Transformers G1: Octopunch (Pretender)

QUICK INFO:
Name: Octopunch

Line: Transformers - Generation One (Hasbro)

Subgroup: Pretenders
Function: Salvage
Motto: "Anything that can sink is worth sinking."
Year: 1989
Price: $14.99 (approximately)

Bio:
The terror of the deep. If he's not stealing sunken treasure or ancient artifacts, he amuses himself by smashing holes in submarines and cruise ships. Electrically-charged, razor-tipped harpoon gun momentarily short-circuits on contact. Also armed with vice-like tentacles that stick to any surface. So strong underwater, he can wrestle a whale to a standstill. Inner robot converts to metal-rending, deep-sea radar and acetylene torch gun.

What? Two reviews in the same day? Well I had so much fun reviewing Bludgeon that I decided why stop? Why not review one of his toy assortment cohorts? This time around we will take a look at probably my favorite of the 3 smaller Decepticon Pretenders, Octopunch.

Octopunch comes with the outer Pretender shell, diving helmet, white harpoon gun, pair of purple crab legs, small maroon gun and inner robot.

Now I can see why Octopunch wears a diving helmet...that is one ugly mug he's sporting! On the right side of the head is a large metal plate that has been welded together. It's a shame this piece was not painted as it is easy to overlook. I'm not sure what a octopus would look like if it had a humanoid head, but I'm guessing this is pretty close. Just like Bludgeon a lot of care and detail was put into the design of Octopunch's head.

 

If you flip the back shell portion over you'll see there is a set of small round holes that allow you to clip on the purple crab legs...almost making a back pack if you will. The inner robot fits inside the shell very similar to the larger Pretenders. There is plenty of room in either leg to fit the smaller gun as well. I have to hand it to the designers for making all of the accessories self contained on the toy. The crab legs and gun are rather small and I can see how these pieces are easily lost. The ability to store all the parts on or inside the shell is a very nice feature.

Like just about all of the Pretenders Octopunch has very little articulation. Both arms can rotate a full 360 degrees. It would have been nice if the tentacles on the arms had some sort of articulation, but as they are they are in a fixed position. The plastic is a little softer however so they are slightly bendable. If you are a video gamer as myself you can't help but to think of a Big Daddy from the game BioShock. I love the whole diving suit and the helmet. The large unpainted skull on the belt buckle is a nice feature. I should also mention that Octopunch has a slightly hunched stance.

Octopunch's inner robot stands about 2 1/2 inches tall. As part of the beast mode design, the robot arms are in a fixed bent position. The arms still rotate a full 360 degrees though. On the sides of the arms is a small hole that allows the robot to wield the small maroon gun. There are no peg holes in the robot's fists. I find it rather interesting that Octopunch's inner robot shares the same basic color scheme as Bludgeon. Coincidence? Transformation from robot to crab is rather easy. Slide the lever on the chest down to hide the robot head. Fold the arms down by the robot's side. Flip the figure over and attach the crab legs to the peg holes on the side of each arm. Pose the legs/pinchers as you wish. You can open and close the pinchers by pulling on the small tabs on the side.

I love the crab mode. It's small and rather simple, but different and fun to play with. The only paint apps on the figure is the red used for the crabs eyes. There is also a small hole on the top of the crab so it can wield the small maroon gun.

Of all 3 smaller Decepticon Pretenders, Octopunch stands out as my favorite. I can't say that he's my favorite because I never had him in my childhood (I didn't have any of the Pretenders). There is just this unique charm about the toy that sets it apart from other Transformers. This is an easy toy for me to recommend, but like Bludgeon and many of the other smaller 1989 Pretenders he doesn't come cheap. I don't actively track G1 prices, but expect to pay $65.00 plus for a loose complete toy.

