Monday, February 21, 2011

Soul of Chogokin GX-48 The Big O Part 3

Big O, Action!

As the title implies XD



Rather typical articulation design for the head, but it's good to see that it's not affected by the collar.





Very strong shoulder and elbow joints to support the arms' poses in mid-air.
The range of articulation is very flexible, but quite non-conventional just like the design of the robot itself. ^^


A spring-loaded tab on top of the elbow can be pushed down to allow the forearm to be bent even more.
Thanks to the spring, the tab doesn't slide downward easily so the look of the armor near the elbow is always maintained.


"Extended" articulation of the elbow.


Hand unit turns at wrist level.


Waist can turn to the left and right.


Waist can bend to the front and back for a slight degree.



Knee joint can be extended to allow the legs to be bendable.



Similar to the knee joint, the hip joint can be pulled downward to allow the thigh to be movable.


Articulation range of the thigh with the hip joint extended.


Articulation range of the leg with the knee joint extended.


Very sturdy die-cast ratchet joint for the hip joint.



Ankle is bendable.


A single piston-like ankle joint can be extended to provide more movement range for Big O's foot.








Big O's most commonly used attack move from the anime - old-fashioned punches with its huge fists. That's what they designed for anyway XD


None of the normal punches came out as the finishing blow for Big O in the show.



What exactly is the big guy doing there?


Oh, it's the eye beam. ^^;


Very simple gimmick execution of "Sudden Impact". Pull the huge piston outward to ready the move, and then push the fist inward to execute it. The piston will spring back into the back of the elbow.



The piston effect is pretty accurate to its execution in the anime, minus all the fire and smoke effect of course XD


"Sudden Impact" is Big O's primary finishing move in Season 1 of the anime, and a very over-the-top powerful one as you can expect. A single punch can strike through a few building blocks ^^





Then again, it's kind of hard to really realize the image of the finishing move through the action figure. Imagination/recall to the anime will play a huge factor to get the awesomeness of the action. ^^;


Unfortunately, there's no way for the figure to realize the "extended" piston for the "special edition" of "Sudden Impact" on Big Duo.



More imagination or Photoshop beam effect will be needed to realize the finishing move of "Chrome Buster" on the Chogokin figure.



This is how "Chrome Buster" looks like in the anime.



The armor of the neck area can be lifted to reveal the cockpit.



The overall design of the details is pretty close to that as seen in the anime.


Simple part swapping to get the missile part for "Missile Party".


"Missile Party" scenes from the anime.


The armor of the upper chest and shoulder area, together with the neck can be lifted to reveal Big O's "Cannon Party".


Part swapping is required to extend the length of all the cannon turrets.


As seen in the episode where Big O faces off the Mummy, which was later revealed to be Big Duo.


Not seen in the anime, but a combined "Cannon and Missile Party" is of course possible.




The shoulder and hip joints are ratchet type, which help to sustain all the poses for the arms and legs with ease. Since those joints are made of die-cast, they are meant to last a very long time, which is a quality for all Soul of Chogokin figures I'm sure.

The ability to extend the hip, knee and ankle joints is a huge plus point for articulation and overall look. Given how the legs are designed to be huge blocks with very few separable armors or pieces, it's not going to be very agile, even in the anime. ^^; Expandable joints helps to increase the range of movement it has, but not sacrificing the huge trunk-like looks of the leg for that purpose. Action poses, extend the joints; standing display, retract the joints. Very nice. ^^

Another interesting point about the expandable joints, the knee joints to be exact. After it's extended, there's some sort of clutch inside the joint which prevents the joints from retracting easily. This is a very cool feature in my opinion, because the knee joints can remain extended while carrying the weight of the entire upper body on top of it. All the action poses with the knee joints extended can be sustained without the worry of them suddenly retracted.

A look at all the slots and features built for Tamashii Web Shop limited expansion set in the next posting.

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

i picture alone tells more about this series, i love this black knight chogokin. Got to include this at my collection from PIJ, where i use to have my getter robot Chogokin