Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh

As this year’s DX Super Sentai line comes to a close, we are once again getting the large carrier mecha of the line. For the Ressha Sentai ToQGer, whose theme has been trains, the final mecha is also a train known as the Hyper Ressha.

In the show, the Hyper Ressha is a small golden train that allows the ToQGer to transform into their powered up forms. The Hyper Ressha also summons the much bigger Hyper Ressha for the ToQGer to pilot.

This big locomotive train’s color scheme is also partially golden with a large amount of black, and some red and silver accents thrown in.

The smaller Hyper Ressha that sits atop the bigger one is the one used for transforming the ToQGer into their Hyper Mode. The  toy version of the small Hyper Ressha is yellow. This is a big minus because it isn’t the same golden color as its on-screen counterpart. Also, the yellow of the small train doesn’t quite match the gold color of the bigger train. 

While the small train is not secured onto the big train in any way, the resting slot on the big train keeps the small Hyper Ressha from falling off if you roll the big train around. However, the small train will fall off if you tilt the big train on its side.

The big train looks pretty good from the front, top and underside.

The lip of the train has the ToQGer logo on it.

It has wheels so you can roll around this big choo choo train.

Once you move to the sides and back, you get a better look at the biggest flaw of the train mode.

The large gaps in this train really detract from what would have been a nice solid hunk of toy. The hollow parts of the train remind me of the fact that Bandai is really into cutting costs wherever they can. I was just starting to get over the fact that last year’s carrier mecha, Bragigas, had a hollow back.  

The small Hyper Ressha looks pretty okay. The design isn’t quite as original or cool looking as some of the other, more distinctive looking trains in this line.

Like the other trains in the line, the small Hyper ressha has a hitch the back and hole at the front so you can hitch this train to any other train in the line.

You can clearly see the face that will be used for one of the robot modes.

Like the other small trains in the line, you can insert the Hyper Ressha into the ToQ Changer to get the ToQ Changer to produce several sounds that are specific to the Hyper Ressha. Check out the video review for that.

Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh

Transformation to the Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh is super simple.

Step 1: Stand up the big train

Step 2: Flip up the front half of the small Hyper Ressha and attach it to the neck area.

DONE!

The Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh looks fairly uninspired. It is just the top of the large train, with a head and arms.

The arms are the only thing on the toy that move and the toy lacks real legs because all of the body is just one hunk of plastic.

The only thing I really liked about this mode is that hands are very reminiscent of the Dragonzord hands from the 90’s toy.  In the show, the Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh uses the fingers to launch projectiles and lasers. So the hands function much like the Dragonzord’s.

Hyper Ressha Terminal

The Hyper Ressha can also fold out and become a terminal for the ToQGer trains. 

This is a neat feature that gives you another way to display a handful of your trains.

The small Hyper Ressha play no part in this form, so it does not appear in the pictures.

ToQ Rainbow

The top of the Terminal form has clips on it that the front parts of the other trains can attach to. The clips on the inside of the terminal are raised using switches near the clips.

Transformation from Terminal mode to ToQ Rainbow is also fairly simple.

Step 1: Raise the clips on the inside of the terminal.

Step 2: Attach the previous 13 trains’ front parts onto the clips. (I substituted the Kyoryuger and Go-busters Ressha for Drill and Shield Ressha because I don’t own the latter).

Step 3: Raise the bottom part of the terminal to form feet (If you can call them that) and stand the terminal up.

Step 4: Fold down the part with the ToQGer logo to form the chest piece.

Step 5: Rotate the five-wheeled piece on the back to reveal a face and flip it up into place

Step 6 : Rotate the small Hyper Ressha to form an upside-down “L” and attach it to the top of the newly-formed head.

The end result is that we have another uninspired looking mess of a plastic and colors. I want to give PLEX points for holding back on giving us another clusterf%$ck this year. However, they have instead giving us an anorexic looking robot with body implants and a Mickey Mouse/ train wheel head.

The toy looks very flat from the sides.

The body looks colorful, but it does not make for a very cohesive design.

Once again, we have no real legs, so he body just looks like a solid chunk of plastic.

ToQ Oh Rainbow’s articulation is the same as the TeiOh. That is to say that only the arms move.

I find that the back looks better than the front due to the fact that the back of this robot is made of the nice outer shell of the train.

A big disadvantage of only one part of the previous 13 trains for this combination is that it leaves you with this pile of plastic, each of which is missing a component.

The only not negative thing I can say about this combination is that it has weapons. The cannons/arms on the feet attach to the arms to form cannons/ blades.

So all in all, the DX Hyper Ressha Tei-Oh is a pretty big disappointment. The train form and terminal forms are decent enough. But once you get it into the robot forms, you are going to start wishing that more effort was put into the design of said robots, much like the rest of the line. I get that the designs and transformation are simple in order to appeal to very young kids. I am sure the line succeeds at doing just that. My nephew had a blast playing with the Hyper Ressha. However, this toy will probably not satisfy many of the adult collectors of Super Sentai toys.

THe DX Ressha Gattai Line leaves me to expect that we will continue to see more simplified robots like these in the years to come. However, I really hopet that Bandai switches gears for next year’s Super Sentai, which is rumored to be ninja themed.