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Post by Gold on May 2, 2006 6:37:58 GMT -5
Hehe finally had some free time to mess with Great Exkaiser and Takara's Brave Masterpiece no. 2 The Dragon Kaiser  Dragon Archery  Dragon Tonfars  With little Exkaiser inside ;D  Dragon Jet With King Exkaiser  Hehe, I didn't expect Dragon Kaiser and King Exkaiser to have that big a difference in height  Some Comparisons with Exkaiser(s) and CM's Corp's Genesic Gaogaigar Gaigar with King Exkaiser  Genesic Gaogaigar with King Exkaiser(Alpha and Omega of the Braves)  Genesic GGG with Great Exkaiser  Great Exkaiser - Chou Kyodai Gattai!    With the Kaiser sword    Great Exkaiser's sword with Max Factory's Godannar's Sword(for the curious as who's got the bigger one).. hehe Maxfactory still wins   The face mask comes off on Great Exkaiser to reveal a second face   with Kouta  Some additional thoughts and info: - Dragon Kaiser is roughly 530 Grams - King Exkaiser is 540Grams - Great Exkaiser is 1080Grams To merge Great Exkaiser, the Dragon Kaiser has to be taken apart and transformed into the add-on pieces, it can be a bit tricky given that the internal parts of the Dragon Kaiser feel somewhat brittle in terms of plastic, but maybe that's just me. I would've preferred spring release triggers compared to using force to pull apart/merge the pieces in place. The final combination feels solid enough though, the only downside would be the shoulder add-ons for Great Exkaiser seem to come off a bit easily, but no real problems. As far as QC goes, the Dragon Kaiser has a few very, very minor paint bleeds on the white paints on mine, also the Gold chrome looks kinda greenish than yellowish. BTW for the curious, the Great Exkaiser TRU Japan giftset is coded as MPBX-01 and comes with a golden King Exkaiser sword(based on the anime series' power up version of King Exkaiser's sword known as "Thunder Slash") and extra poster. I'm not sure if the TRU giftset has the sword as an extra item or if it totally replaces the "default" silver sword for King Exkaiser(hehe I chose the individual MPB-01/02 boxes since my local retalier was having a sale and didn't have any stock of the giftset at hand). Gold |
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Post by roanstalker on May 2, 2006 10:55:43 GMT -5
The gold sword is a seperate piece. Great review and pics! The blue is brighter than it is on the actual toy but that was a fine review. I can also see how big God Raijinoh is gonna be now. Incidentally, my Exkaiser's been sent now. yay! unfortunately I have no tracking number so I can't track when it gets here...
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Post by lonerbboy on May 2, 2006 12:53:57 GMT -5
Thanks for the great review Gold. When you mentioned using force to pull apart, do you need alot of force? As in, it will scratch the surface of paint or plastic? And when you mentioned the shoulders of Greak Exkaizer comes off easily, you mean that entire Greak Exkaizer arm? Do those peices feel loose in any way? |
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Post by alisama on May 2, 2006 17:49:34 GMT -5
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Post by Gold on May 3, 2006 0:25:45 GMT -5
The gold sword is a seperate piece. Great review and pics! The blue is brighter than it is on the actual toy but that was a fine review. I can also see how big God Raijinoh is gonna be now. Incidentally, my Exkaiser's been sent now. yay! unfortunately I have no tracking number so I can't track when it gets here... Ahh I see, thanks Roanstalker yeah the blue was a little bit off because of the strong light I use, hehe sorry about that. Thanks for the great review Gold. When you mentioned using force to pull apart, do you need alot of force? As in, it will scratch the surface of paint or plastic? And when you mentioned the shoulders of Greak Exkaizer comes off easily, you mean that entire Greak Exkaizer arm? Do those peices feel loose in any way? Thanks Lonerboy, Dragon Kaiser splits apart right down the middle, there are some pieces that are like "snap-on buttons" on shirts, except with plastic pieces instead of metal, there is one spot on the chromed Dragon Kaiser chestplate that has the said "button", that was kind of something you have to look out for, the rest of the "buttons" were not in any painted areas. Oh and the big sword has a similar problem, the blade is seperate from the handle, you can attach the two pieces via snapping them together, but since the "lock" on the handle side is also chromed, repeated