Alen Yen's ToyboxDX

	September 15, 2001


CURRENT RUMBLE

Toy Lust Contained
Darren
09.15.01

		I'm going to make a prejudicial assumption about you. Ready? You probably like Japanese robot toys. Vintage ones, too. (FREAK!) There will be no Japanese vintage robot toys in this Rumble. Why read about new toys? After all, they've long since lost that "thing" that they had, didn't they? No. It's still there, lurking. Oh, sure, you no longer see those flamboyant red, blue, yellow, and white creations that screamed of loving insanity. Perhaps the 1970's are lost. But the 1980's, if you go for that sort of thing, are quite alive. Welcome to post-Gundam. Welcome to the death of innocence. Self-conciousness about "realism" is here. That boxey, gray take on a utilitarian, yet still improbable, future vision with spaceships for the sake of spaceships and mechanical excess because you need "one of each", a tank, a plane, a truck, a hovercraft. In my world, the Japanese 80's are still classic and still cool. It is the period I was immersed in Japanese toy lust. The toys were made of metal, and were of high quality. They were thoughtfully designed, difficult to put down, and filled with infinite imagination. They represented the toy lover's often frequent infatuation with transportation. It's still here -- in the world of Ultraman toys. I refer not to vinyl kaiju or henshin belts, but to the vehicle sets that accompany most Ultraman series. And Ultraman Gaia has my number. As a result of the boundless, selfless generosity of Rich Clark and Yappy, I present you with a Rumble on the complete Container Vehicle line of toys. A Container Vehicle ("CV") must suffer one design requirement: it must be capable of folding itself into the standard dimensions of a six-sided container for the XIG organization's logistics system. Any toy line that could generate such a sentence is a toy line that has my name all over it. There are thirteen CV's plus their transport, the Peace Carry, in this lineup. That leaves a ton of payload for the Peace Carry to move. Without further mushiness, here's the catalog of CV toys ... CV-01 XIG Fighter EX The XIG organization's first fighter. It unfolds itself -- or perhaps inverts itself -- like a flower. It has a diecast nose. Retractable main gear. CV-02 XIG Fighter SS Side panels flatten into wing-pods, and the nose extends. The body is diecast. Retractable nose gear. CV-03 XIG Bison Fat rubber tires and elevating guns. Yappy compares it to Goggle Tank. Apt. A typical little blocky tank, and the epitome of a "container vehicle". Good diecast content. CV-04 XIG Fighter SG Fat wings filled with engines and weapons and a diecast nose. Retractable landing gear. CV-05 XIG Stinger Real rubber treads and a goofy design. With overhead quad guns and fold out cannons, Stinger is a weapons platform. The cockpit / turret can raise and tilt. Diecast parts form all the jointwork. CV-06 Seagull Floater Floater's big fans spin and tilt. The fuselage is diecast. CV-07 Seagull Fantop I'm guessing Fantop is some kind of tanker. His cannon has three points of articulation. The entire upper body is diecast. I can't get over the truck's front elevation. Very Japanese. CV-08 Bellman & Relaider This set comes with two Matchbox-style ... (or should I say Tomika-style?) ... cars and containers to carry them. Bellman features a rotating mini gun, and Relaider has a pop-up communications dish. Fixed angle ramps in their containers ensure the cars will roll out when the hatch door is opened. These are tiny cars, but highly detailed. CV-09 Dove Liner XIG's passenger transport. It looks rather Tomy. Features a diecast body and retractable nose gear. CV-10 XIG Adventure Adventure is a radical departure from the standard container vehicle concept. With lanky monkey arms and a telescoping body, Adventure is very cool looking and fun item by itself. Adventure has 21 points of articulation (5 of which are detented) and 10 wheels. This tiny little toy is indescribably cute. CV-11 Celeine 7500 A variant of the Dove Liner's design. It lands entirely on its outriggers. CV-12 XIG Fighter ST A variant of the XIG Fighter SS. Mostly a recolor, but with two removable missiles on top. CV-13 XIG Fighter GT A variant of the XIG Fighter SG. Again, mostly a recolor, but with a different nose, and different detail work fore and aft in the wing pods.
		Peace Carry Ok, Peace Carry is not a diecast wonder. It is, however, an incredible toy and an integral part of the CV line. The designers did a really good job with the ship's lines. The Peace Carry takes on the classic "flying wing" silhouette when viewed overhead, and looks almost like a fighter from the front. The designers used the lines to practice very clever "mass hiding". It's difficult to tell that the ship contains three massive compartments for CV transport. Even at three quarters, those compartments are well hidden. The rear view gives away its true geometry. Peace Carry features a pop-up AWACS-style radome that rotates with a knurled dial. Looking for some of that old-school quality? The ship's wheeled landing skids, when given a firm but gentle push, retract flush into the wingtip gunpods with the assistance of detents. The sound is nice, satisfying "shnick". The guns in the nose recoil to simulate firing with a belly switch. Buttons on the rear of the ship open the cavernous CV hangers. Peace Carry comes with an empty container so that you may simulate dropping your own cargo. For your visual entertainment, here is the CV discharge sequence ... Standby \| Discharge \| Climb-out \| Henkei Maybe this isn't your cup of tea. So many collectors don't do "vehicles". But if you're hankerin' for some of that 1980's design ethic, look into the Ultraman toys. Their designers remember.
		9.17.01 UPDATE ... Container Station Box Kelvin Pang writes in with detailed information on this item ... The DX Container Base carries the hexagon theme to the logical conclusion - even the BASE will close up into one! In the closed mode it looks just like a innoccent toolbox (shades of Micromen here, guys). But open it up and you have a fully functioning base for all the CVs. Features: - 3 working elevator platforms; the 2 by the side work by ratchet sliders, the middle platform is raised or lowered by a rotating dial (cool but tough on the fingers!). When the middle platform is on the basement, a side lever rotates it to "accept" CVs from various landing bays around it! - The base includes 3 slide-tracks to transport your CVs direct to the top level (or down... woosh!). Best of all, the DX Peace Carry lands on top of the structure and can then accept its payload of CV's via the platforms. Other accessories include some "robo-wielder" & claw armatures (for repairing the CV's after a monster of the week battle), and traffic gates which you can slot at various locations to direct CV traffic. - And then there's the HUGE sheet of shiny decals - that alone can take up 1/2 hour of careful application! Thanks, Kelvin! That's great info! Kelvin adds that CV-11 is a submarine!

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