DX Muteki Shogun
Review by JoshB
This is an odd piece for me to review because it's one those pieces I picked up because the price was right. I always dug the idea of this piece - 5 castles that combine into one giant castle warrior. However it sat for years on my shelf because in fact the piece was in too good of a condition. The parts were still in baggies, the stickers unapplied, the toy itself practically case fresh.
So don't expect any musings here about the characters or their symbolism in regards to their place in the super sentai mythos. To me this is just a cool looking toy with a fantastic box.
I will tell you that this is the Bandai DX Muteki Shogun (DX無敵将軍) released in 1994 as seen in the Kakurangers TV series. In the US, this was released as the Shogun Megazord from Series 3 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Lets start off with my favorite - the box. This was 1994, when Bandai had not yet caught wind of the collector market, so it has an old-school feel to me. The big, bright graphics are loud and eye-catching. Most of the shots are of the actual product, but I appreciate the "enhanced" transformation image in the top corner.
On one side is the old-school handle, for carrying it home on the train after shopping.
The backside of the box is blank.
Lifting the lid off, you get the inside tray cover, plus the requisite baggie with instructions and stickers.
Muteki Shogun is comprised of Five Giant Beast Generals, each have a form of an animal mixed with a Japanese castle. It's kind of odd, but that's why I like it. Is this the first real building transformer (as predicted in Tom Hank's Big)?
*note that none of these have stickers applied, or weapons, as I did not want to remove them from packaging*
Giant Beast General Red Saruder
Red Saruder, like the rest of the toy, is entirely plastic in construction, with some fantastic gold and silver chrome finish. This is the one Beast General based off of a human. The helmet for Muteki Shogun stores inside the figure.
Giant Beast General White Kark
White Kark forms the left arm of Muteki Shogun. It was recolored to pink in the US release. Kark is a play on the Japanese term for Crane (Kaku).
Giant Beast General Blue Logan
Similar to White Kark, Blue Logan forms the other arm of Muteki Shogun. This one is wolf-themed.
Giant Beast General Yellow Kumard
Kumard forms the right leg and is based off of a bear.
Giant Beast General Black Gammer
Black Gammer is actually a frog, not a bear as I originally thought. Each animal here has a parallel in the Kakure Daishogun (aka Ninja Megazord). There, the frog form is more pronounced.
Displayed together, the Giant Beast Generals have a nice design cohesiveness that is lacking in surrent Super Sentai toys.
Lets Assemble Muteki Shogun!
The combined Muteki Shogun is a giant brick of a toy. The only movement at all is in the arms. It has such presence though, it cannot be denied.
There were a few other changes to the toy in it's translation to the US version. For one, the gold chest emblem was changed to a Lightning Bolt for US release.
In addition the Fire Sword came in a gold plastic instead of chrome.
Eventually I realized that I was not going to collect Super Sentai, and I sold it off on eBay for a handsome sum.
I sort of miss it now.
Comments
5 comments postedYou had an original, boxed Muteki Shogun? In that condition!? Lucky son of a rabbit lol. I'm a huge Kakuranger fan. I have a "Muteki Megazord", three parts Shogun MZ to two parts Muteki mecha with Reprolabels. (The two Japanese parts I have are White Kark and Blue Logan). Heck, even had a propmaker make resin replicas of the Doron Changer medals for me.
I ended up doing something similar to Rail Racer/JRX from Transformers RiD/Car Robots. I got a JRX set off of eBay with a damaged Rapid Run (I can't remember which J he is in Japan), then bought a second Rapid Run that didn't have his axe. So now he has a weird middle section where the plastic color is all different, and opaque, painted windows where the others have clear ones.
I knew Power Rangers was adapted from Sentai when I was a kid and the Alien Rangers appeared, but it wasn't until years later when I first found out the details of Kakuranger and learned that the Shogunzords came first. The Vampirus monster from the four-part Ninja Quest opener was the MOTW in episode 30-ish of Kakuranger. It's still bizarre to think of the Shogunzords yielding to the Ninjazords...
This really is one of the best designs from the 90's era sentai robots. If I have one complaint, it the fact that the arm connect with only four small clips. The clips eventually break.
Actually, Red Saruder isn't based off a human but a monkey (saru)