SRC Dai Guard vs SRC Kokubouger a quick comparison
Jul 7, 2015 1:25:51 GMT -5
zman, mecha-mania, and 3 more like this
Post by faelon on Jul 7, 2015 1:25:51 GMT -5
Okie Dokie! I had promised to get some better (non cell phone) pics of these guys in my other thread. I figured it was probably better to start a re-titled thread so it gets flagged for both Kokubouger and Dai Guard, and put the pics up at the top. My apologies for any photographic weirdness. I just got a nice new light tent and some LED lighting that I was trying out for the first time with these. Hopefully they are acceptable to you fine discriminating Robotaku.
Anyway where to start. Well for those that have never discovered it Dai Guard is a mid 90's giant robot anime that is a bit different from the pack. It's main claim to fame is that it is both a comedy (of sorts) and it is a rather hyper realistic robot show. By hyper realistic I mean the show has no "magical anime super robot elements". The robot in question. Dai Guard is a machine. A piece of heavy machinery. No AI. No magical powers. No shouted super attacks. It is a massive hulking piece of heavy machinery designed to combat the strange and fairly undefined kaiju like aliens that creep into our dimension causing a ton of destruction. Much like Evangelion or Pacific Rim. The series is probably best described as Pacific Rim meets Office Space. The main characters and robot pilots are office workers. Typical cube dwellers. Dai Guard was built after the first attack of the Heterodyne (Dai Guards "Angel" or "Kaiju" equivalents") over a decade prior. After several years of no new monsters the program was privatized to the 21st Century Defense Corporation. It eventually became a giant corporate mascot. Sort of a 30 meter version of Ronald McDonald, and was handed over to the Marketing Department to operate and maintain... and that's when the monsters start showing up again...
So anyway on with the Super Robot Chogokin interpretations of these two fine bits of heavy machinery. First up Dai Guard. Looking Resplendent in his high gloss red silver and black color scheme with gold accents. His face has a distinct droopy mustached samurai look to it.
Kokubougar is the Military's "Dai Guard" replacement attempt. A prototype of the Dai Guard robot retrofitted to be a much more advanced fighting machine. Kokubougar is tricked out in a matte green with dull silver and gunmetal trim giving him a very military look. His head and face are a more traditionally 90's design. Looking more like tactical armor with no attempt to look friendly or charming.
Both robots use the same frame and share most of the same parts. The major differences are the head sculpts and the trim pieces. Dai Guard is decked out in colorful corporate colors with some stylish fins like a late 50's Cadilac. Kokubougar is a much more subdued military look with drab matte greens and gunmetal. Instead of the fins he has more blunted squared off trim pieces.
The metal content in these particular SRC designs is quite frankly astonishing. People wonder why there is so little metal in the SRC GodSigma... it's because they used it all up in these guys. I swear they weigh more than most SOC's. The bulk of the metal content is down in those massive lower legs which are solid metal. Hip and shoulder joints are metal. Upper chest is metal and I assume the internal torso/hips are metal. Please note these figures do not come with connections for a Tamashii stand. The stands simply could not support them. One interesting thing about all of the metal which I was not able to photograph. Bandai did a really clever thing with the lower legs. If you look at the pictures you can see where those massive legs look prone to slam against one another. well they are, but Bandai accounted for that. On the inside of each leg is a plastic strip / screw hole cover that matches the paint. These strips encompass the points where the legs can make contact so you never get metal to metal / paint to paint contact on the legs. Further as a pleasant surprise These robots are well saturated with screw covers. There are no visible screws anywhere on them.
Articulation is about as good as can be expected for something that looks like these. You can get some interesting poses out of them. Well out of the arms at least. The shoulders are well hinged with pivot joints that allow the arms to cross the chest. The shoulderpads are each two pieces that pivot and rotate well to both keep a uniform look and not get in the way of motion. The legs are somewhat limited by their shear size and weight. The knee joints are extremely stiff while the hips are a little loose for my tastes. The head articulation is minimal just by nature of the design. Dai Guards is almost nil as the wings on his head easily contact the wings on his shoulders. Kokubougar is a little better as his shoulder wings have been sawed off and his head clears the stumps.
Accessories is where the two bots are really differentiated.
Dai Guards Trays of toys and add ons;
and Kokubougars single tray;
The main showstoppers are the huge "Knot Buster" and "Knot Punisher" devices that the robots carry into battle. Basically huge rams that fire a 30 meter steel spear out at extremely high velocity to puncture the Heterodyne's core (The Fractal Knot).
Kokubougar carries the original Knot Buster
While Dai Guard comes with the parts to display either the Knot Punisher Mark I
Or the slightly modified Mark II (mainly it now has hands)
Both Robots come with an identical Drill Arm. Dai Guard also has parts for the Net Cannon
In addition Dai Guard comes with a Proximity Mine and the strange spike device that it jabs into one of the earlier Heterodynes. It looks suspiciously like a giant thumbtack.
Kokubougar's cool unique option pieces are limited to a pair of forearm missile launchers that replace the arm trim pieces, and were seen in the later episodes of the series
And there you have it. Dai Guard and Kokubougar fighting evil destructive monsters, no matter what insidious form they take
Overall I am extremely pleased with these two SRC offerings. Dai Guard in particular is near the top of my favorite robots. Yeah they are big and unwieldy and oddly proportioned. But that is a huge element of their charm. And the piles of accessories that they come with are unequaled in the SRC line. particularly Dai Guard. The die cast content is likewise unequaled. The negatives on them are few. Mainly that the hips can be a little loose and fiddly to get posed well. There is a noticeable gap right at the top of the legs as the hips connect sideways. And the proportions of the robots feel slightly off from the show. Mainly the chest feels like it should be a hair broader. But I could be wrong on that. Sadly while the 2 Dai Guard bots can trade arms and accessories with each other, they use a different arm peg size than the Mazinger family and similar SRC's. So you can't let Kantam Robo there wield the Knot Punisher. (Which was why he was originally with the bots to be photographed, I hate it when a plan falls apart. )
Dai Guard is a regular SRC release from not too long ago and can be found at a plethora of merchants still. Mine came from BBTS. Kokubougar was a dreaded Tamashii Exclusive and was acquired from a Japanese merchant at roughly twice the cost of DG.
Oh and lousy pics of the boxes for those that care about things. (First time playing with a shiny new ring light on the camera and discovering what it does not work well for. Such as SRC boxes)
Overall verdict. Great Robots from a charmingly quirky show. They make great display pieces. If your budget is limited Dai Guard is the far better value as he is way cheaper and packs far more add ons. Kokubougar is more of a Dai Guard enhancement than a recognizable stand alone robot. The must have with him is the Knot Buster. I hope everyone enjoyed looking through my rambling text and mad photography experiments and got a good look at a Chogokin that does not seem to get a lot of coverage or pictures on the web. Let me know if you have any questions.
Faelon