Hello again everyone, David here again for another DX toy review. This time, I found a Chinese themed Animal item. No, not a phoenix nor a Dragon but a panda. YES, the Panda Medal from the March 2011 issue of Terebi Magazine. Let's take a look at the packaging for this
Simple and just shows the Panda Medal's front.
The back shows a lot of Japanese wordings. Possibly warnings of some sort that I am too lazy to even decipher.
The inner container is just a flimsy carboard strip folded in a way to create a frame.
The front of the Medal looks like this. The Panda face can be seen on the Medal's surface.
The back of the Medal has 3 stars. This is clearly a sign that it is a Gashapon Medal. Terebi / Terebikun always give bonuses that are of Gashapon quality or build.
The Panda Medal is set in the middle to replace the Tora. The Combo is called TakaPanBa.
Here's what the OOO Scanner will say when you scan this Medal through
As you can hear, it just says PANDA!
Let's do the Henshin.
This is just soooo dissapointing. No combo song. This means, this is just another crappy Medal to suck money from us poor collectors.
With the usual standard random combo, we have the standard Scanning Charge sound. I really have no words to express how dissapointed I am with this.
All in all, nothing much. However, buying this is a pain for me. The Magazine no doubt has many colourful photos of upcoming stuffs but the Medal just don't cut it. I'd say you should only get it if you're a hardcore and serios collector like mua but if you're just a mild one, this one is totally passable. I'd give it only 2.5 Stars for playability and 2 Stars for Value out of 5. So, that's all for now, see ya guys around. Dave Lee signing off and ja ne!
Hello again people and fans, Dave here again for another review and yes, this is a sequel to the previous Metal Hero toy I reviewed. Behold, the Big Bad Beetleborgs' ...errr I mean B Fighters' Pulsabers. Yes, this piece came together with my Input Magnum because they are both compatible. Introduced in Episode 22 of Juukou B Fighter, the Pulsaber reacts to the yells and voices of the B Fighters and their roars of justice. Let's dwell in and see how close this toy resembles the one in the show IF IT DID.
Behold the package of this 1995 toy piece:
Simple and yet another open window packaging concept item for the 90s.
The bottom of the box shows the Pulsaber toy and the 3 B Fighters.
The top of the box is simpler with just a blue background and one B Figher emblem on it.
At the back, some minor guidelines are shown on how to operate this toy as well as how to integrate it with the Input Magnum.
Contents are fairly standard in this toy. We got the Toy itself, a plastic tray, a seal sheet and this one came with a black and white manual sheet.
The manual sheet shows the basic operations as well as the explanation on how to play the combined mode.
Upon unboxing it, the toy looks quite close to it's show counterpart. The blade part is as usual soft rubbery plastic and is made to be shorter for safety reasons.
The back of the toy has the exact same details as the front and in addition the LEDs can also be seen at the back.
This is the battery cover portion. No screws, no need for pointed pens. Just pull it out and it reveals a compartment for 2 AA batteries. This is an old toy, so it uses AA batteries.
This is how this toy sounds when you press the trigger once. In order to activate the Finisher / Charge Attack sound, hold on the Trigger and yell / make some noise to the speaker. What I did in the video was simply knocking on the speaker since I can't be yelling at it. It still works since knocking makes sounds. This is a very smart function. YES, VERY SMART. For a 90s toy that can do what it could in the show, I give an A+ for the innovation.
Another way to activate the Charge Attact sound is to press on to both sides of the red clear panels. This also emulates what is seen in the show where the B Fighters ROAR and slide the LED part at the same time. Pure genius, pure genius.
Now on to the final gimmick of this toy, connecting with the Input Magnum. There are a few steps in order to do so:
The first step is to fold down the clear red grip on the bottom back of the Pulsaber. This piece grips on to the area near the Power Bolt of the Input Magnum.
