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Not sure how durable the 220DX body is, but it looks very good on the few release they have. It does suffer a bit of scale issues when compare to the 12", making it a tad less realistic in some poses or on fabric folds. But its a great choice for more budgeted collectors, especially when they don't mind the much smaller line-up. For you 12" lovers, you gotta check out Takara's Kerberos Protect Gear that just came out. Its by far the most impressive 12" I've come across. Check my 'Takara 12" JinRoh figure' thread for details. You'll love this one for sure.

The hype has ended. The wait is over. The figure is at hand. Is the figure really as good as people say? Well, lets just put it if there is a 12" figure of the year for 2006, it would definitely be this one. Not really a big JinRoh fan myself, therefore holding off for a really long time on getting a figure of the Kerberos Protect Gear, let alone an expensive 12". But as I saw news on this one months ago, I thought this might be good enough to be the one to get, especially when I like the updated design better than the previous look. And as I open my very well packaged Takara box, and open up the magnetic bookend design window box, I was impressed. No more cutting(ruining) of the box to unleash the parts like in Cool Girl or Batman. Even there are extra empty compartment to store the assembled gun & backpack. Great! Then I start taking out the figure and test the joints. Nice and tight. Cool! Then the assembly of the armor parts one by one. All fits in tight and sturdy, while post no fear in snapping anything if you want to disassemble them. Sweet! With everything in place, I go for some simple posing and see how good the weight balance is. To my surprise, the huge backpack doesn't cause any top heavy issue. And with the help of 'the best design 12" figure ankle/boot ever', this figure stands super stable, way better than any 12" I've come across. Even more impressive than the previous Batman(same body) since this Protect Gear guy has so much more gear on his body than batman's rubber suit. This is just awesome! Then on with the more extreme poses, to see how bad the armor get in its way...and to my surprise, almost none. Below is one of the action pose I pull off, to show the flexibility of this guy with all those stuff on... Perfect feet contact on such a wide stance, and still stands like a brick with no help from display stand. It won't even fall if you try to push it. Shoulders can raise really high and wide, without the huge shoulder armor get in the way. The double jointed elbow also can come into good use to bend a really wide angle as shown on his left arm. Neck can also rotate in very wide angle. Skirt armor is so mobile that the legs can do even much more extreme poses as shown in this pic. And of course, 'the best ankle boot ever' design made all these craziness still stand perfectly well balanced. Here is a comparison to the mighty Medicom MGS3 Snake, which was among the very top quality 12" figure in my book. The Medicom RAH301 body does has its advantage on the double jointed shoulders, allowing forward backward movement on shoulders to make it more natural. Also the double jointed neck seems to post better than Takara's single jointed one. However, Takara's has a slightly better range on the shoulder in terms of bending range of how high you want to raise the arms sideways, as well as a slightly better elbow. While Takara's wrist joint and ankle blows Medicom's completely away. As you can see, Snake doesn't have very good floor contact, and will fall with a touch of a finger in that pose. And given that the Protect Gear figure can still pull off poses (with all the armor and double layer leather) almost the same degree as the almost naked Medicom Snake (even excels over Snake in some areas), its quite an impressive statement! While Snake is still one of the very best 12" figure when it comes to quality and details (love those small metal rivets, buckles, and tiny prints on the sleeves), Takara has made a toy engineering marvel in the 12" realm, just like the SOC Gunbuster being an engineering marvel among other diecast robot toys. Other goodness on this figure includes the awesome machine gun it came with. It has quite a few movable parts on it, with a spring-loaded recoil, and a long bandoleer. Takara went so far that even using the exact same 'spare barrel' you can mount on the backpack hidden inside the enclosed gun, which you could only peek in from the numerous circle holes the outer gun barrel has. A kind of detail that I would have totally missed, have I not re-watched the Jin-Roh anime movie last night, when Fuse was assembing his gun in his room. The armor has a very nice matte plastic finish. Though like all matte surface, its prone to scratches. So be very careful, unless you don't mind adding a couple battle damage mark on the pristine armor. In conclusion, this Takara Protect Gear 12" is as good as 12" figure can get, surpassing Medicom's Snake (or many current high quality 12") in a number of ways in terms of costume design, complexity, poseability, and accessories. I got many Medicoms with thin super hero outfit that can't even pose as good as this. If you are a 12" collector, or just a collector of random cool toys, it would be really really hard to find an example that can beat this one, maybe even in years to come. Getting it or not, its up to you.

