#gaoking

from August 2025 Comic-Con

SHOKUGAN MODELING PROJECT GaoKing

So if you’ve followed me for a while, despite the fact that I love Sentai and model kits, I’ve never built or talked about Super Minipla. It’s mostly just a combination of the fact that I’m a stickler for scale and don’t like tons of stickers, but I’m generally not a fan. However, I’m always interested in new model kit lines, and, honestly, the aftermarket on Gaoranger toys is ridiculous, so these might be my only chance of experiencing these molds.

The Good: Good posability and good looking. GaoKing is extremely posable, and the GaoMachines all retain their original posability with a little extra, without possessing a lot of the gaps and liberties Super Minipla usually have to accomplish that. It even has toes so the feet can look flat to the floor most of the time. They’re very one-to-one appearance-wise with the DX, and look fantastic. It probably helps that there’re no screw holes.

It also has a number of features not present on the DX, such as two faces and a second, larger shark fin sword that’s almost as long as the DX’s. GaoShark can also recede its hilt holder into its mouth so it can actually look like a decent shark with its mouth open, which feels like something they’d do on an actual re-release.

The Bad: A lot of tough mushroom pegs; ow my hands.

The transformation is less intuitive than the DX. GaoShark, Eagle, and Lion are identical, but GaoTiger requires you to take it apart, even just to slide the tail past the shoulder pad. And GaoBison is very awkward, requiring you to slide its forelegs back and forth on difficult rails, and it’s hard to pivot the hips because of some of the added details.

As for price, this feels like a $30 kit at most, but goes for $50. To put this into perspective, it’s around the same price as Mugendramon, a much larger and complex kit. Heck, it’s almost as expensive as an actual DX Sentai toy. These feel like kits that would be amazing on sale, but considering how fast they sell out, I don’t know if they ever will.

The Details: I did a bit of panel lining on everyone to bring out some of the surface detail. I ended up using most of the stickers, though on GaoTiger, who had a lot of solid black details, I painted them on instead.

Overall, it’s a really good kit, but feels too expensive for what you get. If it was either cheaper or bigger I’d have a lot easier time recommending it, but if you can find it on sale, it’s a heavy recommendation.

I’m so happy I bought this

You guys know how much I love Wild Force

Can finally form the Pegasus megazord

Plus the electrics still work so it can walk around the room and rear up and roar by remote control

YOU ARE THE KING

YOU ARE THE KING

YOU ARE THE KING