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Again, just wanted to redraw someone, this time WarGreymon.

Now that I've got that out of my system, time to design some new things.

WarGreymon (11) (Evolve Lv5 Blue or Yellow for 5) 11000 DP Lv6 Blue/Yellow Mega Virus Cyborg/Blue Flare/LIBERATOR <Fortitude><Material Save 2><Quake> (When this Digimon attacks, trash cards from the top of your opponent's deck for each of its digivolution cards.) [On Play] Trash cards from the top of your opponent's deck for each blue and/or yellow Digimon under your Tamers. [All Turns] When a blue and/or yellow Digimon is placed under 1 of your Tamers, trash the top 2 cards of your opponent's deck. [[DigiXros -2] Blue [Greymon] X [MailBirdramon] X [WaruMonzaemon]]

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DX Tega Sword + DX Leon Buster 50 + DX Tyranno Hammer 50

Honestly, while I wasn't that excited about the alternate forms of the robot being made from weapons instead of standard Zords... They're kinda fun to mess with. The clap to transform thing is silly, but kinda charming. I'm not a big role play toys guy, but they're fun to mess with for an afternoon.

I've also seen the first two episodes at this point, and it's an interesting premise. Having both an enemy force similar to the Zenkaiger enemies and have them fight others using ranger powers is a neat concept. It's also quite flashy, which is a plus. I'm decently hopeful for the rest of the season.

The Good: Tega Sword is pretty fun. The transformation can be a little confusing around the arms, but overall the transformation from hand to robot is simple but involved enough to keep me interested. The light also stays on for a decent amount of time after transforming, meaning it's easy to photograph, unlike some other toys with prominent lights I've photographed previously.

Leon Buster isn't much, but the spinning gimmick is oddly fun. Tyranno Hammer is pretty much the same. Their combinations do look pretty cool, though, and Tyranno has a neat bit of engineering where the tails are spring-loaded and move out of the way when bending the arms.

The Bad: While you can use a few transformation joints, Tega Sword is not posable. Would have been nice if it had elbows, considering their sculpted in. It's also very hollow. This is partly due to its transformation and the fact that it has to be wielded by small children, but it does feel wimpy compared to previous years.

Leon Buster stands lopsided and Tyranno Hammer can't stand, which is an odd complaint considering they're weapons, but considering they're also supposed to fill the rolls or Zords, it would have been nice if they looked the part a bit better. Maybe split the legs? You also have to pull Tega Swords arms off to combine them, and there's no place for the arms to go when you do.

Also, as an adult, none of these fit me. The handles are too small, the two ring clips are either too small or too big, etc.

Overall, while I like them more than I thought I would, they're definitely one of the weaker offerings we've had in quite a few years. I'll be interested to see if and how they upgrade a Memorial Version near the end of the season, and if there will be any unofficial upgrade kits for it. There's a surprisingly big market for upgrades to role play toys, and I'll be curious to see if these are treated as such.

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Did some WaruMonzaemon sketches. Haven't drawn him in a while, and I wanted to go back and redraw my Liberator stuff, since I'm anticipating making cards for these guys. Something I also tried to do was reinterpret the back of the head so it wasn't just the shoulder armor for WarGreymon. And I like Zippers.

WaruMonzemon (7) (Evolve Lv4 Blue/Yellow for 4) 6000 DP Lv5 Blue/Yellow Ultimate Virus Puppet/Blue Flare/LIBERATOR For each blue and/or yellow Digimon under your Tamers, reduce this card's cost by 1. <Blocker> [All Turns] If the effect of an opponent's card would return cards to the bottom of their deck, trash those cards instead. [On Deletion] <Save>. ([Your Turn][Once Per Turn] If a card is trashed from your opponent's deck, reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a blue Digimon with <Save> in its text, place it under 1 of your Tamers. Return the rest to the bottom of the deck.)

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The Gattai Bang Brave Bang Bravern

Watch this show. If you haven't seen it, watch this show. It's so funny.

The Good: So the joint layouts for this one are very good. Everything gets out of the way that you'd want to, most of the joints are ratcheted so it holds poses very well and will probably be able to easily support its upcoming armor, the vehicle mode transforms a lot more than you'd expect for how simple it looks. It doesn't come with a lot of accessories, but it's everything you'd want for this release: several hand options, both its weapons, a finishing move beam effect, four face options, and the flight stand easily stores all the smaller things underneath it.