Yeah they did. The Batman Begins has too big of a head and not that nice proportion, though some details are nice (Takara won on this one, while Hot Toys is a close second), while the Superman used the U.S. comic super hero body(the one in the Spiderman comic version), makes it also look kind of odd. Huge chest, skinny waist, way too comical when this is a realistic movie depiction. They should have used the normal body and just use some padding if necessary for a muscular build under a thin tight suit.

Yeah. I collect quite a few Medicoms, but never really like their Spidermans. Think they did a much better job on their Japanese heroes than the Americans in general, with a few exceptions. Though they did improve a bit from their first Spider-man movie one. That one was horrible.

Its cool that you find more enjoyable parts from it, but I definitely can't agree on the above statement one bit. I've watched a good dose of Japanese TV drama, feature films, & hero shows. And those guys(all the lead characters) from The First got to be some of the very worst... Just go watch the scene when the girl 'pretend' to cry when her boyfriend got killed in the park at night by the Spider Otoko. If that is some top performance from Japan actors(which isn't), then I feel very sorry for their film industry. For a good remake of the classic Riders, the Kamen Rider Spirits manga would be your only choice so far. Hikuro, don't mean to start an argument or anything though, and cool that there are Rider fans on this board. Just disagreeing on a point or two.

I think this movie is pretty crappy, for what they have to work with. While all the original old Rider movies are pretty cheesy, they are actually fun to watch most of the time. You do feel like they really try to push what is 'cool' back in the 70s, regardless how bad it looks nowadays. But for Rider The First, with all the back history, well written side stories, movies, comics, SIC for inspiration....and they come up with a really bad script and a bunch of really bad actors for a supposingly 'long awaited remake' of the classic. The Cobra/Snake side story is quite unnecessary, unless it is very well executed. The outcome is very predictable, and the segments made me want the kid just die off in the hospital early, especially with those horrible acting. The only good part is the Rider suits and lighting, making some scenes look pretty. But even the action is not very good and looks kind of fake (trying too hard to be cool and not really fighting). They should take more notes on HK cinema when it comes to action. Really disappointed with this movie, and felt like any TV episodes of 555 is more entertaining than this.

Yeah, its skinny alright. Wish it has a bit more mass on the torso/rib cage to give my Batman a wider body like it was in the movie. And the shoulders on Takara's doesn't allow back and forth movement like in Medicom's RAH body. But Takara's, as well as their Cool Girl bodies are definitely top quality stuff. None of my other 12" figures can stand as stable as the Takara's, due to their superb ankle design. HLJ just shipped my Protect Gear figure today! Yay!

http://www.hlj.com/product/MEDRAH-301 (Normal) http://www.hlj.com/product/MEDRAH-224 (Massive - with more muscle) Unfortunately, looks like HLJ closed these orders again and labeled it 'discontinued'. You might need to look around if you need them soon. But if you are not looking for particular these Medicom ones(harder to find) and just need it for classes, Hot Toys also has some pretty good 12" body you can get it decently priced on ebay. Just look for the more recent versions.

From what I've heard, the quality on Takara is way better. In terms of the bare body of Takara's, don't think its available by itself. Though Medicom sells the RAH301 body. HLJ will restock them in a few months. Though Medicom's body in general is a tad shorter than other brands. More like 11.5".