Transformers Generation 1: Bludgeon (Pretender)

QUICK INFO:
Name: Bludgeon

Line: Transformers - Generation One (Hasbro)

Subgroup: Pretenders
Function: Electric Warrior
Motto: "To know your own limits, you must first know your foe's limits."
Year: 1989
Price: $14.99 (approximately)

Bio:
A merciless, emotionless master of Metallikato, the deadly Cybertronian martial art. Attacks his enemies' fracture points while remaining outside their line of fire. High-powered antennas produce electrical fireballs with a range of over 400 yards. Battle armor secretes ordorous, mucus slime. Smoke generators in legs produce billowing clouds of black smoke that disorient the enemy. Inner robot armed with high-voltage electric cannon.

I decided to go old school today and pull out one of my favorite Transformers from the Generation 1 (G1) era, Bludgeon. I also thought it was appropriate that this toy gets a proper review since a new iteration of the character is being released under the current Universe banner this year. So sit back and join me on a journey as we take a look at a toy that truly is "more than meets the eye".

First off, I have to admit that I was not into Transformers when Bludgeon was released in 1989. Somewhere around 1986 or 1987 I decided I was "too cool" to play with toys. I left most of what I had at my grandmothers to basically rot until the Generation 2 & Beast Wars lines got me interested in the Transformers brand again. When I got back into collecting Transformers again I put an early focus on collecting the Pretenders sub-line. I always liked the concept and at the time not many fans/collectors seemed to care about them so they were relatively easy and inexpensive purchases. Enough of my stroll down memory lane, let's take a look at this Master of Metallikato.

Unfortunately I don't have his original packaging, but here are the contents. You get the Bludgeon Pretender shell, samurai helmet, white rifle, Bludgeon Pretender robot, green tank turret / shield and small purple gun.

We'll start by taking a look at the outer Pretender shell. Before we jump to the accessories and such I wanted to take a second to look at the awesome head sculpt. For a toy released 10 years ago the level of design given to the head is quite impressive. I feel that Hasbro and Takara did an excellent job giving this a very human looking skull. The eye sockets are just sunken in enough to capture that eerie feel. On the sides, top and back you can see the lines in the skull that divide it up into separate plates. On my particular figure you can see small paint blemishes that have rubbed off onto the skull. The paint application to the armor was also a tad messy as you can see just below the chin.

The outer Pretender shell obviously splits into to reveal the inner robot. The top photo gives you a good look at the samurai type armor that adorns the shell. Bludgeon is a master of Metallikato which is a form of Cybertronian martial arts. I wanted to include the picture on the bottom because I've heard a lot of people have had trouble getting the inner robot to fit properly in the shell. The inner robot has to be folded up into tank mode and placed face down point down in order for both outer shell halves to snap together. There is a little room in either leg to place the small purple gun, but more times than not it hinders the halves from snapping together.

Finally we have Bludgeon all geared up for battle. If you are familiar with the character from the Marvel comics run you would expect the toy to come with a large samurai sword. Sadly his only weapon is a large white rifle. You can use the inner robot's tank turret as a shield. On the side of the arms is a small round peg that allows you to place the shield on either arm. Since this is a Pretender this part of the toy offers very little articulation. The arms do rotate 360 degrees, but that is it. The level of detail however makes up for the lack of movement in my opinion.

Bludgeon's inner robot is also a fantastic toy in it's own right. Mostly green with maroon on the chest and a splash of yellow for the face. The robot is slightly larger than the standard Transformer Micromaster. Very simple transformation from tank to robot. Simply remove the turret, fold down the rear portion which forms the legs. Pull out and pose the arms as you wish. On the chest is a small flat lever that when slid up reveals the robot's head. The robot can then wield the small purple gun in either hand.

In tank mode there isn't much to say. For whatever reason Hasbro did not include any free rolling wheels on the underside of the tank treads. At least the turret can rotate a full 360 degrees. The purple gun simply snaps onto the turret so unfortunately it can be elevated any more than as you see here.

