Gougou Gattai Vehicle #4 - Gougou Crane

Review by EVA_Unit_4A

The Super Sentai saga - created and produced by Toei Company, Ltd. since 1975 - celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2006! Every year for the past 31 years, a completely new Super Sentai [“special taskforce”] series had aired, with new characters, new villains, new storylines, and new mecha- creating a genre that has become generational in its appeal to of the island nation of Japan. In fact, some of the actors today who perform in a Super Sentai series were fans themselves when they were younger. Rarely does a franchise last for so long and succeed at being able to reinvent itself from year-to-year and continue to please fans of young and old; very few have been able to keep pace with it. It is filled with both drama and humor - with some hero characters actually dying or being replaced. And the villains- ranging from mad human scientists, buried demons, to invading space ninja aliens - are no less varied in personality, motives, and methods; aggressively attacking with carefully planned operations. Super Sentai was so popular that in 1983, “Kagaku Sentai Dynaman” was brought over to the USA Network as a dubbed comedic parody. Unfortunately, American audiences failed to stick with it. Saban Entertainment attempted to reintroduce Super Sentai to America as a children’s series in 1992 with “Choujin Sentai Jetman”, but failed with the younger test audience. Saban tried one more time the following year with a new version of “Kyoryu Sentai ZyuRanger”, and succeeded when the less-intense first season of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” became an instant hit with children 6-to-10yrs. While “Power Rangers” is based on the previous year’s Super Sentai show, it is a separate entity that will be celebrating its own 15th anniversary in 2007. Here are the Super Sentai that have come before:

The 2006 series - “Gougou Sentai Boukenger” [“Thundering Taskforce Adventure-Rangers”] - is a tribute to all that have come before, with old and new styles mixed together. For a more expanded explanation of Super Sentai, be sure to view this Wikipedia entry.

The Search Guard Successor museum organization (also known as SGS, or Sargess) has created a secret team to begin tracking down ancient artifacts that have been disappearing. With skills in treasure hunting/recovery, and their adventurous hearts, the Boukenger use their Accellular henshin devices to scan relics (called Precious) to discover their hazard levels and value. However, the many Negative Syndicates - the ancient stone Gordom Civilization, bio-engineered reptilian Jaryuu Clan, and covert ninja Dark Shadow - are also separately on the lookout for Precious to rule the world... or destroy it. The Precious are many, and they hold unknown power. Who will gain the most from them?

“Number nine- Gougou Crane: Hasshin!”

Hasshin Shift On:
Crane
Go! Go!

In Task 09- “The Ninja of the Paper Crane”, a Dark Shadow monster is destroyed by the Boukenger, and then revitalized as a giant. To complete his objective, he swallows an entire house right off of its foundation, trapping an old woman inside with a Precious. The Rangers form DaiBouken, but the monster taunts them, saying that if he is destroyed, the house he has just swallowed will be destroyed as well. With Bouken Yellow in a near panic over the old woman inside the eaten house, Bouken Black deploys Gougou Vehicle #9 and jumps in to control it. From within Gougou Crane’s cockpit, Bouken Black maneuvers the crane’s extended boom over the monster while DaiBouken peels its large mouth open. Like a fish out of water, Gougou Crane shakes the monster around until it finally lets go of the house.

Gougou Crane (back) is similar to Gougou Gattai Vehicle #2 - Gougou Shovel in several ways, but only in general appearance. They both have long arms that rotate independently of their bases, and rotating supports that help balance them. But, they each have their own unique features as well. Gougou Crane’s, eh- crane extends out another 1¼” to give the boom a slightly longer reach. At the end of the boom is a pair of large immobile gold-painted claws which are positioned on either side of the brown-painted windscreen of the cockpit. At the back of the boom on the rotating base is a spool that holds about 4” of black string, more than enough to reach to the ground it sits on and then some. As a bonus detail, a pair of hydraulic pistons sits on either of the crane boom and extend whenever it tilts up or down! The entire crane boom can also rotate completely around in 45° increments. The wheels, like on Gougou Gattai Vehicle #3 - Gougou Mixer, have eight black PVC tires as well. Very, very cool and fun functions!

For those of you wondering what the differences are between the Gougou Gattai Vehicle #4 - Gougou Crane from “Gougou Sentai Boukenger”, and it’s English-speaking counterpart - the —

Wait a minute --! What am I saying!? “Power Rangers Mystic Force” only came out a few months ago! We don’t even know what the 15th anniversary “Power Rangers” series will officially be called yet! I’m pretty sure, though, that there will be a few paint alterations on the yet-unnamed accessory Zord. They may release it as a paired set with another Gougou Vehicle, but that is just a guess. However, I suggest you appeal to Bandai America immediately and tell them, “Leave It Alone!”



Even more-so than Gougou Shovel, Gougou Gattai Vehicle #4 - Gougou Crane is very fun to play with even though the crane doesn’t reach that high or that far. The pistons are also a really nice touch; I liked it a lot. I have no complaints whatsoever. Highly recommended!

Sets required for combination:

DX Gougou Gattai DaiBouken (sold separately)

Gougou Gattai Vehicle #4 - Gougou Crane

Gattai Shift On:
Crane
Crane- Power On!

As of the posting of this review, DaiBouken Crane- the combination between Gougou Crane and DaiBouken- has not been seen, so it is not known what kinds of attacks or additional capabilities it has. I suspect that they may mirror those of the next combination...

DaiBouken Crane (back), like the others before it, seems lopsided because of the smaller arms the DX Gougou Gattai DaiBouken has. However, for DaiBouken Crane, the large crane boom looks more like a grappling hook mounted to the handless left arm. The crane boom and hook can still be extended and retracted in this form as well, though the base rotation has been disabled because of the transformation. The DX DaiBouken’s unusual flexibility allows for some interesting poses. One thing about the combination, though, that isn’t explained very well is what happens to Bouken Pink’s Gougou Marine Diver. The instructions say it’s supposed to attach inside DaiBouken Crane’s right leg, but on the show so far, there’s no mention of it. It does help a little with balance, though, and eliminates extra pieces from lying around all over the place.

“Alright- let’s go! Super Thundering Combination!”

Gougou Gattai Vehicle #4 is the last and pivotal component required to move on to the first super combination mecha from “Gougou Sentai Boukenger”. Go on to the next page to review the "Boukenger" combination- Chou Gougou Gattai Super DaiBouken!

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