Irongear is a lot of fun, and I really love the fact that it is “Ready to go” right out of the box – I can’t stress that enough.

First of all I have to apologize about this review. I’m about to move, and I didn’t have time to do a video review, or to take any of the accessories out of the package. Once I am settled, I will shoot a video review. Head right over to BetaToys and get an Irongear though, you won’t be sorry.

One of the best things about Irongear is the fact that it’s pretty much ready to go right out of the box. There are no extra fists or fiddly bits. The box is huge and inside is a full styro tray that houses Irongear and then two smaller trays for the accessories and the Walker Machine kits.

Irongear is a hulking beast of a machine. It comes from the anime show Combat Mecha Xabungle (戦闘メカ ザブングル) which ran from 1982-1983. This giant Landship would carry around the smaller walker machines and when the need arose would transform into the giant Walker Machine Irongear.

The toy comes packaged in Walker Machine mode so we will start there. For a big toy, its got a fair amount of articulation. The head turns, and the white fins on the sides are poseable. Each arm is articulated at the shoulder, bicep, elbow and hand. The hands feature a poseable thumb and finger group. There are no extra hands here – one hand does it all. The upper body is mostly metal. Irongear has a waist joint, and parts of the waist are also metal. The legs attach to the body with an innovative connection system that accommodates both a full range of motion and the splitting ability required for transformation.

In robot mode, the only real accessory you can use is a head covering – I didn’t take it out of the package but it basically gives the appearance of having a ski mask on.

Transformation from Robot mode to Landship mode is essentially the same as the vintage clover DX toy. You have to remember that most of these characters were designed as toys first and then the show was designed around them. In order to make the character on the screen look just like the toy, they had to make sure the transformation was accurate. Bandai did manage to do a few things differently than Clover did though, and this toy is more awesome because of it.

The first thing you need to do is push the fists up into the arms, and a neat feature here is that a side panel slides up to cover the white part of the arm. From here you have to do a few things at once, but it all comes back together nicely. First you separate the waist and you notice the large metal supporting bar. When this is separated, pull the side parts of the waist out and then separate the legs down the middle.

It is in this mode that the Irongear really shines. Let’s start at the front and work our way back.

The two “feet” in the front open and provide access to the interior of the ship.

Also included with the Irongear is a model of the landship “Buffalo” and 15 different walker machines that you have to assemble.

There’s not much I didn’t like about this toy. The main flaw is the weight of the toy in landship mode seems to be too much for the joint system in the center. The legs and hind section are too heavy, causing the ship to sag if lifted up. Fortunately, the Irongear was not meant to fly! I also was not at all in the mood to assemble microscopic model kits of 15 Walker Machines. Those are going to stay in the box I think. But Irongear is a lot of fun, and I really love the fact that it is “Ready to go” right out of the box – I can’t stress that enough.

Soul of Chogokin GX-38 Irongear is available at BetaToys.com

Overall, I think the Walker Gallia is a winner. The Durun kit is ok, but consider it a bonus. The Gallia is worth the purchase price alone. Review includes video!

The GX-35 Walker Gallia (超合金魂 ウォーカーギャリア) is the companion piece to the GX-28 Walker Machine Xabungle Released in 2005. Both toys hail from the show Combat Mecha Xabungle, which aired for 50 episodes from 1982-1983.

I got this in the mail from betatoys last weekend and I have to say what a great toy this is. If you liked Xabungle, you will love this.

Walker Gallia (also spelled Galliar) is a transformable mecha made out of two distinct vehicles. The first machine, the Gallee-Hover, is a hovercraft that forms the head and arms of the Walker Gallia. The Gallee-Hover is mostly plastic, with metal shoulders and arm connectors. The rotor on the back spins, and 2 small legs fold down from the arms to support it.

The Gallee-Will is a three-wheeled vehicle that looks like a futuristic pickup truck. It has a surprisingly large amount of metal in it. The three wheels are a hard rubber and the rolling action is smooth. There is a small articulated cannon on the front.

While the separate vehicles are interesting, ultimately we are here to talk about the combined Walker Gallia robot.

