Good Striker / LupinKaiser / PatKaiser
I gotta say, I'm quite enjoying this show so far. It’s not perfect. It feels more LupinRanger feat. PatRanger, and I feel like the point of mutual respect is showing signs of surfacing way too fast, but the overall quality of the show’s cinematography, characters, and writing is great. And yeah, I bought two. Don't act so surprised, I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one this dumb and gullible.
The Good: I like both of these guys a lot. Despite the fact that they have the same frame, they have very different silhouettes, which I feel adds to the credence of owning both. While PatKaiser has your typical Super Sentai articulation (8-click ratcheted shoulders only), LupinKaiser has a lot more. For a Sentai toy at least. Apart from the normal shoulders, it has an 8-click ratcheted bicep rotation, a 1-click elbow joint, and due to the way the head transforms it also has five viable positions with which you can position the head. That's seven points of usable articulation.
Also, a fun little accident (maybe, we'll see) is that you can use Dial Fighter Red and Trigger Machine Ichi as arms for whichever Kaiser you want to mix it with:
Trigger Machine Ichi certainly looks better as an arm than Dial Fighter Red does, but the fact that you can still do it is really cool and something I was curious if you'd be able to do after I saw they used the same connections to attach to the neck.
Oh, and I actually managed to get the promotional item for once:
Haven't managed to get lucky with these since Ninninger, and these are way cooler than the Super Combination Nin Shuriken. You can clip them on to your shirt pocket and everything. They, along with Good Striker, also have the slats that trigger sounds in the VS Changer:
The Bad: Good Striker possesses both the gimmicks of the Dial Fighters and Trigger Machines, but neither of them do what they're supposed to do. Instead of activating an auto-transform gimmick they, uh...they trigger sound effects. Sound effects that yell at you in Goody's very shrill and compressed voice. And as funny as it is to listen to it when you trigger both of them at the same time, there is no off switch and I have my pull tabs disconnected because I kind of want to drain their batteries as fast as possible as they're the type of sounds that are easy to accidentally trigger. And I don’t like them.
Moving on, I have three issues with the toys' overall sculpt. First is that there's a release button to unlock and re-lock the legs, which I like. Except the button is the cockpit which is covered in paint, which I don't like. If I end up transforming these guys a bunch, which I probably will, those buttons are going to see ware and paint chipping really fast. Second is the recessed heads of Dial Fighter Red and Trigger Machine Ichi. While I like the sculpts and I credit Red for its neck posability, they're not always the easiest things to see. Third and last is that it has a good two inches of backpack jutting from its spine. It provides no stability issues, but it does limit display options quite a bit, and the only reason it's that big is because it houses the sound gimmick:
The Ugly: Honestly, the worst part about this toy, as someone who owns both vehicle sets, is that LupinKaiser is a better toy. Now, I like the look of PatKaiser just fine, but when they're standing next to each other those seven points of articulation overshadow it. If PatKaiser just had those 1-click elbows I think it'd be fine, but as it stands I find LupinKaiser to be more worth your money if you've only got the budget for one.
Overall, I'm glad I have both of them, but they're sadly not on par with each other. I feel this is more coincidental than anything, but that doesn’t change the reality of it. I don't really plan on getting any of the auxiliary Zords as I did survive through Ninninger and I expect just as much payoff here. I will most likely get the Movie toy and backtrack on its original mold, but that's it. So unless I find some used stuff, Toku will be taking a break until...July. When X Emperor comes out.
