DaiVoyager

The Search Guard Successor museum organization (also known as SGS, or Sargess) has created a secret team to begin tracking down ancient artifacts that have been disappearing. With skills in treasure hunting/recovery, and their adventurous hearts, the Boukenger use their Accellular henshin devices to scan relics (called Precious) to discover their hazard levels and value. However, the many Negative Syndicates- the ancient stone Gordom Civilization, bio-engineered reptilian Jaryuu Clan, covert ninja Dark Shadow, and the converted biotech Questors- are also separately on the lookout for Precious to rule the world… or destroy it. The Precious are many, and they hold unknown power. Who will gain the most from them?

In Task 33- “The Sun of Lemuria”, Natsuki (Bouken Yellow) finally learns the secret of her life before becoming a Boukenger, her only clues having been the small silver bracelet around her wrist, and where her friend Masumi (Bouken Black) found her deep inside a cave while he was searching alone for Precious before they became Boukenger. The two Questors, Gai and Rei, have teamed-up with King Ryuuon of the Jaryuu Clan to find a powerful Precious that once belong to the long-lost Lemuria Civilization over 100,000 years ago in the southeastern Pacific. The two Questors kidnap Natsuki and Masumi, and reveal her true existence to her- her legacy as the last Lemurian princess, Irina! Natsuki, assisted by the Questors, undergoes a radical change, and resumes her previous identity, allowing the two Negative Syndicates to gain control of the Sun of Lemuria. This Precious, with amazing, near-unlimited energies within it, would allow the lost Lemurian Civilization to rise up once more, and conquer the world through the revitalized Lemurian princess! But when Masumi tries to break the Questors’ brainwashing on Irina, Daikenjin Zubaan (himself a Precious from Lemuria) defects from the Boukenger and guards the Lemurian princess as was his duty thousands of years earlier. Now equipped with the Sun of Lemuria, which surpasses even the Gordom/Anti-Parallel Engine, Ryuuon installs the Precious into his new giant DaiJaryuu Grand built by both himself and the Questors. In addition to the dozens of guns all over its body, its immense bays store hundreds of flying DaiJaryuu. With an enlarged Zubaan now defending the Sun of Lemuria within Grand, they swiftly disable both Siren Builder and Ultimate DaiBouken. Bouken Red, Bouken Pink, and Bouken Blue are thrown from their cockpits and fall into the sea. “I win”, boasts Ryuuon. But suddenly, a great vessel rises out of the sea, lifting the three Boukenger high into the air…

“This is?”
“A new enemy?”
“No. This is…”

“What?”

“Everyone. Inside hurry!”
“Makino-sensei.”

“Damn Boukenger! They still have mecha like that? But it’s no match for me!”

Hasshin Shift On:
Voyager- Unlock!

Go! Go!

Time to haul out the big guns-!

Gougou Voyager is a massive battleship dressed in dark navy blue, light gray, silver, and a little white. It is equipped with a full array of four triple-barrel cannon turrets on the bow, and eighteen smaller two-barrel anti-aircraft turrets on the stern (nine per side). According to Makino-sensei in Task 34, Gougou Voyager was developed and built by a different team than the ones who designed Gougou Vehicles 01-13. But because it was so powerful, it was thought that it was a little too over-the-top at the time. And so Gougou Vehicles 01-13 were developed as a scaled-down alternative, and then Gougou Voyager was put into storage for future use even though SGS had no intention of launching it. SGS did not assign a Gougou Vehicle number to it either, but it can be considered the prototype design for the others. However, when both Ultimate Daibouken and Siren Builder were disabled at the same time, the massive battleship was launched. Because of the unexpected rush to get Gougou Voyager into the field, there was not enough time to complete the installation of the Neo-Parallel Engines into it to make it immune to the effects of Gordom Engines and the Questors’ own Anti-Parallel Engines. Later in the next episode, the modifications were completed.

(I’m gonna cover this one a little different than I usually do, and I’ll explain why later on.)