Transformation is simple – a far cry from the Xabungle. Make sure you unhook the small pegs on the inside of the upper thighs before attempting to transform it. In robot mode Gallia is substantially heavier than the Xabungle. The ample use of diecast makes this a satisfying piece of gokin.

Starting from the top – the head is articulated but it’s movement is limited by its connection to the hover rotor. You have to attach 2 small black antennas to the head, and Bandai gives you 2 other sets of antenna in case you break or lose one. Next to the head is a small spotlight that hides in the shoulder. This spotlight is hard to get at, and I often just a small knife to pry it up.

The shoulders are all metal, including the outer casing and the inner mechanism. The shoulders click with detented joints that have thick teeth.  The biceps swivel and the elbow has the standard range of motion. The lower arm opens to reveal a place to store the fists while in Gallee-Hover mode. While 3 sets of fists are included, only the closed fists can be stored in the arms.

The Torso is nice and solid, and has a nice waist-joint.

The legs can rotate out at the hips and the knees click in and out of position. The feet can go forward and backwards, and there is even a little side-to-side motion thanks to a separate foot plate. Small pads on the bottom of the feet are spring loaded – a nice touch. The toes do not bend much.

Gallia comes with a ton of accessories, including:

• 3 sets of hands (open, closed, and gun holding)
• Scope rifle with removable clip
• Bazooka with removable clip and ammo shell
• Shoulder mounted missile bank
• Boomerang Ideom weapon
• Hover Truck
• Hover cycle
• Cargo Box
• Ski clips

Instead of the usual stand, Walker Gallia comes with a small Hover Truck model kit that you have to assemble. You can display it as a stand alone vehicle with a flat bed, or you can add on a second part that acts as a holder for all of the parts.

Included with the Walker Gallia is a model kit of the Walker Machine Durun. This kit is one of many Walker Machine designs that did not see kit form during the original run of models in the 80s.

The model kit is simple to put together, but may be a bit confusing to the novice modeler. The arms seem tricky at first, and the non-English instructions don’t help. It took me (a casual model builder) just over an hour to put this kit together. It is molded in color, and requires no glue or paint. A large portion of the kit is already assembled for you in the box.

While the Durun is neat, I find the design odd and hard to display in my collection. The Durun is large and oddly shaped. It’s larger than the Gallia. I think some paint detailing and weathering would add a lot to this model’s appearance. While the Xabungle and Brockary share a similar design aesthetic, the Gallia and the Durun are an odd couple.

Both toys are packed in the typically beautiful Soul of Chogokin Box. Inside is two boxes. One tray has all the parts for the Gallia, packed in flimsy transparent plastic. The other box is for the Durun. The Box is styled just like the old model kits. I am pretty sure the Irongear used in the box photo is the Clover DX Irongear.

Overall, I think the Walker Gallia is a winner. The Durun kit is ok, but consider it a bonus. The Gallia is worth the purchase price alone.

You can find the GX-35 Walker Gallia at betatoys.com

Grande Astro Robot is an Italian bootleg of the Clover Walker Galliar ST toy.

This is a great bootleg of the ST Clover Walker Machine Galliar, from the series Blue Gale Xabungle.

It's basically the same toy as the Clover version, but of lesser quality. The toy comes packed in a nice Styrofoam tray, his arms outstretched in some kind of Christ pose.

It's a big hunk of metal that fully transforms into its two separate vehicles. The gun has one missile that does not shoot.

Although the tray looks as if there is a part missing - there isn't, as far as I can tell, the disc-shaped part that is not in its place is actually attached to the robots back. I could not get the part to separate.

This piece is worth checking out, if only for the poor English on the back, with such phrases as "Please play by proper method to prevent causes of trouble".

This toy was my first exposure to Xabungle. It is amazing how many Japanese toys I was introduced to but never knew about... All planting the seeds of who I am today.

I remember being 10, maybe 11 years old. Every year in September we would go to the Deerfield Fair, a 4-H fair, featuring food, animals and amusement rides. We would always go in the evening, so I remember it being very cold, the smell of winter coming. The smell of fried dough permeated the air. There were all kinds of booths there, including a few devoted just to toys, small junky trinkets to keep the Kids happy while the Dads looked at the latest tractors. It was at those booths that I first met Astroider, who I would later come to know as Xabungle.

