It’a actually a privilege to be able to take a look at some of Soul of Chogokin’s history with one of their first gestalts, Dancouga! Released in 2003, this toy was definitely ahead of it’s time.
Video Segments:
Out Of The Box: Beginning
Eagle Fighter: 3:48
Land Couger and Liger:
Big Mammoth: 8:09
Individual Robot Thoughts: 24:45
Video Segments:
Transformation: Beginning
Gestalt Overview: 6:52
Final Thoughts: 16:57
The first robot is Eagle Fighter. The Eagle mode is very well done. I think Transformers fans would love it’s likeness to the Decepticon character Lazerbeak. A good amount of detailing and the glossy paint apps really make this particular mode shine. The robot mode serves it’s purpose, but definitely is not anything special. A severe lack of articulation and detailing makes the robot mode on Eagle more of a placeholder than anything of substance. He has a small weapon that pegs into a small hole located on the inside of his right arm.
For Dancouga’s Gestalt mode, this character becomes the head.
The two triple-changers, Land Couger (black cat) and Land Liger (green/yellow cat) are actually “twins” in the fact that they are variants of the same core mold. They can alternate between tanks, animals, and robots.
Although each mode is aesthetically pleasing, the robot modes come off very “dated” in the lack of articulation. Where Eagle Fighter’s lack of articulation is more understood due to it being around 2″, these bigger figures don’t have the same visual “excuse”.
They each come with an assault rifle as their weapon. For the Gestalt, they each become a foot.
Also a triple changer, this is by FAR the nicest individual robot of the three. His individual modes are a tank, mammoth, and robot, and he features a lot more articulation than the others due to his size and the fact that he makes up the entire body of the gestalt minus the heads and feet. In all three modes he uses a main canon on his back with two turrets attached, as well as two missile launchers on his back with can swivel to the side of his waists in robot mode. He also has a huge blaster to carry in robot mode.
So, I’ve written which robots become which piece during their combination, and it’s blatant what is what when looking at it all put together. So, the engineeringisn’t anything to spectacular, however I do like the fact that the only “parts forming” needed to complete the Gestalt itself is a neck piece that connects the head to the body. There is also an additional piece which connects to Big Mammoth’s blaster in order to make an even bigger blaster by combining it with the three guns from the other robots as well. The other Gestalt weapons are his trademark Dankuken sword, as well as his wingpack with large blasters attached to it.
The lack of overly integrated robots into the gestalt mode leaves this to have some great articulation. For a toy released in 2003, it’s nice to see him have poseability that definitely stands up to today’s Soul of Chogokin toys. The one more “new-aged” area that this is lacking is the additional pieces that are standard today that can clip on or swap in to give the robot an overall more cohesive look. However, both aesthetically and functionally, this is an extremely solid gestalt.
This toy is literally the 13th toy in this lineup, and as of this February will be ten years old. Even with that, if you get this, you’ll be getting some of the best that the Soul of Chogokin line has to offer. Not only is this a look at the history of the line, but it’s a great toy to have on your shelf.
Overall Score: 8.5/10
Enjoy a few more pictures of this figure below! Remember to click the pictures to view larger resolutions:
