DekaWing Robo

In the not-too-distant future, Earth has opened its doors to the universe, and co-exists peacefully with most of the known worlds throughout the galaxy and the many alien species that inhabit them. But like here, there is also crime, and it exists in many forms. The Alienizer syndicate is one of the more powerful and influential crime organizations, and they fund terrorism and chaos as their business through various alien spies, arms dealers, smugglers, and other illegal & dangerous activities. There are also individual criminals out there who indulge themselves in various schemes, cons, and thefts. For those extraterrestrial beings who cannot co-exist peacefully on Earth, there is the special-investigation taskforce known as S.P.D. – Special Police DekaRanger [Detective Rangers]. This intergalactic police force, made up of dedicated humans and aliens, fights to defend the peace & freedom of Earth and its allies.

It has become apparent that there is a powerful, yet unknown organization covertly backing many of the criminals on Earth. The appearance of illegal Muscle Gear exo-suit armor makes it clear to the DekaRanger assigned to Earth that their Deka Suits and defense techniques may not always succeed. The Pat Machines and the Deka Bike Robo, too, seem to be outdating quickly against the increasing threats from the various alien criminals. To combat these new threats, Earth’s DekaRanger were sent off-world to receive training in the use of new Special Weapons and Tactics (aka S.W.A.T.) technology from S.P.D. This would allow each DekaRanger to activate S.W.A.T. Mode when going up against a particularly difficult alien approved for Deletion.

In Episode 34- “Celeb Game”, three young, arrogant, wealthy aliens whose parents are in government are playing dangerous games with each other on Earth for amusement, and those matches are growing in scale and damage. So when a death finally occurs, S.P.D. is sent to investigate. Realizing that they like to hunt random beings and then kill them for sport, the three are found guilty and Deletion is approved. Just as they board their three private giant robotic kaijuuki (trnslt: heavy industrial machine), Swan-san at DekaBase contacts the S.W.A.T.-armored DekaRanger…

“Everyone. Thanks for waiting. I’ve just finished the new mecha that works with S.W.A.T. mode.”

“Alright. Pat Wing: move out!”

“Roger!”

“Pat Wing, take off!”

Unlike the five Pat Machines, the Pat Wings are all specifically designed for aerial combat and stronger defense. Though they lack the individual special features that set them apart from their more generalized predecessors, each performs well together, yet different in their own way…

Pat Wing 1 (back)- Piloted by DekaRed, it is the fastest and most agile despite being the largest of the five, and has one machine cannon mounted on either side of the nose. Pat Wing 1 forms the head, torso, and upper legs of the DekaWing Robo; and it also forms the back half of the DekaWing Cannon.

Pat Wing 2 (back)- Piloted by DekaBlue, it is more capable at slower speeds, and like the blue Patrol Gyro before it, can hover, and has one machine cannon mounted on either wingtip. Pat Wing 2 forms the arms of the DekaWing Robo; and it also forms the ‘grip’ of the DekaWing Cannon.

Pat Wing 3 (back)- Piloted by DekaGreen, it is the slowest of the five, though it has large storage containers which sit in front of and below the cockpit. It can also land and travel short distances on the ground, and has one machine cannon mounted on each of the two halves of its boxy structure. Pat Wing 3 forms the lower legs of the DekaWing Robo; and it also forms part of the barrels of the DekaWing Cannon.

Pat Wing 4 (back)- Piloted by DekaYellow, it shares a similar shape with Pat Wing 5, though it carries flares and other decoys which help to act as countermeasures for anti-aircraft fire. It also has two machine cannons (4 total) mounted on either side of the nose. Pat Wing 4 forms the right foot of the DekaWing Robo; and it also forms the front right barrel of the DekaWing Cannon.

Pat Wing 5 (back)- Piloted by DekaPink, it shares a similar shape with Pat Wing 4, but is meant to use its agility and quick-burst speed among city centers in order to alert civilians of danger of incoming kaijuuki. This also makes it ideal for light hit-and-run tactics with the single machine cannon fixed to either side of the nose. Pat Wing 5 forms the left foot of the DekaWing Robo; and it also forms the front left barrel of the DekaWing Cannon.

