Grumpy Geoffrey Has Arrived!
Early Christmas presents are best presents. :) I received this guy one day late because of holiday package backup problems at the USPS, but that's to be expected when Cyber Monday wasn't too far behind us. So, let's get started, shall we. Introducing Gao Giraffe ("gao" being Japanese onomatopoeia for an animal growl), from the Hundred Beast Sentai Gaoranger toyline. This was also renamed the Giraffe Wild Zord in the US and packaged together with the Rhino, Armadillo, Falcon, and Deer Zords in the Isis Megazord toyset here. However, because I am cheap, I'm going to get all of them separately.
We start off with a dark orange box, with Grumpy Geoffrey featured prominently on the front and sides and back. This was brought used, so the box is a bit dinged up, but as long as the toy itself is fine, which it is, I'm fine with it. Gao Giraffe's stats are shown on the side, and apparently it is 28.5 meters long, 38 meters tall, and weighs 860 tons. I don't know about you, but that giraffe is totally not going to be overlooked on an African plain. XD
After opening the package, you not only get Geoffrey but this tiny giraffe shaped rubber...thing. I don't know what you would call it, but in the show, it appears inside the Ranger's animal crystals that, when inserted into their swords, enables them to summon that animal to the battlefied. Sadly I do not have the toy version of the Crystal Saber or Beast King Sword as it is called in Japan to demonstrate how this is used, so it goes back into the box. However, it is amazingly quite detailed and you can even see etched spots on it if you look closely.
And here we have Geoffrey out of the box. Note the chromed feet...so shiny! *o* He's also painted pretty nicely, and the dark brown spots on his sides and neck really pop out (the US version omits the neck spot paint, so it's simply left the orange plastic coloring). His angry red eyes just DARE you to try approaching him, and his mouth is perpetually open to scold anyone who looks down upon him. XD The silver paint goes together well with the orange, and there's a nice "cutie mark" on his butt. Articulation wise, his legs can bend at the knees, his head can rachet up and down and side to side, and each of his legs swivel but that's mostly for transformation purposes. His tail can also move a little, and can be retracted into his butt, again, only for the purpose of transformation.
But his head can turn side to side! Here Geoffrey looks at me coldly when I start taking juuuust a tad too long making him pose for the camera. XD
In the show, when the Predazord/Gao Hunter was under the control of the evil Org Loki/Roki or Zen Aku, the Org stole the Rangers' Zord for his own use, making the Predazord Spear Mode, or Gao Hunter Spear! Thankfully the toy can recreate this, and basically the Hammerhead is just now swapped out for Geoffrey, who, when transformed, equips this really awesome looking battle mask to ram enemies head first! Also, when combined you can see the arm is quite long and almost reaches the table surface! O_o Attached to the battle mask is a crescent moon effect made to emulate the attack on the show where Gao Giraffe literally reaches such high speed when shot toward the enemy, seen below, bursts into flame! Yes, guys, a flaming giraffe head firing at you is definitely going to HURT.
It's also worth mentioning that the metal shaft that pops out when a button on the base of the Giraffe's neck is pressed to activate the "action feature" is diecast metal, not chrome. And I like metal. ;)
The nice thing about the Gaoranger toyline is that you can literally mix and match the different animals across the board, so it's kind of like Bandai America's current Zord Builder line in a way and allows you to make your own combinations. For Gao Giraffe, he can be a spear for literally anyone, though I do like show-accurate combinations...not to mention the fact he gets his own battle mask is just neat as buck...gotta protect that face when fighting, folks! Safety first! The added paint of the JP version is a definite plus, because what's a giraffe with unpainted neck spots, and I really like how poseable he is.
Tune in next time for my next review of Zakutor. :)
We start off with a dark orange box, with Grumpy Geoffrey featured prominently on the front and sides and back. This was brought used, so the box is a bit dinged up, but as long as the toy itself is fine, which it is, I'm fine with it. Gao Giraffe's stats are shown on the side, and apparently it is 28.5 meters long, 38 meters tall, and weighs 860 tons. I don't know about you, but that giraffe is totally not going to be overlooked on an African plain. XD
After opening the package, you not only get Geoffrey but this tiny giraffe shaped rubber...thing. I don't know what you would call it, but in the show, it appears inside the Ranger's animal crystals that, when inserted into their swords, enables them to summon that animal to the battlefied. Sadly I do not have the toy version of the Crystal Saber or Beast King Sword as it is called in Japan to demonstrate how this is used, so it goes back into the box. However, it is amazingly quite detailed and you can even see etched spots on it if you look closely.
And here we have Geoffrey out of the box. Note the chromed feet...so shiny! *o* He's also painted pretty nicely, and the dark brown spots on his sides and neck really pop out (the US version omits the neck spot paint, so it's simply left the orange plastic coloring). His angry red eyes just DARE you to try approaching him, and his mouth is perpetually open to scold anyone who looks down upon him. XD The silver paint goes together well with the orange, and there's a nice "cutie mark" on his butt. Articulation wise, his legs can bend at the knees, his head can rachet up and down and side to side, and each of his legs swivel but that's mostly for transformation purposes. His tail can also move a little, and can be retracted into his butt, again, only for the purpose of transformation.
But his head can turn side to side! Here Geoffrey looks at me coldly when I start taking juuuust a tad too long making him pose for the camera. XD
In the show, when the Predazord/Gao Hunter was under the control of the evil Org Loki/Roki or Zen Aku, the Org stole the Rangers' Zord for his own use, making the Predazord Spear Mode, or Gao Hunter Spear! Thankfully the toy can recreate this, and basically the Hammerhead is just now swapped out for Geoffrey, who, when transformed, equips this really awesome looking battle mask to ram enemies head first! Also, when combined you can see the arm is quite long and almost reaches the table surface! O_o Attached to the battle mask is a crescent moon effect made to emulate the attack on the show where Gao Giraffe literally reaches such high speed when shot toward the enemy, seen below, bursts into flame! Yes, guys, a flaming giraffe head firing at you is definitely going to HURT.
It's also worth mentioning that the metal shaft that pops out when a button on the base of the Giraffe's neck is pressed to activate the "action feature" is diecast metal, not chrome. And I like metal. ;)
The nice thing about the Gaoranger toyline is that you can literally mix and match the different animals across the board, so it's kind of like Bandai America's current Zord Builder line in a way and allows you to make your own combinations. For Gao Giraffe, he can be a spear for literally anyone, though I do like show-accurate combinations...not to mention the fact he gets his own battle mask is just neat as buck...gotta protect that face when fighting, folks! Safety first! The added paint of the JP version is a definite plus, because what's a giraffe with unpainted neck spots, and I really like how poseable he is.
Tune in next time for my next review of Zakutor. :)