Dave's Sorta-Transformers Rant: G-04 Choryujin (Super Dragon God) G-15 Gekiryujin (Attack Dragon God) In 1997, just before Takara decided Beast Wars was doing well enough to sell in Japan, they did the last of their not-actually-Transformers shows and toy lines, GaoGaiGar. The toy line was big into large robots and combination schemes, including a couple of nifty side-by-side combiners. As soon as I saw Choryujin, the first of these side-by-sides, I knew I wanted one. And then Gekiryujin came out, and I wanted that too. Finally, while checking out (URL removed because it's now a pornsquat).com, I ran across both of these, and ordered them. http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/BW/crjgrj.GIF has a catalog picture of the two. Update: The above link is no longer valid, the image has been moved to http://www.dvandom.com/images/crjgrj.GIF CAPSULES Choryujin: Decent pair of vehicles, fairly simple transformations to robot mode and to combined mode, but interesting enough to keep me from being bored right off. Good poseability as individual robots, a brick combined. Vehicle kibble tends to get in the way a bit, and could have been more effectively used in robot and combined modes. Recommended. $34.99 at ActionAce.com. Gekiryujin: Same basic structure as Choryujin. The vehicle modes look a little forced, but the robot and combined modes work a little better, as the vehicle kibble is better integrated into the toy. Recommended. $29.99 at ActionAce.com. If you only get one, get this one. RANTS Because of the modularity of these toys (you can mix and match the sides to make two other big guys), I'm going to first go over the common aspects of each mode (vehicle, robot, combined) and then mention details specific to each of the specific toys. Choryujin is made up of Ice Dragon and Fire Dragon, while Gekiryujin is made from Wind Dragon and Storm Dragon. [Later update: Ice/Storm combo is Genryujin (Phantom Dragon God) and Fire/Wind combo is Goryujin (Strong Dragon God).] Vehicle Modes: The basic structure is a long 8-wheeled truck, suited in form to a fire engine or crane. From bumper to bumper they're 9" (23cm) long. The front cabs are 2.5" (6cm) wide and about 2" (5cm) high. The wheels are plastic rather than rubber. There's a sticker sheet for each toy, and the stickers are often placed in nooks and crannies where they're hard to put on without tools. The midsection of each vehicle is a bit unstable, with panels that just fold over the middle without snapping into place. There's one peg on this midsection piece that serves no purpose on most of the toys, being used only on Fire Dragon. Ice Dragon: This blue truck is fitted out as a crane, with the combined mode's head forming the "cockpit" for the crane. The crane itself extends to 16" (40cm), and can be raised and rotated over the full range you'd expect from a crane. There's also a small blaster tip on the crane that can be folded away and concealed. Fire Dragon: A red firetruck with an extendable ladder (also 16" or 40cm) with a movable nozzle at the tip. Choryujin's chestplate just sort of sits in the midsection on that previously mentioned peg, sort of like the Devastator chunks carried around by various Constructicons. The overall design suits Fire Dragon best, suggesting it was modeled after a fire engine and then just used for the other three as well as it could. Wing Dragon: A green cement mixer. Because of the need to use the same basic body plan as the first two, this vehicle looks strangely elongated. Losing a couple inches would have helped the appearance. Gekiryujin's head unit forms the spout for the cement mixer. The mixer barrel is a missile launcher and can fire in this mode, but not well. More on the launcher in the robot mode section. Storm Dragon: Another elongated vehicle, this one is a yellow dump truck. Gekiryujin's chest plate fits in reasonably well as the front lip of the dumper, but the general appearance is still kinda odd. The dumper can tip back. Transformation to Robot Mode: In all cases, the cab becomes the legs with some folding out, and the midsection and rear fold around to become the arms and torso. There's a clever locking mechanism here, as the three modes require different midsection lengths. Pushing down a button lets you slide the midsection in or out, then letting go locks it in place. There's several places where you go a little further in transformation than a lazy designer would have gone, which is nice...bits folding in or out, extending, etc. The right leg on each acts as a storage compartment for something. Ice Dragon: A pistol is stored in the right leg, and it becomes a forearm in the combined mode. The crane just sort of sits there, or it can be pulled off and placed in the robot's hand as a weapon. Fire Dragon: Same storage trick. The ladder also has a peg, but doesn't really fit well on the arm as a weapon. The Choryujin chestplate becomes a shield. Wind Dragon: The right leg stores spare missiles. The whole mixer assembly is set up so that it can swing up and become a shoulder mounted launcher. It doesn't point forward though, just up at a steep (indirect fire) angle. Storm Dragon: The right leg stores Gekiryujin's left forearm, which can be held as a pistol, but doesn't really look like one. The dumper can either stay on his back or become a sort of skateboard. Robot Mode: Each individual robot is 8" (20cm) tall at the head, matching most of the big guys from Beast Wars. Their arms are well articulated if a bit short, their heads can turn, as can their waists. Legs bend at the knee and hip, and the legs can spread apart a bit, but not turn or otherwise do the ball joint thing. Several of the joints (elbows, knees, hips) are clickers and have specific positions they prefer to be in. All the figures have a chest design with a dial and four colored horizontal bars. By turning the dial, you can switch from the bars being a neutral color (yellow for Ice and Fire, white for Wind and Storm) to the color of the robot. This probably has some significance on the show. The right-side partners have the dial on the right, and the left-side partners have the dial on their left. Similarly, each robot has a sort of antenna on its head, right side for right-siders, etc. Each head is unique to the robot, with a symbol on their foreheads indicating their elemental affinity. Ice Dragon: Snowflake helmet