ClawZord

The ClawZord makes his appearance thank to BigBadToyStore.
Pick yours up there!

I have walked past this toy numerous times in various toy aisles: Toy R Us, Target, Walmart, even some discount stores like TJ Maxx and Ross. A couple of those times, I was even tempted to buy the ClawZord. But I held back, in hopes that I could find the Japanese version at a good price. Then when the gap between the Dollar and the Yen started to close, I was able to pick up the DX Daikai Oh. So I never had a need to buy the ClawZord. But now I was given the opportunity to check this version out. So how does it compare to it Japanese counterpart? Let’s find out.

First let’s take a look at the ClawZord in it animal form. 

 It pulls off looking like a lobster and is a pretty decent representation of the lobster robot you see in the show. 

 Being a Bandai of America version, the toy has been scaled down, re-engineered and given paint applications that are competent, but not as screen accurate as the Japanese version of the toy. The ClawZord has blue inside claws, completely blue arms, an orange peg at the back, non-metallic silver on the hexagons on the sides of the tail and a few other minor differences in paint applications; differences that make it less faithful to the source material than the Japanese version.

However, you still get a nice shiny sticker on the back tail piece of the Zord! But even that appears to be a notch lower in quality compared to its Japanese counterpart.

 The Japanese version’s sticker has very tiny reflective spots the size of sand on the sticker, while the American version has bigger squares. So yes, the Japanese version wins in overall quality. But you get what you pay for, and for the price the American version is a good value.

Now let’s transform this lobster.

While the Claw BattleZord is smaller than the Daikai Oh, the Claw BattleZord is still plenty hefty.

It is worth noting that on the American version, the claws on the shoulders are actually more proportionate to the rest of the figure. So the Claw BattleZord scores points over the Japanese version in this department, which makes it not only look better, but closer to how the robot looks in the show.

So the Claw BattleZord does a good job of looking like it should.

Being the least expensive of the two, the ClawZord does not feature any electronic sounds or the ability to remove the disc in the Zord. However, you can still spin the disc inside of the toy to shift between the four fighting versions of the toy ( well only three if you do not own the extra Zord that is required).

If you have seen a ClawZord in the box, you might have noticed that the packaging has a hole in it revealing the peg at the center of the toys chest. Just above the hole a “Turn + Try” sticker entices curious buyers to check out the face-changing feature of the toy. 

So naturally, one would try to turn the faces on the ClawZord using the peg. This probably led to frustration for many people. You see, the peg is quite hard to turn. Only by gripping it at the base and turning it hard will you be able to spin the multi-faced disc that rests inside of the toy. I remember trying this feature in the toys stores a couple of times and concluding that perhaps the ones that I tried it on were defective. That was not the case; the peg is good for two things: to kind of look like what the hexagonal piece looks like in the show and to serve as a connection point. Turning the disc is not one of the peg’s strong points and thus makes one wonder why Bandai would go out of their way to promote something that this part of the toy does not do well.

But when you take the toy out of the package, you can turn the disc easily by spinning it from the top. Then you can check out the various modes of the Claw BattleZord.

Claw BattleZord South uses two swords composed of the lobster’s head.

Claw BattleZord West uses the tail of the lobster as a fan.

Claw BattleZord East uses the claws to pinch its enemies real hard. Pinch, pinch, pinch!

Finally, in order to form the Claw BattleZord North, you are going to need Gold’s other marine mecha, the OctoZord.

The OctoZord acts as a lance and chest armor for the BattleZord. With this version, the Claw BattleZord holds the lance from the bottom. With the Japanese version and in the show, the lance is held from behind.

But that is not the only thing the ClawZord can do. It can also separate and become armor for the Samurai Megazord, making it the Claw Armor Megazord. It looks a bit punier than it should, which is due to the tinier lower bodies of both Zords.

Unlike the pic on the box.

The back is multi-colored and lacks cohesiveness, but isn’t necessarily hard on the eyes.

My only major beef with this combination is the big chunk of black plastic that just hangs out of the back of the neck.

In BattleZord form, you get the same amount of articulation from the limbs as the Japanese version. The arms move up and down at the shoulder. Furthermore, the thighs move forward and back, and the “knee” can bend backwards. So you can make your Claw BattleZord sit.

So is the ClawZord a good toy? Yes, for the most part. Is the Japanese version better? Yes, but that does not detract from the fact that the American version is a decent representation of Shinken Gold… I mean the Gold Samurai Ranger’s lobster-bot. It may not have a removable disc or make any sounds, but you also have to consider that it was made for a price point that is about half of what Japanese version sold for. So for about 30 bucks (even less now that many of the Power Rangers Samurai toys are on clearance), the ClawZord does quite a lot of what its big brother can do.