So there you have it, G1 Bludgeon in all his glory. I highly recommend this toy...even if you could care less for Pretenders. If nothing else the toy just oozes the character. I will forewarn any potential buyers that this toy does not come cheap. A quick eBay search will show that this little gem on average commands $75.00 plus. For such a simple Pretender toy that price will be hard for a lot of people to swallow (myself included), but if you can afford him I highly recommend this toy.

Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth preview (Nintendo Wii)

Alright, so it's not a toy...but it is actual game play of one of my highly anticipated games this year. That is assuming Nintendo releases it in the US this year! With my current home situation (3 week old daughter) a lot of my hobbies have taken a back seat for awhile, but I will have to find time to work this into my "schedule" @ home once it's made available. So until then this is all I have to fill that Castlevania void.

Beasts Wars II: Volcano Showdown VS-X1

I did a review of this toy shortly after obtaining it from Japan many many years ago, but I felt like it deserved a 2nd look. I had always intended to do individual reviews of the figures themselves so this review will mainly focus on the volcano play set itself. I'm not sure how widely available it may have been in Japan when it was originally released, but it is rather hard to come across on the secondary market these days. If you are lucky enough to find one in good condition and complete then be prepared to pay $200+. Is it worth the time to track this down or the high price tag? Read on and we'll find out together.

The Volcano Showdown comes packaged in the normal versus arrangement that Takara made popular with the initial release of Beast Wars toys in Japan. Note how the colors fade from left to right, red for Cybertron (Maximal) and purple for Destron (Predacon). This is a large box. It's about xx inches long, xx inches wide and xx inches tall.

I love the CGI art they used for the packaging. Neither of these characters appeared in the U.S. CGI Beast Wars television show so this is especially nice. On the left we have the Cybertron Armor going up against the Destron Snapper. I should mention that neither of these toys were sold individually in Japan unlike many of the other versus sets. Armor was later recolored and released as Bump in the Beast Wars Neo line however.

You can see in the top picture here that the volcano comes packaged in a few pieces. I would like to note that mine came with only 5 "volcano rocks" instead of 6. The large blue piece on the right is a cannon that can launch one of the rocks. Packaged underneath the gun are several individual pieces that snap together to form a small jail area. One of the downsides I would say about the packaging is the rather large window that wraps from the front of the box to the top. Mine has several scratches and scuffs all over. Thankfully however there is a thicker clear piece of plastic inside that helps support the bubble from collapsing in and keeps the pieces in place from rattling around inside the box.

I wanted to blow this section up that appears on the back of the box for a couple of reasons. First off you see a large battle scene in the top portion depicting all of the toys that were currently available at the time of the Volcano Showdown's release. Underneath the battle scene are 3 smaller pictures showing different play features of the set. From left to right is the erupting feature of the volcano, 2nd is the blue gun that can launch a volcano rock and 3rd is the holding pin or jail cell.

Each end side flap of the box is dedicated to each character, showing a close up of their beast mode as well as an action shot from the playset.

Next we'll look at the "meat" portion of the playset - the volcano. I filmed a short clip of the volcano in action with my wife's older model digital camera and the file extension is something I've never worked with before. So I had a hard time getting the video posted to the blog so I just decided to post a direct link to the video instead. The volcano has a working gimmick and just isn't a ordinary diorama piece. Once you insert one "C" battery in the compartment on the bottom of the volcano and switch it to the on position, you hear a very loud (and annoying) motor inside go to work. You place the volcanic rocks into the bottom channel and it will feed them inside the volcano one by one. It then propels the rocks up the inner shaft and out the top of the volcano to roll back down to the bottom and repeat the process. It took several attempts at times for the rocks to actually obtain the height they needed to escape the volcano's mouth. Other times it would propel the rocks up so high that they would simply land outside of the volcano itself or fall right back into the opening. Most of the time it operated just fine and it seemed to operate best with 2-3 rocks going at the same time.

