toyboxdx toy blog brog: is graceful art of daily expressing japanese toy  

West of Tokyo that is..

Breakfast:

Lunch:

Dinner:

You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down. You look down and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling towards you . . . You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can’t, not without your help, but you’re not helping.

Got my CM’s Corporation ‘Mecha Action Series’ Brocken Labor (TV ver.) today. Having reviewed the previous M.A.S. AV-0 Peacemaker, i knew the easily dislodged cloth-covered joints would be a problem, but thankfully, the generally excellent sculpt and accessories made up for a lot. I’ll just let the pictures tell the story:

Brocken is much larger than the other law-enforcement labors. Here, it is set up with the optional ‘GSG-9’ armor parts.

Front view with a very recognizable ‘up-sized’ H&K MP-5 submachinegun.

From the back, you can make out the ‘heavy duty’ handles and waist mounted smoke dischargers.

Close up of mil-spec backpack.

Shoulder markings.

‘Fritz’ style helmet.

Exposed camera lens. The orb can be rotated.

Waist armor has clear orange parts for the ‘lights’.

On the back, however, the lights are just painted on. I like the Izubuchi trademark ‘7-dots’ on the side armor plate.

Equipped with B.F.G. ‘MG-42’ equivalent weapon. Unfortunately, the supplied ‘power hose’ was too short to connect the end of the gun with the waist port. I will probably replace it with a after-market hobby part.

Simple but effective details on the solid-molded gun. You need to attach the fix-folded bipod and the side-swivel handle.

Pretty ‘Jin-Roh’ if you let your imagination roam.

The weapons are a bit smaller than similar 1/6 scale versions… at least they weren’t totally ‘copy n paste’.

Here’s the ‘normal’ version in an encounter with Ohta’s No. 2 Ingram.

Hard to match up to Brocken’s sheer brawn…

Ohta takes a left to the head… and gets MAD.

A deftly applied stunstick whacks off the Brocken’s visor (and the operator’s smile)…

Coup de grace, Ohta style.

THE END.

For close to 8,000 yen, this toy poseable figure is not meant for the casual Patlabor fan. Even discounted, the terrible joints would make for a lousy play experience. Make no mistake: THE JOINTS WILL GET DISLODGED INSIDE THE CLOTH COVERS. But if you’re handy with plamo skills, and not afraid to rescue an otherwise stunning display piece, then the Brocken is simply brilliant.

Update 4/20:

Compliments of my good friend Kenichi Hanaki of:

Psychedelia
2F MINAMIKAN NANBACITY 5-1-60 NANBA CHUO-U
OSAKA 542-0076 JAPAN
TEL & FAX: 06-664-2660

“Please ask mommy or daddy for help with assembly.” And don’t forget to ask for help filling out the loan application to pay the thing off. Paper insert included with the Popy Jumbo Machinder Daikumaryu.

Alt, blowing a load. Stay tuned, more very, very soon..

I admit it. I’m koo-koo for soft vinyl robots. Not just any robots: they’ve got to be “real” robot characters from the Eighties. Why? Because nobody else cares, and I’ve taken it upon myself, like Mother Theresa, to give these leprous bastard children the cardboard box under my stairs they so richly deserve. And this is your lucky day, because you get to meet the undisputed king of my collection: the Clover “Treker (sic) Beagle Treker Cruser (sic) The Main Machine of ‘The Gorilla’ (sic)” Srungle. Sick. Intended for mental ages of five or lesser, it is an impressionist, shroomy portrayal of a robot that looks like an ambulatory coffee maker at the best of times. Let the Srung times roll with a trip back to the old Srungle datafile.