Bandai Soul of Chogokin GX-71 King of Beasts Golion Voltron Diecast collectable

It's finally official. I was told a couple of years back that the deal was done only to see that Toynami grabbed the license...anyway, it's coming and it looks incredible. You have both sides of the opinion camp on this but one thing is for sure, if anyone is going to make a great Golion/Voltron, it has to be the company that did the original. Soul of Chogokin GX-71 King of Beast Golion Voltron is slated for release Dec. 2016 for under $300. Grab a preorder from BBTS.com because everyone else is sold out at the moment.

Soul of Chogokin GX-63 General Franky from One Piece

Get yours at BigBadToyStore before it's gone!

As is the case with many collectibles, you aren't aware of how awesome it is until it's gone and very expensive. Usually however, these go through a clearance phase first before reaching the expensive phase. It's funny how that works. It usually starts off with an unpopular or little known/understood piece which sells really slow because of it's high price. Then it goes on clearance and still sells slow. Then just as buzz starts spreading, they sell out leaving some people without the piece which drives prices up in the aftermarket. I believe this to be one of those figures that will go through this. It was released for the Soul of Chogokin line which usually caters for the most part to the Super Robot genre. This came from the show One Piece which was not a Super Robot show. The toy however is an amazing robot. It evens breaks down into two vehicles!

Furosai Bike with Franky behind the wheel

Brachiotank

Check out the video review

Get yours on sale at BigBadToyStore before it's gone!

Bandai GX-62 Danguard Ace Soul of Chogokin robot figure

I've had my GX-62 Soul of Chogokin Danguard Ace figure for a couple of weeks now and I gotta say this is one excellent figure. I was a little dissapointed in finding out that this was going to be on the smaller scale of Chogokin. Danguard is as far as I know one of the biggest robots in the Super Robot world. However, even though it's smaller than most modern SOC, I found myself playing with this figure a lot. Yes, playing! Not the kind of playing where I fly him around the room making swooshing noises, but where I'm constantly posing him and transforming him. I never came close to doing that with the bigger Yamato Danguard Ace. Highly recommended.

The figure sports some great detail and diecast content.

The back has an alternate piece that mimmicks the folded hidden wings but as you see here it also comes with folding wings...

...that can be unfolded!

Satelizer Mode with included stand and Sky Arrow ship.

Stay tuned for video review.

Get yours at BigBadToyStore

Banpresto Mazinger Z GA-01 reissue

Chogokin figures have become so advanced lately that some of us have forgotten where the roots of modern Chogokin lie. It's with the original Mazinger Z GA-01 that was released by Popy back in 70's. Their popular Jumbo Machinder line showed off the size of these massive robots but something was missing. How about some weight? Not only did the idea of using diecast metal come up, they had the ingenious idea of marketing plain old metal as being the same "Super Alloy" or Chogokin that the real robots were made of. Of course kids went nuts. It took off. So this is the first one that kicked off a line that continues to this day. The GA-01 Mazinger Z. While I would be in heaven if this was an original GA-01, this is only a reissue. To make this reissue as authentic as possible, new molds would have to be made from original GA-01's as the original molds were no longer good or gone. Two mint GA-01's lent themselves to this effort.

So in 1999 Banpresto popped out a few of these for the collecting market, they didn't make it an easy purchase. No sir, it was a prize item. If I am not mistaken, you needed to buy 5 Super Robot Wars video games to be able to purchase it. While this makes it difficult to come across one, it doesnt make it impossible. Hence the reason I have one. I was looking to pay $100 maximum, but I had to go over a bit to get this one.

The box is suprisingly small, only slightly bigger than the figure. Notice that although this is made by Banpresto, it sports a Banpresto logo. This is because Popy was absorbed by Bandai and Banpresto is a part of Bandai. The artwork is simple and shows what seems to be the Jumbo Machinder (Shogun Warriors) verison of Mazinger Z.

The back also features some great old school artwork. It most definitely has some charm to it. You have to love a robot that not only has Rocket Punch but also Rocket Titties.

Side panels are pretty much more of the same.

Here are all the contents of the set. Just like the original. While later Chogokin used the popular styrofoam to protect the contents, this just used foam...I guess the styro part din't exist yet. Accessories come in a little baggy. The instruction sheet is also included and looks like it may have been printed in the 70's, but it wasn't.