While the Pat Machines from the DX Tokusou Gattai DekaRanger Robo had appearances that were semi-similar to modern-day contemporaries, the five Pat Wingshave a more unique, stealthy style. And, well, the all-black plastic highlighted with silver paint and transparent red plastic strobe lights looks pretty cool too. Another noticeable difference between the Pat Machines and the Pat Wings are that the latter only have their ID numbers appear once just above each cockpit. (Well, Pat Wing 3’s number actually appears on either side of the boxes structures…) With the exception of Pat Wing 3, all have small landing gear which flip and snap down from various locations; some of them kinda hard to get at with larger fingers. And because they are all similar to each other, it’s easier for Bandai and Toei to just call them all Pat Wings… right? Pat Wing 1 is a buffed-up fighter with two large air intakes behind the cockpit and a stubby set of wings and tails on its backside. Like DekaRed’s regular ride- the Patrol Striker from the DekaRanger Robo- Pat Wing 1 has the same pair of black shoulder joints awkwardly poking out the sides just ahead of the engine intakes; they almost look like canard wings, but, no. Pat Wing 2 is a little odd-shaped with the large gapping hole in its body just in front of its wings (more on that later) and the fists under the nose, but aside from the four red strobe lights across the leading edge of the wings, this looks like something Batman™ might ride around in. Just about every Super Sentai combining set has its oddball, and Pat Wing 3 fits that profile. It is two rectangular boxes jointed together on top by a small green fuselage and a set of small wings in back and even stubbier canards up front! If it weren’t for the 12 wheels on the bottom of it (four of which are viewable on either side when it’s on a flat surface), I’d have said it had a pair of massive cannons held under those wings! Though quite boxy, I’ve grown attached to it. 😉 Pat Wings 4 and 5 are near copies of each other even if their molds aren’t the same. They both have the large rocket nozzles, rounded noses, and small trans. red strobe light plastic on either side. Where they divulge is only in the difference between yellow and pink, and that Pat Wing 4 has four cannons on its nose instead of two like on Pat Wing 5’s.

What is identical to the DX DekaRanger Robo is the light-&-sound function, which resides within Pat Wing 1. The activation button this time sits near the back of the vehicle on top. Pressing it once flashes the lights on the top and bottom of the Pat Wing along with a siren sound. Tapping it along any axis will also trigger the internal bump sensor, and causes a crashing light-&-sound effect. (It is more sensitive to side and front/back impacts.)

“Everyone. Combine.”

“Roger! Tokusou Gattai!“

The debut of the five Pat Wings against the three ground-based kaijuuki is impressive. Swan-san’s design with the latest Deka Machine technology from S.P.D. allows them to shoot down missiles mid-flight and bank & turn on a figurative dime. Now, the time was needed to Delete the kaijuuki and the spoiled aliens within them for the unforgivable crimes of killing untold thousands for sport. The DekaWing Robo is a stylized machine without trying to be. Armed with two Pat Magnums, it is both agile and well designed for specialized combat. With the two rocket engines on its feet, it can fly to high altitudes such as the stratosphere (10-50km). And with the special tactics learned by the DekaRanger, they can use the limbs of the mecha to deflect bullets and detonate missiles prematurely. Unlike the DekaRanger Robo, however, the DekaWing Robo does not have a built-in Judgment Scanner, but the rangers themselves can still use theirs.

Transformation is only slightly more involved, and requires more things like rotating the landing gear out of the way that actually changing their form. In this way, both the DekaRanger Robo and DekaWing Robo are identical in number of steps-per-component needed for the combination. Pat Wing 4 is the least ‘complex’ of the five, requiring only the rocket nozzle be turned downwards, and the nose gear retracted before combining it.

Also like the DX DekaRanger Robo, this set uses that rare hidden electronic button. When the battery is on, and the two halves of Pat Wing 1 are unsnapped and then rotated around together again, the hidden button lets the toy know that the change has occurred, and this activates a completely different set of light-&-sound patterns that are used for the combination.

“Gear Up! DekaWing Robo!”

DekaWing Robo (back) is much more serious than the bright and bulky DekaRanger Robo. It is a slimmed down figure cloaked in black, and even the five colors of the DekaRanger themselves are darker in tone. It has a serious, triangular red face with blue eyes and a microphone placed where the mouth would be; again, a trait common with real S.W.A.T. officers. The only places S.P.D.’s silver Doberman-style logo appears are on the chest and forehead of the mecha. Each arm has a wide wing-like projection tipped with the silver cannons from Pat Wing 2, each shoulder snaps comfortably all the way around every 45°, and each forearm is equipped with a streamlined shield. The feet, oddly, are designed to be splayed off-center when in this form. Rather than deal with a sword and/or shield, the DekaWing Robo has a pair of large black Pat Magnums for ranged combat- very similar to DekaRed’s style of fighting with his own red & white D-Magnum-01/-02!

As mentioned earlier, the hidden button activates a completely different set of light-&-sound combinations. Unlike the DekaRanger Robo, the DekaWing Robo has only one light-&-sound pattern when combined like this.