Gougou Voyager (back) is a bit confusing. In the show, it debuts as a sea-going battleship, and half of it looks like one. The bridge superstructure is located aft of the center, and has several tiers of wide brown-painted windscreens. On either side of the bridge is a set of large wide light gray PVC sensor arrays, paired with some smaller ones lower down on the structure. On the main body bellow the bridge are eighteen (18) anti-aircraft defensive turrets, nine on each side. However, the turrets are fixed in one position perpendicular to the vessel. Forward are four three-barrel cannon turrets which can rotate more than 90°, but snap lightly at every 45°. The prow of Gougou Voyager is pointed, with a wide sweeping edge traveling backwards which is painted silver, and just ahead of amidships is a roll bar-style structure with a gold-painted line and two silver winglets. From half way above where it rests, Gougou Voyager resembles a typical sea-based battleship. However, below the waterline, it more resembles a land-based battleship… Directly below the bow are two light gray cylindrical wheels which resemble oil drums. Buried beneath the roll-bar amidships is a huge, thick wheel with a thin black ABS tire; this thing is just over 1 ½” wide, and about 3 ½” in diameter! There are two more identical wheels located just behind and below the bridge superstructure, between the AA turrets. And then, to make things interesting, there are 20 smaller black ABS, ten on each side, and six of each of those flanking the larger wheels in back. (The funny thing about the 20 wheels is that, on a hard, flat surface, they don’t touch the ground; only the three big 3 ½” wheels do.)

Like the DX Bakuryuu Gattai MaxOhJa from “AbaRanger” (aka Deluxe Mezodon Megazord, from 2004’s “Power Rangers Dino Thunder“), Gougou Voyager features a motorized drive with a manual transmission switch. With this transmission toggle, Gougou Voyager can roll along the ground either under its own battery power from the motor, or free-wheel it by human power (you). In either free-roll or battery-powered drive mode, when Gougou Voyager moves forward, the sensor arrays on either side of the bridge slowly rotate up-and-over; however, even though the motor drives the toy forward, the arrays are tied directly into one of the two larger wheels in back and always operates independently in either mode. (In other words, you can lift it off the ground and spin the wheels with your hand and the arrays will turn with it.) Just above the forward main wheel are two smaller sprocket-like light gray wheels which are connected directly to it, and spin with it as well. The transmission toggle switch is located on the right side of the main wheel underneath the toy; the electronic motor On/Off switch is located a little further back on the same side, and can be accessed without turning it over.

To see a small QuickTime movie of Gougou Voyager’s sensor arrays turning, click here!

To see a small QuickTime movie of Gougou Voyager rolling along under motorized power, click here!

(A little trivia- the arrays on the toy twist in the opposite direction than they do on the show. J)

In Task 34- “Distant Memories”, the ancient Lemuria princess Irina is successfully changed back into Natsuki when the Questors’ mind-altering effect is interrupted. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen soon enough, and King Ryuuon was able to convince Princess Irina to give a good share of her own life-force over to the Sun of Lemuria to raise it to full power; and then he reinstalled it into the DaiJaryuu Grand. While Bouken Silver and Zubaan (still protecting the Lemuria princess, who is aligned with the Boukenger once more) distract the Questors, the five Boukenger get into Gougou Voyager and launch against Ryuuon in Grand. Even though Grand is able to create fortified walls and defensive turrets out of thin air, Gougou Voyager just bashes right though them. Then, Makino-sensei comes over the comm…

“Everyone. Gougou Voyager still has many features.”
“Alright. Here’s the main performance!”
“Let’s go on a little adventure!”
“Chouzetsu Gougou Gattai”

Gattai Shift On:
Voyager Formation!

Chouzetsu Gougou Gattai DaiVoyager is huge (65.5m tall and 8500 tons), even compared to SGS’s own Gougou Gattai DaiBouken (47.0m, 3000t) and Kinkyuu Gougou Gattai Siren Builder (50.0m, 3500t). It is any Negative Syndicate’s worst nightmare- a walking warship. In addition to it size and bulk, its armor is thick, it has the use of the sensory arrays on either side of its tri-pointed head, and unheard-of physical strength. The 22 cannon turrets on its arms, lower torso, and lower legs can also all be aligned forward for its Voyager Cannon attack. And finally, the center wheel in its chest creates a Hyper Charge which powers DaiVoyager’s fists for the Adventure Double Screw finisher.

