Well, lookie what I got in the mail today! I've been wanting these toys for a while, so I thought I'd post some pics and give a personal review on the figures themselves. First up are these three vehicles: the Thunder Jet (Vitor), Twin Driller (Borr), and the God Tank (Tracto). Not a whole lot to say about these guys, but they have a couple gimmicks. The Thunder Jet features fold-up landing gear, Twin Driller has rotating chrome drills and rolling wheels, and God Tank has rotating turrets (side to side or up and down if you fold them over) and rolling wheels as well. The three vehicles combine to form... God Zenon (Xenon)! God Zenon is a fairly stable bot, but his articulation is limited. His head swivels a full 360 degrees, his legs move in and out and rotate at the hip, and his arms move up and down and in and out at the shoulders. His leg-turrets can be aimed however you like. Overall he's a very stable and solid bot, and what little articulation he has allows for some dynamic-looking poses. To the right in that image is Gridman (Servo) himself. Gridman is surprisingly lightweight (the American release removed his electronic functions) but durable. His articulation is great, but flawed. His head swivels left and right, his arms rotate fully at the shoulders and bend out up to 90 degrees. His arms swivel around fully above the elbows and bend at the elbows up to 90 degrees. His fists swivel at the wrists. Legs bend forward and back a fair amount at the hips, but it's the in and out movement that is surprisingly limited. They only bend out about 10 degrees, and this hampers some of the more dynamic poses you can give him. Legs swivel fully above the knees and bend up to 90 degrees at the knees. His feet even bend forward and back at the ankles. If not for the hip movement limitations, this would be a fantastic figure. Gridman comes with a number of accessories, including a sword and shield, an axe, a greatsword, and a transforming device that can be pegged onto the forearm. Some painted detail would've been nice, but alas, they're molded in a single color, and do not feature decals. Note that any of these weapons can fit into the hands of God Zenon or armored-up forms of Gridman. Next we have a very impressive set! The King Jet (Torb) and the Dina Fighter (Jamb). Aside from what you see here, there's not much to report. No gimmicks such as landing gear or missile launching or anything are included with these two. Just a couple of spiffy-looking fighters. The wings move, but that's more because of their transformations than anything else. The units can also be combined into a single jet called... The Dragon Fortress (Drago Jet)! Again, nothing exciting to note, but if you're displaying the set in this mode, you're nuts, because things get much better once you transform the Dragon Fortress into... The Super Dragon Combination Dina Dragon (Drago)! This thing is a beast, and honestly my favorite mode and toy of the series. The Dina Dragon is solid and stable, menacing, and tons of fun. There's an impressive amount of articulation here. The dragon's head tilts up and down, with a jaw that opens and closes. The arms have four points of articulation each, plus opening and closing claws! The legs bend up and down at the hip and knee, ad the feet are articulated both on the foot itself and the ankle! The tail has three points of articulation. The shoulders feature a set of cannons that can be aimed up and down. The Dina Dragon looks imposing standing "upright" or hunched over, as if it were running. It's capable of some very dynamic poses, and overall, it's just an awesome sight to behold. But this isn't all. God Zenon and Dina Dragon can lend their power to Gridman and function as armor! As seen... Here! On the left we've got Combination Super God Thunder Gridman (Servo Synchro)! Unfortunately what Thunder Gridman gains in playability, he loses in stability. The Gridman figure I used inside of him has knee joints that are a little too loose. Factor in a back-heavy armor system and you've got a figure that can be very troublesome to balance. This is only hampered by the inability to easily manipulate the leg positioning and redistribute some of his weight. With the armor attached, Gridman loses some of his articulation. The head is a solid block and cannot be turned left or right. The shoulder armor prevents the arms from bending outward more than 40 or 45 degrees. Everything else is pretty much the same though. While Thunder Gridman can use all of Gridman's regular weapons, he comes with nothing of his own. On the right is Combination Dragon Emperor King Gridman (Servo Phormo). King Gridman looks more impressive overall and doesn't have quite as many stability issues as Thunder Gridman. King Gridman has some interesting features. He retains the arm cannons that Dina Dragon possessed, in addition to a massive bazooka-like weapon called the Dragonic Cannon (Dragon Cannon). It pegs nicely into either fist, and while one would be worried of its weight, the designers thought this through. The rear of the cannon snaps into a tab on a piece of armor behind the helmet, allowing King Gridman to hold the cannon upright without fear of it sagging. King Gridman's articulation is the same as Thunder Gridman's, and unlike Thunder Gridman, if he proves too back-heavy, you have the option of pulling down the claw-like heel for added support from behind. I should also take a moment to note the scale of the figures. These things are massive. The combined forms stand at a foot tall. They'll rival any leader-class Transformers or Super Sentai/Power Ranger mecha in your collection. I'm not sure how I would rate these toys. The level of enjoyment you'll get from them obviously depends on your connection with the show and your love for somewhat brick-like plastic toys. These figures are harder and harder to find in good condition. I was lucky to win a lot from a collector who'd kept them in mostly good shape. If you happen to come across them, and you were a fan of the show, I heartily recommend them.
Awesome. I had those two guys and the center piece guy. I think they weren't thrown away in any moves...
cool thx for sharing those pics. I've always wondered what the larger versions were like. When these came out, I wasn't into the show but I thought the toys were cool; but I went with the smaller, cheaper counterparts. After looking at those pics, I now kinda wished I went with the larger ones.
Those are the large scale ones. They came in 3 or 4 sizes. My cousin had the large Drago jet one as a kid. My sisters fiance had the much smaller Drago jet and the small Xenon.
Yeah, the smaller scale ones are VERY simplified though. If you're going to get any of them, THESE are the ones to get.
Nice pics. I used to have the smaller Dragon set. It had only articulation in the shoulders and ankles.
Thanks for the pics! I had Xenon but left it MISB and never got to play with it. I still have Drago lying around the house somewhere, so I may have to dig him out BTW I've never actually seen the original versions of the Gridman toys. Do you know what the differences are between the Japanese and US releases?
awsome I have the servo and zenon that you have I got them for christmas when I was a kid. Where did you find these? Ebay? I cant find them anywhere. And the 2 that I have are the only ones I have seen in years. I never got drago ,,,,
I used to love this show it was so corny but awesome and the concept was then later revisited somewhere else. I never understood the Servo recolors though.
Holy god, I remember watching that when I was in high school, it was like Power Rangers meets Reboot. (cheesy yet fun to watch) My brother had Drago (large scale) and the small scale Xenon... too bad they were given away to charity. Awesome pics, thanks for sharing!
I have Xenon and Servo still. Missing the accessories for the two though. Mainly the turrets and anything that went with Servo figure. Got these when the show first started airing here in America...that was back when I was in 3rd grade. Yeah, a bit disappointed when I look back to see I'm missing the stuff but good memories. Too bad I never had a Drago. Maybe one of these days I'll finally decide to find one.
I don’t have any english reports but from video reviews it looks night and day. No extra parts, lots of solid snaps, structural redundancies. Heck even the slow spring release missile launchers seem very toy oriented. But I’d also be interested in hearing more reports.
What I want to know is where I can find one still. I waffled a bit because there were so many versions available of Full Powered Gridman, but in the end, I did like GSC's scale better. But after a while, I kinda forgot about the toy after the orders have all closed. I wouldn't call GSC's Full-Powered Gridman's issues a "quality" issue. The toy overall is well-built and sturdy in its individual components. Its one major issue is that the locking system for the legs is a bit shallow and half-baked, and they come undone too easily. I would've liked a better system for the power cables as well, but that was always an awkward part of the design that works fine in animation, but becomes a tangled mess in practice.
