Issued in 1985, the Big Eagle Robo was a scaled up version of the standard Eagle Robo - better known as Leader-1.

The Japanese version had fairly austere stickers, but when Tonka brought the thing over for the second series of Super Gobots, they decided to Yankee the thing up with some extra Stars 'n' Stripes (also incorporating the text 'USAF L-1' as a registration code). Hrrrm.

The toy was also released in Europe as part of Robo Machine, complete with fresh box art. The European market would get another release in 1993 - the toy being used as the De Luxe F-15 for the Robo Machines line, with the registration code switched to read 'ROBO MACHINES'.

The Super version of Leader-1, of course, turns into a bigger F-15 jet. But it's better than that - this is a proper model of the Eagle. The smaller version suffered from a more botched execution than most of the small Machine Robo figures - gone is the ridiculously boxy fuselage and ugly fixed undercarriage.

Instead, aside from a sizeable indent just behind the nose, the underside is smooth and contoured, with some lovely detail. The tailplane's sorted out, properly blending into the fuselage this time. Unlike with the Super Cy-Kill, Bandai have refined the would, working on the scale and adding a large number of new engraved articles all over the plane - there's even stuff inside the cockpit now. The chromed jets are a nice touch too, while the larger wings mean the screw housings underneath aren't as painfully obvious. The undercarriage is now retractable - it looks fantastic (and is actually accurate to the F-15 layout), though the rear wheels can be fiddly, requiring either very thin fingers or long nails. The mode's only real problem is its' fragility - a lot on ebay turn up minus the various wings and fins.

I'm not really sure how so many people manage to knock off the main wings, but the screwed-on tailfins and moving rear wings do actually look like they could come off pretty easily. It's a great piece of sculpting, though it's rather smothered by the OTT stickers.

The transformation is again exactly the same as the smaller version (well, the rear wings are slightly different - more on this in a minute), but somehow more satisfying - I especially like the old-fashioned clicking noise the legs make as they extend.

The arms can foul slightly when coming out, but this doesn't seem terminal. Much like the jet mode, Bandai might have largely scaled this one up, but they've taken the time and effort to refine him as well. The proportions are an awful lot better - the limbs look less boxy and oversized, while the head cast is a much better size. The plates either side are less dominating too. The big shoulder connections are gone too, with more subtle extending diecast pieces keeping the arms closer to the torso, without costing the articulation. There are some faults, however - the 'jodhpurs' are still present - the toy would probably have looked a lot neater if the wings folded away at the root. However, the biggest problem is the revised tailplane arrangement - whereas the smaller version had the tailfins (unrealistically) a few millimetres higher up, on this version they're swept back over the jets, and this the legs actually sit around 5mm off the ground - the puts a lot of strain on the plastic in supporting what is a fairly heavy figure.

It's also only fair to note that he doesn't have any more articulation than the smaller version, which is a bit of a shame - hip joints wouldn't have been too hard, surely? Pleasingly, though, most of the excessively stickered surfaces fold out of sight in robot mode.