DaiVoyager (back), honestly, is big; standing 13 ¾” tall and weighing over four pounds. (For a DX Super Sentai set, let alone a combining one, that is heavy!) Like the DX Kinkyuu Gougou Gattai Siren Builder before it, DaiVoyager’s legs are fused together, except that these don’t move one little bit except for the variously-sized wheels on it, and those play no part of its humanoid form. The four tail-like structures on the back of Gougou Voyager are made of PVC, and do not move either when it is converted to DaiVoyager. The face is actually hidden beneath a transparent plastic shield, and during the conversion rotates into view. The arms are thick, fat limbs with the bow of Gougou Voyager separating to fit on either side of them. The oil drum-like wheels on the front of Gougou Voyager become two large boxing glove-like hands for DaiVoyager, and can spin easily 360° at the wrists. (More on that later.) The four main cannon turrets of Gougou Voyager become useless here as they all orient downwards by default and can only roll side-to-side. All four can pop-off if too much stress is applied. On the back side, the battery compartment- located on the back of the upper legs- can be reached, as well as the transmission toggle switch behind the [now] now shoulder; the ON/Off switch is still accessible on the [now] left thigh. Also visible from directly behind DaiVoyager’s head is the small tab that fits into the small rotating slot (between DaiVoyager’s knees) that allows for the two sensor arrays to rotate when in Gougou Voyager mode. But because of how the top of the upper torso is designed, the arrays cannot turn all the way around in this mode.

The motorized action of Gougou Voyager can also be utilized on DaiVoyager, though in a different way. When the arms are rotated forwards at 90°, and the motor engaged, the large wheel in the center of the chest spins again, but the fists of DaiVoyager also spin at high speed as well for its Adventure Double Screw finisher! (For clarification, both fists spin at the wrists, but the cylindrical hands themselves do not.) When the arms are raised like this, spring-loaded gears inside them automatically fit with the two half-hidden gray wheels inside the torso. However, with the fists engaged like this, they can’t really spin in the opposite directions that the motor drives them. The toggle behind the left shoulder can still be used, but the Adventure Double Screw attack function is [preferably] used with the motor engaged.

To see a small QuickTime movie of DaiVoyager’s Adventure Double Screw attack, click here!

“Commander!”
“Carrier!”
“Fighter!”
“Attacker!”
“Roader!”

Gougou Voyager is composed of five individual Gougou Vehicle components:

Gougou Vehicle #14- Gougou Commander (back)- a small flying Gougou Vehicle, commanded by Bouken Red. Depending on its four small wings and better agility to avoid ground fire, it can stay suspended over the battlefield for extended amounts of time, coordinating other Gougou Vehicles to defeat Negative Syndicates. Gougou Commander forms the bridge superstructure of Gougou Voyager, and the head of DaiVoyager.

Gougou Vehicle #15- Gougou Carrier (back)- the largest Gougou Vehicle ever made, commanded by Bouken Black. While nowhere near as fast or agile as Bouken Black’s regular ride, Gougou Formula, it can act as a moving blockade, backed-up by the 18 anti-aircraft turrets along the back sides of it. Gougou Carrier forms the main structure of Gougou Voyager, and the body and legs of DaiVoyager.

Gougou Vehicle #16- Gougou Fighter (back)- a medium-sized flying Gougou Vehicle, commanded by Bouken Blue. This Gougou Vehicle is faster, more agile, more heavily armed, and has far thicker armor than Gougou Gyro; matched, perhaps, only by the larger Gougou Jet. Gougou Fighter forms the prow of Gougou Voyager, and part of the arms of DaiVoyager.

Gougou Vehicle #17- Gougou Attacker (back)- another medium-sized flying Gougou Vehicle, commanded by Bouken Yellow. Designed to act more as a high altitude bomber rather than an air-superiority fighter, it makes slower runs, but can cause more widespread damage to the target area. Gougou Attacker forms part of the bow & forward structure of Gougou Voyager, and the chest & forward lower torso of DaiVoyager.

Gougou Vehicle #18- Gougou Roader (back)- the other heavy ground-based (and last-numbered) Gougou Vehicle, commanded by Bouken Pink. Lacking significant weapons of its own, it can act as a faster, heavily armored land decoy, and assist in penetrating fortified gates and barriers with its brute strength. Gougou Roader forms the bow of Gougou Voyager, and the arms & fists of DaiVoyager.