The next step is to unlock the clear red piece at the center of the Pulsaber and folding both pieces down. Then relock the red piece with each other and you get:
SABER MAGNUM!
This is how the function of this works. By pushing the Trigger on the Input Magnum, there's another locking trigger that pushes a trigger on the Pulsaber, resulting it to be in CHARGE UP mode. With that, the sounds from the Input Magnum will resonate to the Pulsaber and it will cause something like a charging sequence and when the time is right, the Finisher sound occurs which is another different finisher sound. The requirement of the gimmick is that the Trigger needs to be held for at least 3 seconds and this is mentioned in the manual of the Pulsaber.
The combo I did in the video is 1-1-0-INPUT and that is the basic finisher for the SABER MAGNUM, they call it MAXIM BEAM MODE which fires a beam similar to the respective B Fighters' colours. There was also another MAXIM combo used which was 0-2-6-INPUT and is called MAXIM RETTOU MODE (MAXIM FREEZER MODE).
Looking at the size of this thing, it's really quite accurate in scale. I love this gun really really much. It's a very unique toy and to say it's a 90s toy, it's so hard to believe.
In the West, Bandai America released this toy under the name Pulsaber as well and the packaging was slightly different and was more matching to the Big Bad Beetleborgs line.
The photo above is how the Bandai America Pulsaber's packaging looks like. I do not own or ever seen this one hence, I don't know if the sounds and functions are changed. Credits again to GrnRngr.com for the photo above.
All in all I would say this toy is awesome. Sound receiver and motion receiver makes it so unique. However, the full potential of this toy is fully unleashed if you have both Magnum and Saber. The combined SABER MAGNUM is really a very good weapon. I would give 4.5/5 for both value and playability.
Thanks again everyone for following my reviews and million thanks to Bro Yam for uploading this in his blog again. So, for the time being, RedRacer is signing off again. SEE YA!
Hello again people and fans, David Lee here with another exciting toy review. This time, I am backtracking further to history back to the year 1995 for an amazing old school toy. Yes, this is a series in 1995, Juukou B-Fighter or Heavy Armor B-Fighter and the toy I will be reviewing is the standard sidearm that the heroes use in the show, the Input Magnum. This series was dubbed and transferred to the western market just like the Power Rangers but in a name we all are familiar with, Big Bad Beetleborgs. This toy was brought over too. So now, let us take a look at this wonderful toy.
The box is pretty simple with the Input Magnum toy shown with a window on the box. As usual, the leader of the team, Blue Beet, is the main attraction as he is seen at the left bottom corner of the box and is the biggest while the other 2, Green Stag and Reddle are smaller and are shown at the right top corner of the box. The name of the toy should read "Sound Input Power Input Magnum".
The back of the box has the whole manual printed whereby the operating procedures are shown. We can also see that Bandai has provided us with some combo codes to try out. At the left side of the box, the big photo shows and lists down whatever is included in the box which reads to the Input Magnum and a Seal (sticker) sheet.
Basically the Gun looks like this. The keypad has 10 numbers from 0-9 and a final INPUT key to confirm the combo selection. As we noticed on the back of the box, the Magnum only recognises 3-key Combos so if you were to key in more than 3 key combos, it will only take into account the last 3 Key Combos that you did before pressing the INPUT key. From general count, this toy can do over 1000 sounds because the equation goes like 10 X 10 X 10 and with the other sounds like beeping and so forth, it exceeds that. Notice that this is an old toy, the battery compartment is rather large and is located at the bottom of the handle as shown above. It requires 2 AA batteries for its functions to work properly.
The back portion of the gun is mostly empty. No keypads or whatever is seen but only the basic shape of the Magnum.
This toy is made in 1994, a few months before the show actually started airing. Interesting.
This is how we turn this toy on. In the show, the B Fighters would do the same before inputting the Combos and this is truly replicating what's seen in the show.