The Bad: Quality control doesn't feel as good on this release as others I've handled. My head feels like its missing some glue, as both ends pop off the center mass, some of the transformation connections feel a bit loose. Sadly, I also have a production error on mine. I ended up getting three of one and one of another ankle wings. To Good Smile's credit, they've already sent out replacement parts.

The vehicle mode is also one of those where you might always need the instructions? Like, they specify the number of clicks of each joint. Though I don't know how often you'd even transform it? Bravern is pretty known for being Bravern.

Overall, despite some issues I think might be exclusive to my figure, this is a very solid robot. Though, it is only part of a whole, as Brave Dragon is set to come out fairly soon, with Superbia releasing later this year. But we'll talk about them when the time comes.

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GalaxyLocomon Unstoppable Mode (11) (Evolve Lv5 Black for 3) 11000 DP Lv6 Black Mega Data Machine/LIBERATOR ([Digivolve] [GalaxyLocomon Immovable Mode]: Cost 1) <Collision><Piercing> [When Digivolving] <Blitz>. Then, if this Digimon has 6 or more digivolution cards, you may return 1 [Machine] or [Cyborg] trait Digimon from your trash to your hand. [When Attacking] You may place 1 of your [Machine] or [Cyborg] trait Digimon as this Digimon's bottom digivolution card. Then, delete 1 opponent's Digimon with as high or lower a level as that Digimon. ([Start of Your Turn] Gain 1 memory.)

GalaxyLocomon Immovable Mode (11) (Evolve Lv5 Black for 3) 11000 DP Lv6 Black Mega Data Machine/LIBERATOR ([Digivolve] [GalaxyLocomon Unstoppable Mode]: Cost 1) <Blocker><Evade><Reboot> [When Digivolving] Unsuspend this Digimon. Then, if this Digimon has 6 or more digivolution cards, you may return 1 [Machine] or [Cyborg] trait Digimon from your trash to the hand. [Opponent's Turn] When this Digimon blocks, by trashing 1 of its digivolution cards, unsuspend this Digimon. ([Start of Your Turn] Trigger <Draw 1>.)

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5th Review - Bakuage Sentai BoonBoomger

So when Sentai does a really big season, like Kingohger, they typically follow it up with something a bit more experimental. Go-Busters, KyuuRanger, and DonBrothers are all examples of this. Seasons that do change things up to sometimes a major degree. BoonBoomger didn’t feel like this at first, feeling like a pretty simple and basic Sentai, but as we reached the second half of the show it really took a turn.

Because of how important the end game is to this show, I will be spoiling a lot.

The Characters: This season has a pretty big cast. Starting with Taiya, he’s very much a cool red in a team where most of the cast is cool. Compared to Blue, Orange, and Violet, Taiya is a very balanced form of cool, being a very normal person when it comes down to it, but does everything in a very cool way. The fact that his motivations are inspired by actual child abuse is kinda crazy for a Sentai plot point, and I give the show a lot of credit for going there.

Taiya does get a bit lost in the crowd though. On top of being one of four “cool” Rangers, it feels like he has quite a bit less screen time compared to everyone else. This season is also somewhat comedic, and while the other cool characters have quirks that lend well to those comedic aspects, Taiya doesn’t really do the comedy thing very well, and is often removed from the joke.

Before we move onto the other Rangers, let’s talk about Boondario as well. It’s odd, when they give personality to something like a morpher or a giant robot I’m normally kinda meh on the idea, but when you make them the same size as the main cast, have them interact with the cast more, y’know, make them a consistent character, I really enjoy it. Tyramigo and Nick stand out in this regard, and Boomer is a great addition to that roster. While he rarely enters combat, they do a good job making him feel involved. He plays well off the other members, has a really interesting backstory, and his obsession with curry isn’t overdone. I also, again, give them a lot of credit for pretty graphically killing him off near the end of the show. I think we all expected him to come back, but waiting until the final episode takes some guts.

Chassiro is another cool boy, but unlike Taiya he’s much more stoic. This actually lends very well into the more comedic aspects of the show, as he makes for a good butt of the joke. They don’t really cover his history as a spy until the end of the show, but it’s quite cool to see him in unmorphed fights. This is also another instance where I have to give the show a lot of credit for having him swap sides for quite a long time (several months by our perspective). Even if we knew it was probably a ploy, he sat on the sidelines and didn’t react to a lot of big moments, like Boondario dying.

