Dave's WebDiver Rant: W-06 Phoenic-on Ah, eBay. At this rate, I'll end up getting everything except Gradion itself (Orthrion and Cerberion are on their way to me in the mail). CAPSULE Phoenic-on (or Phoenik-on, but not Phoenix-on): Decent phoenix mode, interesting transformation, pretty good train mode (but it doesn't hold together very strongly), nice-looking weapon mode. Mildly recommended. 2500 Yen ($20.27 US at the conversion rate for 6/18/01). I got mine for $21.51 plus S&H. RANT Like the other WebDiver toys I've gotten, Phoenic-on comes in a windowless box, twist-tied and rubber banded down to a cardboard tray (5 ties, 4 bands). It's packaged in fighter mode, and comes with batteries included. W-06: Phoenic-on Vehicle Mode: Bullet Train Engine Fighter Mode: Phoenix Weapon Mode: Flame cannon Elements: Fire, Air Fighter Mode: 9" (23cm) from beak to tail tip. The wings are meant to be slightly bent, so the wingspan is 11" (28cm), but it could be stretched out to 13.5" (34cm). It doesn't look as good this way, though. Phoenic-on is a lot of colors. The train parts are mainly white and blue, the phoenix parts are mainly yellow and red with WebDiver's omnipresent neon green accents. A big orange cannon with blue and green accents is mounted on the back. The LED button is a little hard to get at, on the side of the phoenix right next to a strut holding the right leg. The infrared LED is inside the figure's chest, behind a clear golden yellow panel, and the visible LED is on the phoenix's neck. The tail ends in two long "ribbons" typical of mythic phoenix art. Replacing the center ribbon, however, is a small sword. Undocumented Feature: Phoenic-on can hold the sword in his wing talons. The hips are swivels, the knees are hinges, and the ankles are slightly restricted ball joints. All the above joints are pretty stiff, and the figure stands quite stably. The "shoulder" joints of the wings are a hinge and swivel mix that allows good poseability, but the joints aren't stiff enough to keep the wings from drooping if you're not careful. Midwing is a swivel to bring out the wingtips, but they only really look good at a 90 degree angle, thanks to the big train side-panels making up the main part of the wing. The flame missiles store on the wingtips, making flames that trail from the wings. The neck is extremely poseable, and the figure's mouth opens. Mounted on the back is a missile launcher that fires the big flame missiles. It has a range of under a foot, however, owing to a weak spring and large missiles. The overall look of this mode is clearly that of a train turned into a bird. There's lots of train parts visible in fighter mode, especially from behind. Transformation: Fairly interesting, with some twists to it, but I was able to get it almost completely right without looking at the instructions. One bit of the instructions is way more complex than it needs to be, and it regards the positioning of the tail ribbons. There's a circular hole about a centimeter from the tip of each strip. This hole goes over a peg on the orange piece that the launcher is attached to. One annoying detail is that the side panels need to snap onto some fairly small pegs, and it takes a bit of massaging to get the thing to hold together. The sides pop out a bit too easily. Vehicle Mode: A bullet train engine 7.5" (19cm) long, roughly the same scale as the JRX components, but a little taller and wider. It's white with blue stripes, grey accents, dark blue side windows, neon green strips (molded in techno details) and a golden yellow clear canopy. The figure transforms so that the phoenix head can look out through the canopy. It rests on four wheels that have springy suspensions, which is a nice touch. However, the big tabs on the side for connection to Gradion keep it from bouncing down more than a millimeter. In the event anyone buys multiples of this toy, linkages fold out from the front and back of the train so that they can snap together and form a longer vehicle. The front link is hinged so that it can bend side to side. The overall look of the train mode is pretty good, with very little fighter mode kibble. Weapon Mode: This presents the train facing rather than the phoenix stuff, for a nice looking set of blue and white "wings" acting as a chestplate. The launcher folds up to face more or less forward (it points either a little up or a little down, however, at least on mine). The sword just clips onto the side of this mode...not having Gradion I can't say if he can hold the sword or clip it onto his forearm or something. Overall: A nice toy, about the middle of the pack of the ones I have already. Unless you're a big train fan, though, it's probably best to avoid this one if you don't already have Gradion. Gradion with Phoenic-on looks cool enough, however, that it's worth getting this toy if you have Gradion already. Dave Van Domelen, now waiting for W-07 and W-08 to show up in the mail....