#transformers raiden

Raiden says: "Merry Christmas!!!"

Finally continuing their Legends scale Raiden after nearly a year between releases, SY-02 sees the second set of Trainbots from third party company SiYang Culture. Seizan and Suiken, respectively dubbed “Mountain Serial” and “Greenland” on the back of the box (yes, really), see a good number of improvements from the previous set, showing that the extra time in the oven was well worth the wait.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Seizan and Suiken follow a similar design philosophy to Getsuei and Yukikaze (you can check out their review here!), generally styled after the anime but not slavishly so and with some liberties taken. The most notable departures, visually, are the added colors on both their shoulder… stacks, which I think looks nice. Regardless of any changes made they’re a very handsome set of robots. They also follow the standard set by the previous pair in that they are all but the same toy. A fair few parts are shared between them, and the engineering is identical save for a final step in train mode. Though, there’s plenty that’s not shared, with lots of sculpted detail differing in things as simple as a single piece on the torso or those shoulder details (though the sides of the train modes are exactly the same up until the front and the thighs are quite visibly the same). The fact they essentially needed to be mirrors of each other ensured plenty of discrepancies between the two. They’re being efficient with it, not lazy.

Compared to the duo of SY-03, Seizan and Suiken handle a fair few things better. One element I noticed right out of the box was their plastic. Getsuei and Yukikaze had plastic that was slightly on the softer side, where as Seizan and Suiken are a lot firmer, especially in comparison. It’s a much more solid material, and they’re better off for it, I’d say. It is… slightly weird to shift plastic partway through what is supposed to be a cohesive, combining set, but I’m not going to complain that it’s better. It feels like they’ve got a bit more paint, as well, at least in their robot modes, and that also feels like an improvement. The front of the shins are painted instead of being cast that color, as an example, though that specifically could be a detraction since there’s more room for paint to chip. There’s no real color bleeding either, an unfortunate effect seen on Yukikaze, though Suiken has a small splotch of missing paint on his right leg. It looks like something touched it while it was still wet.

As far as articulation is concerned, they’ve got 90° ankle tilts, double jointed knees, and a waist swivel that gets blocked by the backpack fairly quickly. The whole hip “skirt” is one piece that swivels, handling forward movement, and then the leg itself is attached to that via hinge that lets it move out. The legs can come quite far forward, but they can’t go back at all, and they don’t spread quite flat. The shoulders are on ball joints, which come up to 90° and can turn around mostly freely. They can bump into the wheel bits on the backpack, but it’s just a minor obstacle, it doesn’t block them completely. They have a bicep swivel, a single 90° bend at the elbow, and wrist swivels. Their heads are on ball joints that let them look up a little as well as side to side, but it can be a bit of a pain to manipulate since their heads are effectively encased. They were also a bit tight at first but that’s loosened up with play. There are some reductions and improvements compared to what SY-03 offered, the changes balancing out.

The backpacks feel like they’re less obviously just the front of the trains. They still mostly are, but there’s a bit more going on with the additional panels that helps distract from that fact. They were probably partially done like that out of a necessity to hide the combined mode hand, which I’d say was successful. I didn’t even realize they had the hands built in until I opened up the backpack. Despite the improved “feel”, the whole assembly does still stick out about the same as it does on Getsuei and Yukikaze, but again, that’s the Trainbots. They’re actually a little bit bigger, proportionally, coming down a touch further and coming up much more so, but they overall come across as more purposeful. It’s not just the front of a train stapled to their backs.

For accessories, they get a fair few extra parts. They’re packed with guns in hand, much like Getsuei and Yukikaze, though these are cast in different colors this time around, matching their owner. This time there’s also the leg… guns… for combined mode, which was missing from the legs themselves. Those are packed in the plastic clam shell. Also included are the combined mode gun and ten pieces of track, which are handled... less, gracefully. They’re merely stuffed under the clam shell, not given any sort of dedicated storage. I guess it works… A single piece of track isn’t quite long enough to hold a single train, but the sheer number of them should be plenty to fit the whole team. Also included is a pair of instructions, which might not sound like a big deal, but that was a critical component missing from SY-03, which merely had a QR code on the side of the box. These come with photos, written directions underneath those photos that are also translated into english, and have the steps for both train and arm mode, for both bots, even though they transform nigh identically. Quite the step up, I’d say!

Since there’s an actual instruction sheet this time, I feel less of a requirement to explain the trains-formation in detail, though I will still cover the broad strokes cause- cause this is a review and I need to talk about the- As a whole, the transformations sees a few improvements in terms of like, flow. There’s less tiny little grievances and not as much flexing. Getting the back panel in place is still a little odd, and the torso is fairly dependent on order of operations going back to robot mode, but it’s still a step up over all. Things like the rear train wheels folding out from inside the feet is really clever, and bringing down the side panels to close things up is a satisfying final step.

The resultant trains are as delightful as before. They’re slightly shorter than Getsuei and Yukikaze, thanks to their legs collapsing, but they feel a bit tidier, with the paneling being less apparent. The hinges are somewhat unavoidable, but the colors are broken up a lot less compared to, say, Yukikaze. Sadly, it doesn’t look like they get weapon storage for their guns. Not as far as I’ve found, at least. Not as much clearance, either, with both the arms and the combiner hand running real close to the edges of the wheels. Not sure if it’s more or less of a concern when they’re sitting on the rails.

