What a wonderful weekend!
Sure, volunteer work was slow, but then the mailman came in with STUFF! *grins*
Could have done without her dropping one of the boxes right in front of me as she came up the sidewalk, but thankfully nothing broke. However, the box cutter slipped as I was slicing open the cardboard and luckily bounced off my thick hoodie, or I might have disemboweled my stomach right there. Yikes. This is why it is always important to have a good grip on sharp objects! D8
Also Sis is graduating Chinese school today! I won't be there to see the ceremony, as it's about the same as mine, and I'm too busy watching Dad's Father's Day tribute to my late grandfather upload itself to Dropbox for our relatives to watch. I would have uploaded to Youtube, but censorship overseas means it's unavailable, and I have had to look for alternate sources. I also need to break out the o' drawing tablet to make Dad a personal card, which will probably, as usual, feature him as his ponified self getting flowers or something from us. :P (Dad: KIDS YOU'VE BEEN WATCHING TOO MUCH MY LITTLE PONY STAHP.)
Anyway, below the break you'll find the usual toy review. This could be long, so might want to grab some popcorn if you want to read...
We'll start off this toy review with box art, as usual. Because have I mentioned foreign toy box art can be rad? As you gaze upon the purple and blue box, with its lightning bolts and neat Photoshopped pics, let me just say I really dig it. Not to mention that this was never released in the US. Something about evil Power Ranger Megazords just don't sell. While this particular one did turn good toward the end of the series and even combined, twice, with the Red Ranger for two episodes, Bandai said "WELP, it's still too evil!" and thus it never hit store shelves. Instead, they gave us the repainted horse turned unicorn with a repainted Red Ranger figure known as Saint Kaiser, or the Steedergon Fury Megazord. And, as if to make up for the fact they never released the evil version, imported the unicorn without changing the mold or the paint applications, which is rare for them these days, thanks to the economy tanking and people having less money to buy straight imports without modifications. This particular version of Wolkaiser I have is the Bandai Asia/Hong Kong version, so the instructions were in English and Chinese rather than Japanese, but the toy is the exact same as the Japanese version. Hooray for that.
After ripping open fifty million plastic bags and putting all the pieces together (the horse was disassembled like WHOA in its cardboard tray), you get this very imposing looking stallion and its wolf knight themed rider. Barikion and Wolzard look fabulous with their shiny paint and plastic, and just dominate the shelf. The proportions of the horse look...off, with the back legs looking thinner and stubbier than the front ones, and, when you put Wolzard on top of his trusty steed with a nice satisfying click,
you can really see the size difference between the two. The shield is very nicely painted and features the eye of Wolzard's master forever staring at you with its blood red pupil, and in the show is the source of his magic and can fire energy blasts. The shield also includes a compartment to store the sword when not in use, which is a nice feature to have. Unlike in the show, however, the shield cannot open and close to hide or show the eye. This isn't a problem though, because I like to have the shield displayed open to reveal the extra details. The gold and silver paint go very well with the glossy black plastic, and the gold around the face is reminiscent of a bridle, which gives off the impression that this thing is tame enough to be ridden, rather than a wild robot stallion capable of stomping you flat with a single hoof (which it could still very well do, I'm sure ^^;)
But wait, there's more! Opening up the front of the horse after decapitating it reveals a compartment for you to put Wolzard in, forming Wolkentauros! This centaur form looks just absolutely badass in the show (I mean, for heaven's sake, when have you ever had a CENTAUR in a Power Rangers show?) but in toy form, it's...laughable? I mean, look at how TINY Wolzard is, even if he's holding a lance made from his own horse's head and neck! *gets stabbed* OW! Okay, okay, I didn't really mean to laugh at you! But it's nice that the designers thought of this mode, because I mean, it seems like a no-brainer to me to have a horse and rider be able to merge into one being.
The third mode, known as Wolkaiser, is where this toy really shines. The way this picture was taken highlights how EVIL this thing looks! I like the horse head turning into the helmet and the wolf shoulders coming forward to make the robot look more dangerous.