I am trying a few combos at random but the most prominent combos I have tried are:
110 - Beam Mode
818 - Fire Burst Mode
Do note that the beeping sound occurs every 1-2 seconds when this toy is left idle. I don't see a reason why it needs that but it did come with it.
More combos I am trying and most are based on the back of the box.
As I mentioned earlier, this toy did get a Western Release under the Beetleborgs line with the name Sonic Laser. I do not know the details on the changes of functions BUT the box of the Sonic Laser did mention it can do over 1000 sounds so I am assuming no changes were made. However, a major cosmetic change was made to the Sonic Laser making the Input Magnum being greatly favoured over the Sonic Laser:
If you look closely above, the Sonic Laser is painted in Purple and Red where the Purple replaces the Gray and the Red replaces the Black. This is an eyesore physically but the basic operations still remain. Photo of Sonic Laser is taken from GrnRngr.com's Beetleborg listing line and credit goes to him.
In whole I would say this toy is very very good. Having to do supreme combos is one big thing to toys. I don't see how toys nowadays can do this. Only a few could like the 2005 Sentai Changer Magi Phone and its US counterpart the Mystic Morpher. However getting it cheap is one issue. I got mine quite cheap and came with another piece which goes together with this where I will review later. I would give 4.5/5 stars for playability and value as a whole.
Hello again, people, David Lee here again for another TOKU TOY review. Let's give a VROOM! to my latest toy review, the standard Gun part sidearm for 1996's Super Sentai Series, Gekisou Sentai Carranger. Yes, it's the Auto Blaster set. A friend helped me buy this in Japan and it costed me about RM100 or so including his shipping to me so it's considered a STEAL. Anyway, back to the history of this product. Many of us will remember this toy as the Gun / Blaster used by the heroes in Power Rangers Turbo. Yes, this is the actual Sentai counterpart and it spots some differences from the Power Rangers version.
I got this toy along with a Chouriki Henshin OhRed figure and a loose Accelular but as you can see, the Auto Blaster's box is in a very decent condition considering its age.
The contents inside is fairly simple. We have the Auto Blaster already set in Auto Punisher mode, a Belt at the bottom right, a shiny chrome silver Buckle and a big white Holster with the Carranger mark.
The Belt can actually be fitted in the Buckle and the holster hanging at the side but I don't want to open it up too mich since not much playability on that portion is involved.
The Auto Blaster can be fitted on the Holster like that and in the show it really does.
SHIFT UP! AUTO PUNISHER! This is the first step to transform it to Punisher mode. Simply pull the tail of the gun and the Blaster extends.
The Last Step is to push the Red button easily visible above. This will open up the Blaster's front and uncovers a golden chrome internal part. This will result in a super Blaster beam that can destroy enemies and hits harder.
To confirm it further, here's a video of how the Blaster is transformed as well as the light and sound gimmicks of this toy.
And now, for the penultimate portion, the differences between the Power Rangers Turbo version are:
1) The Power Rangers version did not include the Belt or the Buckle but instead packed the Turbo Blade (Bi Blade in Sentai) together.
2) The stickers on the wheels read Turborangers rather than Carranger in the Power Rangers version
Hello again, Dave here again for another Toku toy review. This time, give a hand to OOO!!!!!! Yes, that's right. Today, I'll be reviewing the OOO Driver. Let's get to the bottom of this as to what can this rare and expensive baby can do.
The packaging looks nice but then again it's more of a standard issue by now. The box size measures approximately similar to previous DX Belt releases of Double, Decade and Kiva and it is a tradition now that they are in such a big box.
The big box is not wasted as the contents are really sufficient to cover the area of the whole box. The contents:
Top Left and Top Middle: Packs of 2 Core Medals (DX type) in each slot, making it 4 in total. The left one has Taka Core (Hawk Core) and Batta Core (Grasshopper Core) while the middle one has Tora Core (Tiger Core) and Kamakiri Core (Mantis Core).