The volcano has a foot print of about 7 inches and stands 5 inches tall. It is obviously not to scale with most of the Beast Wars toys, but basic sized figures mesh with the set alright. The front of the volcano has the appearance of being solid rock, only a hint of metal existing on the back side. The path for the "volcanic rocks" is obvious as the smooth channels zigzag down from the crest of the volcano.

On the right side there are two peg holes for the prison walls. The prison itself isn't very big, only measuring 3.5" x 4". There are two latches to open and close the gate with, but the way the plastic prison walls are constructed they fold in on themselves every time you try to unlatch them. At least you can fit one basic figure in the prison...other than that it isn't very functional. The back side of the volcano has a large metal portion with what appears to be a door in the center. A blue cannon stand snaps onto the base of this metal piece. The cannon itself can hold up to 2 rocks and it appears the cannon was designed to shoot the rocks out, but my specimen doesn't. The trigger on the top rear of the cannon looks as if it would snap down, causing a component inside to launch the rocks. Because the cannon is separate from the base, it can fully rotate on it's own.

There is also a plastic play mat included, but mine had been folded up in the box so long it was very hard to get the mat to lay flat as the plastic is a rather heavy so the creases are deep. It's nothing special, just a worn looking flatland type ground with a little bit of water surrounded by rocks in one corner and some scattered vegetation. This piece in my opinion is really not in scale with the volcano or any other toy.

Ever since I imported my first Beast Wars toy from Japan and saw this set in the included catalog I wanted it. As I mentioned earlier this is not an easy toy to track down. I consider myself lucky as I was able to obtain this in an auction along with the Niagara Falls playset for around $60.00. After toying around with this set however I felt I over paid! I've seen sealed specimens sell on eBay for over $200 which is crazy. Sure it's a neat little toy and it's more than a diorama piece, but it's so small and simple that it just doesn't bring much to the table. I love the figures included in the set and would highly recommend any Beast Wars fan picking those up. However I can't recommend buying the Volcano Showdown VS-X1 set unless you were able to buy it for dirt cheap.

Masters of the Universe Classics: Webstor

QUICK INFO:
Name: Webstor
Line: Masters of the Universe Classics
Year: September 2009
Price: $19.99
Info: MattyCollector.com exclusive


Today we'll take a look at last month's Masters of the Universe Classics release from MattyCollector.com. As I'm writing this I'm waiting in my wife's hospital room waiting to become a dad for the very first time! What that means to you, the reader, is this review may be a little sporadic since I guess you could say my mind is a little distracted!

Webstor comes packaged without his body armor or backpack attached...similar to how his vintage figure was packaged. Like most MOTU figures his body is comprised of parts from previously released figures.

I love his head sculpt. The Four Horsemen hit a home run here. The red eyes really pop out on the blue skin and the additional eyes on the forehead are just large enough that they stand out. His large white teeth that protrude from the face gives him a very menacing look. It almost looks as if he's grinning in a devilish way.

Webstor's backpack now features 4 articulated spider legs modeled after the Mike Young Productions / Masters of the Universe 200x series. These attached legs are a ball type joint and allows the legs to be posed a few different configurations. The backpack itself also features a zip line of sorts. One end of the line has a small plastic tab while the other end has a 3 pronged wench or hook. The backpack slides freely along the attached rope. I will mention that the plastic used on the hook is very soft and could easily warp if you tried to hang the hook on anything. I'm sure this was done for various child safety laws. On the back side of the backpack are 4 rectangle pegs that allow it fasten onto the back side of the body armor. I found it a little tricky to get 2 of the 4 pegs to firmly stay in place, but with a little effort they plugged into place and haven't given me any problems.

As I mentioned above the spider legs do have a good bit of articulation allowing you to fold them down behind Webstor. That way if you aren't a fan of the 200x design you can have a more classic looking villain.

I love the spider leg look to Webstor, but I have to say I'm just as impressed with his "classic" look as well.

