Dave's Car Robots Rant: JRX: C-015 - Team Shinkansen J-5: C-012 J-7: C-013 J-4: C-014 Well, my brother picked this up for me when he was in Japan in May, but he never quite got around to mailing it to me. Mom finally found it and shipped it to me in September. She also opened the box to make sure it had survived the trip from Japan, and as a result J-7 wasn't quite correctly transformed when I got it. }-> CAPSULES JRX: Pretty well-proportioned but back-heavy, due to one of the components being almost entirely backpack. Not much flexibility in construction (unlike Build King, although I've seen a kitbash variant that includes Lioconvoy in the mix), and doesn't have many stable poses. Individual components are fairly neat and stable. Overall recommended (ideas aren't as good as Build King's, but the execution is better in a purely technical/structural sense). J-5: Pretty tight train mode, decent transformation, nice robot mode with only a couple minor flaws. Recommended. J-7: Okay train mode, good transformation, so-so robot mode that would be a LOT better with a couple of stiffer joints and some mid-hip swivels. Source of most of what flexibility JRX has. Mildly recommended on its own. J-4: Loose train mode, fairly simple transformation, ludicrously large-legged robot mode. The loser of the lot. Neutral. RANTS As with Build King, this was available as either individual toys (with individual techspec cards) or as a gift set (with just JRX's card), although the individual toys were boxed rather than carded. And, like Build King, the box did not have a window to show the actual toys, but the pictures on the back were nice and clear. The gift set had the three toys transformed into gestalt component mode, so that kids could easily pop them out of the plastic tray and assemble JRX. The instructions are pretty thorough, with robot to vehicle, vehicle to robot, robot to gestalt piece and gestalt piece to robot instructions, plus gestalt assembly. However, they're not terribly clear in one or two places, leaving me to struggle some on J-7's transformation to gestalt component mode. Translations courtesy of Doug Dlin (who did it) and Neale Davidson (who commissioned it). The "Alternate Names" are the names printed on the sides of the trains. CYBERTRON: JRX Function: Autobot Tri-bot Gestalt Security Force The three robots of Team Shinkansen complete their three-bot fusion with J5 as the brains of the whole. Thanks to the accelerators he's equipped with, he carries himself swiftly. Wields a giant gun combining J5's Beam Gun and J4's E4 Rifle. STR 10 INT 10 SPD 9 END 10 RNK 7 COUR 9 FRP 10 SKL 10 Avg 9.375 Train Mode: Well, the trains have hooks and holes in them so they can chain together as one long engine to pull more cars...not that bullet trains DO that, as far as I know. Combination: Well, it comes in the box in combiner mode, so all you have to do is snap it together, which isn't too hard. I'll comment on the transformation to combiner component modes with the individual toys. Combined Mode: Stands 9.5" (24cm) tall and wears a Z cup. }-> Mainly blue and white with some grey, black and yellow, JRX has a rather sticky-outy chest formed from the nose of J-5. The head pulls out of the cockpit of J-5, and doesn't really sit strongly in place, also leaving a big hole in front of it. The forearms are paddle-like and the upper arms are rather short, but there's still decent poseability for the arms. The legs have full poseability, although they also have short upper parts and long lower parts. Because most of J-7 forms a backpack, the toy is very back-heavy. And it doesn't help that JRX's heel spurs aren't really locked into position, one of them folds up pretty easily, leading JRX to kip over backwards. As mentioned, J-7 is mainly backpack. About an inch of abdomen is made from part of J-7, with the rest of that robot forming a backpack (and a bullet-shaped butt). Something of a cheap-out, really...it would have been easy enough to redesign J-4 so that you could get a 9.5" tall robot without J-7 at all. However, since J-7 is so non-essential, that means you can mess with his components without disturbing the overall gestalt. This, J-7's legs can become shoulderpads/wings, over the shoulder cannons (in fact, in the Hyper JRX kitbash I saw, J-7 was solely a cannon), etc. Some of these alterations do help with the backheaviness, too. It's also possible to leave J-7 almost completely in train mode, which gives JRX sort of an SDF-1 feel, but a LOT