Shogun Warriors team together. They ultimately chose some pretty iconic characters for their Shogun Warriors toy line. The initial wave of 3 Inch robots released in 1978 consisted of six figures, including Combatra, Dragun, Gaiking, Grandizer, Great Mazinga and Poseidon. Four more figures were released as part of the second wave in 1979, 17, Danguard, Leopaldon, and Voltes V. The 3″ Shogun Warriors were still fairly well detailed for their size, but contained none of the great accessories that were so prominent with the 5 Inch figures. Also, their mobility was very limited, with almost no articulation. All 3 Inch figures were later re-released as Mini-Godaikins in later years, using the same exact figures, but with different packaging. Due to this reason, loose versions of these figures vary in value greatly, depending on who you ask.

The original packaging for the 3 Inch Shogun Warriors line was very eye catching, but then changed to a completely different package for later releases. The initial design used a tri-fold box format, with the figure being directly center of an open window box. There are no photos or illustrations on the package, mostly because there is no room for it. The general color theme was black, with multi-colored accents on the borders. The tri-fold sides of the box is mixed with the Shogun Warriors logo and a very brief description of what features the figure has. The classic Shogun Warriors logo sits above the figure at the center of the box. Later releases of this line had a completely re-designed box. The new box had the same basic color scheme of the original package, but in a much narrower box. The box itself was just slightly bigger than the actual figure. The logo on both packages featured the word “Shogun” in red and “Warriors” in yellow. Gone was the bright yellow background from the other lines. Strangely enough, neither package version has the actual name of the figure inside of it.