May 3, 2001 CURRENT RUMBLE Quickies- Sanadamushi to Neko Richard Hagen 5.3.01 Bandai Soul of Chogokin GX-05 Daikumaryu: Final Thoughts Having had time to actually try out more of the functions on the GX-05, I am pleased at my purchase of the DaikuMaryu Gaiking. It has quite a few cool little gimmicks and some good playability for those who like to play a bit. List of good stuff: Core body of the Daiku is metal. Legs are ratcheted with seemingly solid clicks. Core body opens up to reveal a hangar bay, with lift-up pastic landing bay. Fold-down door below main hangar for more space. Feet and tail treads are real working rubber treads. Daiku head is interchangeable with two diecast heads and one plastic grappler claw. Gaiking's body can become the head of the Daiku, just fold it up and snap it on. The connection is a bit flimsy, due to it being magnetic, but Bandai engineers have done it again, kudos for accomplishing this. It mitigates the fact that Gaiking is a little disappointing. The heads for both Gaiking and the small Daiku head roar, always a plus. The paint job on mine is smooth and well done. A few places where the paint perhaps is a bit uneven, but I have noticed the same on all my SOCs. Tail is very flexible, the tip of the tail will hold its pose aloft. Lots of little extras to attach. Watch the cartoon, and be happy in your ability to mimic the action with your SOC! Nothing on a sprue! [Note: Yappy weeps with joy] Plastic parts are sharp! Too bad there are no eye-gouging missiles to complete the danger of a heavy hunk of metal with sharp plastic parts. (OK, *I* think this is a positive feature!) Bad points: Daiku's legs dont hold up the body unless the legs are at full extension. If you want them bent, you'll have to either support the body or have the dragon kneel down. The ratcheting is not strong enough to support the core body's weight. The storage bay may scratch the paint on the joints. I guess this is to be expected. It is also very loose, but that may be a good point, at least you aren't worried about having to pry it open. Tiny Gaiking. 'nuff said already. Horns on the head of the Daiku are removable, and sometimes can fall out. Cost cutting measure, but it does make them poseable, or to simulate some battle damage, I guess. Overall, I give this an 80%. Worth the purchase, if you can live with the bad points. Bandai Soul of Chogokin GX-05 Daikumaryu: First Impressions Haven't yet truly had the time to go through all the gimmicks on the toy; all I did was heft the diecast main body of the Daiku and assemble Gaiking. The diecast content of the Daiku body seems very impressive. Nice and heavy - feels like the first day I hefted the Popy toy. Beautiful blue paint job on the main body - nothing like a piece of large metal painted a nice shiny blue, eh? OK, the tail is plastic, as is expected, the blue color is a little lighter than the blue of the body, but not terribly noticeable. On to Gaiking. Well, he's cute. He is reminiscent of the tiny Gundam models that were made of unpainted diecast and held together by one screw [Nano Chogokins-- in fact, they served as testbeds for the development of mini-Gaiking -ed]. He is a delightfully small little figure, but unfortunately the figurine is weak, unstable, and not all that poseable - but what does one expect, I suppse. It is amazing that it is poseable at all at this size, I suppose. The magnets and joints holding the arms and legs on, these are the worst offenders, they will loosen in no time flat and the magnets barely hold the arms on. For those who like to play with their toys a bit, this figurine has almost zero playability, so be warned. It makes a cute little statue by the computer, though.. and you do get all the various modifications to Gaiking, such as three different heads, two different arms and legs, and the various swords and drills he has in the show. Everything is represented. So, first impressions are that the daiku maryu is decently represented, but the Gaiking is a severe disappointment (not that anyone here expected anything different, I suppose) as a figure. One can only hope that this sells enough, and that enough people clamour for Gaiking that he gets his own GX SOC remake. If you are a Daikumaryu fan like I am, get this without question. Tomy Kadou-Oh Liger Zero A nicely articulated plastic figure, it comes with 6 diecast armor parts. The cat looks nice and has a good weight to it. The posability could have been better, the front feet dont fold flat down, so you can't have it pose sleeping, for example, and the tail is just rubberized plastic, so it doesnt hold its pose well. The armor is not meant to come off once applied (at least, not without some careful prying) because in some places it slots in with a solid snap, so be warned if you are a fan of removing the armor . The leg joints at the knees have click-detents, but the shoulder and hip joints are not, and they are already loose after only 5 minutes of posing it. Pose it and leave it there. 5.6.01 Daiku-Disappointment? 5.5.01 Daiku-Porn  RUMBLE INDEX  |  CURRENT RUMBLE