of backheaviness. The combined handgun is kinda iffy, it just looks like two guns stuck together. The shieldgun's okay at this level, and since JRX's thumbs and fingers (all finger as a unit) move, he can open his hand to hold the thing as an axe as well, more or less. Side note, the paint on the fists of mine was already worn when I got it. Overall: The blockiness of a G1 combiner with the poseability of a modern Transformer. Not a bad toy, but saddled with a couple of flaws that keep me from being too enthusiastic about it. CYBERTRON: J-Five Function: Autobot Sonic Staff Officer Altmode: Series 500 bullet train Alternate Name: 500 Team Shinkansen's staff officer, always speaks like a gentleman and has an intellect on a par with Fire Convoy's. Both his shoulders are equipped with rocket launchers. His Sonic Umbrella, from which he generates ultrasonic waves while spinning around, takes down enemies in one shot. STR 7 INT 9 SPD 10 END 8 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRP 8 SKL 9 Avg 8.25 Train Mode: 9.5" (23cm) long including the coupling hook, take off an inch if you don't have the hook. He's a little floppy where JRX's shoulders are, and some of his connection hooks for JRX mode scrape the table and keep him from rolling well, but generally pretty stable. JRX's head can poke up and look around in this mode for comic effect. Transformation to Robot Mode: Not bad given the limitations of the toy's role. The nose splits open into big shoulderpads in which small (but bigger than J-4's) arms are hidden, the parts which become JRX's arms are instead the legs of J-5, and a couple panels flip open at the hips to give them room to move. The JRX head becomes the chest via a clever folding of hinges, and J-5's head theoretically pops up on a spring, but in my case had to be coaxed up. Note: it's easier to get the JRX head into and out of position if you open up the body for component mode first. The joint is a complicated sort of ball in ball in socket thing, and if it pops out, it's a pain and a half to get back together. Robot Mode: A bit over 6" (16cm) tall and quite stable. His long heel spurs aren't even really necessary, but they stay in place firmly (unlike JRX's heel spurs) and allow for more extreme posing. Overall his legs work very nicely. However, his arms are kinda stubby, and his elbows are double ball joints that aren't strong enough to let him hold up his gun. Basically, his arms work a lot like those of a Microman MagneTitan, for those who have seen those toys. His massive shoulderpads are 7" (18cm) wide. His weapon is an LED light-up affair made bulky by the need for battery space. Like a lot of extended light-up TF weapons, it's not too impressive in a well-lit room. In a darkened room, it's okay. Also, as mentioned in his techspecs, he has missile tubes molded into his shoulderpads, as well as other various techy details. Transformation to Component Mode: Almsot trivial from train mode...just pull the halves of the main body apart and pop up JRX's head, then fiddle with the arms to get fists and stuff. From robot mode, well, not too much harder. Gerwalk mode: You can get a funky two-legged walker reminiscent of a Battletech mech (it's been a while, I forget the name of the one it looks a lot like) by taking the component mode, making the arms into legs and concealing the JRX head. Overall: A decent toy on its own, if you like trains. The only real problem is the arms, which aren't too terribly bad. Considering that this is priced as a Deluxe in Japan ($20, yes, they have some inflation problems), it seems to be pretty good value even on its own. CYBERTRON: J-Seven Function: Autobot Sonic Railway Patrol Altmode: Series 700 bullet train Alternate Name: Rail Star Enthusiastic, if a bit too violent, prides himself on Team Shinkansen's toughness. He flushes enemies out with his grenade launcher, then finishes them off with large missiles fired from his Seven Shield. This weapon is outstandingly effective, but only good for one shot. STR 8 INT 10 SPR 9 END 9 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRP 7 SKL 7 Avg 8.125 Train Mode: 8" (20cm) long, the only one that doesn't really get any extra length from its coupling hook. This is mainly because the hook is just the missile, the rest of his weapon is concealed elsewhere, integrated into the vehicle mode completely (while the other two have weapons that in whole or in part just sort of stick out at the end). Would be very stable if the one tab