The shield is now the chest, which continues to make it easy for Wolkaiser to access his magic storage space and power up both him and his horse!
Also interesting to note are the horse shaped silhouettes on the shoulders.
Articulation is limited to the rotation of arms, and the occasional dropping of the weapon, which adds a good amount of weight to the figure and is prone to falling off! >.<
Overall, loving this mecha. There's something about black and gold robots that appeals to me, too, and I just love horses like, OMG. Add in the Asia-exclusive label, the fact that this is a triple changer, and the ability to be played with with the DX Magiking/Titan Megazord (which I sadly cannot show because I do not own this), it's a very nice addition to my collection.
The other toy is the deluxe version of the candy toy my sister owns and mostly functions the same as in the other review of it I did here, but there are differences.
Namely...THE SIZE. Just look at the damn box, people. OoO There are no words for the MASSIVE cardboard space it takes up. It is just...long. But colorfully pretty! You have close-ups of the toys, the Rangers, and big Japanese onomatopoeia written all over, along with English names for the mecha. It also lets you know there's sounds (supplied by my boyfriend's TV remote batteries. The silly doofus even forgot he had put them in my toys and was wondering why his remote wasn't working anymore, until I turned it on just for the heck of it and almost had a heart attack from hearing a T-Rex roar!)
Out of the box you see the reason why the box was so damn long...the T-Rex from nose to tail and from head to toe is just...I have no words, okay. It doesn't look all that big in the photos but in person I think it can rival a Playskool remote controlled dinosaur. Hell, it even looks like a Playskool dinosaur. O_o The tail is thicker than it looks at about 2, maybe 2 and a half inches in width at the base? That's a BIG chunk of tail, and it's nothing to laugh at. The other dinosaurs are tiny compared to Gabutyra, and yes, they share the same mold, so much so the hands aren't even reversed for left and right, so unless you were well aware which dinosaur went on which arm, it would be totally confusing! Not shown is the hidden spike on the stegosaurus raised and the Triceratops drill extended. These pop out and lock in place when the below batteries are put into their open mouths. They open in the exact same way as the candy toy does, and the batteries can be shoved in in their entirety. A button on each of their bellies will launch the battery back out, but only halfway, as the batteries are supposed to be used for the transformation sequence and require that they be half in and half out of each dinosaur.
Like the other batteries I have shown in my Gaburevolver review, they also can glow in the dark when the drained battery side is facing outward, rather than the colorful charged battery face. (click the batteries below to see the back!)
My room is now 20% brighter at night with the extra batteries glowing in the dark! XD
Transformation is simple, and the tail is plugged into the back at the end. A common flaw with this figure is that clips break! Back clips, arm clips, everything ends to snap after a few transformations. It is mostly a problem with the first batch, the later batches supposedly fixed this issue. Since I was worried about my own figure, I checked the date of manufacture...UH OH! It is a first batch production run figure! *cue running and screaming like a chicken with its head cut off* Thankfully nothing has broken yet. To prevent clip breakage I pull directly out to put eveeryone back in dino mode, rather than risk unpegging one clip, and then the other, since twisting or even using just one clip to hold on to heavy pieces of plastic might cause things to go crack. Even with safety precautions in place, I'm scared to transform this thing, lol. Have a close up pic of the head before I change it back. XD
Posed with weapon, which is Stegochi's back spikes. The back plates can be flipped down to create a shield (not shown, my picture was horrible) and the spike that pops up when the battery is inserted has all of the Ranger colors on it (hard to tell from the front, but there is a pic on the box). Obviously, this sword can only be activated when all five of the Rangers are on board, though only 3 of them is needed to form the Megazord. (yes, this is a Megazord that is not formed from every member of the core team, an unusual combination!)
Overall, very pleased with my toys! They're bulky and takes up so much shelf space though. Especially big bad bulky Kyoryujin, and that is not even his final form, wait till I get the other dinosaurs in the series, my friends! And with this, I am going to end the double review, having written so much again that my fingers are starting to ache. I hope you had fun reading them as usual, if you did read this entire thing, lol.