I believe the Takara ones are brand new designs, which are slight modifications of the original. But Mamoru Oshii is involved in the designs, so its official. Just a fresher new look. But so far, only this new one has been shown to the public. The other 4 upcoming Takara designs are still unknown, other than their names.

Made sure you didn't mistaken it as MGS4. Its MGS3 Snake, which was out a couple years already. In terms of the Takara one, its the 2nd of the Takara Jinroh series, with a female (Cool Girl body) one released last year. There will be 4 more variations to come. But this one is awesome enough for me, even though I probably will only buy one. Expensive stuff man!

Protect Gear Kohakumaru Chuichi figure to be exact. Just came out and low stock at HLJ. From all the reviews at Toysdaily in HK, there is literally no complain on quality or QC issues, but really high praises on this release. Very good design for good mobility regardless of the heavily equipped gear, very detailed, and many named it to be the best 12" figure of 2006, beating all the other Medicoms or previous Takara releases (there were a lot of great releases this year...BM Rider The First, Rocketeer, Jack Sparrow, Takara Batman, DX Kikaider...etc). If the figure is as good as they claimed, it might even beat my favorite 12"(in terms of detail and quality) Medicom MGS3 Snake. Here is a pic comparing it to other previous Jinroh releases from other companies. Obviously no competition there. Can't wait til HLJ ships mine.

Hey, at least you don't need a modded DS to play this one. DS games are region free you know. Just import it if you wanna play this one bad. Didn't follow the SRW W closely, but looks decently nice. The cut-in animation stills look very sharp and high res, though the small robot sprites seem to suffer from the small screen. Can't say the line-up is very impressive though for fans that already played the Alpha series. Just having Golion and Tekkaman as the main new leads seem not quite enough. For those that love Jump Comics, Jump! Ultimate Stars seems pretty good game too. Pretty much an improved version of Jump! Super Stars with a lot more characters. More old school characters including Saint Seiya, Kenshiro, Momotaro, Kinnikuman are added, as well as the newer Bleach guys, Naruto, One Piece, Bo-bobo and many others are back. A pretty fun and innovative fighting game that involves tapping the comic panels on the touch screen during the fight. For those that haven't tried it before, highly recommended. Especially for people that uses Wifi, you can challenge whoever you can find online.

Snake in action And my 6 sword Date.

HUH?!

Would have considered it if I didn't already have the SOC. Does look pretty nice as long as the armors stay in place without falling off easy. Besides, there are just way too many Eva toys available, while my passion for Eva stuff has died down quite a few years ago. While this is a cool new line from Bandai, there are just too many cool stuff to buy these days.

Pass. This robot looks much worse than the original.

I think they will . Heard its scheduled for 2007 March, pairing with Dangaioh. Couldn't wait until Christmas day to release my Mazinkaiser from its box. My impression on my newly opened Mazinkaiser is very good too, but with a couple gripes. Plastic finish. While they go all out painted the whole Getter 3, they used minimal paint on Kaiser, and left it with mostly polished plastic in the same fashion as Getter 1 & 2. Wish they have added more paint, as Getter 3 really looks great. Neck little revoltech joint alignment gets disoriented easy when turning the head. Everytime I turn the head sideway, the vertical axis also got turned a bit(when I don't what it to, kind of have the symptom of the SOC Getter Dragon's neck, always need to fix it and re-align it when I fiddle with the head. Adding some lubricant on the top head swivel might help, so the bottom is tighter and less likely to move around. Getter 3 has the same joint on the neck but don't have this issue. Hip revoltech joints did solved the 'nut pose' issue, as Mazinkaiser can do more natural stance. However, it also need quite a bit more effort to find a standing pose that Kaiser can balance itself due to the angles of the peg holes the hip and thighs have. Took me like a couple minutes everytime to actually get it into a balanced pose without falling whenever I try to change pose on the lower body. With Getter 1 & Dougram, this is much easier. Scrander articulation while its there, its not very useful once attached to Kaiser's back. Barely any room for it to move. Though at least it stays in place nice and tight without falling or rotating like the Aoshima's. White belly section a bit too short. See the top edge front and back easy when you bend the torso more. One of the tip of my Scrander is bent in the box with a bit stress mark visible (just mine). As you can see. The short comings are very minor, and the sculpt is awesome. The articulation needs a bit getting used to, but should be a no brainer once you've handled previous revoltechs. They indeed improved a lot of old flaws, even added the new clicking small joints on the elbows. Not as tight as the big joints for sure, but enough to get the job done. Weapons all held nice and tight, as well as hands with groves on peg that won't fall off like Getter 1's(almost too tight to change them, which a little lubricant can help). Overall, great figure the best sculpt of Kaiser in a very playable and affordable form. Though the finish and minor articulation issues put it right behind Getter 3 as my second favorite revoltech release in terms of execution.