Webstor also comes with his classic orange blaster that he can wield in either hand. Ever since this figure was revealed I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I loved he character in the Mike Young Productions cartoon series and this figure does a great job at capturing the animation model...although this figure seems to have more muscle or heft than NECA's staction figure resin statue. Whether you're a fan of the classic design or the more modern 200x do your self a favor and pick this up. As of this post the figure has already sold out on MattyCollector.com, but thanks in part to the subscription service that kicked in in September 2009 the figure lasted much longer on the website. This has also helped keep the price at a respectable level with third party vendors. I've read some reviews were people nit picked about some small blemishes on Webstor's back or with the softness of the plastic, but I honestly don't these things take anything away from the figure. My only quip with this figure is that the rope on the backpack is rather long and can get in the way. Other than that this figure is a must have and fits in well with Skeletor's other evil henchmen.

Cobra Air Viper w/ C.L.A.W.

QUICK INFO:
Name: Cobra Air Viper w/ C.L.A.W.
Line: G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra
Year: July 2009
Price: $9.99
Info: Target exclusive


Today will take a look at one of the many repainted toys in Hasbro's new G.I. Joe line, the Rise of Cobra (ROC). This is one of the many Target store exclusive deluxe action figures. For essentially 10 bucks you get an action figure, a mini-vehicle and a lot of accessories...not a bad deal in my book.

Let us first start off taking a look at the Cobra Air Viper. This toy is essentially a repainted AVAC pilot (packaged with the Firebat) from the 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe line. First thing you should notice is the odd color pallet Hasbro decided to use. The helmet along with the chest, shoulder and leg armor is almost an olive color. I've also seen it referred to as pewter, but it has too much of a green tint to me. The rest of the uniform is a purple-ish gray. The colors are odd, but somehow mesh together and give a good while muted overall look. He comes w/ one rifle, a removeable knife for the sheath on his leg and action figure stand. The rifle has a rather large molded strap which keeps the gun hanging over a shoulder quite well. Figure has your standard articulation we've come to expect.

Next we have the Cobra C.L.A.W. vehicle. Old school fans may remember this as the white rocket powered backpack jet from the original A Real American Hero line in the 80's. This is the same toy that we last say in multiple iterations in the 25th Anniversary line as well. Now sporting a sleek black deco, it looks so much better. There isn't much to the toy itself as it's rather small, light weight and simple. I should also mention that the handle bar piece just snaps on. So if you're like me and don't care for the look w/ the handle bars sticking down you can simply remove them. From wing tip to wing tip it only measures 5 1/2 inches long. On the underside of the wings are 4 pegs that allow you to attach a number of different included missiles.

You get a total of 12 missiles. The largest missiles (upper left corner) feature the same color as the Air Viper's armor. The tips feature a dayglow neon green. The 4 green missiles and 2 large bombs are the same weapons that were originally included w/ the Cobra F.A.N.G. helicopter. Both the bombs and 4 smaller missiles are the same purple-ish gray color.

In my own opinion I think some of the larger missiles and the bombs are a little overkill on such a small aircraft. My favorite combination is 2 of the green missiles on each tip and 2 small missiles on the inside. Whatever you tastes are in terms of the combination of weaponry it's nice to have several options unlike the previous releases of the C.L.A.W. that only came w/ two single small missiles.

Overall this is a decent figure. You get a lot for your money which is always a plus. This isn't my favorite figure by far and judging from how many I've spotted @ Target stores in my area alone I'm guessing he's not wildly popular with other fans either. I'm not an army builder collector, but I can see how people may want to pick up a few of these if for no other reason to have multiples of the C.L.A.W. vehicle.

