CM's Corp Patlabor

AV-0 is no Brave Gokin. That is just so sad! No wonder it was lacking details.


Realistically speaking, the detailing looks about OK to me... The AV-0 is supposed to be a more streamlined design than the Ingram. The real-cloth joints are a good start and I believe the patrol lights and main lenses are clear plastic. Another plus point: no more unsightly exposed screws.

I think once CM's includes the tampo printing of the 'license plate', metropolitan police & unit markings, it will look just fine.

Also, the ankles look to be at least as flexible as the Griffon's... and that can't be a bad thing.

Taisho is out, and it's boxed:

[page11.auctions.yahoo.co.jp]

Mmm... that chrysanthemum badge needs to be redone in shiny gold!

Nice! Just found an open-box Patlabor (Movie vers.) on Ebay for $79. $15 shipping. Best I've been able to find at an online store was over $100 before shipping.

(Can someone fix the title of this thread, please?)

Got my Taisyo vinyl this morning, a quick review...

First of all, the box is generic black and white printing, glossy, with a little grid on the side and a sticker that indicates which of the three versions it is. This is what happens when you open the box:




The glue they used on the seam was pretty weak, so the whole thing snaps open. As you can see, the figure itself is in a little bubble-wrap bag. There's also a little baggied with the hands, which you have to plug in.

Here it is assembled, with the Tyrant and some vintage chogokin for scale:




The vinyl is slightly soft, but thick, like the Tyrant. The figure's paint job is nicely done, lots of sculpted detail that obviously took a lot of effort to fill in. Mine has a wee bit of smudging under the head that can probably be fixed with a q-tip and a little alcohol. There is only one point of articulation, the WAIST JOINT.

The figure is cast in four main parts: legs, torso, and arms. Panels are glued onto the fronts of the thighs and shoulders. There's a bit of a mismatch on mine between the upper and lower body halves, when you look at the figure's waist and hips it doesn't quite line up properly. You really have to be looking for this, though.

In summary, it's the same price as the Tyrant, but it's smaller and has less articulation. However, it does have a much more complex paint job, and it is boxed instead of bagged. It's up to you whether or not it's worth it. I'm satisfied with mine, but I would have liked movable arms. If you really wanted one, you probably pre-ordered it already.

So far I haven't seen anything on CM's web site about the Hercules. I hope the sales of the Taisyo were good enough that they'll go ahead with it.

Aww man, it's got the same amount of poseability as PICKEL-KUN :P
My 'TV-color' and 'worker color' Taisyos are being shipped right now... I'm definitely addicted.

Well, I finally recieved my TV-police and 'worker' TAISYOs today. Despite their total lack of poseability, I really like 'em! One thing that bugged me though was how dull and light the blue color was on the police Taisyo, absolutely nothing like the publicity photos...

An intriguing thought: after a quick examination, it appears the shoulders are attached to the body in a very simple way, so it may be possible to detach them and attempt a custom joint. I'd love to allow my police Taisyo at least raise its arms to hold a riot staff 'engarde'...

Yeah, it seems that the arms are set into the torso and that shoulder plate is glued on to hold the whole thing in. Good luck disassembling that stuff.

Well, I've done it!

Plus, I added elbow joints from Kotobukiya's MSG D-113B option set... pretty good match for the original cylinder-joint deign. I actually ran out of Tamiya PLA-RODs to make the riot staff, but luckily I had lots of spare sprue-trees from my Zoids Gorem, so a quick snip and a bit of sanding later... voila! Taisyo reporting for anti-riot duty.

Will try to snap some pix later, but this mod is strictly for my TV-color police Taisyo. Don't think I really want to risk anything with soon-to-be-rare worker Taisyo (only 300 in the wild) :-)

P.S. I managed to give myself a nasty cut on a finger while slicing the PVC parts with my hobby knife. PVC is TRICKY! It's soft and yielding to blades, but it's also ELASTIC, so it only takes a teeny bit of material to cause frustration and carelessness.

Heat, my friend, heat. Don't cut PVC without a blow dryer handy! Once that stuff hits around 40 degrees (C), it's like butter!

Can't wait to see your pics.

--
Sanjeev

'Us Massholes straight up just don't give a fuck. I still pronounce "Mazinger" as "Tranzor Z".'
-Nekrodave

Sanjeev Wrote:
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> Heat, my friend, heat. Don't cut PVC without a
> blow dryer handy! Once that stuff hits around 40
> degrees (C), it's like butter!

20 years in this hobby and I'm still learning things!

OK, pix and review are up:

[toyboxdx.com]

The 'dirty' pix are in the text links... I didn't want so many thumbnails all over the place.

Great review, as always. I'm thinking about getting the worker version. It's different enough from the police one.

Where's that Hercules?

I think you'll like the worker Taisyo. The frog-eyes look goofy, but that's what makes it loveable. I'd love to see the Hercules too... it'll be nice to have a small army of labors ready to oppose the eventual movie-edition Zero. The long periods of waiting just make me rethink whether I should've let given a miss for any of these sofubi. I'm STILL thinking maybe I should get the brown Tyrant while I can :-)

Man, I am having THE WORST luck with toys lately. First my ZZ KS has broken horns, then my VF-0A comes out of the box with a broken arm (no surprise there, and Yamato is replacing them,) and then today, I finally get around to openning my Griffon, and he's got a broken ANKLE!! I think I'm THE ONLY ONE that this one happened to. Has anyone heard about this being a common problem? The box is in pristine shape, so I'm simply blown away by this... check it out:

Warrhead: I had the exact same problem with my Griffon, although in my case the box was beat to hell. I sent it back to hlj, who sent it back to CM's, and I got a fresh one in the mail with an intact ankle.