insiginia. Has a pistol and can use his crane as a hand weapon effectively. Fire Dragon: Flame helmet insignia. Has a pistol and shield, but his ladder just sort of sits there. Wind Dragon: A sort of propellor or vortex insignia. He has no hand weapons, but his mixer can become a shoulder-mounted mortar launcher. If you turn the entire body of the mixer freely, nothing happens. But if you twist the front and back halves opposite directions, it fires up to four tiny (as in, too small for U.S. safety standards) missiles. The missiles are launched using the "Cyberjet" principle (similar to that seen on the new Mirage toy), and the launching speed depends on how hard you're turning the mixer halves. Range is pretty low in any case. Because the missiles are small and easily lost, 12 are included. Storm Dragon: Lightning bolt crest. He doesn't really have a hand weapon. The stored forearm can be held as a gun, but it has no barrel and the instructions do not indicate that it is meant to be a gun. However, as the square apeture resembles a waveguide for high frequency electric current, I suppose it could be considered a lightning gun. However, his nifty feature is the skateboard. The dump truck dumping compartment can be detached and has slots for Storm Dragon's feet. It also has a number of pegs of unknown purpose, maybe so other GGG toys can use it. The wheels are tiny and it doesn't roll all that well, but it's still a clever use of what would have otherwise been useless kibble. While Choryujin wins in vehicle mode, Gekiryujin wins hands down in robot mode, IMO. Combination: This works the same for both. The cab or robot legs become a shoulder, the upper body or rear vehicle folds around to make the big feet. The individual vehicle bits come off and reattach somewhere on the combiner, the heads fold over the top of the merged form and the chestplate holds it together in front. Hands go onto stubby upper arms that fold out of the shoulderpads. Everything pegs together pretty firmly. After a couple tries, it's really fast and easy. Choryujin: The hands are formed from the pistols of the robots. The crane and ladder just sort of plug onto the hips and make nuisances of themselves, although the crane can sort of be brought up and plugged into the right hand from this position. Gekiryujin: The cement mixer becomes the right forearm, complete with sight. He has an actual left hand, and the dumper attaches here as a shield. Combined Modes: These big boys stand 10" (25cm) tall with shoulders 7" (17cm) wide, and have almost zero poseability. The head turns and the arms bend at the elbows, and that is IT. Still, they look cool and are well-proportioned. With foot-bases 4" (10cm) wide and 5" (13cm) long, they're very stable and resist being knocked over. Choryujin: He can hold his ladder and crane as tonfas, with the long ends pointing backwards, but due to the construction of his arms and the weapons, he really can't point the extendable ends at anyone. He can more or less point the crane at someone in front of him, just not directly in front. Thus, the potential of these extensible weapons is kinda wasted. When they're attached to his hips they mostly get in the way, but can be pointed at the shins of an opponent, at least. The can also act as stilts, albeit realllly unstable ones. The color scheme looks good, but this does show the signs of not being a completely-developed idea. Gekiryujin: While his dumper makes a nifty-looking shield, it does seriously restrict motion of his arm. His launcher-hand can point straight forwards, which is very good...while Choryujin's fiddling with his tonfas, Gekiryujin's pumping four rounds into the baddie. Granted, he only has one usable hand in this mode, but if he needs to grab stuff he can always split apart into Wind Dragon and Storm Dragon. Icestorm: By combining Ice Dragon and Storm Dragon, you get Icestorm, with a usable crane weapon and a shield. I'd be inclined to give this combination Gekiryujin's head and chest. [Later note: this is Genryujin, the Phantom Dragon God.] Windfire: By combining Wind Dragon and Fire Dragon, you get Windfire, with a blaster cannon and a tonfa ladder. I'd give this Choryujin's head and chest. [Later note: this is Goryujin, the Strong Dragon God.] Even more combinations are possible, such as giving Gekiryujin's left arm to Choryujin so he can attach the ladder to his forearm and poke people at long range with it. And the missle arm is ambidextrous, so it could also replace Choryujin's left arm. Overall: Obviously, if you get both you have more options for mix and match fun. But if you can only afford one, Gekiryujin's the better of the two in both robot and combined modes...and the vehicle modes are no prize for either toy. In any case, if you miss the big bulky G1 feel and the idea of hulking combiners, you'll wanna pick at least one of these sets up. Dave Van Domelen, notes they're both slightly taller than the GaoGaiGar knockoff I have.... [New Stuff] Chan Heng Yip sent me a few extra pieces of information by email, based on having watched the show: ----begin included text---- The dials on the individual mechas actually are meant to be the amount of power each robot uses for his unique power (Houryu uses fire redardant and Enryu uses flame burst, etc.) Choryujin is suppose to use the crane and ladder and stands when he uses Eraser Head Launcher and the crane and ladder allow for long range attacks. Reiryu has no handgun because in the show, he uses electricity emitted from his hands... go fig. His dumper is also a surfboard for quicker travel and Enryu is suppose to be able to hold on from below. Finally, Choryujin's crane and ladder sides are not tonfas but two added long range rifles. Note: Houryu uses the crane as 'Cold Rifle' but Enryu never uses it. P.S. their transformation command is 'System Change' and merge code is 'Symmetrical docking'. ----end included text---- I kinda suspected the crane and ladder were supposed to be rifles, but Choryujin the toy simply can't hold them that way. }-/ Update: Probably should have mentioned this, oh, six years ago when I watched the complete series, but they do get used as tonfas once in a while. Also, a female symmetric docking pair shows up in the OAV series Gaogaigar Final, but as far as I know they never got a mass-market combining toy. There was a really nice custom job out there for a while, though.