Mazinkaiser

The Mazinkaiser appears thanks to Bluefin Distribution. You can pick yours up at Amazon.com

The Mazinkaiser is the titular robot of the OVA series that shares its name. Although the Mazinkaiser OVA starts out quite serious, it quickly becomes into show full of fanservice and humorous situations.

 After Baron Ashura and Dr. Hell turn the Mazinger into an evil version of itself, Koji Kabuto re-appears in the Mazinkaiser. The Mazinkaiser is a Mazinger on steroids made of Super Alloy Z. The improved build quality and weaponry of the Mazinkaiser make it more durable and deadly than its predecessors.

The Mazinkaiser has seen its share of toys, and it was recently released in the Super Robot Chogokin line.

The Super Robot Chogokin Mazinkaiser is a nice, sexy and solid piece of robot with its share of pointy edges. I was hoping I could avoid spilling any blood with this toy, but that was not the case. I literally had one last segment to shoot for the video review of this toy and I cut myself with the Kaiser Scrander. So let that be a warning to those who are going to handle this toy, it can cut you.

In this iteration, Mazinkaiser is slimmer and sleeker than the chunkier build of the robot on the show. So it is not the most faithful toy rendition of the Mazinkaiser. But if you can get over the inaccuracies of the toy, it is still a pretty damn good Mazinger toy. It’s got a lot of nice detail and a bit of diecast content. The metal content on this is limited to the lower legs, the chest and uppper back armor, and the hip and shoulder joints. .

Just like in the show, you can attach the flight-granting Kaiser Scrander to the back of the Mazikaiser.

Even the wings have a bunch of sharp edges.

This release comes with a clip for attaching the Mazinkaiser to a Tamashii Stage stand.

In order to make up for the sharp edges of the mecha’s design, Bandai engineered the SRC Mazinkaiser in a way that compliments that edges’ ability to inhibit the toys movement.

The chest plates can be raised to give the arms more clearance space.

Inside the shoulder is a ball joint on a hinge.

This compound joint is connected to a swivel inside of the arm. The shoulder pads also have the ability to move up a bit. However, this Though this seems to serve little purpose since arms’ movement is never extreme enough to require raising the shoulder pads.  The fact that the lower half of the arm is removable creates a swivel of sorts at the bicep.  Below this is a swivel joint that can tuck into the forearm for extra mobility.

The wrists are simple ball joints. Swapping out the hands to the Mazinkaiser were the single most tedious part of the this toy.  Just about ever time that I wanted to take off a hand, I would inteand end up taking off the whole wrist joint and sometimes the golden cuff at the end of the arm. 

I was hoping the Mazinkaiser would have a similar extending neck joint that Super Robot Chogokin Shin Getter 1 had. This allowed Shin Getter to look forward while flying. Sadly, that was not the case. The head is on a ball joint that is attached to a panel at the base of the neck. The golden horns are also articulated, and can be rotated forward or back until they are stopped by the neck of chest plates.

 There is a swivel joint at the bottom of the chest, where it connects to the midsection. While this joint cannot move much in its standard position, you can extend the chest up. This makes the Mazinkaiser a bit taller and allows its chest to move more freely.At the base of the midsection there is a ball joint.

The ball joint at the hip can extend down for some extra range of motion for the legs.

The knees are double jointed and can move back a substantial amount thanks to the collapsible panel at the back of the knees.

The Mazinger can take a knee, but the pointy kneepads keep this from looking very natural.

The ankles are on a ball swivel.

The ankle joint extends out to allow more range of movement.

Also, foot is actually two pieces that can split.

So you can get some nice wide stances with your Mazinkaiser

Finally, each of the wings on the Kaiser Scrander is attach to the backpack via a ball swivel.

So all in all, the Mazinkaiser has a ton of articulation.  While at first glance, it would appear that it was engineered in much the same way as the Super Robot Chogokin Shin Getter 1, the Mazinkaiser actually has some unique engineering.

But they do share a bit of their basic engineering-like the shoulder, elbow and thigh joints- since these releases were planned to be companion pieces. The lower arms for both mechs are removable and interchangeable. Same goes for the backpacks.

You can use the removeable arms to recreate the Turbo Smasher Punch.

So you can mix and match the removalbe pieces pieces

You can make the Mazinkaiser an even bigger impalement hazard by attaching the arms of Shin Getter 1.

On the other hand, you can make the Shin Getter 1 even redder by attaching the Kaiser Scrander to it.

With a new pair of arms, Shin Getter 1 has mastered the art of the Turbo Smasher Punch.

But now a new challenge awaits Shin Getter 1… a new master has appeared.

Can the Shin Getter 1 combine its old techniques with its new teaching to perform the Ultimate Kaiser Stranger?!

Try not to think too much about how that would even be possible.

For extras, the Mazinkaiser comes with 3 sets of hands: closed, splayed and holding-stuff hands.

This concise hand count provides everything you need for this toy. The only issue I had with the hands is that the holding hands grip over the sword is a bit loose.

Mazinkaiser comes with two Kaiser Blades.

A normal sword for all of your posing needs.

And a forced-perspective sword, for all of your up-in-your-face-with –the-sword- posing needs.

The toy even looks good with some ripe young honeys at the forefront.

 Which is how the Mazinkaiser should be displayed, in order to stay true to the source material.

The Mazinkaiser is a pretty darn great robot that has a ton of articulation. The only downside is that the robots pointy parts may sometimes inhibit your ability to pull off a pose exactly the way you want to. But while he may not be as dynamic as his Shin Getter 1 brother, the Mazinkaiser does make an awesome companion piece for the Getter.

If you want to expand your experience with these toys, you can purchase the Dynamic Action Parts, which feature two more swords for the Kaiser and effect parts for his Turbo Smasher Punch.

Oh yea, this is supposed to be a Great Seiyamann review. Now let’s hear from Jmann:

JM: “It’s nice.”

SS: There you have it: a concise review by Jmann.

The Mazinkaiser appears thanks to Bluefin Distribution. You can pick yours up at Amazon.com