attaching and removing(to put back into the box) will definitely result in heavy scratches and tarnishing on the lock. As for the shoulders, I was referring to Great Exkaiser's entire shoulders and arms block during the final merge. The Great Exkaiser Shoulder/arms just simply clamp down over the King Exkaiser shoulders, with only a small peg/slot to secure it in place on King Exkaiser's shoulders. That's why it comes off easily. But it's not as bad as it sounds, it hold in place for poses and such but is definitely not intended for playwear(bump it in the right place and the shoulder/arm block gets detached). It could've been done with a better interlock joint IMHO. The legs are reallly solid when they clamp together though. The good news is that none of the pieces feel loose in terms of joints, everything is ratchet-jointed and the parts that aren't are very nice and have just the right amount of tightness. The bad news is that some of the joints involved with transforming Dragon Kaiser into the Great Exkaiser parts have spring loaded joints(the legs/knees actually), and the plastic in these parts give somewhat a brittle feel(for me at least). Better to be careful when handling these joints. Thanks Alisama, are you referring to the Dragon Kaiser arms that come off? Those did kind of bug me, but it didn't mention how to take those off in the manual(maybe I missed it?) To be honest the manual was kind of hard to decipher at times since the images were small for some pages, thank goodness the images were all in color. Great Display by the way! Congrats!! Gold |
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Post by MightGaine on May 3, 2006 8:37:07 GMT -5
Gold, there's a part in the manual at the very end of the transformation titled something like "Detail Up Mode" in Japanese where they show you how to take the arms off for the imperfect/better-looking arm transformation. IIRC, it was pretty small and probably easily missed.
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Post by roanstalker on May 3, 2006 9:14:03 GMT -5
Basically you just rip the arms straight off and then put the hinge where it normally is when it is in robot mode and attach the shoulder guns like that.
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Post by alisama on May 3, 2006 20:07:31 GMT -5
The gold sword is a seperate piece. Great review and pics! The blue is brighter than it is on the actual toy but that was a fine review. I can also see how big God Raijinoh is gonna be now. Incidentally, my Exkaiser's been sent now. yay! unfortunately I have no tracking number so I can't track when it gets here... Ahh I see, thanks Roanstalker yeah the blue was a little bit off because of the strong light I use, hehe sorry about that. Thanks for the great review Gold. When you mentioned using force to pull apart, do you need alot of force? As in, it will scratch the surface of paint or plastic? And when you mentioned the shoulders of Greak Exkaizer comes off easily, you mean that entire Greak Exkaizer arm? Do those peices feel loose in any way? Thanks Lonerboy, Dragon Kaiser splits apart right down the middle, there are some pieces that are like "snap-on buttons" on shirts, except with plastic pieces instead of metal, there is one spot on the chromed Dragon Kaiser chestplate that has the said "button", that was kind of something you have to look out for, the rest of the "buttons" were not in any painted areas. Oh and the big sword has a similar problem, the blade is seperate from the handle, you can attach the two pieces via snapping them together, but since the "lock" on the handle side is also chromed, repeated attaching and removing(to put back into the box) will definitely result in heavy scratches and tarnishing on the lock. As for the shoulders, I was referring to Great Exkaiser's entire shoulders and arms block during the final merge. The Great Exkaiser Shoulder/arms just simply clamp down over the King Exkaiser shoulders, with only a small peg/slot to secure it in place on King Exkaiser's shoulders. That's why it comes off easily. But it's not as bad as it sounds, it hold in place for poses and such but is definitely not intended for playwear(bump it in the right place and the shoulder/arm block gets detached). It could've been done with a better interlock joint IMHO. The legs are reallly solid when they clamp together though. The good news is that none of the pieces feel loose in terms of joints, everything is ratchet-jointed and the parts that aren't are very nice and have just the right amount of tightness. The bad news