Groizer X by Yamato (and review by Gold)

GN-U Groizer X

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The following review was originally prepared by Gold on 2/24/08 on the Robot-Japan Forum:

Here's a quick review of the Yamato Groizer X figure.


Box




Groizer X comes with three mini vehicles, the G-Shark, G-Jet and G-Drill. Vehicles do not dock with Groizer though. I'm not sure if they are made from solid plastic or diecast, but knowing Yamato, it's probably plastic













As a new twist, Yamato decided to throw in a build it yourself "papercraft" air base.





Hmm.... wow, I guess my papercraft skills really suck. It also took about a day or so to cut and glue everything.




The bottom part of the tray can be cut and then placed on the open box window to simulate the full airstrip (I decided to just fold part of the bottom of the tray instead of outright cutting it off).



















Thankfully, Yamato decided to throw in a big gapping space in the plastic tray so you can "store" the assembled airbase pieces.




In retrospect, I think the papercraft project would've come out smoother if I had thought of using a ruler to fold some of the finer edges instead of manually trying to fold the edges only by hand. Ah well... live and learn.






Flying Torpedo



There's a "half-a-torpedo" piece for mounting it into position inside Groizer's chest. With a second "solid" torpedo for firing.




Torpedo fire!





Landing gear.


The landing gear is attached manually and not part of any internal mechanism.
The wheels are PVC and do not roll, the axel is connected via a ball joint though. The rear landing gears can be ejected by pushing on a button on the topside of Groizer X.














Fight Up!

Although I've never watched the Anime I'm pretty sure the transformation doesn't involve parts swapping, unlike this guy.









Groizer Robo!














Surprisingly, thanks to the heavy diecast content of the feet and lower legs, the toy can balance itself well enough. However, you still have to be careful though since the bottom edges/corners of the feet are bit round-tipped, the toy can tip over if not positioned properly.









And of course, the "coolest" feature of this toy is the ability to hold this pose.














Some comparison pics with the Go Nagai family.

Groizer X mode










Groizer Robo Mode














The Good
- Diecast parts! These include
-- almost the entire chest block
-- lower legs
-- feet
-- parts of the skirt plate (lateral sides only)
-- shoulders and biceps (forearms and thighs are plastic)



- Nice heft. When assembled, the Groizer Robo weighs 540 Grams. Almost the equivalent of the Aoshima Shin Getter Robo and heavier than the CMs Brave Gokin Goshogun.

The Groizer X (plane mode) weighs a measily 240 Grams (it's lighter than SOC Gx01R and your average Binal Tech TF)



- Ratchet Joints. These are present in the shoulders, groin joints ( going front-back, sideways) and knees. None in the elbows, ankles.


- Papercraft base (beats nothing I guess?) and Display base.


- Spring ejecting landing gear. Push a button and the rear landing gears come off.



- Can do the "kneel-down" pose.





The Bad
- The paints(?) Some sites complained of this but I really didn't see any really bad paint splattering or paint bleeds on mine.


- Ratchet joint problems (?) As cool as the ratchet joints are, they feel weird. Kinda like the spring is going to pop out or something like that, it doesn't have that solid or smooth feel like, say, from an SOC Gx01R or Gx02R.


- The head pops off too easily.


- Groizer Robo is big, which is a good thing since he's supposed to be 100 Meters tall. However, it's not an accurate fit with the SOCs (it should be even bigger if one is particular about scaling)





The Ugly

Sigh... where to start...


- Swapping parts, okay, seriously, they should've just given two seperate figures, since the swapping design is just too over simplified. No gimmicks, no spring loaded release, just a peg and a hole.

- Transformation problems. When folding the head back up for plane mode, you're sure to scratch the surface of the chest block. A simple transformation that easily goes wrong. Yamato's been doing transforming toys for as long as I can remember. This design flaw is just wrong on so many levels.

- Papercraft base. Love it or hate it. I really don't recommend this for anyone who has little experience with doing papercraft. The way to do it here seems simple enough but there are fine points like the buildings' ledges that are just hard to do without the right tools (or experience) for the job.

- The @$*# display base. I don't know if this problem is limited to just my unit but the hinge joint is unable to support the Groizer X when it's mounted on it, it either tilts all the way forward or backwards. It can't maintain a straight level. They should've just left the hinge joint out if it doesn't help.





In conclusion. Well, despite the glaring negatives, the Groizer Robo in itself is decent enough (thanks to the diecast) and it looks good when posed next other Go Nagai robots (except maybe for when he's in Groizer X plane mode).


I really believe they should've just left the transformation out and given us a solid, poseable Groizer Robo. It would've made more of a better impression than trying to force the transformation gimmick. If they had to make connections the least they could've done was follow SOC's Getter Robos and added spring release gimmicks for the swapping.


Personally, I see the real problems stem from the "extras" they tried to provide for this set and sadly, it all ended up detracting from the final result.










Gold