Could have done without her dropping one of the boxes right in front of me as she came up the sidewalk, but thankfully nothing broke. However, the box cutter slipped as I was slicing open the cardboard and luckily bounced off my thick hoodie, or I might have disemboweled my stomach right there. Yikes. This is why it is always important to have a good grip on sharp objects! D8
Also Sis is graduating Chinese school today! I won't be there to see the ceremony, as it's about the same as mine, and I'm too busy watching Dad's Father's Day tribute to my late grandfather upload itself to Dropbox for our relatives to watch. I would have uploaded to Youtube, but censorship overseas means it's unavailable, and I have had to look for alternate sources. I also need to break out the o' drawing tablet to make Dad a personal card, which will probably, as usual, feature him as his ponified self getting flowers or something from us. :P (Dad: KIDS YOU'VE BEEN WATCHING TOO MUCH MY LITTLE PONY STAHP.)
Anyway, below the break you'll find the usual toy review. This could be long, so might want to grab some popcorn if you want to read...
We'll start off this toy review with box art, as usual. Because have I mentioned foreign toy box art can be rad? As you gaze upon the purple and blue box, with its lightning bolts and neat Photoshopped pics, let me just say I really dig it. Not to mention that this was never released in the US. Something about evil Power Ranger Megazords just don't sell. While this particular one did turn good toward the end of the series and even combined, twice, with the Red Ranger for two episodes, Bandai said "WELP, it's still too evil!" and thus it never hit store shelves. Instead, they gave us the repainted horse turned unicorn with a repainted Red Ranger figure known as Saint Kaiser, or the Steedergon Fury Megazord. And, as if to make up for the fact they never released the evil version, imported the unicorn without changing the mold or the paint applications, which is rare for them these days, thanks to the economy tanking and people having less money to buy straight imports without modifications. This particular version of Wolkaiser I have is the Bandai Asia/Hong Kong version, so the instructions were in English and Chinese rather than Japanese, but the toy is the exact same as the Japanese version. Hooray for that.
After ripping open fifty million plastic bags and putting all the pieces together (the horse was disassembled like WHOA in its cardboard tray), you get this very imposing looking stallion and its wolf knight themed rider. Barikion and Wolzard look fabulous with their shiny paint and plastic, and just dominate the shelf. The proportions of the horse look...off, with the back legs looking thinner and stubbier than the front ones, and, when you put Wolzard on top of his trusty steed with a nice satisfying click,
you can really see the size difference between the two. The shield is very nicely painted and features the eye of Wolzard's master forever staring at you with its blood red pupil, and in the show is the source of his magic and can fire energy blasts. The shield also includes a compartment to store the sword when not in use, which is a nice feature to have. Unlike in the show, however, the shield cannot open and close to hide or show the eye. This isn't a problem though, because I like to have the shield displayed open to reveal the extra details. The gold and silver paint go very well with the glossy black plastic, and the gold around the face is reminiscent of a bridle, which gives off the impression that this thing is tame enough to be ridden, rather than a wild robot stallion capable of stomping you flat with a single hoof (which it could still very well do, I'm sure ^^;)
But wait, there's more! Opening up the front of the horse after decapitating it reveals a compartment for you to put Wolzard in, forming Wolkentauros! This centaur form looks just absolutely badass in the show (I mean, for heaven's sake, when have you ever had a CENTAUR in a Power Rangers show?) but in toy form, it's...laughable? I mean, look at how TINY Wolzard is, even if he's holding a lance made from his own horse's head and neck! *gets stabbed* OW! Okay, okay, I didn't really mean to laugh at you! But it's nice that the designers thought of this mode, because I mean, it seems like a no-brainer to me to have a horse and rider be able to merge into one being.
The third mode, known as Wolkaiser, is where this toy really shines. The way this picture was taken highlights how EVIL this thing looks! I like the horse head turning into the helmet and the wolf shoulders coming forward to make the robot look more dangerous.
