I wrote this for another forum but I think I should post it here as well. There can never be enough reviews I say. The pics cant beat Gold's though.
"Got GX-54 Tobikage & Kurojishi in the mail today! So much awesome in such a small package. I'm SO happy right now! Before the announcement that he would get a SoC made of him I had only casually known about him from playing SRWs (namely Impact). But the core gimmick interested me so I went for it. I can't say I was disappointed.
If you thought SoC Spec Tekkaman was small, you ain't seen ANYTHING.
As we already know SoC Tobikage does not have any foam at all. It has some card board supports behind the plastic casing that holds onto Tobikage and Kurojishi if that counts for anything
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The instruction booklet. Only a few pages are in colour but that's enough.
The first three pages includes some character sheets and concept art for the original Tobikage anime. Awesome stuff.
Ok. You may think that since Tobikage is the 'lead' mecha I should review him first. But I'm not gonna do that. Because technically he's not. Strange eh?
So first up is Kurojishi. His name translates to 'Black Lion'. He looks more yellow/orange to me. He is first found in the Ellshanc without a pilot. Joe climbs aboard to escape from the Zaboom army and accidentally activates and fights back. Later on Damian takes on the job of pilotting Kurojishi. He comes with two pairs of extra hands (splayed out and weapon holding ones), Beam saber, Ninjato and the bigass gattling gun.
Not surprisingly, he has the most diecast content of the two bots. He's a hefty bugger. The diecast parts are in his lion claws, His robot feet and his main body. And maybe some parts of his lion hind legs too (not sure). This makes him VERY heavy for his size. I like
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He has plenty of articulation. 5 each leg, 6 each arm and the head can swivel and look up and down. So 24 in all I guess (unless I've missed some??). But the articulation in the legs and arms are a bit limited by design (puffy shoulders and the fat legs). But still not bad. Better than Pegas. Oh yes. His hips are STIFF. Very hard to move. And those panels that split to the side aare kinda annoying when trying to move his hips.
The gattling gun is the most used weapon out of his weaponry. Other than his hip cannons. The gattling gun is a PAIN to get the hands into. Also theres a part on top like a 'trigger' thats a sperate piece to the main gun. Not sure if that's used for anything (cant find anything in the manual) and the gattling part can spin. Strange.
Surprised to see such a fat character use a beam saber
?
Next up is the lesser of the two in the set but just as important. He forms the main 'mystery' behind the series. Everytime the Ninja machines are losing he appears to aid them. After the battle he flies off into parts unknown. But in fact he's been in the Ellshanc the whole time! Later Joe gains the ability to call Tobikage and fuse with him to combat Zerokage. I said 'him' but Zerokage and Tobikage aint all that sentient. They can move by themselves but dont seem to have any personality at all. Tobikage means Flying Shadow.
Well Tobikage comes with a bit more than Kurojishi. Two pair of extra hands (like Kurojishi), a shield, a rifle, two versions of the sword, and two versions of his scabbard (one for gun mode). His diecast content is minimal. I think its just the chest plate (if even that!). He has 21 points of articulation. 23 if you count his hip flaps.
My lame attempt at a cross armed pose.
Readying his sword.
His knees look REALLY wierd.
'Battle Short Blade' in gun mode. I also realised I forgot to take a pic of it in Naginata mode
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His makibishi Launchers are included. Nice detail. Totally unexpected.
Rifle and Shield.
The Rifle and shield combines into the Thunder Arrow Gun.
Here's the limit of his knee articulation without looking 'wierd'.
Kurojishi and Tobikage together.
Tobikage: Box Mode.
Tobikage fits quite snuggly inside. A tip is to unhook the top of Kurojishi's head and arrange Tobikage's feet from there. Then reconnect it. Also the manual is a little unclear as to how you transform the hind legs. Just try to make it match the final 'complete' pic and you'll be fine
. Oh and return of the STIFF hips.
Kurojishi Jyuma (Beast Demon) form. Pretty cool looking though his hind legs look a bit unnatural in how they are positioned.
Of course in this mode he can now utilise that tail gun thats been useless in robot mode.
The silver section of his head can be folded to the front to mimic this technique in the anime BUT it requires Tobikage to be removed first. I'm not even sure if this was a feature or just luck that it still works on this toy.
Lastly we have the awesome Ninjato. He steals it from Skelton who is pilotted by Joe's rival. He uses it to tear Skelton's body in half. Not even sure if he uses it again.
Of course this means Kurojishi can use the ninjato in robot mode too.
Well overall I'm VERY impressed by this set. The wierd articulation for Tobikage is a necessary evil it seems (lest it has hollow legs like the original Tobikage toy). Kurojishi's stiff hips are no big deal either. The gimmick in this set is really cool but I agree with some of you guys that they should have included a dummy figure to store inside Jyuma. And they left out the opening mane feature of Jyuma which is his desperation attack of sorts."