Soul of Chogokin Gx-50SP Combattler V
Like the other Chogokin 50th Anniversary releases, Gx-50SP Combattler comes with an outer plastic baggie.
The manual is a straight up reuse of the one that came with Gx-50. No new colored images.
STORY
An alien race called the Campbells travelled across the stars thousands of years ago in search of new planets to inhabit. Arriving on Earth, they become dormant and awaken in the 21st Century to begin their plans to take over the planet. By using their giant bio-mechanical slave beasts to attack and destroy all human civilization, they make short work of the World’s military forces. Humanity’s only chance of survival lies with the “Battle Team” and their mighty fighting robot, Super Electro-Magnetic Robot Combattler V!
Battle Jet
Piloted by Battle Team leader, Hyoma Aoi, the Battle Jet is a high-speed fighter aircraft. Reaching speeds of Mach 4, the Battle Jet is the fastest unit amongst the team.
Opening Canopy.
Deployable landing gear.
Flip out Magne Laser turret.
Deployable machine guns. Simply tilt the unit forward to get the barrels to pop out.
Other weapons for the Battle Jet include:
Dos Brecher/ Dos Pressure – Four-bladed cutters emerge from the tips of the wings.
Sky Ripper – Various types of projectiles are fired from the unit’s wings.
Battle Crasher
Piloted by Juzo Naniwa. The Battle Crasher is intended to be a Bomber type craft. The most heavily armed amongst the Battle Machines, it’s various attacks include the Electro Dart, Grand Brit, Gallegar, Battle Block, Atomic Burner and the Rock Fighter missiles.
Battle Tank
Piloted by Daisaku Nishikawa, the Battle Tank is the team’s heavy armored unit and cannot fly on its own power (it has to rely on the Battle Marine for long distance transport). It also equipped with the single most destructive weapon on any Battle Machine, the 380mm tank cannon.
Deployable giant claws called the “Power Arm”
380mm tank cannon. In terms of caliber, this can be considered equal to a battleship-class main cannon
Battle Marine
Piloted by Chizuru Nanbara, the daughter of Combattler V’s late creator, Professor Nanbara. The Battle Marine is a meant to be a twin-hulled submarine with flight capabilities. While the unit’s primary function is underwater operations, it also serves as the team’s mobile repair unit, as well as the Battle Tank’s main means of aerial transport.
The Battle Marine has crane parts that can be attached to its sides in order to grab onto the Battle Tank (in the Anime, these just “sprout” out of the sides of the vehicle).
The rear landing gears for the Battle Marine are located on Combattler’s knee caps. Simply just rotate them out.
Battle Craft
Piloted by Kosuke Kita , the team’s youngest member and tech genius, the Battle Craft functions primarily for reconnaissance and detecting enemy weaknesses,
The Craft Drill can be easily pushed out via the tabs underneath the unit.
A cool design feature here carried over from the Gx-50, when there’s sufficient vertical weight or pressure, the wheels press downwards and lock them in, preventing Combattler V from rolling around and accidentally falling of a shelf.
Previously, with the original Gx-50 I noticed that there was some rusting on these plates on the Battle Craft right out of the box. Thankfully, no such issue with the Gx-50SP.
LET’S COMBINE!
How to attach the Battle Crasher:
Just put in like this and push the chest plates together. This will minimize paint chipping.
The manual doesn’t explain how, so this is the best way I could think of disassembling the Battle Crasher from the Battle Tank. If anyone has a better way please feel free to share.
Look at the back and find the notch, place your right thumb there.
Push hard against it, trying to force a 45 Degree angle. It should pop free.
This trick causes some chipping in the back part but relatively leaves the front chest piece paint chip-free, I’ve done this three times in a row and haven’t had any problems with paint chipping in the front and only a pin-head sized small paint chip in the back.
Previously the Gx-03 Battle Crasher was much easier to detach, just pull the front chest plate outwards, trying to make a 45 Degree angle and it should dislodge.
Combattler V
Created by Dr. Nanbara with the help of the United Nations, Combattler V was made with the sole purpose of defending the Earth from the Campbell Alien invasion. Formed from the combined will of the pilots of each Battle Machine, the 57 Meter tall Combattler V uses powerful weapons to fight against the Campbellian Army’s giant Slave Beasts sent to annihilate the human race.
The toy is a redeco repaint of the Soul of Chogokin Gx-50 Combattler V.
The Battle Crasher’s landing gears can be removed if you so choose.
Combattler’s Attacks
Big Blast and Big Blast Divider – A giant rocket fired from Combattler V’s belt buckle. It’s later on changed to a rocket that can launch several other smaller rockets (Big Blast Divider)
Parts swapping is required here.
Originally, the Big Blast was a huge yellow round-tip missile, the animators later changed this to the Big Blast we see here (it’s not an upgrade per se, more like an animation change mid-season).
