Sentinel knocked this Mashin out of the freaking park.
Producer: Sentinel
Price: Approx. $210
Release Date: Dec. 2018
Item Height: Approx. 5″
Item Weight: N/A
WHERE TO BUY: D4Toys
Over the years, there have been plenty of Mashin toys from the “Mashin Hero Wataru” anime made and while I’ve always been interested because of the looks and transformations I never jumped on one… until now. Sentinel released the Mashin of the main protagonist Wataru called Ryuoumaru under their Metamor-Force toyline. Needless to say I was very impressed. Thanks in advance for taking the time to check out this review and gallery and let me know what you think in the comments section!
Presentation: The Ryuoumaru box reminds me a lot of their Metamor-Force Black Sarena in that it’s a nice, thick box with no see-through areas and attractive graphics/pictures throughout. Ryuoumaru itself is nicely packed within the plastic clamshell along with the accessories and the color choices, separation, and paint application are so exquisite that it just pops as soon as you see it. In fact, the paint looked so new and fresh that I expected there to be a paint smell when opening the box but thankfully there wasn’t one at all. The fit and finish of this thing aesthetically are just perfection.
Build: Ryuoumaru has quite a bit if diecast throughout the inner frame and feet to the point where the heft is legitimately impressive even in comparison to significantly larger items from the company. The joint are all friction based and everything moves very smoothly while feeling sturdy at the same time. Another cool aspect is the backside of the helmet sliding off revealing two, easily-accessible switches that control really nice LED lights for the dragon symbol on Ryoumaru’s forehead crest and his eyes. A really nice, quality tidbit is that Sentinel actually has a layer of bright green colored plastic within the eyes of Ryuoumaru green as well so that they don’t have that “dead” look that a lot of toys with LED-lt eyes have when they aren’t in use.
Accessories: Ryuoumaru is beautifully simplistic in that it only comes with a sword and shield. The sword can store inside of the shield which in itself can peg into Ryuoumaru’s forearms or back for storage in both modes. The only problem that I have is that it’s a bit finicky getting the sword placed inside of Ryuoumaru’s hands with only being held by the more stubby fingers which aren’t long enough to fully bend around the handle but I will say that once you get it gripped well it stays well.
Articulation: By nature, Ryuoumaru is just a short, stout, Super-Deformed styled robot so I wasn’t expecting much in this area only to be pleasantly surprised. From the artifulation itself to the ranges of motion, this one can do quite a bit and is really fun to pose!
Overall Score: 8.0/10 – I think that Sentinel did a fantastic job of making their Ryuoumaru standout in the sea of toy homages to the same robot by really going overboard in terms of quality. The fit and finish, diecast content, and articulation are about as high-end as I feel you can possibly get on a mech that by nature is very “stumpy.” It felt really good to be so pleasantly surprised by how much this can all do. I also highly recommend getting the previously reviewed Sentinel 4inch-nel Wataru to display along with it because as you can see in the gallery below it makes it that much better.
Check out a few pictures of these in the gallery, and if you like what you see don’t forget to order your Sentinel Metamor-Force Ryuoumaru at D4Toyd!