Mira is not cool, which is good considering the unbalance of cool-to-not-cool. She has a very fun introduction, and looping around to having the ending fight also centering around her wedding and having her back in a wedding dress was very fun. Her also taking on different part-time jobs wasn’t just a tool for the purposes of episodic plots, but was just an aspect of her character that was used for background elements in plenty of episodes.

Mira’s big issue is just that she’s the only girl on the team. Shirabe being around on occasion helps, but she’s not a constant enough presence for Mira to not feel like “girl in a boys show” most of the time. How many Pinks can you think of that have been excitable, perky, etc.?

Jou really stands out as being the only guy on the team to not be cool. And that’s not a knock against him, he’s very endearing. His earnestness wins over more people than any of the cool characters because of how relatable he is, or how much we wish we could be like him. At the end of the show, the one the kids all rally around is him, and I think that says something (or at least the writers wanted it to say something, I don’t know how popular he was). Like Mira, he also helps balance out the cast. A good and necessary addition to this team.

I just want to point out that Genba, the Orange Ranger, is a white tiger alien, and I think that’s pretty clever. He’s the aloof cool guy (man, I feel like I’m describing a dating sim). His arc about leaving the team (which it’s amazing that this happened multiple times) is pretty good, being more about him not wanting to drag the people he cares about into his revenge than being utterly obsessed with it to the point of pushing people away. This team has good comradery, and I appreciate that it wasn’t really shaken up until the very end.

Genba’s issue is he really doesn’t do much in the first half of the show. After Disrace shows up and we get his backstory, his standing increases, but that’s a good half the show where he’s pretty background.

Cool boy number four, Sakito. Very much a delinquent kind of cool, which I will say, despite how overtly cool they made the general cast, they did give them all distinct types of cool. (And I’m suddenly mad about how one-note female Rangers get again…) He’s always the odd-man out, but that does feel somewhat intentional. His more chaotic personality did lean into the comedic aspects of the show like Mira and Jou, but could easily balance it and switch tones. That outsider aspect also made him a good go-between when members of the core five were clashing with the rest of the team.

Though Sakito does fall into the trap I find quite a few Sixth Rangers have fallen into recently of fizzling out after their introduction. Not to say he doesn’t contribute here and there, I’ve even brought up quite a few instances of it. He’s just a bit too separated for his own good, feeling like a background character more episodes than he contributes to. He didn’t even get his own team jersey, having to borrow Jou’s on the one time he used one. It’s just additional Rangers feel like a requirement now, like this is a season where if they’d paced out Jou and Genba more you probably wouldn’t even need Sakito.

Also, I was really pushing for Shirabe to be BoonViolet. We’ve only had 2 female Add-Ons in the history of the show, and each case wasn’t just on teams with 7+ Rangers, but were also special cases. Would have been cool, is all I’m saying.

Last in our enormous cast is Byoon D. Having there be multiple good aliens I think was a good choice. There’s just something about having more than one good costumed character that makes the world feel bigger, y’know? He’s also… he’s also cool? (Ain’t that the word of the day.) He’s a bit more calm and calculated than Sakito, balancing him out a bit, but more willing to have fun and let go than Chasshiro, so he stands on his own. It was also great that he was on the field more often than Boondario, even if he wasn’t always fighting.

The Plot: As I mentioned, when this show started it felt very standard. While the team dynamics are balanced a bit differently than normal, the overall vibe and flow are somewhat typical. But then about a third of the way, half-way throughish, we start seeing a few humans under suspicious camera angles, accompanied by odd musical stings, etc. Eventually you hear that an enemy general was approaching influential humans. And you have an idea where it’s going, but …

This is, oddly, one of the darker overall plots we’ve had in Sentai, not because its contents itself are especially grim, but because it’s a little too grounded. The biggest threat isn’t the alien robots, it’s humans in power. It’s them abusing their power to convince the masses that the heroes are the bad guys. It’s all too real a thing we know can happen. Maybe we’ve had a one-off episode or two here or there where a human works with a monster, but they usually learn their lesson by the end of the episode. Here, though? They are evil, they go to jail.

And the resolution to this, where the kids are smart enough to realize what’s going on, that they’re able to convince everyone of the truth, it’s definitely unrealistic, but… it’s what we wish was true. And at the end of it all, we’re not done. There’s still remnants of the Hashiliens out there ruling plants, they’re at the starting line of their first race, and I wonder if the crossover movie with Kingohger will be able to tie up all those loose ends?

