DX Tensou Gattai Gosei Ground

Review by EVA_Unit_4A

This toy appears here courtesy of HobbyLink Japan.

The Gosei Angels are beings who have secretly defended life on Earth for thousands of years, lead by Master Head. While human in appearance, they are usually not seen as they move among us. The road between Earth and Gosei World is Heaven’s Tower- a massive structure which hangs upside down from the clouds. Unfortunately, an empire of aliens, called Warstar, chose Earth as their next target, and destroyed Heaven’s Tower in a preemptive strike! Though isolated on Earth, Gosei Angels-in-training Alata, Eri, Agri, Moune, Hyde, and their robotic assistant Datas have successfully defeated Warstar and drove them back into outer space. But they have little time to rest as a new enemy returns to power from deep within the Earth itself, called the Yuumajuu. They now seek to destroy all humans to turn the Earth into a poisoned wasteland for themselves. Fight on, Tensou Sentai Goseiger!

In Epic 17- “A New Enemy, Yuumajuu!”, the five Gosei Angels on Earth are not quite at ease despite finally successfully fending off Warstar’s advances. As celebrities and political figures across Japan are targeted by a mysterious force and melted to death, they realize a new threat has appeared from deep within the bowls of Earth. Called the Yuumajuu, they have grown more powerful than their last encounter with the Gosei Angels thousands of years previously thanks to humans weakening the Earth with pollution. The Goseiger are quickly overwhelmed by the Yuumajuu, but then suddenly another armored figure appears, calling himself Gosei Knight. The newcomer quickly defeats the monster while the two Yuumajuu leaders retreat. While the human victims are recovered, the monster comes back as a giant worm-like tank. But Gosei Knight counters this by transforming himself into the Groundion Headder…!

Gosei Knight (wields the power of all three Gosei Angel tribes, while not belonging to one specifically)

Groundion Header (generally associated with the Landick tribe’s powers)

Thousands of years earlier, Groundion got separated from the Goseiger of the time, and was lost. However, he made a pact with the Earth to defend it if needed again. Thus, he can use his Leon Cellular device to transform into Gosei Knight. However, he does not like how humans pollute the Earth, and thus does not trust the current Gosei Angels and their own struggles. Since Gosei Knight has his own weapons and mysterious Knightick Gosei Cards, he is not wielded or controlled by the other Goseiger like any other Header is.

Gosei Groundion (Header attaches to a mining dump truck)

Gosei Groundion features twelve independently-spinning wheels, but no articulation or other special features. Gosei Groundion can spin like a top with his twelve wheels while bashing into enemies, and he has the use of the Groundion Laser energy & missile finisher. He also displays incredible strength and physical power, enough to bash through mountainsides!

In Epic 19 - “Gosei Knight Cannot be Forgiven”, Gosei Knight is captured by the Yuumajuu in order to drain his power to create an army of demons. But the Goseiger arrive and free him, proving that they share his goal of purifying Earth of the Yuumajuu. The monster that kidnapped him grows to giant size, but before the Goseiger can summon Gosei Great, Gosei Knight interferes and summons the Knight Brothers- Sealion and Skyion.

Sealion Header (A sea lion, generally associated with the Seaick tribe’s powers)

Skyion Header (A ‘sky lion’, generally associated with the Skick tribe’s powers)

Sealion and Skyion are controlled exclusively by Gosei Knight, so they cannot be wielded by the other Goseiger. Unlike the Goseiger’s own Gosei Machines, Gosei Skyion and Gosei Sealion can operate independently without a pilot just as Gosei Groundion can. The Knightick Brothers fire energy beams from their wingtips and mouth respectively.

Gosei Sealion (Header attaches to a cruise liner)

Gosei Skyion (Header attaches to a blimp)

Both Seaion and Skyion have wheels under them, but feature no articulation or special feature beyond that. However, Skyion’s wings can snap off as a safety measure if too much pressure is applied to them.

“Tensou Gattai!”

COMBINE - Gosei Ground

Gosei Ground can ‘kick’ out the Skyion and Sealion Headers just as the Goseiger can do with Gosei Great, but it is also very physically capable. Its Victory Charge finisher is the Grountastic- firing a volley of missiles from the wheels on its arms, and then impaling the enemy as it flies with the missiles. The only poseability is in the shoulders, which ratchet around in 45-degree increments. There are no other accessories or special features for Gosei Ground to use.

A single Gosei Card is provided, which can be used with the Leon Cellular.