• a stylized clashing sound, followed by sirens

This change also alters the shock sensor’s reaction. Instead of the muffled crashing sound when Pat Wing 1 is bumped, we get a metal clashing sound with the combined DekaWing Robo; bringing the grand total of light/sound combo effects to 6 for this toy. Pretty impressive since the most we’ve had before was 2-3 per toy. In addition to having the light & sound, Bandai went a step further to improve the comparison between the toy and the robot on the show. When the upper legs rotate out of the Pat Wing 1, there are four red LED lights there, and then they are inserted into both halves of Pat Wing 3. This way, not only does the chest light up, but the front of the lower legs, and the rocket nozzles on the bottom of the feet do as well! As a final touch, if the battery is left on but isn’t used for more than 30 seconds, the toy beeps & lights-up to get your attention, then repeats this same pattern after every 10 seconds until you either make it do something or turn it off.

It’s a little disappointing as to why it has only one effect with the button this time, but there’s a good reason for that…

“Tokusou Henkei! DekaWing Cannon!”

While two of the three kaijuuki have already been easily defeated by the Pat Magnums, the third piloted by the ringleader was a flying unit and powered by antigravity energy; Deleting it in the middle of the city would result in a very large explosion. So, the DekaWing Robo flew straight at the defeated kaijuuki, and boosted it directly into space! Tossing it clear, the DekaRanger reformed their mecha into the DekaWing Cannon- a stylized and scaled-up double-barrel shotgun. Setting their SP Licenses into their D-Revolvers, they charged and fire using the Magnum Buster finisher at the helpless and flailing kaijuuki, destroying it high in Earth’s atmosphere.

“Got You!”

“With this… case complete.”

The third-mode DekaWing Cannon (back) was the subject of much hype when images first appeared online in mid-2004. Never before had a DX Super Sentai toy mecha of any kind been able to change itself into a role-playing weapon; before that, weapons were only usable between the mecha themselves but this was different. You could actually hold the grip of the DekaWing Cannon and pull a trigger! And to add to this, the two Pat Magnums could join together and act as a little tripod (but without the three-leg part) and hold the toy up horizontally for display! The sacrifice of the second effect for the DekaWing Robo was made so that the trigger could have its own special light-&-sound display when it was in DekaWing Cannon mode:

• a shooting sound followed by an explosion

The bump sensor and the button on top of the DekaWing Cannon operate the same as if Pat Wing 1 were already separated. This also explains why the two LEDs at the ends of the upper legs were dedicated specifically to pointing downwards- so that the red ‘muzzle flash’ effect would be brighter. The only downside to the arrangement is that with the repositioned grip as it is, you can’t easily access the On/Off switch unless you remove it first (or have really tiny kid-sized fingers). Something else that is different is the use of latches on both Pat Wings 2 and 3. When separating Pat Wing 2 from the third mode, you have to release a lever in order to separate them; with Pat Wing 3, you have to press in tabs on both halves to separate them from the upper legs. These are most likely in place to make sure that when in DekaWing Cannon mode it doesn’t accidentally fly apart when performing fast kid-sized gunplay.

In Episode 42- “Skull Talking” an alien has set a planet-destroying Browgoul monster down on Earth, and is planning to mature it by drawing a special Grontium meteor nearby. The DekaRanger do Delete the alien who planned all of this and destroy both the remote controller drawing the meteor to Earth and the Browgoul itself. However, what they don’t realize is that the mysterious Agent Aburera, who has been behind all of the Alienizer activity on Earth, has another Browgoul egg hidden and it has absorbed all of the explosive energy from its predecessor. Then in Episode 43- “Meteor Catastrophe”, the new Browgoul’s roaring summons the meteor back towards Earth. Hoji (DekaBlue) volunteers to take DekaWing Robo up to space in a risky plan to destroy the meteor since he is the best shot, while the others and DekaBreak remain behind to defeat the Browgoul (who has already beaten back Super DekaRanger Robo once)! However, Ban (DekaRed) feels that Hoji would do better if someone was up there with him, and sneaks aboard DekaWing Robo against orders before it lifts off. Meanwhile, DekaRanger Robo and DekaBike Robo engage the Browgoul but the approaching meteor causes it to grow to enormous size, forcing the larger DekaBase Robo to come into play. With enough power for only one shot and the gravity of the meteor interfering with its controls, the DekaWing Cannon fires and hits directly on-target… but the meteor doesn’t explode! With the core of the meteor exposed, Hoji tells Ban to separate and return to Earth while he self-destructs the DekaWing Cannon inside the core. But Ban ejects Pat Wing 2 instead and flies into the core by himself. After separation the remaining four components of the DekaWing Cannon fly into the meteor- and it explodes. Filled with remorse, regret, and rage, DekaBlue flies Pat Wing 2 back to Earth and joins the others in the fight for the honor and revenge of Ban! But the three Deka Machines and Pat Wing 2 are unable to summon enough power to defeat the enlarged Browgoul. But suddenly- the DekaWing Cannon reappears intact! Ban explains that he had flown the mecha into the core and then destroyed it with his S.W.A.T. Mode’s D-Revolver instead of ramming it, and escaped just in time. With Hoji loudly cursing Ban for being such an unprofessional hothead while trying to quickly cover up his true feelings once more [and berating him for calling him partner (“aibo”) yet again], the DekaWing Cannon is fully reformed and then cradled between DekaRanger Robo and DekaBike Robo, with DekaBase Robo’s finger on the trigger. Maximizing their power and channeling it into the DekaWing Cannon, the four mecha annihilate their most difficult opponent to date with the All Star Ultimate Buster!