Machine Robo Mugenbine: Kaiseijuu (Mugen Pirate)

Today's review is a fantastic "candy toy" set from Bandai. These simple plastic toys come in a case of 12, but meant to be sold individually in the candy aisle at Japanese markets. Unlike many candy toys these are not blind packaged so you know which character you're buying. Early sets came packaged with a sweet tart like piece of candy, but later this was switched to a light blue fruity piece of gum. Kaiseijuu or Mugen Pirate consists of 6 individual robots: Mugen Captain/Skull Captain, Mugen Stingray, Mugen Shark, Mugen Scissors, Mugen Kraken and Mugen Whale. The Roider's name (pilot) of the set is Roider Deep.

#1 in the set is Mugen Captain / Skull Captain. Pictured above are the contents of the set minus the gum. Note the small shield and sword which the robot can wield. The robot is of similar fashion to other Mugenbine candy toy sets' robot.

This is Mugen Captain with all of his stickers applied. The small white stripes are very tiny and skinny stickers which wrap around the body. The yellow belt and belt buckle are also very small stickers. So far all of these stickers have stayed in place...hope I didn't just jinx myself.

Flip Mugen Captain over and you now have the skull faced Skull Captain figure. There aren't many paint apps on these toys, but the skull has been painted white with a small black eye patch. If you are familiar w/ these candy sets you'll know that some of the stickers are small and hard to apply. Sometimes you don't even have solid portions of plastic to apply the stickers to. The tops of Skull Captain's arms have deep ridges in the plastic which once the stickers have been applied don't stay in place very well. The rest of the stickers weren't too bad to apply.

#2 in the set is Mugen Stingray, one of my personal favorites. Here are the contents of the package. Notice the small Roider figure, Roider Deep. The other large piece is the stingray's tail which doubles as Mugen Pirate's sword.

And here is Mugen Stingray with all of his stickers applied. Thankfully most of these stickers are large and easy to apply. The tips of the wings are hinged, note the small gray hinge. One of mine always wants to hang down a little bit which slightly annoys me. Not sure if this is a problem on other sets.

#3 in the set is Mugen Shark, a very nice hammerhead / sawtooth shark hybrid. All of the external fins come attached to a plastic tree. Not many of the Mugenbine sets have pieces attached like this. Notice all the small thin red stickers. These will be applied to the sides of the fins and around the gray sawtooth portion.

Stickers applied, Mugen Shark looks much better. The red stickers on the rear fins are supposed to wrap around the sides, but will most likely start to peel off shortly after applied. Same goes for the longer red sticker on the sawtooth portion.

#4 in the set is Mugen Scissors. This is a great mold as the crab's claws are fully articulated. Mugen Pirate's fists are included with this set. Outside of one sticker, these are rather easy to apply and stay in place fairly well.

Mugen Scissors are stickered up. If you'll take a look at the yellow painted eyes you'll notice a gray sticker that has been applied that wraps around and underneath. The details on this sticker make these tube like features look like machine guns in my opinion. What's so awful about this sticker is they do not want to stay in place. Any sticker that is wrapped around like this will want to peel immediately. I used a very small dab of super glue to keep this sticker in place.

#5 in the set is Mugen Kraken, a squid type creature. This mold is more or less a brick. Nice design, but little to no articulation. Easy to apply stickers thankfully.

Mugen Kraken with stickers applied. Nothing else to look at here.

#6 and last in the set is Mugen Whale. Ironically this is one of the smaller figures in the set. His side fins also come attached to a small plastic tree. It may be hard to notice because of the flash glare on the sticker sheet, but the large brown stickers have a wooden grain detail. I'll explain more about that in the next section. The rest of the stickers are large enough that it makes the application easy. Only exception is the yellow skull looking sticker. Notice the small gray piece on the whale's back? This piece has all the same details, but is covered up by the yellow sticker.

Mugen Whale with stickers applied. The side and rear fins do have a limited amount of articulation. The whale's lower jaw is fully articulated which is a nice touch. Notice the black and blue rear section? It's basically the same piece as the middle portion of Mugen Kraken. More on that later.