OPEN GET!!! If you are really into the long arms of Getter 3, you can put all the extensions on one arm as shown, or purchase an extra figure and extend it all the way. Fun stuff!

Getter 3 baby! Just got my hands on this one as well as Mazinkaiser. But only opened the Getter 3 for now. Boy, is this cool. And I was so surprised that now even the little joint on the neck and wrists clicks too! Thats right. Its also revolteched(nice term LOL)! Tons of big revoltech joints on this Getter with awesome posing range, and the whole body fully painted! Looks more finished compare to the bare shiny plastic of Getter 1 & 2. The only gripe is that it doesn't come with a pair of closed fists. Only 2 pairs of open hands. But other than that, I think this release is a great improvement of the previous. Hope the Mazinkaiser will be even better, but saving that one for Christmas. Can't wait for Dangaioh coming in March. Yay!

Sorry . No time to clean off that table to do a nicer photo shoot, as you can see my usual photo shooting space there is now pretty...crowded.

Added a few not so pretty quick snap, with my quick and dirty version of Sword of Fury.

Alternator Nemesis Prime impression Gallery from seibertron.com: http://www.seibertron.com/toys/gallery.php...e=0&start=0 Sorry without any pics, due to not having my camera with me at the moment. Just got this this weekend. While the unpainted car polish still need sometime to get used to (since I mainly only buy Binaltech), this San Diego Comic Con limited version does look great. Thanks to the color scheme being all black with metalic blue and silver accents, the body look much less plasticy than other lighter colors Alternator. While I like the Alt Prime sculpt, it was kind of pointless for me to get a smaller, inferior quality Prime when my BTs already have a nice Masterpiece Prime as the leader. Though this Nemesis Prime gave me a very good reason to it now, as I always wanted to own an Evil Prime. This one fits right into the slot. The Goods? It looks great in both mode, especially truck mode. There are less seams found in this car mode than a lot of other BTs, while the black body with red windows just blend in very nicely. Robot mode looks great and pose well. The paint scheme just look menacing and quite an improvement on the original red and blue. Transformation also somewhat simpler than other BTs, which is also a welcome if you don't like reading the instructions all the time. Joints on the upper body is all tight and sturdy, with very good moving range. The Bads? The lower body. Loose leg joints on hip, thigh swivel, knee, and feet (pretty much all of them o_O). While the figure was designed to be well balanced in terms of weight, the loose joints on the legs really kill its stability. While the hips can be fixed by disassembling it and add some tape to add friction, the knee is really troublesome. The lower legs can't be easily taken apart, making the surgery a lot harder. Turn out need to be really creative (slip in hard foil strips [from over the counter pills package] in knee hinge and re-enforce it with super strong double side tape) and took a couple hours to finally get the knee tight and sturdy. Aside from the leg joints, the front wheel steeling also don't seem to work that well. Not smooth like my other BTs. So overall, its a hit & miss. I like the design quite a bit, and this color scheme definitely put Nemesis Prime as one of my favorite looking Alt, right behind Hot Rod. However, the execution is not quite there in terms of all the leg joints. I doubted I got a lemon as both the left and right legs have the exact degree of looseness on the same joint. So its more likely the mold. And with the high price places are going, due to its exclusiveness, its not a very good buy. But also like Hot Rod, its one of those coolest bot in the BT/ALT line that you just have to bite the bullet if you wanna own one. But now that I fixed the looseness, its awesome!