Victory Charge (Activates finishing attack for Gosei Ground) (#034, Leon Cellular code 919)

Sets required for this combination:

• DX Tensou Gattai Gosei Great
• DX Tensou Gattai Gosei Ground

Optional sets for this combination:

• Tensou Gattai Series 01 - Seaick Brother Set
• Tensou Gattai Series 02 - Landick Brother Set
• Tensou Gattai Series 03 - Skick Brother Set

In Epic 22- “Over the Rainbow”, a Yuumajuu monster called Nessie no Uobouzu can steal the shadows of anything, thus making the object or person formless. Gosei Groundion fought this monster 10,000 years ago but was beaten. With time running out for the shadow-less victims, Gosei Knight is still reluctant to fight with the current Goseiger because he considers them weak compared to their predecessors in the past; their fighting together makes him uncomfortable. When he sees that the Goseiger are stronger when together even if not as powerful separately, Gosei Knight begins to become a real member of the team, and they work together to finally defeat Uobouzu. The monster grows to giant size, and so Gosei Great and Gosei Ground are formed, but he is so powerful that he breaks the combinations apart! Just then, the five Goseiger receive a new Gosei Card, which will allow the eight Gosei Machines to “dual combine” into Ground Gosei Great! Wielding the power of the Landick, Seaick, and Skick powers one at a time, Uobouzu is severely weakened enough so that Ground Gosei Great can use the Ground Gosei Strike finisher to destroy him once and for all. Because Ground Gosei Great utilizes the power of the three Gosei tribes, it can wield them individually by swapping the Manta, Kuwaga, and Taka Headers at the end of its staff. (It should be noted that having Kuwaga Header at the end of its staff is the default set-up for Ground Gosei Great.)

This marks the second time in Super Sentai where a DX toy has included a human-scaled, poseable character who became part of a DX toy’s combination. The first time was in 2005 when the villain Madou Kishi Wolzard was featured in the DX Majuu Gattai WolKaiser in “Mahou Sentai MagiRanger” However, Wolzard did not change his form did not change when he merged with his steed. Gosei Knight, on the other hand, was originally the Groundion Header who was then granted the power to shrink down and become humanoid. That being said, the toy version of Gosei Knight here is awfully bulky in his body, with spindly legs and, oh yeah, a giant hole in his back. The Wolzard figure also had better articulation and proportions. That Groundion Header transformation is uninspired, with a lot of limbs simply twisting about to get where it needs to go, and leaving a lot of unanswered gaps behind. (I mean, it looks like he has muttonchops and devil horns in Header form!) The Skyion and Sealion Headers are the worst yet- they have no movement whatsoever. Boooo! I think Gosei Groundion brings a bit of mass and presence to an otherwise forgettable line-up of component mecha thusfar. I mean, twelve wheels!? Aweseome. But the fun stops there, as it ends up being nothing more than a parts-former with more unnecessary gaps. I mean, are those supposed to be non-functional wings on his back? For all his bulk, like all the other Gosei Machines to this point, Gosei Groundion doesn’t resemble at all the heavy dump truck it’s supposed to represent; it’s hardly worth even mentioning except for the fact it’s seen in the show! Maybe if the two Knightick Brothers- Skyion and Sealion had been able to snap onto his back to form some kind of smallish carrier, I wouldn’t have protested as much. Speaking of the Knightick Brothers, they too do not look like their namesakes (a blimp and cruise liner), and are just as functionless as the Gosei Machines in the DX Gosei Great. (Oh, by the way, what is a “sky lion”? Lions and sea lions, I get, but a sky-based lion? What’s that supposed to look like???) To be fair, I like this combo above the Gosei Great only because it has more of that traditional bulky Super Sentai robo-look. This makes it slightly more appealing, but considering what it took to get it there- a lot of parts-swapping and single-step transformations, with an ugly-as-hell head- I don’t think it’s worth it. The arms have no articulation even though they had plenty of space for elbows, wrists, & extra shoulder axis, and legs could also have benefitted from more articulation as well. Besides, there’s so much mass above the shoulder joint that it’s hard to determine if he’s holding his arms above or below them! And what the hell are those projections along the upper arms for!? Couldn’t they have found a way to retract those more??? Considering their purpose for the super-combo, they’re s***-useless either way. The super-combo is just an extension of themes- mainly block- and parts-forming to the max. And- my God!- we don’t even get a brand new & different head for the combo; just a slightly altered version of the Groundion Header. It all just serves to compound all the issues I have with the Gosei Machines into one giant robo. The only- let me say again, only- part about this combo I liked is that PLEX had the courtesy to hide the Gosei Great’s torso shoulder joint knobs with some panels from Gosei Groundion. I suppose I should also be thankful on some level that I didn’t have to spend $80+ on three-to-four accessory mecha in order to make this super-combo. For that, we can swap out one Header on the end of the… “staff” from one of the Tensou Gattai Series sets. (This, by the way, is the only other reason I even got the Skick Brother Set to begin with: so that I could demonstrate the staff-swapping feature for you here.) I tell ya- I’m getting closer to my breaking point here. Even though I don’t pay full price for these samplers because I’m a reviewer for CollectionDX, as a long-time fan the frustration just keeps building and building and building, and I just wish the Gosei Machine line would go away. PLEASE, go away! You’re making me sick! And so, the DX Tensou Gattai Gosei Ground adds nothing to an already confused and boring toyline. Not recommended.