The Trainbots are one of those sets of characters that were locked in obscurity for a long, LONG time. For nearly 40 years, most of them had their only toys be the original G1 molds, and those were only released in Japan, having not been brought over to the west along with much the rest of Diaclone. Shouki got a Takara exclusive in 2014, a repaint of Classics Astrotrain, aaand that’s it. Mix in the brief, intermittent cameo and you’re left with very little for a very cool Autobot combiner. Thankfully, that was rectified starting in 2022. They not only got new figures, but they were used to debut a brand-new line and got to be the first official Masterpiece combiner, matching their status as the first combiner period. It… took a bit to get the whole thing out, but the release of team leader Shouki was also followed by an effort from third party company Moon Studios very shortly after, providing a much bigger take on the titular titan in a much smaller time frame. Now, while those are both fine sets, the MPG figures are really expensive, especially for what are essentially CHUG scale figures, and MS Radiatron is BIG. With no official Generations offering in sight and a general lack of a middle ground for the Trainbots, what’s a collector to do? Enter into the ring Siyang Culture, bringing us a legends scale take!

*Quick side notes, my Getsuei did not come with his hip skirts, and the parts have not arrived in time for this review, and I will not be covering anything for the combined mode, as I’ll be saving all of that for when everything’s out.

Released as a two-pack, SY-03 brings us Getsuei and Yukikaze, dubbed Night Walking and Snowfield, respectively, and what fine form they find us in! Both bots are very cleanly sculpted, with designs that, while styled after their Headmasters appearances, avoid the slavish accuracy of their MPG counterparts. The paint is by and large cleanly applied, but I had some small paint smudges on the front of Getsuei’s train mode, and applications are generally sparser across both robot modes. Their faces in particular are very pristinely done, though Getsuei’s eyes are a bit harder to read under the brim of his helmet vs Yukikaze’s visor. Their plastic feels nice! Apparently Siyang Culture have a less-than-stellar record with their previous releases, but these guys feel good in hand. It’s slightly on the softer side, not DX9 Mini or Magic Square soft but far from NewAge hard. They land somewhere in the middle.

The engineering and articulation on both figures are nearly identical, save for the backpacks, as they’re pretty much carbon copies of each other, so whatever I say here applies to both of them unless explicitly stated otherwise. Despite them being so mechanically similar, all of their sculpting is different. The only parts that are the same are internal bits such as ball joints and the combiner connectors in the legs. Also their hands… I imagine Suiken and Seizan will be much the same, especially since their alt modes are even more alike. Not every combiner team gets to be Devastator with how unique their components are.

Getsuei and Yukikaze are a rather articulate pair! Their heads are on ball joints that let them look all the way up alongside the usual side to side, their shoulders are on ball joints, they have bicep swivels, double jointed elbows, and wrist swivels. They have waist swivels, ball jointed hips, thigh swivels, a 90° bend at the knees, and an almost 90° ankle tilt. Their hip skirts move out of the way to let their legs move all the way forward, but they can only go so far back due to the general chunk they possess. The arms run into a similar problem, with their shoulder panels bumping into their backpacks, though it’s more of an issue for Yukikaze. They’re not terribly bulky, but there’s almost always some degree of backpack with the Trainbots. Just how they look.

Their transformations are neat! Would’ve been nice if they, I don’t know, came with instructions, but it is still a fine time despite that. There is a QR code on the side of the box, which leads to a video guide on how to transform them, but that should only be an additional resource, not the main method of letting your customer know how your toy works. DX9 Mini did the same thing with their Chromedome (and I assume their Doubledealer) but it is no more welcome here. Complaints of how that information is delivered to you aside, the actual process of getting them into train mode is solid! It’s intuitive and clever enough to be engaging while still being simple enough to not become frustrating at this scale, and it contains almost no hints of the eventual combined mode, though it is easier to hide on the legs… There are a few spots where you don’t have quite as much room as you’d probably like to get something out, but it’s not terrible. Start by flipping up all the hip skirts, folding the crotch piece down, rotating the hips 180° and then pegging the legs together. Then flip the chest panel down, tuck the head away into the chest, and then bring the arms up over the chest. The shoulder panels will rotate to the side, the hands fold away into the arms and then the arms tuck down over where the head stores, then you can unfurl the backpack and bring it over where the shoulders now sit. After that it’s a matter of bringing the butt flap down and tabbing it into the legs, then bringing the leg panels forward to bridge the gap.

The end result is a lovely little train mode! They both clean up very nicely (as long as you have all the parts…), and this is where that paint gets to shine! Most of it is still bare plastic, but all of the windows are precisely picked out. They’re succinct little renditions of their real-world counterparts that are well detailed, though the feet are left in place. Nothing the original toys didn’t do, and at this scale it’s hard to be too bothered. Their weapons are stored at the front, inside what will become the backpack. There’s no way to link them up, however. As far as I can tell they don’t have any connectors to link them up into a full train. One of the later releases might come with additional parts to let them connect but I wouldn’t put money on it. That said their wheels are an equal width apart, so they can fit on the same track together. I don’t know what size track they might fit, if any, but if there is one, they can ride it together. My only real complaints are a few things for getting them back to robot mode. The leg panels need you to flex them more than I’d like, and the heads are a bit annoying to get out, with no notch on the hinge that holds them for you to get a fingernail in and no room to grab them outright.

It's the perfect solution to everything Astortrain wants to be king of trains, the Trainbots are waiting to be used again and I get a series about Transformers that turn into trains AND one of them becomes a Spaceshuttle as well!