Just got myself a battlesgridman this morning. Different from the usual offering, but I'm liking it so far! Side-by-side with DBSv2: Side-by-side with my other mainline robots (sorry, I still don't have Big Powered GV or any Trivers on me yet ) Funny how both Black colorscheme became the smallest and the largest in my collection IMO BGN colors blend in nicely with the rest of 'em! The flyer unit in each designated squad: and uh, the Land/Terrestrial unit in each designated squad? 2 out of 4 in this picture can fly though hahah! Some points from me about Battlesgridman: - some reviewers like Kurata said the shoulders and especially the front waist armor tend to unattached, but so far on mine stays tight. Too tight actually, I have a hard time trying to take it apart myself! - The gauntlets and the shoulders use sliding mechanism for the GOX combination with Gridman, care should be taken with it, as it can be super tight on some copy. Sliding joints are usually tough, but my battle buffalo chest cockpit sliding peg actually sheared off few days ago So just to let you guys know. - The waist armor, when stored in battle hangar rest on a somewhat worryingly small attachment point. Just be mindful when you're attaching the waist armor to Gridman. - It's a change from the usual mainline release but so far, holding it in hand, it truly does carry the Diaclone heft, durability and feel to it! So in conclusion: Is it worth the price admission? YMMV. For me personally, I like it since I do have some nostalgia with Superhuman Samurai But for who doesn't and buying it regardless, it's pretty much a large verseriser unit with an amazing looking bullet fighter + some additional weapons for other robots (the sword, the turrets on the wings are detachable), but rather than another verseriser powered suit, you get a giant dude that can wrestle with the waruders
I wasn't too interested in this, because it didn't seem like "proper" Diaclone but I watched a video recently where I got the impression it was actually a bit like a larger version of Sky Jacket, which is one of my favourites. Would you say that was accurate at all?
Haha yeah, it's pretty much a giant sky jacket! With the application of the armor parts only for Gridman (so far). If you put it side-by-side with the sky jacket squadron it will look amazing I bet! Too bad I don't have any sky jackets on me Aside from that, even if one sideline Gridman figure, what you can do with the bullet fighter, the backpack and some parts are amazing! Case in point: Calibur fits damn well into convoy's hands. the backpack only pegs halfway (convoy's issue, other trivers have better clearance I bet) but still solid. And the turrets on the forearms. ... Maybe the rumored hangar system for convoy will be similar to this? But yeah, so far I'm not regretting getting Gridman. In fact, the base figure became my fidget figure on the desk now, it's superbly robust! EDIT: after fiddling with the Battlesgridman and convoy, it cemented my decision of getting the trivers, even just one. Maybe I'll go verserisers as those are cheaper. The backpack unit swapping options between these figures are numerous!
Okay, since folks here are enjoying these and they have also received a lot of likes on my Instagram feed, here's another faux comic cover...
Awesome builds man! I especially love the one with Vmax' lower body used to make that huge rolling rail gun. I definitely will have to give that a shot myself.
Got my vmax yesterday. Every bit of hype was true, it goddamn amazing 10/10. I plan on doing an extensive post about it later, but for now, enjoy this undocumented feature (apologies for the low quality pic)
I finally got around to messing with Battles Gridman today and am I the only one a little disappointed with it? I know diaclones pretty expensive and all but it really doesn't feel like it was worth the 200. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but it seems like he can't even bend his elbow and hold his sword because the claw thing gets in the way which seems like a pretty glaring oversight. I know it's not the biggest deal to most people, but little things like this drive me nuts, its the kind of shit you'd expect Hasbro to pull and there's functionally no reason they couldn't have designed it so the claw didn't get in the way. It's also kind of irks me that they gimped the gridman a little so they could give individual release more waist articulation.
Why would it need to be? There's not much good usage of a sword that aligns it straight with the elbow.