Cutter Kick! – the red section of Combattler’s left lower leg protrudes out with rotating spikes, doing massive damage with it kicks its opponents. This attack is limited to Combattler’s left leg only (since Kousuke is located in Combattler’s right foot).
Some parts swapping is required.
Choudenji Yo-Yo! – Combattler gathers the red sections of its elbows and hips to form two yo-yo discs. The discs are connected to Combattler V’s palms through powerful electromagnets, instead of relying on traditional “strings”. Combattler can also throw the same red sections like boomerang shuriken instead of forming the yo-yo (an attack called “Battle Return”)
Yellow clear effects parts connect to Combattler’s palms.
Choudenji Yo-Yo Double Cutter! – Combattler V combines its yo-yos together to form a much larger yo-yo. This attack actually appeared only once in the entire show (Episode 4).
Optional parts have to be used before connecting the Double Cutter to Combattler, you’ll also have to pry apart the Double Cutter’s halves to attach the effects parts.
Thanks to hidden butterfly joints, you can shift the figure’s shoulders inwards to properly line up the Double Cutter.
Choudenji Crane! – a large spike block formed from Combattler putting its forearms together.
Lots of parts need to be added here.
Battle Guleggar! (lol.. what the heck is a guleggar?) – A giant claw weapon formed from the same way as the Choudenji Crane, the Battle Guleggar is used by Combattler V to grab and hurl its enemies far away.
Atomic Burner! – Flame throwers emerge from Combattler V’s wrists. Originally it was one flame thrower per arm. It was later changed into the larger, double-armed version in later episodes.
Twin Lancer! – Twin daggers shoot out from Combattler V’s shoulders, usually used as melee weapons.
The Lancers can be merged to form one weapon, just like in the Anime.
Grand Light Wave Rail! – Combattler launches an energy-based rail platform from its chest for its Grand Dasher attack.
Grand Dasher! – Combattler V transforms into its space tank mode, dashes on the Grand Light Wave Rail until it rams into its enemy.
Choudenji Tatsumaki! Choudenji Spin! – Combattler V’s finishing move. It generates an electromagnetic field trap its target. A giant drilling tool is then formed from Combattler’s arms (Electromagnetic Gimlet). Combattler V then proceeds to spin at high speeds and flies into its opponent, completely punching through its torso.
Display Base
Do note that the Gx-50SP version does NOT come with the gold foil “V” sticker that came with the original Gx-50 for the display base.
Display Base fully loaded
The Good
-The weigh in:
–Battle Jet – 26 Grams
–Battle Crasher – 116 Grams
–Battle Tank – 162 Grams
–Battle Marine- 252 Grams
–Battle Craft – 106 Grams
–Combattler V – 670 Grams
-Combattler V stands roughly 9.5 inches tall.
-Diecast parts include:
–Back half of the Battle Jet
–Shoulders, chest and torso of Combattler V
–Battle Marine c0ckpit/crotch section and lower legs (Combattler V’s thighs are plastic though)
–Most areas of the feet
-Beautiful new metallic blue paint deco.
-The new chrome parts really makes this figure stand out on a shelf.
-A Display base is included.
-Styrofoam trays are still included (newer Soul of Chogokins sometimes don’t come with styrofoam trays anymore).
The Bad
-The “V” sticker for the display base is no longer included.
-Like the other Chogokin 50th Anniv. Soul of Chogokins, this one is a straight up redeco reissue of an existing release, in this case, the Gx-50 Combattler V.
-Nothing new has been added in terms of accessories.
-Still missing the Dosu Pressure cutters for the Battle Jet (you can equip the ones from the Gx-03 Combattler V if you have it though).
-Same with Gx-50, this set is still lacking the individual wrist Atomic Burners like how it was with the Gx-03 Combattler V (again, the Gx-03 release comes with these).
-No “retro Popy-style” stickers? I was expecting them to try to add something here.
-The Battle Tank treads still fall off with not much effort, same as with the original Gx-50. I really wish they improved this (it gets insanely annoying sometimes).
-Battle Jet’s antennae still tend become warped if not positioned right in the styrofoam tray.
-Chrome finish tends to be a real fingerprint magnet. The figure needs to be wiped down after handling.
The Ugly
One of the claws on my Battle Tank is stuck and won’t come out. I didn’t want to force it in case it might break. Sigh…
Overall, a pretty good re-release. The new metallic colors look really good and they match up well with 50th Voltes V. I do wish Bandai improved on certain areas from the original Gx-50 release (Battle Tank treads just fall off too easily), plus the addition of the missing weapons like the single hand Atomic Burners and Dosu Pressure blades would’ve been a nice bonus.
Still, it’s a good re-release of a solid figure from 2009 (16 years ago already, can you believe that?) and a great chance for late collectors to catch up to one of the best releases in the Soul of Chogokin line.
Gold