And adding to all this, we had the dropouts. Genba left the team for a few episodes to pursue his own revenge, Chassiro left the team for the final arc to go under deep cover. Boondario’s death was handled a lot differently than seasons before. The things this season did were very interesting.

All that said, it does tease the evil human concept for a long time before anything actually happens with it. And while I feel like Chassiro’s departure worked really well, Genba’s felt dragged out, like it could have been handled in a few less episodes. And as I’ve mentioned a few times before, I really like levity in dark stories, and the last few episodes, while I think they’re good, had almost none of that and it really did drag on my interest. Like, I binged the last few episodes mostly because I want to sit on what was happening week to week.

Also, why is the main villain evil robot Michael Jackson!?

The Wild Side: Gojyuger looks interesting. The way they’re portraying it feels a little Geats, but we’ll see if that’s just the trailers or not. Also not the biggest fan of the role play toys being the Megazord components, but I’ll probably talk about that when they show up, because I will be reviewing them.

Also, I’ve brought this up before, but those rings? We had the Zenkaiger Gears, the DonBrother Gears, KingOhger lacked a collectable but had a little of gear motifs, BoonBoomger (which had more time to develop) was vehicle and mechanical themed, and now we have these rings that are oddly similar to the Gears of season past. I still feel like that was supposed to be a consistent thing across all these seasons to tie them together, and they just didn’t sell well two years in a row so they pulled it (which is why I assume KingOhger lacked collectibles). I would love to be able to ask someone if that was the original plan, like if more characters were supposed to crossover like Kaito did, etc. Would have been cool if they’d tried to do a multi-season arc like that. Maybe for the 75th ^_<

Overall, this is definitely a season that will stick with me for its ending arc. For as fanciful and ludicrous as it could get, it was oddly the most grounded season we’ve probably had in very dark ways. After two very good seasons, let’s hope Gojyuger can keep the streak going.

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30MF Lunar Black Knight (V1)

Been a hot minute since I've painted any 30MM related stuff, so I thought I'd dip my toes into their new Fantasy stuff. Grabbed their base dark knight body and meshed two armors on top of it.

The Details: I didn't do much to the base skeletal body, just adding panel lining to it. After I picked out the armor parts I wanted to use for it, I painted most of the base and under armor black with some silver, saving the more ornamental looking bits to be done in gold. I mostly picked parts that made it look big, but I used the light armors on the dark body, which reveals a bit too much of the creepy skull face underneath? So I ended up having to use the head I chose since it 1) covered it up the most, and 2) the mohawk prevents some of the other head parts from fitting.

I also had to sand the edges of the back armor slightly as to fit it together with the heavier skirt armor.

Overall, it looks nice. The gold looks a little tarnished compared to the silver, but I think it adds a rustic feel. I look forward to getting more armor parts so I can continue to customize it in the future.

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All the preliminary work I've done for @jaybuilds' "GalaxyLocomon." We talked quite a lot about what he enjoys about playing Black Machine/Cyborg decks, coming down to liking having a use for high level cards outside of just trying to get them into play.

I pitched the idea of a Digimon that could continuously Mode Change back and forth, increasing its materials and allowing you to swap between the aggressive Unstoppable Mode and the defensive Immovable Mode.

Now it's time to start working on the final arts for both these forms.

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FansHobby MB-29 The Blaster Team

Even more Minicons! I don't think I've ever handled the original Blaster Team? I think their theming is a bit better than the other two, since the Saber Team is just different planes, the Shield Team is different cars, but the Blaster Team feels more comprehensive, being a transport vehicle, a shuttle, and a satellite. They look a bit better as a group because of it.

The Good: It's got a firing missile! When was the last time you saw that? These guys have pretty good robot modes, not having much looseness, but they also have pretty interesting posability. Not-Skyblast has two sets of knees on each side of its legs, and Not-Astroscape has very specific jointage so its legs can split open while also having knees as a robot. There's some very clever stuff going on.

Their Blaster Mode is also quite solid, yet it has a bit more give in different transformation areas to allow for alterations for different robots. (It's how I got it to work on Optimus' shoulder.) The handle is also designed to lock into two different positions to allow for most any robot to hold it, which is a big improvement over the Shield Team.