Astroider is just one of many different bootlegs of the Henkei Gattai Xabungle, originally made by the obscure Japanese toy company Seven (Under the Orion brand). You could find these toys at Dollar Stores, Flea Markets and County Fairs during the mid-1980s.

Some came on blister cards, some came in boxes nearly identitical to the original. Today they can be found in various junk lots sold on ebay.

This particular bootleg is interesting because it is actually made for K-Mart. The K-mart logo is displayed on the back of the toy.

Astroider is made entirely of plastic, and is about 5 inches tall. He can transform from robot mode to truck mode. Instructions are conveniently printed on the back of the box. The transformation requires removal and replacement of several parts; therefore, loose specimens today are usually incomplete.

This toy was my first exposure to Xabungle. It is amazing how many Japanese toys I was introduced to but never knew about... All planting the seeds of who I am today.

Released in October 2005, the SOC Xabungle attempts to be both an anime accurate toy and a transformable robot.

My first memories of Xabungle are a little fuzzy. I remember going to a fall fair when I was younger, and they always had a table full of toys. I remember lots of bootleg Machinerobo toys, Orguss toys, and then there was this blue guy. I skipped over him in favor of a bootleg space shuttle Machinerobo, but I didn't forget him.

A few years later, I would run into him again, this time on a blister card at a drugstore.

I wouldn't learn his true identity until I became an adult collector.

The character was called Xabungle, from the series Blue Gale Xabungle. The character was designed by Kunio Ohkawara, who also designed mecha from Gundam, Votoms and Dougram. The series was created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino as a follow up to his hugely influential Mobile Suit Gundam. Blue Gale Xabungle ran 50 episodes from 1982 to 1983.

There have been many Xabungle toys over the years, from the cheap train station toys, to the classic DX Clover sets, but none has ever attempted to be both anime accurate AND transforming.

Enter the Bandai Soul of Chogokin Xabungle.

Released in October 2005, the SOC Xabungle attempts to be both an anime accurate toy and a transformable robot.

The SOC Xabungle comes with many accessories, including:

• Display stand
• 3 sets of fists
• Rifle with removable cartridge
• Optional broken wings
• 2 sets of wheels (one for looks, one for transformation)
• 3 sets of antenna
• Shoulder Mounted Bazooka
• Shoulder-Mounted Missile Launcher
• 4 barrel arm bazooka
• Rope
• Gun Turret
• Skis (!)
• Hover vehicle
• Suitcase-style missile launcher
• WM Brockary Model kit

That's a lot of parts. All the parts fit onto the display stand, which has no nameplate. The fists do not fit snugly onto the stand, and have a tendency to fall off with the slightest touch.

Xabungle

The Xabungle toy is about 6 inches tall, and made out of ABS plastic and good old fashioned die-cast metal. The metal content is in the shoulders, chest and feet, but it is enough that it gives the toy a good solid feel. Articulation is excellent, but make sure you pull the feet down so both the lower leg and foot snap into place to get the full range of motion. The styling of this toy fits in perfectly with the old HCM Galliar, so much so that you feel that this toy could have been made back in the day. They are even in the same scale!

Xabungle transforms just like it does in the show, but it requires special parts to do so. Because the parts are a bit bulky for normal play, Bandai provided and additional set of anime accurate wheels for display. First, Xabungle splits in half and becomes 2 vehicles. The front part of the vehicle is called the Bungle Skipper, and is comprised of the chest and arm sections. To transform it you have to remove the torso of Xabungle from the lower half, and push the head down into the chest cavity. You have to be careful to not damage or loose the antenna here, but just in case, Bandai provided 2 extra sets. Swing the arms up over the head, and then rotate the hand assembly around to reveal the nose sections. That's all there is to the transformation to Bungle Skipper. You can also change Bungle Skipper to flight mode.

The bottom half of Xabungle becomes the Bungle Rover trailer. Simply collapse the legs, close the covers and seal up the front with the armor plate. A small hook attaches the Bungle Rover to the Bungle Skipper for a combined cab and trailer mode. Bungle Skipper also has a flight mode, simply by unfolding the white covers.