is that some of the joints involved with transforming Dragon Kaiser into the Great Exkaiser parts have spring loaded joints(the legs/knees actually), and the plastic in these parts give somewhat a brittle feel(for me at least). Better to be careful when handling these joints. Thanks Alisama, are you referring to the Dragon Kaiser arms that come off? Those did kind of bug me, but it didn't mention how to take those off in the manual(maybe I missed it?) To be honest the manual was kind of hard to decipher at times since the images were small for some pages, thank goodness the images were all in color. Great Display by the way! Congrats!! Gold TY. btw. be very carefull of the peg below the chest plate thingy. He has it in wrong. But if your not carefull you can break it. LIke I did. Alittel cement fixed it though. what you need to do is open the chest area of the exkasier. Push with your thumbe ti keep the lion out at all times. then press the front cover on it. makign sure the top hitches in properly. it gives it a very snug look. no gap. |
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Post by Gold on May 4, 2006 9:16:58 GMT -5
D'oh!! Just saw the section in the manual! I completely missed it in my haste to get to the big Kaiser Sword!  Sorry about that folks.   Big thanks Alisama, Mightgaine and Roanstalker for the tips on how to transform this baby the right way BTW Alisama I agree with the Great Exkaiser big chest piece, it's way too big to fit in the "belly button" slot, I didn't push mine all the way in for fear that it might break.. I might try to shave it down if I have the time later, thanks for that warning! Gold |
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Post by roanstalker on May 4, 2006 11:40:48 GMT -5
It's not a necessity to pull the arms off gold. It just gives it a more show accurate and appealing look. The ball joints might loosen with time though if you pull it off too much.
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Post by Gold on May 6, 2006 12:35:53 GMT -5
It's not a necessity to pull the arms off gold. It just gives it a more show accurate and appealing look. The ball joints might loosen with time though if you pull it off too much. Thanks Roanstalker, but I prefer the arms off, balljoints be damned(just kidding) ;D.. the Dragon Kaiser arms really make the final form look bad, I'm glad they come off. Thanks for the concern Gold |
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Post by MightGaine on May 6, 2006 21:45:31 GMT -5
Yeah, I agree, Gold. And as was mentioned before, the shoulders fit on more securely that way.
I'd be more inclined to buy Great Raijin Oh, who shares a similar transformation to Great Exkaiser's, if you could take the secondary robot's arms off his combined mode... Well, it would take that and a bunch of other changes... :-P
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Post by roanstalker on May 7, 2006 3:58:25 GMT -5
I agree that Bakuryuoh's arms need to be removable. I just recieved my Exkaiser yesterday and played with the combo a bit. I only relised a month after I recieved Dragon Kaiser that one of Great Exkaiser's arms came off! The part where the arm was connected to the shoulder part, the screw hole is messed up and the screw doesn't like to stay in. It's onlyon one arm though and it's not much of a bother in either modes. It's a fun toy overall.
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Post by Gold on May 7, 2006 7:43:02 GMT -5
I agree that Bakuryuoh's arms need to be removable. I just recieved my Exkaiser yesterday and played with the combo a bit. I only relised a month after I recieved Dragon Kaiser that one of Great Exkaiser's arms came off! The part where the arm was connected to the shoulder part, the screw hole is messed up and the screw doesn't like to stay in. It's onlyon one arm though and it's not much of a bother in either modes. It's a fun toy overall. Ouch.. sorry to hear that, is it this part?  .. maybe wrapping the screw with teflon(to make it thicker) before inserting will help? Gold |
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Post by roanstalker on May 7, 2006 8:08:20 GMT -5
Yeh. What's teflon???
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Post by Fort Max on May 7, 2006 8:10:35 GMT -5
I just got Exkaiser yesterday after him being out of stock when I ordered Dragon Kaiser weeks ago.
I am very impressed by both toys, yes Exkaiser does have a number of paint defects but none of them are really hideous enough to ruin an otherwise impressively well thought out toy.