The Bad: The vehicles might look nice, but they don't always lock together the most solidly. The robots also have just enough posability to look good in certain poses, but do lack a few essential things that would have really helped, but also might have made the Blaster a mess to work with.

Overall, while it's not perfect, it might be my favorite of these weapon sets? It's also neat to just have a small armada of Minicons. I'm really hoping they do a Not-Perceptor. Seeing them do a combining robot like this would be super cool.

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Let's talk about something a little different, today~

For Christmas I got some custom Tamer cards made for @jaybuilds. Big thanks to ご (@/go_e_0000) on Skeb for doing the art for me, and EblkttysWorkshop for doing the cards themselves over on Etsy.

The two of use have actually been throwing card ideas back and forth at each other for months. Took us quite a while to settle on an actual effect for... anything and everything. I pushed for a generic effect for his Tamer so he could splash it into any of his decks, but also because I wanted to surprise him with this and didn't want it to be useless until we got more cards made. It took many forms, but this is the one we eventually settled on.

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5th Review - Wonderful Precure

What an interesting season this was. While there are a few similarities to changes made in past seasons, there are so many differences here that it feels extremely unique among the series, while still being unmistakable Precure. I feel like each season we’ve gotten recently has thrown some sort of monkey wrench into the formula, and I’m quite happy for it. The more variance you give something, like an ongoing series, the more opportunities that series has for telling unique and creative stories.

The Characters: Komugi is a dog. That by itself is weird, but she also has a lot of aspects of the team ace, while being part of a duo and therefore lacking a lot of story beats of an ace, and is not the main character. Tackling these one at a time, the first Precure on the team being a dog is kind of hysterical. We’ve had fairies, aliens, and even grandmas become Precure before; heck, this isn’t even the first animal to become one, but this is the first time a normal animal has become one, with all the carryover that entails. She’s not smart, she lacks item permanence, she doesn’t understand social cues, but oddly, these aspects of her personality line up well with the typical depictions of a pink Precure. She’s peppy, excitable, overly positive; it’s comical how well these canine aspects parallel what this series usually portrays as a protagonist. But, as I said, she isn’t the protagonist, Iroha is. But they are a duo, and are therefore two sides of the same coin.

The character development in Wonderful, like many aspects of the show, is a bit different than previous seasons, being much slower and a bit more subtle. Komugi’s is probably the most so of any of the characters, mostly involving aspects of her character I mentioned before: she got smarter, became more understanding, more independent, more empathetic.

Komugi’s only real issue is how overshadowed she feels by the rest of the cast. While she does have a few standout moments, particularly when dealing with the wolves, Iroha being the real main character, and Mayu and Yuki having a long and storied arc of their own push Komugi into the side-character role in a lot of stories. While she continues to grow as a character throughout the show, she doesn’t get a lot of focus outside of the first arc of the series, hence why I mentioned her growth being the most subtle.

And as I mentioned, Iroha, being our perspective character, is also our main character. It’s a pattern Precure has tried a few times to different levels of success, and I think this one was alright. While not as excitable as Komugi, she definitely adds to her energy, and can infect other people with it in ways Komugi cannot. But she’s also the most thoughtful and level-headed of the team, and does a believable job of jumping between different moods and energy levels when the time calls.

Iroha doesn’t change much throughout the season, instead being a force of change in others around her. It’s a character type I typically really like. And while she doesn’t change much, she probably has the most notable events tied to her character throughout the show’s run. Like the stuff with Komugi’s original owner, going out with Satoru, the fallout of the death episode (I cried so hard). 

I had a lot of trouble writing about Iroha, because of our four Precure, she’s the least interesting. It’s the same issue I had with Mashiro in the last season: she’s just… normal. Everyone else has something interesting or defining about themselves that helps them stand out, but there isn’t a lot to say about Iroha as a character, as what she does is more interesting than who she is. A lot of events happen to Iroha, but it changes her character very little.

Yuki probably has one of the best introductions to the season a joining Precure has ever gotten. Because of the nature of having an animal and human form, it allows the show to introduce her very early, but then also have her identity be a mystery (y’know, if you didn’t watch the OP). It encompasses an entire story arc, and even after she joins the team she continues to be slightly antagonistic… for quite a long time, honestly. It’s quite the shift from how adding team members usually works. She’s very cat-like, being cold and stand-offish at first, but is very affectionate in her own way.