Gougou Vehicles 14-18 have a very different feel to them from all of the other sets. Instead of being practical machines based on real construction vehicles (or in the case of Siren Builder, emergency vehicles) they are designed only to conform to the needs of either Gougou Voyager or DaiVoyager. They seem almost like afterthoughts of PLEX and Bandai- ‘Instead of one big robot that can transform into a battleship, let’s divide the whole into five parts.’ In fact, Gougou Roader is perhaps the only one of the five that could really fit in with the construction/emergency vehicle theme in 2006, as a steamroller- featuring the large, thick single wheel in front (divided into two here). It is also just about equal in size to Gougou Vehicle #01- Gougou Dump from the DX Gougou Gattai DaiBouken. Like Gougou Voyager, Gougou Carrier is just a hunk of ABS & PVC plastic, batteries, and a small electric motor. It has no function other than that and the ability to roll on the ground. The three flying Gougou vehicles- Gougou Commander, Gougou Fighter, and Gougou Attacker- also seem more-so like afterthoughts in design. (Gougou Attacker is also the only one in the set with retractable landing gear.) Gougou Commander has a few stubby wings and a painted cockpit, and that’s it. Otherwise it just looks like the superstructure of a sea vessel bent into half. I’d even go as far as to say that Gougou Fighter and Gougou Roader are the most ‘believable’ in the set.

Okay, that was the good. Here’s the bad:

• Transformation is exceedingly simple. Too simple, I’d say. None of the five parts requires more than two steps to prepare it for DaiVoyager mode; and that’s tied between Gougou Commander and Gougou Fighter. I can think of a half-dozen ways to increase the complexity of the transformation that, in no way, would have interfered with the combinations. Gougou Vehicles 01-13 are much better in that regard. What happened to all the sliding, snapping, shifting, and twisting of the past- oh, I don’t know- 31 years!?
• Gougou Carrier truly is just a lump, no no- a brick– of plastic. It does nothing other than roll and spins the fists. That’s it. And for all of that, it’s bigger than Gougou Vehicle #11- Gougou Fire from the DX Siren Builder set! I can understand building difficulties with moving the small turrets on the legs, but that’s not an excuse for anything else moving!
• Gougou Commander is a mess. It has sharp corners, small wings, multiple windscreens in lots of different places, and a small, transparent dome that has no function other than hiding the face from view. Perhaps it would have done better as another tank-like vehicle, IMHO. (Three flyers is a bit too many for one set…)
• Why does DaiVoyager have such a hollow chest with just that little roll-bar across it? In Gougou Voyager mode, it’s fine, but why leave all that space in between Gougou Carrier and Gougou Attacker when in robot mode???
• What is it that in recent years, with the resent larger final-release DX sets, requires that they have their legs molded into a single piece without any space in between or being separate components altogether??? The DX Densetsu Gattai MagiLegend/Deluxe Manticore Megazord, DX Chou Kyodai Kidou DekaBase Robo/Deluxe Delta Base Megazord, and DX Bakuryuu Gattai MaxOhJa/Deluxe Mezodon Megazord all did this as well. It’s bad enough as it is that they don’t make the legs move anyways…
• Again in 2006, pop-out, poseable elbows were possible, and again they did not happen. I can understand that this might have been needed because of the fist-spinning feature, but still–!
• I recall how, in 2003’s “Bakuryuu Sentai AbaRanger”, the main Bakuryuu toys had battery-powered spinning tabs inside the limbs’ shoulder joints to activate the accessory arms’ features. Why wasn’t that done here as well??? (That would have left more than enough room for them there pop-out elbow joints-!)
• Ah- it looks nice ‘n all, but having the two halves of Gougou Fighter just hanging there with no real function in the combination wasn’t so great.
• They make such a pointed issue of showing the four large cannon turrets rotating upwards on DaiVoyager in the series; yet on the toy they only twist side-to-side. Why!? They could easily have done both on the DX toy with a little redesigning!
• A warship doesn’t really fit in with the whole adventure/treasure hunting theme they’re using in 2006. This means that, yet again, PLEX and Bandai broke the series’ image style/trend just to give us something ‘big and cool’ for a finale.
• Why are there rocket engines on the feet of DaiVoyager? This is a sea-going/land-going battleship, not a space battleship like the SDF-1 Macross or Yamato! They don’t use them in the series; why put them in there!?
• Why is it that- after they were pre-applied to Gougou Formula and Gougou Gattai Vehicle #5- Gougou Jet– you need to apply the four decals to Gougou Roader? The sides of the upper legs & torso already have theirs applied during factory assembly; why didn’t they just apply them all?