Xabungle can hold a variety of weapons. Use the trigger hand to hold the rifle or arm mounted bazooka. The bazooka has a switchable trigger grip so that it can be used on either arm. The shoulder mounted launchers do not like to stay attached to the toy at all. The one on the right shoulder is more secure than the left on my toy, but I have heard conflicting reports. Some owners have no problems at all, some fall off with the slightest touch. You can also hold a tank turret, and even attach Sand Skis to Xabungle's Feet. Xabungle may not be the biggest SOC, but you can do a lot with it.

Problems

Xabungle has a few minor flaws, but it's not too bad. First is the issue with the antenna - they are much too fragile and are prone to popping off. Sure, Bandai gave you replacements, but that's like they are admitting it is a problem instead of solving it. Second, the shoulder launchers don't like to stay on. The backpack assembly des not like to stay attached unless you really press it in hard. Finally - the stand kind of stinks. Nothing is really secured to it well, and there is no nameplate.

Included with the Xabungle is a model kit for the long lost Brocakry. This is no ordinary kit though. It's just fantastic; so much so, that it deserves its own review..

This is the bonus model kit that came packaged with the GX-28 Soul of Chogokin Xabungle.

This is the bonus model kit that came packaged with the GX-28 Soul of Chogokin Xabungle. It is another mecha from the same series, named Brockary.

There have been many Xabungle toys made over the years, but mostly of the three main characters - Xabungle, Irongear and Galliar. The other mecha from the series were produced as plastic injection model kits. The line of Model kits covered most every robot in the series except for one - brockary. I don't know why it was never produced, but Bandai decided to rectify the situation by including it with the SOC. They even gave the box for the kit a similar feel to that of the vintage model kits.

Walker Machine Brockary

Brockary comes as a series of sprue sealed in plastic baggies. Parts are molded in color, so no painting is needed. Instructions are in Japanese but are easy to follow. We recommend you use a hobby knife to carefully remove parts from the sprue.

The kit goes together relatively easy, and once complete, you have a completed toy, not a fragile model. The plastic used seems to be of a higer grade than most model kits. It is fully articulated, and comes with a variety of hands, and can use some of the accessories from Xabungle. Brockary comes with a gun that can be stored on the figures back. There is a second set of clips that allow you to use Xabungle's sand skis as well.

Brockary is a great addition to the SOC Xabungle; don't leave this one MIB. You are only getting half of the fun out of the toy if you do.

The toy is basically an action figure version of Xabungle. It does not transform, but does feature a good amount of poseability. It's made of the same stuff that MSiA are - ABS and PVC plastic.

This is the Walker Machine Xabungle, from the Walker Machine in Action line. This is NOT the Soul of Chogokin.

The toy is basically an action figure version of Xabungle. It does not transform, but does feature a good amount of poseability. It's made of the same stuff that MSiA are - ABS and PVC plastic.

The toy stands about 4 inches tall and comes with a good array of accessories. You get variant hands, a rifle, a shoulder mounted missile launcher, another arm cannon, and a broken set of wings (to replicate damage shown in the cartoon). The hands snap on and off easily. The shoulder mounted bazooka is positionable and attaches to the shoulder via a mounting bracket. The arm cannon has removable handles that can be positioned on either side.

Xabungle is extremely poseable, but suffers a bit due to the stiff ankles. The small wheels on the arms also have a tendency to pop off. Lastly, the head antenna tends to be a bit floppy.

But it's a nice representation of the character, and the first poseable Xabungle toy that I can think of (all previous toys were pretty much bricks). If you have the new SOC Xabugle, you can skip this one. But for a while, this is all we had, and it was pretty good.

In 2000 Bandai also released a Galliar in the Walker Machine in Action series. Other "In Action" series included Aura Battler, Patlabor, Super Robots and Mobile Suits.

This is one in a series of toys designed for UFO Catcher machines. It came in a box that was to be picked up by a crane claw.

The figure comes partially assembled.

The figures in this series were:

1. RX-78
2. Char's Zaku
3. L-Gaim
4. L-Gaim Mk 2
5. Galliar
6. Xabungle