keeping the front and back parts aligned was longer or just worked better. Also, the rear half is held together almost entirely by the folded shield weapon. A peg would help a LOT here, especially since the missile is very loosely held between leg halves in this mode, and falls out very easily, since all it takes is the legs drifting apart a millimeter. Unlike the other two, which are mainly blue anbd white, J-7 is mainly grey and black with yellow accents. Transformation to Robot Mode: Reasonably complicated, it took me a while to figure out without the instructions. The shoulder panels don't lock into place, though, and while pegs would spoil the lines of the train, a stiffer joint could have been used. Robot Mode: 6.5" (17cm) tall, J-7 looks the most like he was transformed from a train, being rather skinny. On the other two, shoulderpads help break up the lines, but J-7 just looks so trainlike. Like the others, suffers from having too-short arms and too-long legs, but it doesn't look too terribly bad on him. However, the lack of a mid-hip swivel of some sort really hurts poseability. With such long shins and no way to turn them, you're really limited in the poses he can attain. At least he has good heel spurs like J-5's, which do a little to ameliorate this problem. His weapon is a shieldgun. It can be either a shield or a gun, not both at onc. It also looks kinda like an axe, but unlike JRX, J-7 can't hold it that way. Transformation to Component: Even with the instructions, this was insanely hard the first time I tried it, mainly because I foolishly thought the final shape was actually important. All you really need to do is take the section with the head and swivel it out from train mode. That's it. The rest is just window dressing. But by leaving the one IMPORTANT step until late in the instructions, they make it a lot harder to follow. Once you figure out the key step, it's trivial. Overall: Poor J-7, barely necessary for the gestalt, but forced to come along on missions anyway. Not too bad on his own, though, and he represents the one real area of flexibility on JRX. CYBERTRON: J-Four Function: Autobot Sonic Railway Patrol Altmode: E-4 Max bullet train Alternate Name: Max Team Shinkansen's unspoilt youth, cheerful and good natured, the team's mood-setter. However, he is harsh on his enemies and strong in cold weather. His High Fever Missiles melt snow, while the blades of light generated from his shoulders slice even giant icebergs in two. STR 9 INT 8 SPD 8 END 10 RNK 7 COUR 8 FRP 9 SKL 8 Avg 8.375 Train mode: 10" (25cm) long including the coupling at the end formed from his weapon. J-4 is probably the least stable in train mode, with a lot of panels that don't lock into place but are instead just held by friction. Even a few simple dimples and bumps could have helped. Most of the outer body is made from translucent yellowish plastic which has then been painted over except for the windows...I suppose cheaper than making individual clear windows on an opaque body. However, the paint job is a bit sloppy in places. Transformation to Robot: Pretty easy. Pop up the middle of the train (including the roof panels) and remove the weapon pieces. Then pull out the legs and form the feet, pull down the arms, rotate out the head, etc. It's a little difficult getting the head all the way out, since there's one really stiff joint amongst a lot of loose ones. Robot Mode: 7" (18cm) tall, 5.5" of that is from floor to hips. He's worst than Wildride in the "smaller robot wearing large boots" category. To give a tiny bit of credit, his torso does stretch up by an inch so he's not JUST the legs of JRX with tiny arms and a head. But he's not too much more than that. His arms are less poseable than some Basics' arms, and his incredibly long shins make his leg poseability iffy as well. His weapon just has this hook hanging off it (it's possible to hold the gun by this hook, but not easy), and it fires a missile pretty well. He also has massive shoulderpads 7" (18cm) wide. Transformation to Component: From robot mode, just stow the arms and head and collapse the torso. From train mode, just top transforming to robot partway through. Exceedingly simple. Overall: If you're just getting one or two of thr trains and not the whole set, give this one a pass. Dave Van Domelen, got a bunch of cheap Tek-brand toys at KB Toy Liquidators today, but doesn't know if they'd survive the trip to the office for reviewing now that they're out of the packages....