God Reideen

As far as I know there have been three incarnations of Reideen;

• The original 70’s Raideen, which is the iconic design we all love
• The 90’s God Reideen, which one in ten seem to love
• The 2007 Reideen, which no one loved

This review is about that 90’s Raideen called God Reideen, which hails from the show Chouja Reideen, or Reideen the Superior.

I’ve never seen it, but I know it focuses on 5 yaoi-looking boy characters in bird suits who occasionally summon God Reideen. Seems flaky to me.

The Reideen design is cool, however, and it’s a design that does not get a lot of love in toy form. In fact, the only other toy was a diecast version that came out just prior to the SOC series. It is often thought that this Reideen toy was the precursor to the SOC line, as it is similar in size, scope, and material.

The fact that they made another toy of this design gives me hope that the SRC line will be a unique and original line, and not just the same old characters re-hashed. A quick look at the upcoming lineup (Gear Fighter Dendoh, Sunvulcan, Aquarion) seems to indicate just that.

God Reideen is a bulky character with a grand design. It’s a mighty vision of gold and silver, worthy of the “God” title. He arrives courtesy of HobbyLink Japan

Metal content is limited to the outer silver legs and parts of the chest. The rest of the figure is plastic, with subtle paint applications.

Starting from the top, the head is large, pointy, and has multiple segmented parts. Movement is limited due to the design. The helmet can be removed to get a good look at the actual face, but this is for transformation purposes only, not a feature from the show. It’s all plastic, and like the classic Reideen, hard to get to look just right.

Shoulders have the dual joint and the shoulder pads are actually mounted on the back instead of the shoulders. This allows the arms to move freely. Elbows have a double joint, while the hands are interchangeable. Instead of popping the hands off of a ball joint, you pull a peg out that’s attached to the hand.

The top of the chest (where the silver meets the black) can separate, but only to remove the top panel so that you can insert the weapon in the chest. This weapon is called the God Voice.

There is some waist articulation, but not much. Like I said, this is a big blocky design; it wasn’t made for dynamic poses.

The hips have ball joints and there are moveable side skirt parts to accommodate the motion. The knees bend, and from there down its solid leg – sort of. The heels move, but that’s more of the secret that’s stored inside than proper articulation.

In addition to the cannon on the chest, God Reideen has a few more weapons. There’s a shield that goes on the right arm that has a detachable blade. In its closed form it resembles the God Break from the classic design. You can swap it with a separate part that resembles the shield in its “open form” – a large mirror.

On the left arm you can attach a smaller bow weapon that can open and close, as well as extend an arrow. To replicate the full bow and arrow, Bandai has included one solid piece. This would have been a good idea for the regular Raideen! Special hands are included to hold this weapon.

Like the classic Raideen, this toy transforms into god bird mode. While transformation is relatively self contained, the final form is not very precise.

First you need to remove the helmet, and replace it with the bird mode head. I had a manufacturing defect on mine where the covering plate was glued on at an angle. I have not heard of this being a widespread issue, so it’s likely just mine.

Take the hands out and make the arms straight along the sides, then fold down the shoulder pads and unfold the wings. It would have been nice if the arms or shoulder pads had tabs so things could lock together.

The legs are interesting. Pull the silver lower legs up towards the chest and pull the claw and leg assemblies down and behind the figure. There’s a small black tab in the leg to make the two legs attach together, but it doesn’t hold very well.

Pull the claws under the back and unfold. The claws are sharp and segmented.

Bird mode is not bad, but suffers from the lack of pegs for precise placement of parts.

There’s a small hole on the back under the blue head part that can accept a Tamashii Stand connector.

Overall, though, I am reasonably happy with this release. I think it could be better, but I was happy to see an obscure design get new life in toy form. I do think though if you really like this design, track down the earlier Chogokin which does it right, although less accurately.

You can get your Super Robot Chogokin God Reideen at HobbyLink Japan.