(For those of you on CollectionDX keeping count, this is the most complaints I’ve made on any one review yet. Second-most was on my DX Siren Builder review)

I’ve put off bashing the lack of design ingenuity of the last five Gougou Vehicles (and the alternate sequence I wrote this review in) until I could get everything else out first. And the reason I’m doing this is because of what Makino-sensei said in Task 35. He says that Gougou Voyager was designed by another team. Okay, fine- that explains why it doesn’t match the construction vehicle-theme of Gougou Vehicles 01-13. But, unlike all other Gougou Vehicles, the five that compose Gougou Voyager are not separately stored or launched from the SGS hangar bay; instead, they are combined and Gougou Voyager is stored in a completely different bay fully assembled. It is also launched assembled, and it is not until the Voyager Formation is needed that the five components separate. Makino-sensei also said that SGS had not planned to give Gougou Voyager a Gougou Vehicle designation because it (notice that he did not say “they”) was too powerful. This leads me to believe that even though it is composed of independently-operated components, Gougou Voyager is actually one Gougou Vehicle, and not a combination of five. The numbering of the individual components may be something that SGS did after the emergency launch in Task 34. (The late numbering I am suggesting, I realize, is contrary to the stock footage used in Tasks 34 and 35.) This would make Gougou Voyager (and not the five vehicles) the largest and most powerful single Gougou Vehicle in front of all the others. The inclusion of Neo-Parallel Engines is a result of the appearance of the Anti-Parallel/Gordom Engines and/or a new level of SGS’s power-generating technology being reached. This also explains why the five components look better and more sensible from an aesthetic point of view combined rather than when they are separate. If this were true, then Gougou Voyager (and DaiVoyager, for that matter) would be the first in Super Sentai history to be considered a single mecha but with separating, independently-operated components.

For those of you wondering what the differences are between the DX Chouzetsu Gougou Gattai DaiVoyager from “Gougou Sentai Boukenger”, and its as-yet-unnamed English speaking counterpart from the upcoming 2007-series, “Power Rangers Operation Overdrive”, as of the posting of this review there is no word yet as to the [inevitable] modifications. Four possibilities here:

1. Major loss of paint applications
2. Loss of battery-powered motor feature
3. Various combinations of the above
4. They don’t release it at all

For ¥10,000, that puts it at about $84.02 off the shelf, so I would not be surprised if any of the above- most likely, the fourth option- happened. However, if they do decide to bring it over, I would strongly suggest that you appeal to Bandai America and tell them to leave it the way it is!

My biggest problems with this set are the lack of moving parts & such during transformations, and how utterly featureless Gougou Carrier is (motorized actions notwithstanding). It’s too simple once you learn where everything goes. The rotating face is an old-school idea and makes a nice return. I will say that Gougou Voyager, as a third mode for the same set, is a lot better than the Gougou Trailer mode is on the DaiBouken! The level of surface detail is also top notch; the decals include panel lines. The toggle switch for the motor, once more, is a great idea; though why you can turn the motor on and not have it running anything in free-drive mode is a bit odd. I think that another rotating slot could have been added to the front of Gougou Carrier so that, in DaiVoyager mode, the sensor arrays would turn at the same time as the fists. That would have been cool. I like how the anti-aircraft turrets are all lined up together, though I wish they’d have added a few more in some other places on Gougou Voyager. As an added bonus, the shoulder joints are fully compatible with all of the other arm Gougou Vehicles-

• 04- Gougou Dozer
• 05- Gougou Marine Diver
• 06- Gougou Drill
• 07- Gougou Shovel
• 08- Gougou Mixer
• 09- Gougou Crane
• 12- Gougou Aider
• 13- Gougou Police

-though Gougou Jet cannot be utilized. Gougou Roader, alternatively, can be added (with or without Gougou Fighter) to DX Gougou Gattai DaiBouken, Chou Gougou Gattai Super DaiBouken, Kyuukyoku Gougou Gattai Ultimate DaiBouken, Gougou Gattai DaiTanken, and DX Kinkyuu Gougou Gattai Siren Builder.

It is a big block of plastic, and it’s also an expensive one. (That’s happened before) For a name which means “Transcendental Thundering Combination Great-Voyager” in Japanese, I would have expected something a bit more, oh I don’t know- transcending from Bandai and PLEX. The lack of flexibility is a bit of a downer, but it’s still impressive. Early rumblings in online fan communities suggests that this will be a bad year for Super Sentai-to-“PR” toy transitions, so I suggest that if you can afford the DX Chouzetsu Gougou Gattai DaiVoyager, you go for it as soon as possible.

The DX Chouzetsu Gougou Gattai DaiVoyager is the very last set in the regular Gougou Vehicle line. Beyond this will most likely be repaints, such as the limited-edition black-&-gold DX Kyuukyoku Gougou Gattai Ultimate DaiBouken—

–“Zubaan!”–

…Yeah, and him too.

–“Zun! Zun!”–

(sigh)