Yuki’s development is two-fold. A big part of it is opening up to people who aren’t Mayu, but at the same time it’s learning to trust that Mayu can take care of herself. Another interesting aspect of Yuki is how both she and Komugi default. Komugi’s default form seems to be her dog form, transforming into a human to interact with other humans, go places dogs can’t, or participate in human activities. Conversely, Yuki seems to default to her human form when not at home, often appearing as a human next to Komugi as a dog to emphasize this. While I don’t want to go into it too much, the ending does feel a bit bittersweet for her and Zakuro because of that aspect of their characters.

The only issue I have with Yuki is probably her name? Like, “Cure Nyammy.” What even is that?

Mayu’s main thing is being socially awkward. Most of her problems derive from her being socially awkward. And her development is heavily centered around getting over being socially awkward.

That being said, Mayu’s very fun. She’s a craftsman, she likes photography, she’s a romantic. I connect with her a lot. Because she’s human, like Iroha, she also has a number of events tied to her, like her father visiting. It’s also nice how a lot of the characteristics she doesn’t like about herself, like her pinpoint focus, are built up as a good thing by her friends around her. As a show for kids, it’s good to reinforce the normalcy of things like that.

Like Yuki, Mayu is a well done and developed character, so I don’t have many issues with her. The one thing I find off putting about her would probably be just how invested she gets in other people’s relationships? It almost feels fanatical at times, like she’s reading a romance novel. But (within the show) these are real people, and if I saw someone acting like that in real life, I’d have something to say to them. (Don’t ship real people, please.)

And lastly we have Satoru. I was really hoping that, considering Tsubasa from the last season, he would eventually become a member of the team, but I also think that there’s a certain strength that comes from not having powers and yet still charging into the fray anyway. And he does get a form alongside Daifuku in the movie and the last few episodes, so the writers did at least realize that the fans would want that, even if they didn’t intend to take the character that direction. It is a little disappointing that Daifuku doesn’t keep the Irish accent after becoming human, though. I was really hoping they’d keep that.

I also like how he and Iroha start dating during the show. In some of the previous seasons, people either get together and the continuity barely acknowledges it, or they get together at the end and we don’t see much that becomes of it. Here though, they give plenty of time for things to breathe, for us to see the changes in the way they interact. It also ties into Satoru’s development, as he gains confidence as the series continues, and gains more self-worth as the member of the team without magical abilities. Despite not being a Precure, he never feels like a background character; he really does feel like a core member of the main cast, just like any Precure would.

The Plot: Going off what I was just talking about, a big complaint I’ve had with previous seasons is a lack of background characters. Teams have been very insular, really only containing the Precure, the villains, and relatives. Here, though, we have a much wider cast that we constantly check in on and learn small things about. It makes the town feel much bigger, and knowing some of these people might get caught in the crossfire of their many battles adds to the stakes.

Speaking of battles, this series is unique amongst Precure for being particularly non-violent. Precure tend to solve problems by punching things, but in this season, since the enemies are possessed animals, there is a big push to capture enemies without hurting them. When Cure Nyammy first appears, she is quite aggressive toward the GaoGaon, and seeing everyone act negatively to it, which is usually the norm in these shows, is almost jarring. It’s quite the interesting change of pace, and I wonder if they’ll try doing it again in the future.

But while I think this is a very interesting change, it does make the battles less interesting visually. Apart from maybe the fights where they use Kirarin Fox to transform someone into a giant item with a face, none of them really stand out. The animation, similarly, never really hits the highs of other seasons. The only standout moment I can think of is the Pyonderful duo’s contribution to the final fight.

The actual plot of the show is structured somewhat differently than most seasons. There are story arcs in every series, but they’re usually separated by things like enemy generals swapping out, new additions to the arsenal, or the powering-up of the base mooks. Here it is much more story-based. The first arc is Komugi and Iroha getting used to each other, the second is the mystery of Cure Nyammy, then the introduction of the Nyanderful duo to the team, then the wolves awakening, and then it becomes a bit more vague. But I enjoy this kind of story structure a lot more than the more predictable versions we’ve had up to this point.

The Song and Dance: I am tentative on You and Idol. The Japanese idol industry is kinda scummy, and having a series that pitches that to kids feels… not great. To be fair to the series, you just need one episode, or a few lines telling kids to be careful, and it’ll be fine, but for me it has to be addressed for me to be ok with everything.

