Which to buy- GX-13 or GX-23

[ptjoe]

I have a limited budget to work with and can't afford to shell out $450+ for toys at the moment. Sooo......which one would you get if you had the choice? Dancouga or Zanbot 3? I've never seen either cartoon, so it would be based on the coolness factor of the toy.

Any input would be appreciated.

[Chen]

I don't have Zambot yet but from what I've seen and read he's pretty awsome. Now to choose between the two is pretty hard, price wise Dancouga has leveled off at $170.00-190.00 U.S, while Zambot is anywhere between $160.00-210.00 U.S so his price hasn't stabalized yet. Although I don't have Zambot physicaly in hand so I can't give a first hand impression, I can comment on Dancouga. He is still the largest and heaviest SOC still and is truly impressive in person. You can put him in more poses than Zambot although you have to be careful because he is extremly top heavy, especialy with his jet pack on. In the end it all depends on which design you like better, 70's funk or 80's cool. Me personaly If you plan on getting both, I would get Dancouga first and wait for Zambot's price to stabalize, then get him later. The only risk is his price more go up due to demand, but I think his price will rest between Combattler and Dancouga so $160.00-175.00 U.S, but you never know.

[ptjoe]

I understand what you're saying. Zambot 3 is so new that retail will be the best price. Personally, I have a lot of the 'traditional' robots in my collection already (Mazinga, Daiku-Maryu, Combattra, Grendizer), so a 'new school' SOC may be in order. I'll wait for more feedback. Thanks!

[arbito]

Hummm this could be a potentially heated thread. I'll wait till somebody suggests Zambot, and then I will back them up!


PICK ZAMBOT!*

**arbito runs away dodging bricks being thrown at him**

*warning!: comments written in this reply my not reflect the actual opinions or endorsements expressed by the post-ee*

[Chen]

Let the shooting begin

[ptjoe]

Please explain why you like/dislike each one!

[Chen]

Easy partner I'll give you the pros and cons for Dancouga and let somone else do it for Zambot. Pros are size, weight, styling (personal preference), pretty playable in seperated form (each robot has three modes), and price (not the most exspencive SOC out there). Cons are he's still a hat and shoe gattai robot, large amount of diecast is matched with an equal amount of plastic, balance in combined form is iffy especialy with jet booster, and price (not the cheapest SOC either).

[arbito]

you can check my positive take on Zambot here on the 3rd page. I know you can do it. I know you love to click.

robotjapan.proboards12.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1086041941

Actually if you read this whole thread you can come come to your own conclusion, there are positive reviews and not so positive reviews.

I know you can do it, I have faith in you. There you go, thats a good boy. ;D

[andrewdsz]

I will say dancouga. The price on ebay right now is very reasonable for 20000 yen price, and i think this is the LAST re-issue Bandai is making for dancouga. However for zambot3 im 99% sure there will be future re-issue or we will have a GX-23R.

[dme3o]

Ah, but what about GX-13 vs. GX-13R?

heheh

[andrewdsz]

dme3o said:

Ah, but what about GX-13 vs. GX-13R?

heheh

GX-13R looks much better in my opinion. Actually i have two GX-13R ;D ;D ;D

[Elgladiador]

you sure have a lot of money..... ....woooooowwwww

[ptjoe]

I like GX-13R better too. I feel like I'm seeing the BPX-01 Yamato trend again. At the time, I thought 20,000+ yen for a toy was crazy. Now try and buy one...

[Omni Existence]

Dancouga- not a real gattai (hat and shoe), has minor issues like bad neckpiece, and Cougar bots (feet) get chipped easily. Goods, nice posabilty, and hefty.

Zambot 3- don't have mine yet, but based on reviews, Z3 is as real gattai as it can get, lots of accessories, and hefty. Bad, limited posabilty, especially the legs, some translucent plastic parts.

[ataru]

Dancougar *is* a real gattai robot. Gattai means combine into one, and that's what the different parts of Dancougar do. It only seems like a hat and shoe thing because people think of the Big Moth as being in humaroid form at the start, and it never is in the show, even once. The humaroids only even show up like 3 or 4 times in the show at all. You can think of it changing into that shape as part of the combination process.