Here is where that wood grain on the stickers comes into play. The middle portion of Mugen Whale is actually a "wooden" treasure chest! Now what pirate is without his chest of booty? As you can see the lid on the chest is articulated and opens all the way up.

The next portion of the review will cover the gestalt, Mugen Pirate. Instead of just jumping to pics and a description of the combined robot I opted to show each step in the construction.

The first step is to compose each arm. Here we've got pieces from Mugen Scissors, Shark and Stingray. The articulated arm portions are from Mugen Scissors along w/ the crab claws. The large fins on the top of the claws are from Mugen Stingray and the small blue fins are from Mugen Shark.

The next step is to build the legs. Here we have multiple pieces from Mugen Captain, Kraken, Scissors, Shark and Whale. There is a good bit of articulation in the feet thanks to the hinges on the arrow shaped portion of Mugen Kraken. The red blocks that help form the ankles also have small hinged pegs that allow for more articulation in the feet. The middle and top portion of the legs are identical pieces, one each from Mugen Shark and Mugen Kraken. Mugen Captain's robot legs fit on the back of each leg and help give them stability.

Next we build the Mugen Pirate's helmet if you will. The main portion is Mugen Shark's hammerhead piece and the sawtooth nose along w/ the skull piece from Mugen Whale. This piece will fit snugly over Mugen Captain's small robot head.

Moving up from the legs we now have the waist portion. Composed of Mugen Captain, Kraken and Shark. Mugen Kraken's tentacle pieces now forms an articulated armor coat tail if you will.

Now we build the upper torso to snap onto the waist that we just built in the previous step. This is mostly Mugen Captain's upper torso and head along w/ 2 pieces from Mugen Kraken.

Next is to add a few pieces to the upper torso. Snap on the red wing tips from Mugen Stingray and Mugen Captain's shield to the chest.

It was hard for me to get a good picture of the next step...which is to snap on a few left over pieces that really don't contribute to Mugen Pirate's overall robot. Here we have Mugen Whale's rear fins, Mugen Stingray's main body and Mugen Whale head. This all plugs into the back of the upper torso and forms a backpack if you will.

The last step in the construction of Mugen Pirate is his large anchor weapon. The sides of the anchor are the arms of Mugen Captain / Skull Captain. The U shaped piece is from Mugen Kraken while the red crown looking piece is from Mugen Stingray. The middle and top portions of the anchor is the Mugen Captain's sword. On the back of the U shaped piece is a peg that allows Mugen Pirate to wield this large anchor as a weapon or perhaps for defensive purposes like a shield.

And finally, after tedious laboring we have the final finished product...Mugen Pirate. He stands approximately 9 inches tall and has a menacing look. He has several points of articulation in this form. Feet, ankles, thighs, hips, waist, arms, elbows and head. The tail of Mugen Stingray forms a large sword, but the way the sword's hilt is made doesn't allow the sword to be placed in the hand the way I thought it should. The curved portion of the "blade" faces the back. I've seen pictures with the sword facing the other way in Mugen Pirate's hand, but I for the life of me cannot figure how they made that happen.

My only complaint with Mugen Captain is the head. The helmet that fits over Mugen Captain's robot head and almost obstructs or hides the robot's face. It's a minor complaint, but I feel it's a valid point.

Robot looks best when viewed from the front. That backpack portion I mentioned just seems to jut out the back and can make the robot a little top heavy.

In closing, I really wanted to give his set high marks...but I don't feel like I am being honest with myself if I do. The individual toys all sport fantastic designs and fun little toys, but combined the gestalt just seems to fall a little short of my expectations. The colors blend together well and he's got a good overall look, but he just doesn't stand up when compared again Mugen Pharaoh or even Mugen Arthur. Is he worth purchasing? Based on the individual figures I'd say yes. But if you intend on displaying him in gestalt mode exclusively you may want to consider picking up one of the other sets.

* Special thanks to Roanstalker & Seawing of the TFW2005 boards for the English name translations.