Post by magnemo on Mar 10, 2009 0:08:22 GMT -5
Hi All
I finally picked up CM's GaKeen for my Magnemo collection, and I thought I'd share a few photos and observations with the group. Overall, I highly recommend this toy!!!
First of all, the box is HUGE. It's at least twice as big as I was expecting. Here are some comparisons between CM's set and the old Takara Magnemo series GaKeen, Prizer, Mighty, and Valiant Anker...
As you can see in the next set of pictures, the new GaKeen is smaller than the old one. On the plus side however, it does have much better articulation. There is also much more diecast in CM's GaKeen (but not as much as the SanZen one -- that thing's a brick!)
I love the new legs and feet. They are now made almost entirely out of diecast metal! And those skinny little shins... thanks to the diecast, they were able to make them even skinnier than ever before. I have to say though, points for effort have to be given to the designers of the original toy because they tried to include ankle articulation at a time when very few toys had it. But with such an over-sized body and such long skinny legs, the feature ends up backfiring in the end. I can't tell you how many times my M-11 GaKeen has just flopped over and gone down -- hard. The new one doen't seem to have this problem, since most of the weight is now in the legs themselves. Also, his ankle is now a ball joint, and he's even got a hidden blade that folds out from the bottom of each foot!
Both versions can fire their fists, but only the new one has articulated hands. They've even gone as far as to include the fold-out spikes on the backs of his hands -- all in ONE set of launching fists! I found it very interesting that they put the firing pin on the back of his arm. It makes perfect sense of course, but I think this is the first time I've seen that.
A lot of care has been taken, it seems, to make the toy both playable AND pretty. A good example of this is that they've included a whole bunch of different colored sprues filled with little round bits of plastic. I puzzled over these for a while, then it dawned on me. They're for plugging up the screw holes! Now THAT'S attention to detail. Another thing that just blew me away is how the body can come apart... it looks exactly like it does in the show, and even the magnetic "guts" of the toy are painted, clean and pretty.
The CM GaKeen's body has more dimention to it than the old Takara one, as seen here. One big plus for the old toy though, he has extra magnemo ports on his shoulders!
One interesting area where neither version has a clear advantage over the other is in how they are colored. The heads, for example, are nearly identical in how they're constructed from both different colored plastics and some chromed and painted parts. I've always liked this about the Takara GaKeen (and they're original Geag too) -- no stickers needed. CM continues that tradition, while adding even more detail.
Among the many, many extras included in the new set are full-featred versions of Prizer and Mighty. These are well done for the most part, but they suffer from a shared design flaw that's hard to overlook: the magnets in the legs are too weak, so both figures are extremely hard to pose. As accessories to the main figure however, they are perfectly suited -- much more so than the old versions.
I hadn't really had much time to explore the toy before I went and took these pictures, so unfortunately I didn't notice that the bodies for both Prizer and Mighty could be expanded by pulling at the sides.
The old versions work fine as stand-alone toys, but they're too big when used with GaKeen. There was really no way for him to hold them as weapons like he was supposed to, so the Takara designers gave them each an M-11 ball joint on their back so they could be attached in place of GaKeen's arms when transformed. The new toy fixes this, and it even addresses the problem of the arms becoming too heavy once the smaller robots are attached -- although the solution is not very satisfying. They've included 2 long black plastic pieces designed to prop the arms up -- that's it. Why didn't they at least make them clear? Oh well.
Lastly, and I just had to see this believe it, the set includes a full-scale, ride-able vehicle for GaKeen. I've never been quite clear on the name of this thing, but I like to call it Valiant Anker. At a glance, the new and the old ones look more-or-less the same. But there is a fundamental difference.
In order for the Takara GaKeen to ride his vehicle, you have to first remove his legs and then PLUG him onto it (using standard 5mm pegs). The new one seats the whole figure, legs and all. The old one does have a couple of perks however, like much stronger (M-11) magnets to hold the wings on. The CM version uses M-8 size magnets, which are okay for stationary display, but can't hold up the wings during any kind of use. These are the same magnets which plagued the small robots. The old toy also features a missile launcher which the new one doesn't have.
Well, I guess that's about it for now. There are a whole bunch of features of the CM toy that I just didn't have time to show or to talk about. It's just a fantastic set. It may seem pricey, but you get a LOT for your money!