[jwm]

I like my Dancouga, but it has been an acquired taste. At first I was hugely unimpressed with the combining, and especially with the neck piece. But face it- how much time are you really going to spend taking it apart, and putting it back together in other modes? Mostly you set it up, put it on the shelf, look at it, and change it around every few weeks at most. And the Dancouga is an impressive shelf piece.
My Zambot doesn't get here until next Tuesday. From the pictures I've seen it really does capture that late 70's style of combiner. It's a good heir to Combattler, and VoltesV. Plus it's got color, and space ships, which rank over black and gray mecha-animals any day. If I had to choose I'd go with Zambot.
JWM

[Omni Existence]

ataru said:

Dancougar *is* a real gattai robot. Gattai means combine into one,

True, but it doesn't have that spirit of gattai that most of us have grown to recognize.

Lemme see, Getter Robo, Voltes V, Combattler V, Voltron, Dairugger, THAT is gattai. ;D

Dancouga? Sorry, I cannot consider stepping on two smaller bots, and wearing a robot headpiece, for height gain, a gattai.

Let us just agree to disagree. ;D

[ataru]

Hehe, I'll give you the spirit of gattai thing, but you can't have seen any Dancougar if you think it's just a robot stepping on 2 others with a hat for height gain. There's actually an episode where one of the pilots (of the land cougar) is injured so they try to fool the enemy by fighting from a valley where they can't see the missing foot, but in the show, Dancougar is much less powerful when missing any of its parts. I mean, you'd think Voltes and Combattler, fighting entirely in the air, wouldn't really need their feet, would they? But they do. And comparing it with Combattler again, it and combattler both have parts that turn into the head and feet.

Sorry, I just don't like to hear one of my favorite 'bots being badmouthed. I grew up with Voltron, but 5 lions combining just seems so boring compared to a liger, a cougar, an eagle, a mammoth, and a huge wing that Dancougar combines with in mid-air jet scrander style. Although I *love* the way the black lion opens its mouth and you see Voltron's face underneath. ;D The thing about Dancougar is that it doesn't feel like a classic super robot show- it actually has a feel much more like something like Macross than something like Voltron, except for how the enemy generals look.

I typed a lot considering you might just like the toys and not care about the shows. Then again, if you're going by the toys alone, Getter robo wouldn't be a gattai robot at all. (cept for the perfect change getter robos I guess) Whatever ;D

[jwm]

You bring up an interesting point, Ataru, and that is how much actually seeing the show contributes to one's appreciation for the robot. I, for one, have never seen any of the shows connected with Voltes, Combatra, Dancouga, Zambot, or any of the other classic robo's. Without the added dimension of character knowledge, Dancouga's gattai seems pretty lame. Along the same lines- I used to think the RX78 Gundam looked like a boxy toy robot with a football helmet head. Corny as hell. After watching Mobile Suit Gundam I grew to appreciate the RX for the almost archetypal classic design that it is. Same with the Evangelions. If I had never seen Neon Genesis I doubt if I'd own six of the figures. As it is, they're my favorite SOCs.
JWM

[ataru]

Having seen the series really can make a big difference. Evangelion has to be a perfect example, as the evas look fairly cool unmoving but extremely stylish in action. Watching a series like Voltes on the other hand is wonderful if youve got a thing for weird looking missiles or drills, which show up practically every episode.

One thing about Dancougar is that the other forms arent there just for the heck of it like it seems with lots of other shows. The juusenki are dropped at the target location by a large transport plane and use retrorockets to land. (except for the eagle fighter) Dancougar has mass-produced standard enemies, not enemies of the week, and they can mostly fly unlike Dancougar itself for most of the series, so the vehicle mode is valuable for the guns. The beast modes can only be activated when the pilots get angry enough, sorta like the effects of the biosensor in zeta gundam. None of the vehicle modes have melee attacks, and that's what the beast modes are for. The humaroids were only used like 3 or 4 times, for missions requiring the dexterity of humanoid hands, like disarming nukes, or for stopping quickly when the eagle fighter is flying through a tunnel. When they finally do learn about the Dancougar mode's existence and then succeed in combining, it turns out it just fights with extremely powerful, 1 hit kill punches for a while until it gets the daigun. One interesting thing is the way it uses the vehicle weapons while combined on multiple occasions. If there's an enemy above, it can fire the bigmoth's cannon at it straight up. If there are enemies behind, the tail cannons sticking out the back of the liger and cougar can both be fired. It's kinda like in voltes when they hit the enemy with the sword blade as it's popping out of the hilt before removing it from the chest.

I've come to like lots of different series from super robot wars too. Unfortunately although I like the Zanbot design, it's one of the weakest and most boring units you could use in most of the games. Daitarn is awesome tho- can't wait for bandai to make a SOC of it. ;D The sad thing is, its yellow probably won't be painted now either in order to make it match the zanbot.