Tobikage & Kurojishi
Review by chachipower
Welcome to my first Soul of Chogokin review for CDX. After the awesome GX-53 Daitarn, will the GX-54 leave us wanting more or is it a solid release? Read on my friends.
After enduring a torturous 10 hours at work before I could open the box, I was finally let go and rushed home to tear open my carefully packaged box from HLJ. What I found was a brand new minty fresh box full of happiness. The GX-54 package has a nice dark feel to it which I tried to capture in the photography for this review.
This review sample came from non other than the always great Hobbylink Japan a.k.a. HLJ.com
Here is the front of the box.
The back is packed with exciting pictures of what's in store.
There's some great artwork to be found on the box flaps.
The next step was to pull out the awesome styrofoam tray which houses this treasure. But wait... there is no styro to be found! I searched the box but found nothing. What we get instead is the usual clear plastic trays usually used to house accessories, only here it also houses the main figure. Notice the generous helping of cardboard for support. I hope this doesn't not continue to be a trend with SOCs.
So after carefully slicing through the sealing tape, I opened the top cover of the tray and sent my grubby fingers to grab hold of my favorite yellow robot. I'd like to take this moment and pray to the Chogokin gods. " Dear Chogokin gods, thank you for making this figure look like it could have been made back in the day with it's awesome blockiness and heft, while still using modern technology and precision to make him extra cool. Amen" I was so engaged by this figure that I forgot about Tobikage for a while. So here is Kurojishi.
Here is the back. Notice anything? Well I'll make it easy for you. There is a noticeable lack of screws.
First impression after I collected myself was that it gave off a rather plasticky look although the weight was proof that some diecast was lurking in the figure. When I say "plasticky" I don't mean it in a negative way. There is high quality plastic being used here. Made more evident when you reflect light off his yellow surfaces and realize the plastic has metallic flakes!
There is some decent articulation for a robot of such blocky proportions. He has all the typical movements. Neck, shoulders, elbow, wrist, hips knees etc. He's even able to kneel.
Before we get into diecast and accessories. I'll point out the parts where the screws are hidden and how some joints are constructed. Here is a screw found on the shoulders.
There is also a screw on the knee area. If there are any more screws, you'd probably have to go digging for them. Bandai has done a great job at keeping Kurojishi clean of holes and screws.
The elbow area is rather small so Bandai has elected to use a spring pin instead of using nasty big screws.
So how about some diecast? Kurojishi has quite a bit. The main section of his body is made out of this wonderous material. I've highlighted the portion of his body to show how much is used.
The forearms also carry a good solid bit.
As we move down to his feet, we find that the entire foot is diecast along with the lower half of the inner leg.
Here is what his feet bottoms look like. The silver part is not plastic like most releases have when there is detail molded in. Bandai decided to just make the entire foot metal.
Here is the foot section and it's mechanical design used in transformation.
The shoulder carries diecast ratchets which should survive years of use. Here we see the hip joints that are also diecast, and for good reason. The joints are TIGHT. I mean really tight. If you get flop, it's a dud. This figure has some of the tightest hip joints I've come across!
The shoulders have a shifting mechanism which allows shoulders to move forward and back.
Even up close, the paint apps are tight.
Let's check out some accessories. Here is this blaster with spinning turrets and flip up crosshair viewer.
He also gets a beam saber that may remind some folks of Gundam sabers.
There is also a basic sword which I will show later on. OK OK OK, so where is Tobikage? Well I didn't forget about him, I was just busy playing with Kurojishi all this time. Don't go thinking Tobikage is some basic fiddly action figure. No my friend, this was designed to be as cool as any small figure could be. I was under the impression that he was going to be some cheesy PVC figure, but I was most sadly mistaken. Introducing one of the coolest Ninjas ever, Tobikage.
He looks like what? a 6-7" figure judging by his detail? Nope, this incredibly detailed figure is about 3 3/4" and it is darn sweet. Molding is precise, paint is flawless and it stands on his own very easily. There are so many moving parts that it's bound to make you dizzy. He is constructed of sturdy ABS. Oh and diecast. Yes Diecast. His chestplate is made of the hard stuff. Here is the chest piece highlighted. Crotch Thrust!
He's also solid. He maintained this pose without tape, glue, gorilla snot etc. I pose him and he obliges by staying very still.
Here he is with one of his swords.
How about a back view? Notice the lack of screws. The are somewhat hidden from plain view when posed normally.
He comes with a generous assortment of weapons that actually stay on his hands. He comes with an assortment of variant hands to accommodate the poses and weapons of your choosing.
He can store his weapon on his back using an alternate weapon piece.
This is not technically a weapon, well it is, but not an add-on. It's a missile launcher that is conveniently stored in his thighs. It actually pulls out. And see the fin? yeah, it folds back. Very impressive for a figure of this size.
Now we come to the cool part. Alternate modes of this set. It's actually very cool and the engineering is very impressive. Everything fits where it's supposed. I normally don't transform robots much,Voltron being the exception, but I've done it about 10 times with this set. I have a thing for robot lions I guess. Here is Kurojishi in Lion form.
Flying robot lions are always cool.
The lion head has no neck movement due to its design, but the jaw is articulated. So is the silver bar below it.