Middle: The 2 Belt straps are stacked on each other, with the one holding the OOO Scanner being on top.
Bottom Left: OOO Driver. Don't underestimate this little chunk of plastic. It's not the Holder you see in the Double Driver.
Bottom Middle: Back Holster of the Driver as to many DX Belt sets.
Bottom Right: Canister to hold the Medals, called as the Medal Holder.
The OOO Scanner and the 4 Medals. The Medals are so sharply detailed in colour and are separated by the slot numbers by some patterns at the back. At the back (not pictured), the number of spaces between lines represent the slot the Medal is supposed to be in. In the show, Eiji Hino found his first Core Medal, the red Taka Core from his part time security job at a musuem. The medal belonged to Ankh but later Ankh entrusted him to use all the Medals they both obtained to Henshin to OOO and gather more Medals.
First, let us see what the Scanner will say when we scan the Medals like this separately. To scan Medals, turn it on and HOLD on a button at the handle for the Scanner to activate. As from the video, the Medals are Taka (Hawk), Tora (Tiger), Batta (Grasshopper) and Kamakiri (Mantis). Do you hear the Medal clinging sounds during scanning? From the Scanner, we can see lights of 7 Colours namely, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Blue, Purple, and Gray/White. For those hardcore collectors like me can sure know how much you need to spend on this line.
After setting up, the basic Driver + the first 3 Core Medals (Taka, Tora and Batta) are inserted.
HENSHIN!!
TAKA! TORA! BATTA! Ta-To-Ba! TaToBa, TaToBa!
This is the basic form (called Combo in Kamen Rider OOO) of Kamen Rider OOO in the show, much like Double Cyclone Joker. Interestingly, this is the only Henshin song I find it easy to remember. After scanning through the same set of the medals once, you can scan it once again for the finisher. The finisher sound would be read as SCANNING CHARGE and the finisher for Tatoba is first seen in Episode 3 used against the Fat Cat Yummy.
TAKA! KAMAKIRI! BATTA!
This is the Combo Change whereby a small portion of the body is changed. Similar to forms like Heat Joker or Heat Trigger, this Combo uses the Mantis slicers at the elbows to perform attacks. The Scanning Charge for this Combo is seen in Episode 1 in the show, whereby Eiji using it to Slash one of Uva's Yummy and destroying it. Note that because this form is not a pure form (as in all 3 in the same colour), there's no special Henshin Song after the Medal names.
All in all, this is a very good set as far as future playability is concerned. Why do I say that? Well, since the playability of this whole DX OOO Driver is based on the number of Medals you have, having more Medals and more future Medal releases would mean more playability. As for fans out there who has yet to own one, I would say, just buy one if you can. It's worth the shot. I don't know when I can finally get my hands on Medal Sets 1 and 2 but if I do, the reviews will come here for sure. So thanks again to Bro Yam for uploading this and stay tuned for more Toku toys review from me. So, let's all COUNT THE MEDALS!
Hello again people, this is David here again for another DX toy review. Everyone in Hong Kong and Malaysia are enjoying a weekly dosage of Kamen Rider Den-O on local television and this brought me to the idea of doing this review. Here is my review for the day, the Henshin Belt DX Den-O Belt.
From the show, Ryoutarou Nogami, often possessed by either Taros Imagins will use this Belt to Henshin and become the titular hero, Den-O. Den-O comprises of 4 basic forms which are separated by coloured buttons on the Belt. Mine is the usual Hong Kong version where we can find in retail everywhere around Kuala Lumpur. In Japan, there are 3 different waves of Den-O belts. One of the later waves feature all 4 forms illustrated on the front of the box and another wave shows the extra built in feature, the ability to link up with a later toy, the Climax Keitai Keitaros.
Let's take a closer look of what is inside of this DX Belt that we see in departmental stores everytime we go shopping.