Overall, this was quite a… wonderful series. While I don’t think it hits a lot of the highs of other seasons, it’s extremely cute, and tries and succeeds at a lot of things previous Precure haven’t done before. Even while writing this review, I had very few negatives to pitch, often having to look for things to complain about, like with Yuki and Mayu, so the review felt more balanced. It's definitely a credit to how well this show was put together.

Now, has there been a consensus on what we’re calling Satoru and Daifuku’s Precure forms? Can I pitch Cure Wisdom and Cure Pyonder? I mean, we’ve got ‘Wan’ and ‘Nyan,” so it has to contain ‘Pyon,’ right? No? Well, I guess I just slink off to my little corner and review some model kits, then...

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DX BullTaurus

Been on a bit of a Sentai kick. Been on a bit of Gingaman kick, more like. We'll talk about something different next week, I swear.

After I built the SMP BullTaurus, I found the DX for super cheap, and decided to go in on it. And it's... it's so fun. It's not perfect, but it's got so many little touches I enjoy.

The Good: While BullTaurus is pretty simple, it has so many little things that make it feel special. You rotate the hooves to reveal the hands and extend the legs, the clips for the chest chain also double as stirrups for BlackBull (something the SMP lacks), and it's able to utilize its blades for all the conversions the Minipla did with multiple versions. They don't look as good, but that simplicity has its charms.

Also, this was near mint. I actually had to apply those stickers to it. If you've never stickered an old toy like this before, it's a very fun experience, and a great way to spend an afternoon if you've got something big. I even learned from my experience stickering Grand Liner by having my exacto on hand in case there were any shallow cuts.

The Bad: Even if this is mint, it's still a little creaky due to age. And while I like how the blades can do all the things the SMP can do in just two pieces of rubberized plastic, the tricks are a bit simple, and mostly rely on using BullTaurus' thick hands to plug one thing into each end. Not to mention the rubberized parts don't always go in all the way.

Overall, this was a wonderful trip down memory lane. I had neighbors who had this one when I was a kid, but I never owned it myself, so getting to experience it again as an adult was very fun. If you can find one for under $100, I'd say it's well worth your time.

But now I have to get a GingaiOh...

[reversemoon255]

Context: Pragmagik did a video a while ago where they had people submit Pokémon turned into Digimon and vicaversa. Personal acquaintance who I've brought up a few time, El_Poyomon, entered with a Terriermon/Gargomon design, and while some of their art was featured, their entry wasn't. I made the joke that the next time they should reenter it, but also do a Mega Gargomon:

After that, I thought about what other Digimon you could do that joke for. Mega is a EN only prefix, so the only other option was, of course, Kabuterimon. And that's where this idea came from. It's been bouncing around in my head for a few months, and I finally decided to take the time to sketch it out. Probably not gonna do final arts for these; I kinda just wanted to get it out there.

[reversemoon255]

SHOKUGAN MODELING PROJECT BullTaurus

Right after I built this one, I found the DX, mint, for $80. How could I not? This thing, apart from being good in its own right, really reminded me of why the original, despite being simple, was so fun. BoonBoomger Robo tried to have that wow factor with its Gate Mode, but I feel like Jyuoh King was the last Megazord to pull it off. Gimmicks don't always have to be complex, like MagiLegend or GokaiOh. Sometimes a simple trick is all you need to make a toy feel magical.

The Good: Like I was saying, it recreates the gimmick from the original: by spinning the wrists and ankles, it extends the limbs and reveals the hands. Actually getting to assemble those parts and see how they work was super cool, too.

And while the posability isn't as good as GingaiOh, it's still very good. I'd even say the ankles are better, and how it's done is very clever. BullBlack also has fairly good posability, though its smaller stature makes its a bit harder to pose and balance.

And it comes with a very handy display stand. It's capable of housing all the additional weapon parts for BullTaurus, all the Super Armor parts for both GingaiOh and Victory Mars, as well as a round handle for the Silver-Armor Sword so BullTaurus or Victory Mars can wield it.

The Bad: Because they had to add a waist joint, BullBlack has to fold up into a ball to fit into GoTaurus. I mean, you don't even need to put him in to transform anything, so it doesn't really matter, but it would have been cool if they'd have found a way to put it in without doing so.

