Baikanfu
Review by chachipower
Baikanfu comes from the show Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos which ran from 1986-1987. The release of this series was mainly an effort to match the popularity of the Transformers which debuted in 1985. I was late in getting into Baikanfu. He never really struck me as a must have character. I was more of a Gardian fan. It wasn't until a Soul of Chogokin Baikanfu crossed my path real cheap that I decided to give it a go. Needless to say I enjoyed it because I am now the proud owner of another Baikanfu diecast. This time around it is in SD form. When I heard a Baikanfu was in the works I imagined the combining feature was going to be a disaster. After seeing the prototypes, I placed a preorder. Well it is finally here. Let's take a look.
Baikanfu comes in the usual fantastic thick box that all ES Gokin come in with full color front and back and foil lettering.
The figures and accessories are securely nestled inside these sturdy plastic trays. There is a third tray which is for the included stand that works for the entire set (not shown).
I'll be starting off with Rom Stol. He is rendered here in teeny stylized form. As small as this little guy is, he is articulated in the head arms and legs. Both his head and legs are ball jointed. A pair of alternate arms with bent elbows is included. Although not the easiest thing to do, it is possible to stand on his own.
Here you can see just how small this little dude is. He's shown here with one of his two swords.
Also included in the set is Rom's little sister Leina. Her head arms and legs are articulated.
For some reason, her helmet can be removed and swapped for hair. Why not do the same for Rom?It's a girlie thing I guess.
If you thought Rom was small, check this out.
KENRYU
OK, it's time for some robots. Here is Kenryu. He is small but has an acceptable amount of diecast that resides in his chest and legs. Handling this figure made me wonder why no one has bothered to make a series of small scale articulated diecast robots.
BAIKANFU
Last but definitely not least is Baikanfu. Although he has been pleasantly distorted, he still manages to look like he can kick some butt.
I'm fascinated with paint finishes for some reason and when it is done well on a figure, I like to recognize it. Check out the flawless gleam on his head. Not one measly particle of dust in the paint.
I like how they worked in the knee feature. It allows a decent amount of movement.
When Kenryu is not combined with Baikanfu, Baikanfu's interior will obviously be hollow. To keep the solid look of this figure, there is an included filler piece just like Bandai included in their SOC release.
This release takes that filler-piece a step further and includes a light up feature as long as you go out and buy a couple of LR4 batteries since they are not included. They paid attention here because they even added a cloth strip to allow the easy removal of the batteries when you use them up.
What's nice is that they could have just made the eyes on Baikanfu out of a clear yellow plastic but they actually gave it a slight misting of gold. Just enough to give it color but let light pass through.
COMBINATION
You can go ahead and put Leina Stol away because you won't be needing her for this part.
Open up Baikanfu...
Next open up Kenryu and place Rom Stol inside...
Now you can insert the Kenryu/Rom Stol combo inside of Baikanfu. Not necessarily in that order if you want to get technical.
I came away impressed with the overall execution of this set. Not much was compromised to achieve this little feat of engineering. The only spot that really had to be compromised due to the design was the necks on both robots which are flat plates running down the back. Although the heads are on ball joints, the articulation is very limited especially on Kenryu which is stuck looking down. There have been issues with neck ball-joints snapping. Some of the neck snapping can be due to trying to make Kenryu look up which unfortunately is not part of his design. While my necks are still intact, my Kenryu suffered from a snapped leg alignment tab and a bent ball joint shaft that articulates the foot. The most annoying issue was the scratched up Rom Stol sword. One side is clean with crisp paint apps right down to the wolf logo and the other side looked like this.
It's too early to tell if these are isolated incidents so don't let that deter you from sourcing one of these sets if you are a Baikanfu fan or enjoy it's design.
Posted 15 December, 2011 - 22:12 by chachipower |
Comments
15 comments posted貴様らに名乗る名前はない!
兄さん!
ロム兄さん!
だ‐誰だ!
It's like, Russian Dolls with SD Robots. I can't help but feel the need to track down a set.
Okay, I'm impressed.
Pose-able SD is always great. If it can transform, that's also a neat little trick. Combiners would be a nightmare to pull off and have all the modes still look decent enough both when separate and combined.
But this-? I'm very surprised that they even tried it, much less that they accomplished their goal!
Wow! WTF happened on that sword?
when I see a cool piece like this for round $100-130, it really makes me question what the heck we're paying for with the high prices of other recent bots and toys... Just look at all the engineering on this. dag!
Your pictures always put mine to shame, but this is the tops. They are all incredible! Great job!
The figure is not my bag, keep up the incredible work.
....still think you should give everyone who does reviews a seminar or something during the next CDX meeting...
If I had a photo tent like most of the rest of the CDX staff already does, I'm sure my photos would turn out a little better; I've known that for years.
Those are definetly nice shots and a good depth of field on the 2 shots of the bots in front of each other. You dont necessarily need a light box.Its all about lighting in general, just get a basic sheet and play with the angles of lights and what not. I shoot alot of figures and dont use a light box.
Thank for the picture compliments. Honestly, you guys would laugh if you saw my setup. I don't have any light boxes or anything fancy. like you said It's all about light placement/diffusing light and settings on the camera.
I have to say , I really enjoy your reviews !FANTASTIC!!!!!!, but unfortunately I wont be buying this set. I got tired of paying big $ for toys full of QC issues =(. I wish we could go back to times when you can throw one of these toys against the wall, and not a scratch.
Thanks!,
Well thats the thing those toys in the past were just that..toys. Their design was function before form, so things could be made a certain way to withstand abuse at the expense of accuracy, now they are no longer really toys and designed to look good. Still, no excuse for bad QC.
"I wish we could go back to times when you can throw one of these toys against the wall, and not a scratch."
This time did not exist.