The contents of this Belt is fairly simple. The main Belt Buckle is connected to one side of the belt and is stored as one piece. The other side of the Belt is stored on the top part of the box and at the left side, we have the Rider Pass. The Rider Ticket (in this set, the Blank Ticket) is sandwiched between the Rider Pass and since it isn't safe this way, I just left it in the Pass. The back holster is placed at the bottom and that's about it.
Upon assembling the whole belt, the toy will look like this. Do note that this is a DX Belt and only will fit waists between 52 to 70cms which is about 28-29 inches at max. These of course, don't fit my oversized bellied body.
The word Den-O System is printed on the top of the Belt Buckle and it is easily visible. However, I am not too sure if these words will fade in the future or not.
The Rider Pass and the Rider Ticket are as shown. The Pass can be opened and folded at two different manners for Storage and for Henshin.
This is how the Pass is folded for Henshin mode. This side comes with the scanning magnets whereby only this side is scannable on the Belt.
Henshin! SWORD FORM! - Red LEDs light up in this case.
This is very accurate in terms of sounds to the show and I like the volume of the toy in a whole.
Henshin! AXE FORM! - Yellow LEDs light up in this case.
Henshin! GUN FORM! - From the looks of it, the Blue and the Red LEDs light up together and blend into a purplish kind of LED lights feeling.
As we all know, the Belt also allows Den-O to perform the finisher, as in a FULL CHARGE. For this to work, you need to put the Pass at the Buckle's front for about 2 seconds before the FULL CHARGE sound is played. At first when I got this toy, I was having troubles testing it at the testing counter because I couldn't figure out how to do a FULL CHARGE until I took out the manual and read through that section.
This could be a bit wrong but when you turn on the belt and you just scan the Pass through once, you will get the sound similar to the one prior to a FULL CHARGE. If I remember correctly, this is the sound of Plat Form's Henshin. However in the show, the Red LED does not light up.
All in all, this toy is excellent. The gimmicks and everything are nicely executed. I like how they made the Belt and the Pass into a Touch and Go card and machine and this is extremely clever. I would suggest fans out there to grab one before they are all out.
Hello everyone, Dave here again for another toy review. Today, I'll be covering a toy from another Toku universe, Ultraman. For those who do not know much about Ultraman, Ultraman Mebius marks the 40th Annivessary for the Ultra Franchise's presence in the market. For this, Tsuburaya and Bandai made several changes from their previous Heisei Ultra series which are the re-appearances of old Showa Ultramen from the past series. Anyway back to the toy, the DX Mebius Brace is the Henshin or Transformation item for Ultraman Mebius and is also used to execute his basic finisher, the Mebium Shoot. Let us take a look at what's inside the small compact packaging of this item.
As simple as it looks, the packaging includes the Mebius Brace, the Brace holder which is connected with the Mebius Brace in package, a red nylon strap (which I never open) and a manual. Do note that mine is the Hong Kong version and the manual is in English and Chinese.
This is how the toy looks when it is removed from the package. Connected to the Brace holder, the strap goes around the holder so that it can be wrapped around your wrist.
The function of this toy is pretty straightforward and simple. This however resulted in the toy being quite dull and boring. There are 3 modes of play for this toy:
The first mode is the Transformation Mode whereby you roll the red sphere in the direction of the golden area. This will play the Transformation sound which I don't find it accurate.
The next mode is the Mebium Slash Mode. This is activated by rolling the red sphere in the opposite direction, towards the direction of the clear red piece. This will play a sound of a Blade appearing and a short Slash sound.
The final mode is the Mebium Shoot Mode. This is of course, Mebius' basic finisher. By pressing the golden button located at the bottom left (or top right depending on which direction you prefer as the top), it will activate a charging and standby sound where it is not so similar to the one in the show to my opinion. During the standby sound, roll the red sphere in any direction to release the finisher sound. One interesting trivia about this mode is depending on which direction you rolled the sphere towards, the red light will travel according to that direction at the clear red parts at the bottom.
