Flash! Man! King!
Since this guy was mentioned in the Cafe, I figured I would post a short review. Please ignore the worn condition of my Flash King – I’ll mention it when chrome is supposed to be present somewhere ;)
The Flash King is the main mech from the 1980s sentai show Flash Man, and although its looks really are nothing special, it has an unique transformation that makes it worthwhile, as well as all the common gimmicks of Bandai robot toys from that age.
Let’s first have a look at the box (please ignore the tape on the left side; it prevents the box from completely disintegrating…):
The box is a typical box for sentai toys from that time, having a slip cover that presents the toy and its components. The box has a carrying grip on the left side. After slipping off the cover, one can look at another cover with some windows through which the toy and its accessories can be seen:
The toy sits in a nice styrofoam tray (not pictured due to condition) that holds all the parts. Please note that the sword is supposed to be chromed – mine has serious wear and lacks most chrome. A look at the accessories:
A truly nice thing is that this toy (and others with firing fists from the same age) comes with two pairs of firing fists – so you have some spares in case you loose a pair. It likely included more than the two missiles I have…besides the fists and missiles the Flash King includes a sword, a shield that doubles as an AWACS-dish, and a twin missile launcher.
Let’s have a look at the vehicles. Flash King has three. First up is Tank Command 1:
Tank Command 1 uses the missile launcher, which plugs into a hole on TC1’s back. As is visible in the pictures, the missile launcher can pivot up and down and turn from side to side. The missiles launch nicely hard and fly pretty far. TC1 has no functional tracks, but rolls around on four small metal wheels hidden in them.
The second vehicle is Jet Delta 2:
Jet Delta 2 has no special features whatsoever. It rolls around on two small fixed landing gears with metal wheels.
Jet Seeker 3 completes the trio:
As its name indicates, Jet Seeker 3 has a nice AWACS-dish to find enemies. This dish doubles as Flash King’s shield. Sadly, it cannot spin freely. Like Jet Delta 2, Jet Seeker 3 rolls around on two small fixed landing gears with metal wheels. Furthermore, it has variable wings.
One nifty feature on Jet Delta 2 and Jet Seeker 3 has to do with the transformation. Although my pictures show them without Flash King’s fists inserted, their tail ends have compartments that can hold the fists. Putting in the fists will push out the tail fins. Both are also supposed to have some chromed bits, but most of the chrome is worn off on mine.
Let’s move on to the transformation. The transformation is probably the most interesting thing on Flash King, as it is quite unique.
Tank Command 1’s transformation is quite boring, and consists up flipping up the tracks and the cockpit (sorry about the bad quality, I need to get my regular camera fixed and the one I’m using now sucks):
However, transforming the two jets is much more interesting:
First the wings and tailfin are retracted.
Then the wings are folded down, and the cockpit is folded into the fuselage.
Then the tail end is folded out, and rotates 180 degrees.
The result is two legs, with arms attached to them. These are extended, as shown in the first picture below, and then the metal cylindrical parts are inserted into two channels in Tank Commander 1 until they click into position (second picture):
Finally, the fists are inserted, and we get the Flash King:
Although the Flash King essentially is an enormous brick, it still has some articulation: the shoulders and neck, as well as the ankles (due to the transformation) turn. It has launching fists:
The AWACS-dish/shield attaches to the arm:
Alternatively, the missile launcher, which uses the same peg size, can also attach to the arm:
The shield can also be held in a hand, and the sword can only be held in a hand, as shown at the top of this review and below:
That concludes this short review.
