#daibouken

GoGo Gattai DaiBouken Wallpaper

Original picture by Gatekeeper. https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/77293

quickie ultimate

Daibouken

I think I’ve said this at least once, but I really dislike Boukenger. I’ve watched a good 40 episodes of the show, and I just couldn’t get into it. Not that there weren’t some good moments and ideas, but most of them have been improved on in succeeding seasons, like Bouken Silver to ToQ6. Still, the toys are pretty awesome.

I have the three years previous to this one, and there’s a definite pattern of improving the transformation and combination among those years. There’s an emphasis on interplay and multiple ways to do so among those years (which started with GaoRanger), and this feels like it’s supposed to be the crowning achievement of that play style before GekiRanger changed things up.

The Good: This is a great set of toys. A giant, working dump truck with dedicated weapon storage is a great start. Each of the smaller vehicles don’t do as much, but are used in two self-contained combined modes, GoGo Trailer and Daibouken. While GoGo Trailer is a fun addition, Daibouken is amazing in terms of Sentai mehcs, having inward bicep movement due to transformation, knees, thigh swivels, universal hips, and a neck joint. It can actually pose, which is not something that sells me on Sentai toys, but when one has it it’s a treat.

There’re also some great transformation bits that we used to see more often, but have disappeared in recent years. There’s a lot of machine chunks sliding and compressing, the entire cab of GoGo Dump flips over the top of the robot before you reveal the head, things moving on rails to lock or unlock parts, extra revealed detail. It’s stellar.

The copy I have is also “well-loved,” most likely being owned by a child who grew out of it, and nothing’s broken. That’s kind of amazing since I had another breakage on my Go-Busters toys while doing photos for these reviews, and you’d expect the newer toys to have better tolerances.

The Bad: Not too much to say for Daibouken. There’s a lot of paint, and several areas where it can easily scrape against plastic. There are also a few surprisingly loose areas considering how solid most of this toy is, like the truck grill on the back (a main focal point on Super Daibouken), the shovel on GoGo Dozer, and the ‘horns’ on the helmet.

Lastly, the sword has a small protrusion on the handle to help it store on GoGo Dump, which makes it stand very far of the hand, similar to MagiKing. It would have been easy to have a small notch in the fist to accommodate, but nope.

Overall, this is a great toy, but one people know is great and runs a high price because of it. I regularly see the Ultimate set run for $250, but I got my scuffed one and some *cough* others *cough* with no boxes for around $100. If you’re okay with a loved toy, then I’m sure you can find a similarly priced deal, but if you want it minty fresh you may have to cough up some serious shells.

Daitanken / Super Daibouken / Ultimate Daibouken

Does this count as a Movie Toy? I know all five of these auxiliary machines appeared in the series proper, but they only combined during the movie. It’s a bit of a strange situation when you think about it, as that hasn’t been done before or since.

The Good: Another set of five good toys. They all do more individually than most of Daibouken’s machines, and can each individually be used in combination with Daibouken without needing the five of them together to form the messy amalgam of parts that is Ultimate Daibouken. Like Chou ToQ-Oh, he doesn’t really gain much height by combining as much as bulk, but it’s still an impressive final result none the less.

This is a great example of interplay. You can swap out arms for any of four of the Daitanken set, can make a giant gun mode, have two separate combined modes, GoGo Jet can carry around any single limb robot, and the second robot is an afterthought rather than a main focus, meaning that the combination comes together more smoothly than normal.

The Bad: Most of my problems come from GoGo Jet. It’s more finicky than any other machine in the line, with long appendages that constantly require you to detach and reattach them to the wings between modes. Some of its landing gear gets easily stuck. Those sockets for Daitankens legs are SO tight that I spent five minutes searching for a release button, and the piece used to carry the other machines around has no place in Ultimate Daibouken, and it’s the only piece like that. It certainly gives up the most to make the other toys shine.