Like what others have mentioned, the wrist rotation compensates for the sword wielding issue. Arguably an oversight I can see that, but even if you want to align it with the elbow you can't achieve much with it. I guess the idea that this crossover product is a result of both franchise married together; you get the quality of diaclone (the durability I mean here) but few of the articulation for the sake that it has one of the better combination features and the silhouette is amazing for a tokusatsu combination robot. Close competitors being the GSC's Fullpower Gridman (which is unforgivably bad to some people) and the Ultra-Act Thunder Gridman (which cheated by having a dummy gridman body for the clearance of the shoulders). Battles Gridman is one of the better ones out there, articulation and aesthetic-wise! This is why it doesn't get any DA-designation; I would be pretty disappointed myself if it's a mainline diaclone release! This is pretty much a one-time thing with the availability of a mass release; not good for marketing if a crossover of two franchises is limited edition mind you, you need to reach out to many fans as possible- so it will fly off shelves for some people or will be a loss for others. In the end what do we have here? For Gridman/Tokusatsu fans, Truly a novel figure in it's own right, many would want but the price kills it (there's more expensive ones out there). For Diaclone fans: This would be the first Brick figure in the line, but no sweat, not a mainline release! Buy to those that willing. If you buy it and it's not on par of your expectations, my apologies IF my previous post of BGN looked like the figure have no flaws at all... ... But I love the silhouette and geometry look of the Battles Gridman though. God, what and handsome bastard! EDIT: This isn't your 1st/2nd large diaclone figure purchase right? The star of this year's release is mainly Convoy V-Max. Gridman's just a sideline bonus that gets hyped even outside diaclone community, hence the perceived popularity almost same level as convoy... I fiddled a bit with my Battlesgridman, it's achievable to get the sword with the elbow rotation, you just need to line up the hands and the elbow to the respective degree to get it. Case in point:
My Battles Gridman came in today and I tinkered with it. It's enjoyably weird, but also something I wonder if I should've bought (though that's not a diss to the figure, as much as a recognition of my own shifting collecting impulses). I have only a passing familiarity with Gridman, but armored up, I don't think I need to know much about this to still enjoy what it is, which is nice I DO wonder if I would've preferred a crossover release like this manifesting as "what if we retooled the shit out of Diabattles to turn it into 'Robot Gridman'" instead of "what if we slapped a bunch of Diaclone-esque parts onto Gridman" The combination was easy, and there are little design cues I appreciate (the leg armor having braces that maintain a knee joint despite the brace attaching to the hips was neat) and oversights I'm puzzled by (why couldn't the chest armor, helmet, and backpack/jetpack connector have been separate pieces to maintain some posability for the head?) Getting a clear Dianaut out of this is fun, but I am curious how it ages over time. I don't get as cynical of clear plastic like some others do with Transformers, but I know clear plastic isn't invincible and I'd rather this tiny little bugger not fall apart years down the road. (Same can be said for some of the Waruder pilots we've already gotten and the Solid Scan Dianaut, I know). I'm always curious to see Takara do plain action figures since I don't associate those with them like I do other companies, so after handling the Gridman figure, it's fine. Unremarkable, but fine. My feeling of regret isn't that I think this thing is bad (it's solid), but I've been re-considering what and how I want to collect, and pondering whether I should start selling things off now (Robot Spirits, Rider SHFs, some Chogokin mechs) rather than waiting (I want to buy a house, but that's at best 2-3 years away still; either way, how much energy do I want to put into moving all the crap I own?). Diaclone's a line I do remain committed to, but for as much as Gridman is an enjoyably weird detour for this line to take, I only have so much room and energy for enjoyably weird detours that don't mesh as well with the actual Diaclone line itself. Other than the Dianaut and tiny aircraft it can fit in, this barely feels like a Diaclone release, and if it's not (much of) that, what am I here for regarding this thing?
Time for another of my faux comic covers. This one features Big Powered in base mode... Okay, I cheated and flipped the image... Forgot about the figures' suits...
I probably won't see my Battles Gridman for a couple of months buying it domestically in US, but I mainly bought it approaching it as parts and a clear Dia-Naut. I was hesitant, but the Powered Suit set 3 was shown and I'm a completionist... So, ordered all... Probably will either store Gridman or use it in museum display to rotate out displays.
Don't recall seeing it mentioned here but there are new number stickers with the Battle Convoy pod extension.
Sweet!! Saves me trying to piece together numbers... Are there both sets for mech parts and trailer? I want them to match... Bummer they only go up to 5.