Dragun
I’ve finally “completed” my jumbo Shogun Warriors collection.
I say “completed” in quotation marks because of course there are still variations out there that I should probably get someday, but for the time being, I just wanted one version of each character available in the Shogun Warriors line. And some may find it odd that Dragun would be the last one I would get since he is among the most common and popular ones out there, but I was waiting for just the right specimen, at just the right price.
So, why did I need a particular specimen? Well, it’s been awhile since I was cranking out jumbo reviews on a regular basis, but you may remember that I do have the original Popy version. And by all accounts, the first version Shogun Dragun was the exact same toy simply in a different box. So I figured that if I’m going to have more than one toy of the same character, I would like them to be as different as possible. To that end, I decided that I would not buy a Shogun Dragun until I saw a complete, box “lightning legs” version at a decent price.
As you can see, this version replaces the traditional “V” stickers on the legs with some silver lightning bolts.
Why?
Who knows? But this is usually the version that is the least popular so every time I’d say I specifically wanted this version to a friend, they would often wonder what the heck was wrong with me. But variety is important to me. So here are all of my jumbo Getter Dragons.
I’m really glad I held out for that version because when I got it, I noticed some things about it that I didn’t know before. For instance, did you notice that the Popy version is shorter than the Mattel version? Why would that be if the only different is the leg stickers? Well, upon closer inspection, I noticed that the feet on the Mattel version are actually modified feet from a Great Mazinger!
I’d never seen this reported anywhere else and it makes me wonder what other barely noticeable differences there are among the various versions that can’t be seen without having all of them in one place!
One other difference that WAS known is of course the fact that the spinning sawblades from the Popy version were removed from this version. Also, the star shooter accessory was added to the Mattel version. The first version Mattel one has a strap but this one has the more common clip on version.
My specimen came with 12 stars and three axes.
So, other than pointing out those differences and just adding this toy to our database, there really isn’t much more I feel like I can add.
(And yes, I know I haven’t reviewed the Shogun Warriors Goldorak. I have it and will do it… later. )