The shield is now the chest, which continues to make it easy for Wolkaiser to access his magic storage space and power up both him and his horse!
Also interesting to note are the horse shaped silhouettes on the shoulders.
Articulation is limited to the rotation of arms, and the occasional dropping of the weapon, which adds a good amount of weight to the figure and is prone to falling off! >.<
Overall, loving this mecha. There's something about black and gold robots that appeals to me, too, and I just love horses like, OMG. Add in the Asia-exclusive label, the fact that this is a triple changer, and the ability to be played with with the DX Magiking/Titan Megazord (which I sadly cannot show because I do not own this), it's a very nice addition to my collection.
The other toy is the deluxe version of the candy toy my sister owns and mostly functions the same as in the other review of it I did here, but there are differences.
Namely...THE SIZE. Just look at the damn box, people. OoO There are no words for the MASSIVE cardboard space it takes up. It is just...long. But colorfully pretty! You have close-ups of the toys, the Rangers, and big Japanese onomatopoeia written all over, along with English names for the mecha. It also lets you know there's sounds (supplied by my boyfriend's TV remote batteries. The silly doofus even forgot he had put them in my toys and was wondering why his remote wasn't working anymore, until I turned it on just for the heck of it and almost had a heart attack from hearing a T-Rex roar!)
Out of the box you see the reason why the box was so damn long...the T-Rex from nose to tail and from head to toe is just...I have no words, okay. It doesn't look all that big in the photos but in person I think it can rival a Playskool remote controlled dinosaur. Hell, it even looks like a Playskool dinosaur. O_o The tail is thicker than it looks at about 2, maybe 2 and a half inches in width at the base? That's a BIG chunk of tail, and it's nothing to laugh at. The other dinosaurs are tiny compared to Gabutyra, and yes, they share the same mold, so much so the hands aren't even reversed for left and right, so unless you were well aware which dinosaur went on which arm, it would be totally confusing! Not shown is the hidden spike on the stegosaurus raised and the Triceratops drill extended. These pop out and lock in place when the below batteries are put into their open mouths. They open in the exact same way as the candy toy does, and the batteries can be shoved in in their entirety. A button on each of their bellies will launch the battery back out, but only halfway, as the batteries are supposed to be used for the transformation sequence and require that they be half in and half out of each dinosaur.
Like the other batteries I have shown in my Gaburevolver review, they also can glow in the dark when the drained battery side is facing outward, rather than the colorful charged battery face. (click the batteries below to see the back!)
My room is now 20% brighter at night with the extra batteries glowing in the dark! XD
Transformation is simple, and the tail is plugged into the back at the end. A common flaw with this figure is that clips break! Back clips, arm clips, everything ends to snap after a few transformations. It is mostly a problem with the first batch, the later batches supposedly fixed this issue. Since I was worried about my own figure, I checked the date of manufacture...UH OH! It is a first batch production run figure! *cue running and screaming like a chicken with its head cut off* Thankfully nothing has broken yet. To prevent clip breakage I pull directly out to put eveeryone back in dino mode, rather than risk unpegging one clip, and then the other, since twisting or even using just one clip to hold on to heavy pieces of plastic might cause things to go crack. Even with safety precautions in place, I'm scared to transform this thing, lol. Have a close up pic of the head before I change it back. XD
Posed with weapon, which is Stegochi's back spikes. The back plates can be flipped down to create a shield (not shown, my picture was horrible) and the spike that pops up when the battery is inserted has all of the Ranger colors on it (hard to tell from the front, but there is a pic on the box). Obviously, this sword can only be activated when all five of the Rangers are on board, though only 3 of them is needed to form the Megazord. (yes, this is a Megazord that is not formed from every member of the core team, an unusual combination!)
Overall, very pleased with my toys! They're bulky and takes up so much shelf space though. Especially big bad bulky Kyoryujin, and that is not even his final form, wait till I get the other dinosaurs in the series, my friends! And with this, I am going to end the double review, having written so much again that my fingers are starting to ache. I hope you had fun reading them as usual, if you did read this entire thing, lol.