Toy Review: CCSToys Gurren Lagann

Finally; a modern, definitive collectible for a mecha of the same ilk.

Producer: CCSToys

Price: Approx. $250 USD

Release Date: Oct. 2020 (second batch release q.1 2021)

Item Height: approx. 8.25″

Item Weight: N/A

Batteries: N/A

WHERE TO BUY: AmiAmi (Sold Out)

CCSToys continues it’s ascension into the licensed mecha homage game with their take on the popular Super Robot Gurren Lagann. This piece definitely doesn’t disappoint and in fact I’d call it the definitive Gurren Lagann collectible for those who collect articulated figures to-date. Check out the videos above as well as my thoughts and gallery below and don’t be afraid to let me know what you think in the comments.

Presentation: The box is a nice, strong cardboard with nice artwork on the front and multiple images of the toy showing off what it does on the back. Inside of the box is the figure and its accessories in multiple plastic clamshells. Everything is nicely packed and very protected. This one also comes inside of a cardboard “shipper” that also has some nice, black print on it.

Build: CCSToys’ Gurren Lagann has a diecast inner frame and an outershell that’s a mixture of plastic and diecast. It’s well put together and heavy. Seriously, the heft on this piece is pretty crazy and the best part is that you can tell just from picking up the box when you get it that it’s going to be a heavy one. It’s well built and I do like the mixture of ratcheting and friction joints because they’re smartly placed. For example; I wondered why the forward/backward rotation of the shoulder was ratcheted but then when I had him hold up the large Giga-Drill it made sense as it locks the shoulder into place.

The paint job on this also deserves praise at the colors chosen are vibrant and work well with each other on top of not a single spot messed.

Accessories: Here’s a list of the accessories taken from the product listing;

-Alternative face part x3
-Alternative hand x4 pairs
-Gurren boomerang
-Gurren wing
-Drill (head) x1
-Drill (small) x32
-Drill (middle) x1
-Drill (large) x1
-Display base

The accessories are just awesome if not a bit intimidating with all of the small drills included in the sense that they’re virtually impossible to keep organized when not used due to them magnetizing to each other and forming a big, spikey ball (with that, please look over them in the box to make sure that they are all there because it’s going to be a pain to try to count them once out.) That nitpick aside, this is essentially a “perfect” Gurren Lagann figure accessory-wise because you get multiple faces, multiple hands, the wings, a separate boomerang weapon (although he can hold the visor one just fine,) multiple Giga Drills, AND the small drills to give it the full-drillized look. Most times this all has to be acquired in separate packages/purchases if all of the accessories are released at all. The magnetized drills work so insanely well for the full-drilized mode and attach so well that pulling them while attached actually pulls the figure a bit too before detaching.

The large Giga-Drill shows just how well designed and made this figure is by its ability to hold it up and balance with ease (See pics/video.)

The stand is incredibily “basic” in that it’s a standard base and metal pole with a peg-in attachment. This stand style looks very nice and holds the figure surprisingly well but I wish that CCSToys would start including the more action-oriented stands that we’re used to seeing with products like Bandai’s Metal Build toy line. Reason being is for the more variable options in terms of angles and the like that you can display figures in while in “flight” poses.

Articulation: The articulation points on this one are great and fall in line with what I’d consider advanced articulation for modern pieces. However the ankles and ab crunch could use a bit more range (although the ab crunch is understandable because of the teeth on the body of the figure.) If you check the video portion of this review you’ll see that it has an overall dynamic range without a lot of bare joint exposure to keep aesthetic integrity. /p>

Overall Score: 8.5/10 – CCSToys has come a long way since their days under the “FanMade” moniker. The quality of their products has improved so drastically over the years that it honestly feels like they’ve “earned” their place in producing licensed products as they’re able to give such an insanely good representation of the mecha that they’re tasked to homage. This Gurren Lagann is no exception to standard as it really nails things both aesthetically and quality/engineering wise. What keeps it from getting into a scoring range that’s more towards “perfect” is the fact that there are still things on it like the ankle tilt and ab crunch that while decent could still be a bit better. Even with that though this is still an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime piece and I feel that it’s easily the most objectively “complete” package that we have seen and will be seeing for the forseeable future for a Gurren Lagann figure. This is a easily a frontrunner for my figure of the year at this point.