The sword also could be better? The new handle is kinda meant for Victory Mars, but it would have been nice if it also fit BullTaurus, because it's quite loose. Not just in the hand, but also in the sword, itself. The new hilt for the Super Silver-Armor Sword also has the Gingaman logo on one side, and the GoGoV logo on the other, which is a little strange. I'm not saying they needed to make 2 hilts, but it forces you to flip the blade around so the right side is facing forward when displaying it.

The Details: A added a bunch of extra colors not present on the original. There are a bunch of thick grooves all over the place which I was driven to fill in. There's quite a bit of panel lining on the non-black parts, and I replaced all the stickers with paint.

For new colors, and BullBlack, I added gold to the black of the hands, red to the chest, hips, and thighs, and gold to the toes to mimic BullTaurus' hooves to some degree. For BullTaurus, I added red to the forearms, skirt, and calves, silver to the knees and legs and the GoTaurus's teeth, and gold to both GoTaurus and BullTaurus' faces and the back of the hands. I also added some gold and silver to the different weapons.

Overall, another great build. I'm not sure if I'd suggest getting it without first having GingaiOh, but if you get it first, you'll still have fun.

[reversemoon255]

And here's the final for Guardromon X Antibody! Pretty happy with this one. We've since gone back and reworked the deck, so this isn't going to at least be part of the Liberator line, but I might still make a card of it eventually.

[reversemoon255]

SHOKUGAN MODELING PROJECT Gingaioh

Even though I was pretty meh on the GaoRanger SMP kits, I do have a few reasons for picking up the Gingaman kits. The first is that while it wouldn't be very hard to get the DX versions of Gingaioh or BullTauros (in fact, having this kit made me really want to track the DX down; such a fun design), GingaRhinos and GingaPhoenix are a different story. Because those two have a lot of small part and breakage issues, getting a good DX is ludicrous. And while I handled Gingaioh and BullTauros as a child, I've never had the other two in-hand, and would love a chance to experience them. The second reason is, oddly, scale. There are actually two Zords that have never been produced at full size; Bakuryu Brachiosaurus and GingaBitus. If you're unfamiliar with the latter, you may know it better as the Zenith Carrierzord, the big shark robot that deployed GingaRhinos and GingaPhoenix. It was never produced at a comparative scale, and I'm hoping that if they do produce it in this line that they'll fix it.

The Good: I've mentioned before that I enjoy builds like this, where it's several smaller builds that you then combine, and this one was no exception. While there are a few tiny changes, like how the legs lock, the combination is accurate to the original, while also adding a lot of posability. They even recreated Gingalcon's gimmick where you pull its tail and its wings fond simultaneously. While the posability is very simple, it achieves basically everything you'd need, and Gingaioh is capable of a lot of action poses. It's been a desk toy for a while.

Also, the original stored its fists inside Gaorilla's heels, and this one does so too. However, because of the proportion changes, if can actually fit both sets of hands in there, making it self-contained apart from the sword.

The Bad: It mostly comes down to changes to the proportions. Gingaverick and Gingat's back legs are skinnier, so they don't look as nice as the back of the arms, they both also have a small bit at the elbow bend to hide the split, but it would have looked nicer if it was thicker, and Gingarilla, while it would have been difficult to integrate, could have used that same type of bit inside its knees to improve the appearance of certain poses.

The Details: Apart from basic panel lining and fill, I replaced all but two of the stickers with paint. There were also a few areas on the legs where I added a bit of extra silver to match the existing details. I also used the blue stickers specifically on the skirt because I didn't want to bother fighting blue and silver paint there.

I should add, the plastic they used for these kits is very absorbent, and panel liner stains it if you don't wipe it off the excess almost immediately. So be quick, be careful, and maybe have a scraping tool on hand if you use ink at all on this one.

Overall, a much more fun kit than the GaoRanger kits. I've also built BullTauros at this point, which was another fun kit to work with. It has a few issues when transforming the sculpt into a posable one, but that's the only real issue it has. If you like Gingaman or Lost Galaxy, this is a great alternative to tracking down the original DX.

[reversemoon255]

Cube Silver Bear

Surprised it isn't just Cube Polar Bear, especially with the Degrees Celsius. But yeah, got another Cube Animal. Korea just keeps making them. But they won't reuse the giraffe mold!? This might not even be the last one? They announced a black/gold repaint of not just Jyuoh King, but Wild Tousai Dodeca King a few months ago.

If anyone's curious, Cube Gold Panda has a lot of trouble unfolding nowadays, so I don't like transforming it if I can help it.