Two things happen here:

• We see the DekaWing Cannon operate without Pat Wing 2 (the grip) attached; and-
• All four Deka Machines come together on the battle field at once.

Both of these events are part of the canon since they appear on-screen. However, there are no special names or mentioning outside the show itself to suggest that these are official modes. (We have seen power transfers like this before, however, with the five Pat Machines inside DekaBase Crawler.) Since I don’t have a DX Tokusou Henkei DekaBike Robo (I never will!) and a DX Chou Kyodai Kidou DekaBase Robo (chances are I won’t anytime soon), I can’t show you the All Star Ultimate Buster set-up. But I can tell you that the DX toys aren’t really set up to do what was seen in the show. With the alternate form of the DekaWing Cannon, all that was done was that Pat Wing 2 was removed and that was it. No biggie.

But, this is the only episode that these two events ever happen in the show.

Something else that I cannot comment on/show is how the five Pat Wings fit inside the DekaBase. While the retracted wings on Pat Wings 1 and 4 are fairly obvious, Pat Wing 2 has to collapse its wings down a bit, and Pat Wing 3 actually separates in half and then the two halves are connected together back-to-back, like a monorail/train.

Now, for those of you wondering what the differences are between the DX Tokusou Gattai DekaWing Robo from “Tokusou Sentai DekaRanger”, and its English-speaking counterpart, the Supreme Megazord from “Power Rangers S.P.D.”, this was actually one of those very rare occasions where nothing was changed when it was brought over to the US. There was early speculation and fear that due to US-toy regulation laws the double-barreled gun mode would prevent the toy from being imported, but surprisingly it was; perhaps because it was fantasy-looking enough to not warrant concern. (It was also theorized that the DekaWing Cannon mode would be edited out of the show for the same reason, but it was not.) Also, because it was called the Supreme Megazord, the description word “deluxe” was not added to the box- that has never happened before or since; any transforming toy of this size has always been referred to as a Deluxe. (The “DX” on the Japanese titles also means “deluxe“, and they, too always use that to describe the kind of toy it is!) Ironically, the Supreme Megazord was also not named correctly. (Well– with a name like “Supreme”, what would you expect!?) 😀 In “PR SPD”, it was always called the SWAT Megazord. This marks one of the even rarer occasions when a “PR” toy was marketed under a different name from what is given in the show- typically something only reserved for the mass-produced grunt figures, which use the default title “Evil Space Alien” on the packaging- even though they are always given different names in the show(s). (The term “Evil Space Alien” itself is a carryover from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” Season-1, and even then never mentioned directly in the show!)

This mecha is a very serious, no-bull-about-it player. The less bulky body, muted colors, rocket nozzles in the feet, and the paired Pat Magnums make it look very mean and professional. Putting the DekaWing Robo side-by-side with the DekaRanger Robo proves that. There were no major complaints I had with it- the small size (obviously, was needed so that it could fit inside the DX DekaBase), and it’s a little back-heavy (just bend it forward a bit at the hip joints). Additionally, the Patrol Striker and Pat Wing 1 could be switched around between the two sets, though this never happens in the show. And because they share those same joints, technically the DekaWing Robo could sit atop the DekaBike in its vehicle mode, but I don’t have a DekaBike, so I can’t show you! (I also can’t verify if the DekaBike Robo can combine with the DekaWing Robo to form an alternate version of the Super DekaRanger Robo, though I doubt they can.) The individual Pat Wings are different enough from each other and their Pat Machine counterparts that they are still interesting in their own way. The DekaWing Cannon is also a really great way to bring a new level of interactive-ness to the DX Super Sentai toys rather than them always being just scaled-down mecha. I recommend it all around. The Supreme/SWAT Megazord is just as good, and if you get that, it’s fine. (It’ll definitely be about $10 cheaper, too!) If you can get the DX Tokusou Gattai DekaWing Robo, absolutely go for it!