Cm’s Corp. Brave Gokin#40 Grendizer (The Final Brave Gokin)
Box is huge! 23x 16x 6 inches!!
Lol… the little TFO is planted in a small nook in the back of the styrofoam tray.
For this set, Grendizer and the Spacer have a very unique gimmick, where Duke Fleed pops up and down the Spacer to simulate his “Chute in” sequence from the show. The Spacer actually has a hidden lever, while with Grendizer, it’s just a simple matter of pushing his head back until Duke tucks underneath his chin.
Chute in!
Attacks
-Hand Beams
-Hanjuuryoku Storm (Anti-gravity storm)
-Shoulder Boomerang
-Screwcrusher Punch
-Space Thunder
-Double Harken
Screw Crusher Punch!
Hand Beams!
Space Thunder
Grendizer’s other (rarely-used) attacks
-Dizer Beam (eye beams)
-Dizer Punch (variation of the Screw Crusher Punch)
-Spacer Spin Go (Spacer spins in circular motion)
-Melt Shower Spacer Spin (same as above but with Melt Shower engaged)
-Single Harken
Single Harken
Grendizer can also use his Screwcrusher Punch differently, as drills, or as melee attack, plus another variation is the Screw Punch, where the fins are spread out like propellers instead of pointing forward.
Double Harken!
FATAL FLAW ALERT!
The connector for the Harken is pretty weak, skinny piece of plastic. It will definitely break once you try to pull it apart. I decided to buy a 1.5MM drill bit and then manually, by hand, pick at the hole to make it wider, slowly carving out a nice wider hole for the peg to go into. It worked. I can now plug and unplug the Harkens with impunity!
But really, I can’t believe CM’s didn’t do product testing on this obvious problem.
Spacer
The Spacer comes with 2 different sets of saucers, each depending on the gimmick.
Spin Saucers
Spin Drills
TFO
Ugh… I wish they had a sculpted figure in there, as is, thanks to the painted “chair” it looks like Koji got nuked and he melted into the upholstery.
-“Hey, Koji, you up for a game of frisbee?”
-“Sure, I’d love t– no, wait!”
Comparisons
(L-R) SRC, HL Pro, CM’s Corp, Bandai
With the Soul of Chogokin Spacer
SOC Spacer weighs 192 Grams
With the Aoshima Mazinkaiser
Mazinkaiser weighs 723 Grams.
The Good
-Diecast parts include
–Grendizer
—Torso
—Shoulders
—Lower Legs
—Feet
—Elbows!
–Spacer
—-Wings
—-Underbelly
—-“Trunk” Hinge bar.
Grendizer weighs 625 Grams
Spacer Weighs 433 Grams
-The Spacer has a unique gimmick, when you fold in the panels, the red fins pop out on the side, this is actually Anime accurate. Fins pop out whenever Grendizer is loaded onto the Spacer.
-Extending joints help improve articulation a lot! Cm’s even threw in extending shoulder plates.
-Good sculpting details, I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen the inside of Grendizer’s arm.
A quick note, make sure you align this notch to the ridge when returning the forearm, I almost made the mistake and tried to force the arm back in without looking first.
-Grendizer plugs into the Spacer without having to shorten legs or remove anything below the waist.
-Magnets hold Grendizer in place (but remember to wipe down the magnets when you first get to them, they tend to be dull for some reason before you polish them)
-Personally, I find this one to be the most show accurate Grendizer. Gotta love that.
-Spring gimmick panel cover here. For possible Double Spader?
-Spacer’s belly dips, this helps “level” the Spacer on a flat surface. Clever.
The Bad
-Track system for the Spacer is tricky, you just basically have to keep wiggling it until it folds in. Very scary if it’s your first attempt and you’re not sure where it’s supposed to go.
-QC problems like paint scuffs here and there.
-Weird glue residue on the thighs. Not very visible on mine but I checked another unit at the store and that one was atrocious.
-Poor packing design, no matter how well you place the accessories, you can be sure something will fall out of place on the tray, why they didn’t just put in a seperate accessory tray is a question indeed. When I first opened mine, everything short of Grendizer and the hands were inside the cavity for the Spacer, good thing the Spacer didn’t get scratched up.
-Super Posey hands. Not bad in theory, but the keep falling apart, so, not really that good an accessory.
-Rusted screws???
-Big, big, BIG hands. Way disproportional.
-Poorly painted crushers.
-That Double Harken peg breakage problem… ’nuff said.
-The Spin Drills saucer, I can’t seem to get it properly attached to the wing once the drill is deployed. When the drills are “hidden” they slip on the wings flawlessly, anyone else have this problem?
-Plastic TFO
-Koji looks terrible. For an exclusive, I expected better.
-I don’t know if I did it wrong but it seems like when Grendizer is in the Spacer, the Spacer tends to droop forward because of the weight (you can see it in most of the pics). Maybe I placed Grendizer in wrong?
The Ugly
Oh man, where to begin? This figure was highly anticipated by so many fans, but with the ridiculous amount of QC issues, it just totally ruined the toy. Case in point, at one store, we opened up Grendizer and lo and behold, the toy was not properly assembled! Seriously! The forearm was split open, and you can see the wide gaps in the biceps and shoulders. It’s like they forgot to screw the screws all the way in. But the toy was not damaged, just needed more assembly.
As far as sculpting goes, the look is almost spot on, with the exception of the freaky over-sized hands. I really like the look of the toy. The diecast content is very good, and the Chute in gimmick is pretty smart.
I think CM’s really gave a lot of thought into developing the toy to be the best Grendizer there is, but then they cut corners in the production line and it all came crashing down.
Overall, in light of so many problems with the production, I can’t recommend it, especially given the high price tag. It looks great and is very eye catching on any shelf, but at the end of the day, with so many other Grendizer toys out there, it comes up short.
Maybe one day CM’s can pull a “DX Genesic Gaogaigar” and do a recall (they did that back then, when the flaws in the plastic DX GGGG were so glaring, the company allowed replacements for everyone). But somehow, this time, I’m not holding my breath for such a scenario.
After this release, CM’s Corp closed up shop, the molds of all their previous Brave Gokins have been auctioned off to various companies and there are a few “reissues” coming out from said companies. Goshogun, Jeeg and Gordian have been re-released and supposedly this Grendizer is getting a reissue too.
Funfact : Apparently, Grendizer can “power up” and reach very high speeds of travel ( lol.. Ludicrous Speed anyone?)
Funfact 2 : Duke Fleed has telepathic abilities, like being able to detect where hostages are in an enemy robot.
Funfact 3: We have yet to get Grendizer together with Mazinkaiser in one Super Robot Wars game, despite the game series’ numerous releases throughout the last two decades. It’s always one or the other.
Gold