Kiss Player Hot Rodimus short review Hmm... Surprised that not a whole lot of discussion on this guy. Just got mine last night. Its a fun piece, and the best looking bot in my BT family for sure. http://pony-hp3.web.infoseek.co.jp/TFKISS-HOT.htm While I am not that excited about the whole Kiss theme, its not that bad after I got it in hand and listened to the drama CD. Its meant to be comic relief more than anything. And some TF fans labeling it as 'child porn' is just a bit too extreme. On Hot Rod particularly, its sort of a side story, as Hot Rod resumed his identity from Rodimus Prime after feeling incompetent as the new leader and handed over Ultra Magnus his Matrix. Then he fled back to Earth. However, Earth is being attacked by a new type of evil transformers called Legion (pronounce as Le Gi On), and the good transformers like Hot Rod needs the Kiss Power that a handful of girls posses in order to power-up and battle these Legions. So happened Hot Rod met Syao Syao(one of the Kiss Player girls) and became partners. And how does Hot Rod get its power-up? By a kiss from Syao Syao LOL . So with a back story like that, and you try to take it all serious, then you sure have some issue. The illustration with Syao Syao kissing Hot Rod just cracks me up. Its weird, its wrong(in a TF world), but sure its funny and very 'Japanese'. Now back to the toy. How good is it? In terms of design, its the best in BT line in my book. No tricky parts that don't like to go into place. Joints are sturdy, and figure super well weight balance, thanks to the yellow feet extender on the back. Poseability is top notch as well. You can pull off a lot of kung fu poses on this one (fits the story too as Syao Syao & Hot Rod here are kung fu experts). While I am not a big fan of Ford design, this GT-40 is still a beauty and granted some really nice shapes to make Hot Rod looks that much batter in robot mode. The yellow hands aren't that bad, and actually give the 'flamy guy' some contrast and accent. I hear a lot of people complained about them. But when I check back on other Hot Rod toy incarnations, he just got orange hands. So yeah, big difference. Though I do think if he got orange thighs, he would look even better. So whats the bad part? Paint. While they made the car finish nice and glossy, the inner robot part paint job is kind of sloppy. Not as bad as in some Alternator versions, but still not good enough for a $60+ TF. Overspray is often, and edges not very sharp and clean. Even got some of the flames on one arm all blurred(probably the spray got mis-aligned), and touch up on the silver face(made my Hot Rod look older, more like Rodimus Prime LOL). Also, the Exhaust Eliminator (fishing rod gun) doesn't clip on the arm tight and falls off easy. Its such a signature piece for Hot Rod that you would expect a better designed clamp for it. In conclusion, this sure is the coolest BT bot, and Takara picked the right design for an important character like Hot Rod. Its very playable and stands really well. But the somewhat sloppy paint in some robot parts definitely doesn't make up for the lack of diecast, and high price tag. So definitely not a 'best bang for the buck' release. But if you want the best looking BT, you kind of have to bite the bullet.

Yeah. I like New Getter Robo's beginning and the robot designs(good mix of all old and new versions), with characters kind of psychotic just like in some manga. But as they reveal more of what the Onis are, and the time travel and the stuff at the end, it really hurts the show. Not to mention Hayato got tamed too fast, from a total psycho in episode 2, to a total good guy in just an episode or 2. And don't like this version of Musashi at all. Think Shin Getter: Last Day still the best remake, even though the story need a story guide to understand what was going on, and a few episodes could be better drawn (budget issue).