Sentinel Metamor-Force “Bari”ation God Gravion
The first thing you will notice when you open the set is the stuffing used to prevent the toy from scratching itself in package. Not sure if I like it, since unless that’s acid free plastic, there’s a chance it might eat in the toy over time?
Colored manual. Nice.
Gran Kaiser
The Gran Kaiser is the core robot that forms the God Gravion. Piloted by 17-year old Touga Tenkuuji, the Gran Kaiser mostly relies on physical attacks and lacks any real offensive weaponry.
The toy features somewhat limited shoulder articulation due to the shoulder pad design. Unfortunately, this problem carries over to the combined form of God Gravion as well.
The real bright point here is the amount of articulation we get from the mid torso joint. It adds a lot of dimension to the figure.
G-Striker and G-Attacker
The G-Striker and G-Attacker are actually identical units (I think each one has different weaponry for Gravion though, not sure). Piloted by 17-year old Eiji Shigure and Mizuki Tachibana, each unit forms the leg of God Gravion.
Too bad we don’t get pilots inside the c0ckpit.
G-Driller
Piloted by the 14-year old Luna Gusuku and Eina, the driller forms God Gravion’s arms.
Heh, in the Anime, I never realized the God Gravion’s biceps were folded up like so for the Driller mode.
The side cannons are adjustable.
G-Shadow
Piloted by the young Leele Zeravire, The G-Shadow’s pilot is the final member of the Earthgertz team to be revealed for the first season.
Soldiers of the Gran Knights, Combine!
Elgo Form!!
Super Heavyweight Combination!
God Gravion
Created on Earth by the mysterious Klein Sandman to combat the extraterrestrial Zeravire, the God Gravion is composed of machines called Gran Divas, piloted by members of the Earthgertz team. Pilots for each unit must possess the G-Factor, a genetically inherited trait that allows the individual to withstand high levels of gravimetric pressure.
God Gravion in Action!
Because the Zeravire adapt and evolve with each successive defeat, future attacks using the same weapon or technique will be rendered useless with the next opponent. The Gravion must utilize a new finishing attack every time.
Graviton Pressure Punch
(The figure can’t clasp its two hands together like in the anime to do the Graviton Blaster pose due to the limited shoulder articulation).
A variation of the Graviton Pressure Punch, this time with the G-Driller’s drill exposed.
(No accessory for this attack included with the toy, sadly).
Graviton Rifle!
Dual wield!
Graviton Sword!
To form the Graviton Sword, you have to remove Gravion’s chest piece first, followed by removing a piece of the chest piece and merging it down with the sword.
Blaze up!
Elgo End
Super Heavy Weight Sword (Cho Juu Ken)!
Elgo Storm!!
Super Heavy Weight Slash (Cho Juu Zan)!
Elgo End
-Remember to fold in/ out this connector piece on the left arm for the G-Driller.
-The biceps on Gran Kaiser can go up higher than it seems, you just have to open up the forearm a bit.
-The transformation for Gran Kaiser is a bit tricky at first, go slow, if you get what they’re going for, which is just rotating the connection ports for the biceps in and out, it becomes more simple, especially when you consider the entire port tree can be detached from the body and reset.
-Remember to press down Gran Kaiser’s collars before pushing down on the G-Shadow onto the shoulders.
-When you remove the helmet, you find there are two faces on the Gran Kaiser, the one with the chin cap is for when he forms into God Gravion.
-Holding the Super Heavy Weight Sword like on the back of the box requires a cheat, the only way the handle can reach across to the other arm is if you remove the pommel (the bottom part of a sword).
The Good
-Gran Kaiser stands at roughly 8 Inches, God Gravion stands at roughly 9 inches tall.
-The weigh in:
–Gran Kaiser – 285 Grams
–G-Attacker – 133 Grams
–G-Striker – 133 Grams
–G-Driller – 55 Grams
–G-Shadow – 48 Grams
–Gravion – 653 Grams
-Diecast parts include
–Gran Kaiser – Upper torso, shoulder pad joints, hip skirt plates, crotch, internal knee joint, ankle joint
–G-Attacker – Gravion’s feet, some of the ankle joints
–G-Striker – Gravion’s feet, some of the ankle joints
–G-Driller – elbow joints (?)
–G-Shadow – hinge joints
-The toy is beautifully painted, good amount of details.
-Ab crunch joint present.
-Even without ratchet joints, the toy holds accessories very well.
-Combination isn’t too hard, just some tricky points on the Gran Kaiser, but nothing really fragile.
The Bad
-No Display base
-Falling arm connection. The connections are not as tight as I would have liked.
-Swapping new fists for God Gravion was a pain, I cannot stress this enough.
-Limited shoulder articulation, due to the shoulder pad design (can’t do “arms straight forward” poses), though I guess this is more of an animation model design reason.
-The transformation for Gran Kaiser felt needlessly overcomplicated, since you need to do parts swapping anyway and the pieces are detachable, it could’ve been simplified.
-Lack of ratchet joints anywhere
-“Baby hands” on the Gran Kaiser.
-Parts swapping required, no way to get a “perfect” transformation here.
-Transformation on the Gran Kaiser is a bit of a pain to do, even with parts swapping.
-No chrome on the swords. Too bad.
-Removing the chest piece for the Graviton sword leaves a huge, glaring plug hole on Gravion’s chest. I wish they included something to patch it up.
Really hard to plug in the fists on the God Gravion, also, the bicep falling off on the Gran Kaiser was a real pain. Not what I was expecting with such an expensive toy.
Another issue for me was the way the joints are done, not really feeling comfortable with the lack of ratchet joints, particularly for the elbows, considering he has such a large sword as one of his accessories, likewise with the way the G-Driller connects to Gran Kaiser. It’s plastic on plastic “plug in”. No locking mechanism whatsoever. Tsk tsk..
Overall, not bad, but really could have been better, particularly with some of the joints (swapping fists is a huge hassle, I cannot stress this enough) and the shoulder pad design was way too restrictive for the arms (but I can’t really fault Sentinel here on this since it’s due to the way the chest plate is so big on the animation models, there’s just no real way to work around it and make the toy super poseable).
The good news is that there’s plenty of heavy diecast here, which is a huge leap compared to earlier Sentinel diecast figures (I’m looking at you Dino Getters). The ab crunch joint section’s poseability is what really saved the toy here, it gave the figure a lot more dynamic articulation.
Gold