Is the VF-0A broken arm problem common? That sounds like a bummer.

Warrhead, it's because you've got such a... violent handle! Yeah, that must be it ;-)

But seriously, I hope you can get it exchanged. For the CM's Labors, the previous 'worst case' I heard about was a dude on MW who received his Ingram with a bad paint scratch (obvious factory drop)... and he was doubly pissed because the box contained a 'QC PASSED' slip. :P

Yeah, that same QC passed slip fell out of mine too right about when I noticed the broken ankle. For all I know the part was good when it passed inspection though, still I had to laugh a little. HLJ has had me sent the item back, with a promise of a refund for the shipping cost and a new Griffon. The only snag I can forsee is that I had repaired the part in the meantime, expecting to just get that part in the mail. I removed it and included it separately when I shipped it to avoid confusion, I just hope that CM's don't get hinky about that...

[www.toysdaily.com]

Awesome! I don't see it on CM's site yet, though.

New gashpon set and finally a price on their av-0, I was hoping the price would have been a bit less. But I guess I should have expected it, being CM's and all.

[www.toysdaily.com]

Also, not sure how true it is, but Clash buster is rumored to be coming down the line, not sure if this is for brave ghokin or not. Given the obsucirty of the labor, I don't really see this happening.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2007 01:22PM by Anavel.

Still no announcement on their site about the new vinyl, or a pre-order anywhere. Odd.

Movie version with flack jacket...?

[www.amiami.com]

Uh oh! The flak vests look way too bulky on the Ingrams; and it appears the leggings are not following the established 'fabric style'... opting instead for molded rubber/PVC. Hmmmmmm.

Okay, HLJ has the Hercules up in a movie and TV version. Any idea of what the color schemes might be? I'm not that familiar with Patlabor.

It also lists the Peacemaker at over 60,000 yen, but that has to be a typo.

I think that must be CM's non-existent diecast R/C version. For that price, I bet his gun fires real bullets too. ;)

Rog,

This is the TV edition (orange body):


The Movie version would be brown body with white 'shrouds':


I guess the shoulders will be molded differently as shown in the line-art.

I'll probably stick with my TV-first buying strategy. ;-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2007 09:23AM by drifand.

Y'know, when CM's released two "versions" of the basic Ingram with only very subtle differences, I thought "this will probably be the first and last time they release this sculpt. They couldn't POSSIBLY expect us to rebuy them later with just similarly cosmetic differences."

And now here they are releasing an Ingram with the armor that should have been included with the original release, and another with just a red shoulder to differentiate it. I mean haven't we bought enough of this sculpt already? At least with the Yamato Valkyries, the paint jobs are different and the parts can't be easily interchanged. In this case, CM's Could have released all this stuff in an upgrade set. Heck they could have released the parts to make a TV version in an upgrade set instead of offering it as a separate toy.

From now on, I'm going to be wary of CM's. You never know when they might issue some super upgraded version later on, with all of the upgrade parts released since, Gaogaigar style.

Ingram with armor = Malibu Stacy with a new hat.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I asked if I have "Time For L-Gaim" but I got "No Reply From The Wind".

Ok, I'm confused. I saw two preorders on hlj. One is the ova version and one is the flack jacket. What's the difference between the ova version and the tv version?

OVA version supposedly has the Red Shoulder.

Is the reactive armor going to be inter-changeable with the normal armor? I really just wanted the normal movie version but the reactive armor would be a nice bonus. If it's only a reactive armor version though I'll have to skip it.

reed Wrote:
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> Is the reactive armor going to be inter-changeable
> with the normal armor? I really just wanted the
> normal movie version but the reactive armor would
> be a nice bonus. If it's only a reactive armor
> version though I'll have to skip it.

1) Reactive armor = "flak jacket" = appearance in Patlabor 2 the Movie

2) Red shoulder = appearance in OAV.

Is the Flak jacket removable?

some updates

[www.cmscorp.jp]

[www.cmscorp.jp]

I'm going to have to dial back on the CM's purchases. They are bgeinning to behave too much like a dvd publisher: releasing better versions of previously released product without giving buyers of the older version viable options for an upgrade.

I guess what I'm most curious about is exactly HOW the armoured arms and legs will be swapped out. The jacket itself is easy but the the wiring for the original Ingram's shoulder lights can't be that easy to remove... UNLESS, CM's have deleted the lights for this edition?

Interesting to see that the the 'gloved hands' makes this version compatible to the WXIII movie design as well.

As for Hercules, looks like the first Tyrant was the acme of Labor sofubi poseability! From the picture it looks like the Herk will have neither shoulder nor hip rotation... just like the Asuka Taisyo. Man, that's low :-/

drifand Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I guess what I'm most curious about is exactly HOW
> the armoured arms and legs will be swapped out.
> The jacket itself is easy but the the wiring for
> the original Ingram's shoulder lights can't be
> that easy to remove... UNLESS, CM's have deleted
> the lights for this edition?
>
Could be. There's alternate shoulder parts for the Ingram without the lights that are shown in the manga, and probably also the anime.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2007 09:36AM by thomas.

No working lights? Now THAT would be an interesting, if a little puzzling, development.

Kotobukiya is releasing a model kit of the Hellhound helicopter...

[www.hlj.com]