Both of these guys really sell themselves on the strenght of the thought that went into them and it really shows in the little mechanical details here and there.
Both are solidily built and I've had no problems with parts falling off, to the contary I've had to do a fair bit of tugging to get certain parts off, most notably DK's arms and KE's head.
Wee Exkaiser is a little finicky but it's not an issue as he's far from the main attraction here. His stand howver bugs me a little as the ball jointed part he sits on is far too weak to support him so I have to sweep his legs back to counter the balance.
The combined mode however is simply awesome, I was impressed especially by how solid the leg connections are as I was expecting this area to be either very weak like CM's intial Genesic or to have some very unaccurate plugs and locks to hold it together but what Takara came up with is just ingenious and looks totally accurate to the show once closed up.
The shoulders as mentioned are not as impressive mechanically but they don't need to be, they close up nicely around KE's existing blocks and they won't fall off unless you make them.
The chest plate is less impressive still but does it's job and looks very cool.
The nose cone for the dragon jet is a different story however, considering that you can't even see it most of the time Takara again put rather a lot of thought into how to get it to stay on without any unnesscary clips or unslightly holes. The way they came up with is that you hook it on right at the top hinge of KE's backpack flaps and then use the hook in the landing gear door to attach to the very bottom edge of the grey backpack flap that is raised or lowered to keep KE's back anime accurate.
This flap is then pushed down and flat against the back pulling the nosecone down and into tension as you do so, this ensures that it won't just pop off if someone knocks it and is actually more solid then I make sound.
The head switch "system" has been downgraded from the clever but cumbersome method featured on the Takara original to a much simpler pull off and swap with the spare head being stored inside the nosecone along with Dragon Kaisers head and the landing gear.
At first I was a bit dissapinted by this seemingly obvious oversight but the toy benefits from not having another armature stretching over the back of the neck like GGG toys do.
So overall, they are well designed, solidily built and this makes them a lot of fun to play with which is in almost direct contrast to CM's figures which I find to be full of potential but lacking in build quality which makes them a nightmare to try and fillde with.
I've also noticed that while Takara is obvioulsy trying to compete with Bandai's SOC line that their toys have a very different feel to Bandai's, what this is I can't say but it's defintely there.
So I think that Takara has done a stunning job on their own first high end toys and I for one am secretley pining for Masterpiece Starscream to be done and dusted quickly so they can do Fighbird in a similar vein. ;D
btw, Alisama, where did you here that the Brave Masterpiece's actually have a scale?
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Post by Gold on May 8, 2006 2:48:42 GMT -5
Hehe, meant to say "teflon thread sealant tape", most hardwarestores have it, it's like a cloth roll of tape, used for wrapping the threads of screws and metal pipes to make them "seal" better(in case the thread is already worn down). Great review FortMax!! Gold |
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Post by roanstalker on May 8, 2006 6:43:18 GMT -5
I've never heard of it. I don't know if t's available over here (in the UK) since I'm not a DIY kind of person. I used super glue on the screw to give it a enlarged surface area and it fits in fine. I just have to be careful when transforming it really. I usually display it in their individual forms but it sure looks cool combined. This happened to my Yujin DX normal coloured Gaofighgar too. The left gaofar arm screw was messed up too and I basically glued that too and it works fine. That piece is great for a display piece but in both Gaofar and Gaofighgar it's lacking in one form of articulation or another. I don't really think it was worth the 100 I spent on it really.
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Post by Gold on May 8, 2006 11:49:55 GMT -5
Hmm i see. Hope it works. BTW here's a link to the clip of Great Exkaiser's combination Gold |
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Post by roanstalker on May 8, 2006 12:38:53 GMT -5
Heh, watched that SO many times. Ripped all combination clips from Brave Saga 1 and then burned them to a CD. I want some combine clips from Brave Saga 2 but I can't find any place that I can get it for any resonable prices. Baan gaan has a VERY cool theme that reminds me of Fighbird's theme.
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