Battle Riser
Review by The Enthusiast
Battle Riser is a late-period Machine Robo toy, not released in the US. He’s one of three "Risers," or powered suits featured in the Battle Hackers series, a sequel of sorts to the first MR cartoon, Revenge of Cronos.
Battle Riser is one of two deluxe Risers, featuring more accessories and upgrades than the more stripped-down BH-01 Power Riser. Machine Robo packaging from this era is exquisite. The black background, bold yellow border, and dramatic toy photographs are unlike anything else, then or now.
Battle Riser comes in a styrofoam tray with copious accessories. Both arm-mounted weapons must be assembled from parts provided on sprues. Missiles and ball projectiles for the two shoulder mounted guns are included.
Instructions
The set comes with a core suit, shoulder armor, arm-mounted weapons, leg armor, and cockpit armor. On each shoulder is a firing weapon.
Battle Riser is piloted by Luke Stewart. The figure is inferior to the similar Kenpo Warrior MR figures. He looks well-articulated, but is not. He's all plastic, and brittle.
Assembled, Battle Riser cuts a handsome figure. I'm a sucker for powered suits, and BR doesn't disappoint.
The suit is only slightly articulated. The arms have a good range of motion, but the legs are fairly static.
Most of the figure is plastic, but the lower legs are partially diecast. The legs are beautifully detailed...
...as is the cockpit.
Battle Riser is another fine and overlooked Machine Robo toy.
Posted 28 December, 2009 - 17:34 by The Enthusiast |
Comments
7 comments postedWow. This sucker trumps my Power Riser by a mile... I will have to track one of these down. I have a loose Battle Hackers Riser, with the dark haired pilot, but I have no armor for the suit, and you are right that the Battle Hackers pilots are terrible compared to the fantastic martial arts-robo figures.
than the exosquad frames...
This mech suit & it's pilot reminds me of Alec DeLeon's Recon Class E-Frame from the TV series Exosquad.
-R78
"He looks well-articulated, but is not."
It would be nice to know what this means. I see universal shoulder joints, hinge elbows, kung fu grip, ball-jointed hips, double knee hinges, and hinged ankles... so how is he NOT well-articulated?
The Battle Hackers have nice double jointed knees and universal shoulders, but only have swivel hips, shallow elbow joints, a little ankle flapping, and no body movement. The Martial Arts robos blow these guys out of the water... ball jointed hips and shoulders, lots of ankle movement, body joints, and bicep swivels.
PLUS, the Battle Hackers are hideous. Bootleg-quality heads, no paint, and absurd body proportions. Just terrible. And all plastic.
Good Point, Recognizer. Let me clarify. All of those joints do move, but the figure will not stand in any position other than the one shown, and even then he tips over if you breathe on him. My bias is such that, to consider a figure "well articulated," it should hold a pose by itself. So while the figure is decent hand candy, his articulation is statically limited. I was sloppy in my characterization. I will be more precise in the future.
Thanks to RetroRobotRadio on Youtube,Luke Stewart wears a blue space-suit and seems to be the Kirk of the Good Luck Teens who crash-landed onto the Planet B-1 while it was having a civil war between the Argos who are the Machine Robos and the Gurendos who were these green turtles known as Sitappas (Underlings),Uwappas who were the blue fly boys and their generals who are these high-school delinquent tributes and one of them is a Yakuza by the name of Yazand.
Luke and the others were pretty much the straight men to the Machine Robos. He's pretty calm and collected. I dig him but his toy looks freakin' amazing. A shame this series didn't came out outside of Japan.
He's always Akira Amachi's partner in crime when it comes to dishing out pain in the anime.