This allows him to hold the sword I mentioned earlier, in his mouth. It's made even more stable by use of a tab on the roof of his mouth.
He's cool and all, but there's something missing right? Let's not forget about good ol' Tobikage. He basically rolls up into a ball. You pull his shoulders back, bend his legs against his back and you get this.
Although I'll be covering most of the transformation in my video review, I'd like you guys to check out how cool he fits into Kurojishi. As freestyle and seemingly imprecise as Tobikage's transformation is, it fits like a glove inside of Kurojishi. Tobikage's feet slide into tabs on Kurojishi's back, the tabs fold down to hold Tobikage securely. Next two panels swing up to clean it up visually. Finally a panel is flipped up to cover his lower half and another to cover his head.
From the bottom, you can see how snug everything fits together.
That's pretty much it guys. So what's the bad news? Aside from lack of styrofoam which is not directly associated with figure quality, there is really nothing bad I could say about this. It's kind of hard to find something bad to say about a well finished and executed release that also easy on the wallet compared to other SOC releases. You get two cool robots for the price of less than one typical release. There is no flop and no annoying bits to take away from the experience. If you like older stuff, you may like this because it captures what we love about older style figures like the simplicity, sturdiness, blockiness and overall vibe while still managing to capture the precision of today's manufacturing technologies. I would have preferred a vintage style packaging but I feel overall it was well executed.
While I love screw holes on the backs of my robots, It was refreshing to handle a solid figure without seeing any signs of construction.
I hope you guys enjoyed the review and if you have plans on picking this guy up, don't delay and hit up HLJ.com to claim your own.
As of this writing, HLJ is offering 20% EMS shipping so you can save a few bux and have your very own GX-54 in your hands in a few short days!
Stay tuned for my video review of this GX-54.
Posted 10 August, 2010 - 23:32 by chachipower |
Comments
14 comments postedKurojishi really stole the show here, I think. This set is quite awesome and I may have to pick one up if I see it at AWA this year. Excellent review!
Brilliant review.
I'll be selling my SOC Voltes V for this sweetheart of a TF. Bon Voyage coming soon to a disposal near you my Voltes.
Beautiful 80's design. Can't wait to see how the other two turn out.
Brilliant review. I enjoying reading it very much indeed.
So this is the first SOC without styrofoam, right?
Was it the reason why some SOC were somewhat expensive?
Being a perfectionist who puts his robots back into their respective boxes after playing a little with them I simply didn't like this fact. A styrofoam tray keeps robots safe and protects them during shipment.
I liked the lack of holes and screws very much, however.
Right now I'm looking forward to Daltanious in the Soul of Chogokin line.
The two walker machine releases, Xabungle and Galliar, both eschewed Styrofoam for plastic trays. All of the SOC Specs have also gone with full plastic trays as well.
I've never actually had a problem with parts damage in transit with plastic trays - the only real concern you could have would be crushing, but that's what the cardboard supports are for.
This set really is fantastic. Getting Tobikage into Kurojishi is a bit more fiddly than I'd like (and I scraped the kneepad on my Tobikage trying it :( ), but both toys truly excel as standalone figures. Kurojishi, weight wise, is a brick despite his small stature, and Tobikage is a fun and flawlessly detailed little robot that goes great with other small SOC addon figures, like Rom Stoll or Gaia.
Despite the odd switch from styrofoam to plastic inserts, this is another one of those pieces that garners my interest based on the sole merits of the toy without prior knowledge of the show. How can you say no to that ridiculous blaster money-shot? I guess it's time to brush up on my Tobikage homework.
Superb review.
I concur, this was a great review. Well-photographed, well-written, concise, but with lots of juicy details. I especially liked the photos showing metal content. I hope to see more of your work here.
Great review. Man these things are sweet.
One comment about the Styrofoam. I believe the reason for that there is none is Sustainability. I work in the toy biz and all of our boxed packages have changed from having Styrofoam to plastic vaccu-form trays and cardboard. You can recycle plastic and cardboard, but you cannot recycle Styrofoam.
mechastash
Thanks for the positive comments from everyone.
The sustainability of plastic trays over styrofoam is true as well as its ability to be recycled, but how many of us will really ever throw out the packaging of our pricey chogokins/collectibles? There is probably a very small percentage of collectors that will toss the styro and box but I think overall, the majority prefers to keep the packaging and prefer a nice styro box, but in the end it really is all about what's inside, I mean this things are meant to be taken out and enjoyed right? I sure as heck am enjoying my gx-54
It's not just about if we throw it away. Styrofoam is like the older plastics our toys in styrofoam are made of, they will be around for centuries, taking up space or eventually being burned and damaging the atmosphere.
I like the glowing shiny metal effect to show where the diecast is, but I think it would also benefit from darkening the rest of the photo slightly. The highlighted diecast parts end up at the same level of brightness as the un-highlighted parts, making the images slightly "hard to read".
Thanks for your input. My patented diecast hilighting is an ever evolving process lol. I'm trying different things out. It will be more evident in the video because it will actually visibly glow.
http://www.toysdaily.com/discuz/redirect.php?tid=133786&goto=lastpost&from=fastpost&random=0.01192249781053023#lastpost
http://www.mugenchina.org/fido/toy/2.JPG
Be VERY careful with the tight joints on this one