In my opinion this toy is a dissapointment. Although I dreamt of having it but after getting it, I was speechless. In the show, the sphere can roll freely once it is rolled with a strong energy force. For the toy, you can only roll a little bit of it because they made the system to lock the sphere so that it doesn't move too much.
If you're a true Ultra fan and die hard of Showa Ultras, get this toy if you can find one. I found it through online retailing and it ain't cheap but luckily it was through a local online seller. Thanks again for bro Yam for uploading my reviews and until next time, SHOOWATCH!!
Hey there, David Lee here again for another toy review. If you recalled a while ago, I did a review on the Fang Memory set that came with a limited Joker Memory. As we all would have guessed, Bandai will make the other side that can complement the aforementioned limited Joker Memory. Yes, you're right. Another limited item yet again, the DX Cyclone Memory Philip Version.
From the packaging, we can see that it is a Philip dedicated memory. The shape of the packaging is completely similar to that of the Dopant Memory under the official DX line but I do not have the Dopant Memory to give a definite answer on whether the size of the packagings are the same or not. The box, neither the front nor the back mentioned anything about a Jusco Limited but it is indeed one. This item retails at 1000 yen in Japan but the average price for one is about 1200 yen to 2000 yen. Thanks to Accel Helper, I managed to get it at 1200 yen, the lowest price at that point of time to complete my limited Memory pair. Let us go to the main point.
The inside of the packaging is rather simple. You have the outer box, a clear plastic holder for the Memory, a yellow carding for the back and a black and white manual. Similar to all other Memory toys, this one also has a white tab at the back which prevents it from activating and losing energy from its batteries.
A closer look on this reveals a rather unique design. A Cyclone symbol is still visible but now, with a Philip silhoutte seen at the background of the holofoil seal. We are still given 3 buttons like the other DX Memory toys and an LED light at the bottom.
As I have mentioned it earlier, the difference betweem the regular DX Cyclone Memory and this one is on the Philip silhoutte in the foil seal or sticker. However if you look closer, the Cyclone symbol is also different. There is a strange green mark at the middle of the Cyclone symbol on this one in comparison with the regular Memory where that area is left black.
When you put both limited Cyclone and Joker Memories together, they will look like an accurate pair. Although it might be difficult to determine which limited pairs up with which one, there is a clear indication that these 2 are indeed a pair. Both Philip and Shoutarou silhouttes are seen at the top corners of the seal at their respective sides. This is a very good indication that they both compliment each other. There are also other limited Cyclone and Joker Memories like the Futari de Hitori Joker Memory and the Terebi-kun Cyclone Memory but none of these can make up accurate pairs with the 2 mentioned earlier.
As we can hear, this Memory has a looping sounds function at the press of the basic button. Below are the meaning of the phrases that Philip speak with each press:
First Press: CYCLONE!
Second Press: Do you have the courage to ride with the Devil?
Third Press: We are a two in one detective!
Fourth Press: Begin Searching OR Searching
Fifth Press: I am shivering
Sixth Press: It's interesting
Next Press: CYCLONE! (The cycle repeats again)
Similar to the limited DX Joker Memory from the 1st Edition Fang Memory set, a phrase of 'Saa, omae no tsumi wo kazoero!' or translated as 'Now, count up your sins!' will be played when the Henshin sound is complete. Of course, this is designed to be totally compatible to any of the DX Memories as long as they are from the gold slot, aka Shoutarou's slot.
One very big dissapointment here is that, when you have both limited Cyclone and limited Joker do a Henshin, the phrase of 'Saa, omae no tsumi wo kazoero!' are not symmetrically played. I don't know what Bandai was thinking but this is one major downfall of this Memory. However, this Memory is still a very good piece altogether and I recommend buying it IF you already have the Joker Memory from the Fang set. Make it a full set before they go sky rocket in prices.