They didn't have CAD rendered illustrations so they got the next best thing to make the drawings, a 6 year old.

Although ideally I would have preferred a super mint boxed specimen, I was more concerned at having a nice figure and aside from a paint defect right across his ding dong, it's perfect. Some of you might see this and think, "what's the big deal?" I guess I would have to say you "get it" or you don't. The figure is mostly metal save for the head chest fins and arms.

The back is just as simple as the front. The screws are super exposed. No need to hide these, they were going to sell tons to kids regardless. Notice the simple rivets on the knees. Forget ratchets.

Mazinger Z's Rocket Punch was the inspiration for the name of my blog and Youtube Channel. If you love fist firing robots, you may want to thank this guy for starting the trend.

He also shoots titties..I mean Breast Fire. I prefer to say titties.

Oh and he also comes with a pair of Iron Cutters.

This has to be one of my favorite figures...let me explain. Although there are figures WORLDS more complicated and precision crafted, but I absolutely love the raw feel of these figures which were originally made to be given to kids who would play all day with them and not fall apart in their hands. It's a piece of history, even if this is only a reissue.

Some comparison pics with other Mazinger Z figures.

Reissue GA-01 next to THE Chogokin GT-00 (mini reissue of the GA-01)

GA-01 Reissue next to another GA-01 (5th Version replica)

GA-01 Reissue next to Super Robot Chogokin Mazinger Z

GA-01 Reissue next to Super Robot Chogokin Shin Mazinger

Check out CollectionDX review of the GA-01 Reissue.

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Taking apart a Soul of Chogokin GX-51 Getter Dragon

Yeah, I was bored and curious. I also did a full review with dismantling. Check it out.

GX-52 GETTER ROBO 1 Soul of Chogokin diecast robot review

My favs of Tamashii Nations 2012: Diecast Gunpla and Chogokin Mazinger Z Rocket Punch

Out of all the stuff I've seen from the coverage of Tamashii nations (Aside from the GX-62 Dangurad Ace) these are the two things I'm looking forward to because they look like they are loaded with diecast.

Pictures courtesy of CollectionDX.com (check full coverage there)

DIECAST GUNPLA?!!!! This is amazing to me...What will it be called? GunMetal? Can't be called Gun"PLA". I wonder how diehard Gunpla people feel about this. I for one will love it and hump it. It's an RX-78-2!

I heard about this a little while back and I didn't know what it was...I still don't but I do see Chogokin logos in the back. Will this be a solid metal Mazinger Z fist? Or a fully articulated Maznger Z fist? Either way, really cool. Kind of goes with my whole Rocket Punch theme.

Prototype picture of GX-62 Danguard Ace SOC Soul of Chogokin

I know people weren't allowed to shoot pictures of the prototype, but some sneaky bastard snapped a really cool one. This will have to do until the official pictures come out.

Soul of Chogokin GX-62 is DANGUARD ACE also, SOC GOLION?!

With all the worry about the Soul of Chogokin line being dead, many of us believed that nothing else would come of that line. That is until JoshB of CollectionDX and I spoke to Tamashii reps who confirmed that the SOC would continue but instead of a couple of releases a year, we would probably maybe only see one. He couldn't say much more than that at the Comic Con. However some info has leaked out today about the release of the GX-62! It will be Danguard Ace. Honestly, this character came out of left field. It was not what I expected. I thought it may be Tryder 7. Yamato did a great job with their Ace but left some fans wanting something with better proportions. It looks like Bandai is headed in the right direction.

Here are some line drawings of the upcoming GX-62 Danguard Ace. At this stage, many things can change, but at least you see they are already hard at work!

Speaking of Soul of Chogokin, Golion fans will be happy to know that Bandai is in talks with WEP to be able to do something with Golion. It's nothing concrete and there is no official word, but it seems as though it will eventually happen! Check out this CollectionDX video of our trip to Comic Con where we discuss our visit to the Tamashii booth and more.

Bandai Ben 10 4" Way Big figure

I meant to show you guys this a LONG time ago but I forgot, so here it is. It's a 4" Version of the Way Big figure I showed you guys before. It's a good bit smaller but I like this version more than the bigger floppy legged one.

This version is well articulated