- Tom Vigneau
I finally picked up CM's GaKeen for my Magnemo collection, and I thought I'd share a few photos and observations with the group. Overall, I highly recommend this toy!!!
First of all, the box is HUGE. It's at least twice as big as I was expecting. Here are some comparisons between CM's set and the old Takara Magnemo series GaKeen, Prizer, Mighty, and Valiant Anker...
As you can see in the next set of pictures, the new GaKeen is smaller than the old one. On the plus side however, it does have much better articulation. There is also much more diecast in CM's GaKeen (but not as much as the SanZen one -- that thing's a brick!)
I love the new legs and feet. They are now made almost entirely out of diecast metal! And those skinny little shins... thanks to the diecast, they were able to make them even skinnier than ever before. I have to say though, points for effort have to be given to the designers of the original toy because they tried to include ankle articulation at a time when very few toys had it. But with such an over-sized body and such long skinny legs, the feature ends up backfiring in the end. I can't tell you how many times my M-11 GaKeen has just flopped over and gone down -- hard. The new one doen't seem to have this problem, since most of the weight is now in the legs themselves. Also, his ankle is now a ball joint, and he's even got a hidden blade that folds out from the bottom of each foot!
Both versions can fire their fists, but only the new one has articulated hands. They've even gone as far as to include the fold-out spikes on the backs of his hands -- all in ONE set of launching fists! I found it very interesting that they put the firing pin on the back of his arm. It makes perfect sense of course, but I think this is the first time I've seen that.
A lot of care has been taken, it seems, to make the toy both playable AND pretty. A good example of this is that they've included a whole bunch of different colored sprues filled with little round bits of plastic. I puzzled over these for a while, then it dawned on me. They're for plugging up the screw holes! Now THAT'S attention to detail. Another thing that just blew me away is how the body can come apart... it looks exactly like it does in the show, and even the magnetic "guts" of the toy are painted, clean and pretty.
The CM GaKeen's body has more dimention to it than the old Takara one, as seen here. One big plus for the old toy though, he has extra magnemo ports on his shoulders!
One interesting area where neither version has a clear advantage over the other is in how they are colored. The heads, for example, are nearly identical in how they're constructed from both different colored plastics and some chromed and painted parts. I've always liked this about the Takara GaKeen (and they're original Geag too) -- no stickers needed. CM continues that tradition, while adding even more detail.
Among the many, many extras included in the new set are full-featred versions of Prizer and Mighty. These are well done for the most part, but they suffer from a shared design flaw that's hard to overlook: the magnets in the legs are too weak, so both figures are extremely hard to pose. As accessories to the main figure however, they are perfectly suited -- much more so than the old versions.
I hadn't really had much time to explore the toy before I went and took these pictures, so unfortunately I didn't notice that the bodies for both Prizer and Mighty could be expanded by pulling at the sides.
The old versions work fine as stand-alone toys, but they're too big when used with GaKeen. There was really no way for him to hold them as weapons like he was supposed to, so the Takara designers gave them each an M-11 ball joint on their back so they could be attached in place of GaKeen's arms when transformed. The new toy fixes this, and it even addresses the problem of the arms becoming too heavy once the smaller robots are attached -- although the solution is not very satisfying. They've included 2 long black plastic pieces designed to prop the arms up -- that's it. Why didn't they at least make them clear? Oh well.
Lastly, and I just had to see this believe it, the set includes a full-scale, ride-able vehicle for GaKeen. I've never been quite clear on the name of this thing, but I like to call it Valiant Anker. At a glance, the new and the old ones look more-or-less the same. But there is a fundamental difference.
In order for the Takara GaKeen to ride his vehicle, you have to first remove his legs and then PLUG him onto it (using standard 5mm pegs). The new one seats the whole figure, legs and all. The old one does have a couple of perks however, like much stronger (M-11) magnets to hold the wings on. The CM version uses M-8 size magnets, which are okay for stationary display, but can't hold up the wings during any kind of use. These are the same magnets which plagued the small robots. The old toy also features a missile launcher which the new one doesn't have.
Well, I guess that's about it for now. There are a whole bunch of features of the CM toy that I just didn't have time to show or to talk about. It's just a fantastic set. It may seem pricey, but you get a LOT for your money!
- Tom Vigneau