GX-53 Daitarn 3 SOC Review by Gold

The following review was originally prepared by Gold on 5/24/10 on the Robot-Japan Forum:

 

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Opening Credits




Box



Trays




Haran Banjo's car, the Mach Patrol





Note when transforming it to Mach Attacker, pull out the front first before flipping out the wings otherwise you'll risk possible paint scratching:




Mach Attacker (Canopy cannot be opened)





DaiFighter (note that the Daifighter's front landing gears are the plastic Daitank treads, I overlooked that on the first transformation)







Daitank





The default tank treads cannot support Daitarn's weight. The add-on treads are the way to go.


My friend recommends taping the treads like so to prevent scratches on Daitarn's torso.














"Daitarn, come here!"







"Daitarn 3!"






Daitarn 3's/ Haran Banjo's famous opening speech everytime he starts a battle with a Megaborg:

"For Earth, for all mankind, Daitarn 3 will crush the evil ambitions of the Meganoids!
If you don't fear the shine of this sun, come at me!"







Daitarn 3's Weapons



Daitarn Cannon, Hammer, Big Web, Zanber



Daitarn Fan, Snapper




Daitarn Missile



Missile is removable





Daitarn Cannon






Daitarn Zanber









Daitarn Javelin





Daitarn Snapper








Daitarn Hammer

Interesting trivia, the "Hammer" ejects from Daitarn's ankle (in the show, not in the toy) while his other weapons eject from either his side (Daitarn Snapper) or his knees (Fan, Javelin, Zanber)







Daitarn Fan







The two halves of the Fan can be joined together to form a bigger shield.











Daitarn 3's finishing move:
Borrowing the power of the sun!
Sure kill attack!
SUN ATTACK!









DAITARN CRASH!!!















Accessory stand


Similar with Zambot 3, the accessories are piled up together rather neatly instead of using the traditional display base (which I would've preferred). Still, there are some accessories that don't go into the stand:






Daitarn with his older "brother" Zambot 3 (Zambot came out in 1977, Daitarn in 1978, both were created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and shared the same production staff over at Sunrise)





Height comparison - without the antennae, the height difference is actually only a half inch between the two (9.75" and 10.25")




From Super Robot Wars: Daitarn 3 and Zambot 3's Sun Moon Attack.

SUN MOON ATTACK!



COMBINATION CRASH!!!












The Good
-Daitarn stands a good 10 and a quarter Inch tall. Weighs roughly 940 Grams!



-Diecast parts include:
--Most, if not the entire torso sections, front and back.
--Lower legs and feet (not that sure about the thighs)


-Pull down legs for added articulation.



-Excellent design idea to bypass the fin problem on the feet and legs. One of the letdowns for me on the Gx04 Grendizer was the fins getting in the way of the poseability of the feet.



-Extra "open mouth" face plate.



-Articulated fingers and thumb on the "default" hand.



-Ankle joints are actually located here:



-Scaled Mach Patrol and Mach Attacker included. Check out the "real world" size of Daitarn 3, listed at 120 Meters, the big guy should actually have his own Zip Code.



-Access panel for the Mach Attacker


-Transformation antenna included (albeit it's smaller)








The Bad
-Possible paint chip spot? The metal, painted clip for the feet:



-Reuse of the same mold to make both arms. A minor quibble really, but pretty obvious due to the position of the sockets for the extra fists, also, note the paint bleeds(?) into the cuffs/edges of the forearms




-Lack of a double elbow makes it impossible for Daitarn to point directly at his "sun", the promotional pictures are somewhat a cheat using a specific angle, kind of like what I did above. here's how it looks from an isometric view.



-Would've been nice if Daitarn Javelin was a bit longer.



-Instead of giving us two sets of wings, we have to swap out the wings between the two different sized covers:



-Small peg for connecting Daitarn's dorsal fin to his...uhm.. crotch.



-Default hands pop out of the forearms too easily sometimes, returning them can be a bit tricky.

-Daitank cannon barrels tend to pop off when you're "telescoping them". Pulling the barrels to the full length can be a pain.

-When transforming, shafting up the forearms is a bit annoying at times due to the biceps and forearms misaligning. Nothing major but still, could have been better.

-No Daitarn Big Web accessory (the cross on his chest emblem). Likewise, no Daitarn Cross Darts (the ones from his forearm)

-The Mach Patrol canopy does not open. Would've been cool if we could actually take off the roof to check out Banjo up close.

-Access Panel for the Mach Attacker was really hard to pull out.


-No vehicles for Beauty (Mini Copter Ready Pinky) and Reika (Mister Green) or Garrison (Garrison Special and Garrison Cruiser)
http://www.encirobot.com/dait/dait-mec16.asp
http://www.encirobot.com/dait/dait-mec17.asp










The Ugly
Gaaah! Paint chips and other transformation nightmares abound!

1. Beware THIS spot! The contact is metal on metal, I really don't see why they didn't just allow for more clearance in this area to make the transform more smooth instead of making the darn joint section so damn tight! Frequent transformations will really chip away at the paint.



2. Flipping out this big blue piece requires some bending to avoid the black clip (marked green), possibly resulting in stress on the area marked with the red circle?



3. THIS one almost gave me a heart attack! You'll hear a loud CRACK(!!) when you try to pry open the hips from the waist plate when trasforming. I seriously thought I broke the damn thing! The small size of the peg and hole (see the area marked green) also doesn't give much comfort in terms of durability. Seriously, take a deep breath before prying the hips free.




Overall, I liked Daitarn 3. The problems in the robot mode are very minor and the toy feels really solid!

It's in the transformations that the toy greatly suffers. The paint chipping spot in the chest and the REALLY small locking peg in the hips to waist area worry me. Easy fixes I think if they really wanted to do it? I can't say. But somehow the transformation design feels like it could've been done better.

As is, if you're not really gunning for the Daitank and Daifighter modes and sensitive about paint chips, I'd recommend not transforming it at all and keeping Daitarn in robot mode (it comes packaged in robot mode).








BTW, for those curious about the Anime, well, it's generally a funny, wacky show, with Banjo and the gang getting into all sorts of trouble like a typical episode of Lupin the 3rd. The episodes are pretty much self-contained and focus on comedy than serious peril. Heck, even Daitarn gets "drunk" in one episode and even has a tongue (and throat?) in another.


Unfortunately there's not much in terms of a deep story arc (unlike say, Voltes or Daimos) and if you want to get to the guts of the story you can pretty much watch the first two episodes for the character introductions and an episode somewhere in the middle for Banjo's origin and the final episode for the showdown. That's about it, the rest are filler episodes.





Parting shot:

GROUP PICTURES








It's been two years since I last tried this. But seeing as how my baby daughter's already starting to learn to walk, I guess this might be my last chance to open up everything and do a huge group shot without incident for a while.

I totally ran out of space though, I was hoping to add the Shin Jeeg, Banpresto Huckebein and Chogokin Zeta and ZZ Gundams into the mix but no dice. I used robots that appeared in the SRW games as a refernce guide as who to include in the shot (with the exception of Gurren Lagann, but it's so darn cool!) Admittedly, I needed to mix in non-Bandai Gokins to get the lineup I want.




Gokin biggies only (8 inches and up, mixed with other Non-SOC 8 inches and up figures).




SOC biggies only (8 inches and up).





Seeing as how it took me already 8+ hours to break out everything to do the group shot, here're some additional random group pics.























Super Robot Wars (with diecast Unifive Alt Eisen and diecast Banpresto Huckebein)






I'm fairly sure there's not one Anime-loving Filipino who doesn't recognize these guys.














Whew!
Gold