3 is the Magic Number: CM’s Corporation’s Brave Gohkin Patlabors / DMS 046
Well, I’m sure I can’t be the only crazy fool but I have definitely fallen hook, line and sinker for CM’s Corporation’s Brave Gohkin Patlabors. You know the drill by now: They being ‘small toy companies catering to a specialised collector market’, will always find a way to maximise profits either through repaints and variants (rare or otherwise). In the case of these gorgeous Ingrams, it’s all in the head… literally.
First, CM’s released the Movie Ver. in early March where each set contained one (1!) body with the optional parts for either Izumi’s No. 1 head, or Ohta’s No. 2 head. Then just before April, the TV Ver. comes out with options for either No.1 or No. 3 heads. Hard to understand? Not if you’re a Patlabor fan, it isn’t…
Fans of the first movie will probably buy 2 of the Movie Ver. sets to own both No. 1 and No. 2. However, I suspect many more Patlabor fans love the TV and OVA series even more and would want to have the expanded line-up of all three Ingrams. With the cunning switcheroo on the TV-edition set, a fan will have to somehow acquire a No. 2 head from the Movie-edition, plus another TV-edition set to have the ‘anime correct’ shield emblem and stun-baton. Unless you have a buddy to exchange parts with, you may very well end up buying 4 sets in total. Like me!
Anyway, no regrets. The toy is really wonderfully realised with an abundance of diecast content and more than sufficient poseability in the cloth-shrouded joints. The inclusion of working patrol lights, opening cockpit hatches, slide-up seat and hatch-actuated revolver-cannon compartment are everything I have hoped for in a DX Patlabor toy.
I could never have as much satisfaction with any of the old Bandai toys from the 90s… Not with the brick-like 1/32 ‘lights & sound’ Ingram, and certainly not with the frustratingly pose-limited 1/60 Cloth-Gear series. The current Patlabor output from Kaiyodo’s Revoltech is mighty sweet for action figures, but with the CM’s Ingram I have found an ‘SOC worthy’ incarnation of one of my favorite Yutaka Izubuchi mecha designs.
What else is on the horizon from CM’s Corp? Well, I have already been induced to purchase my very first sofubi because of the excellence displayed in the Ingram: The limited edition ‘in-scale’ Tyrant 2000 worker labor.
Judging from the multiple re-stockings of the Ingram here in Singapore, I certainly hope CM’s continues with a Brave Gohkin of the badass Griffon. That’s the version with the wings right? Or the underwater one? I’ll take ’em all, thank you!
