Soul of Chogokin Gx-101X One Eight
Appearing in the Daitetsujin 17 TV series from episode 22 to 26, One Eight is another creation by the supercomputer, Brain, meant to conquer humanity. However, similar to One Seven, One Eight is originally programmed with free will. Seeing how Daitetsujin 17 rebelled thanks to having free will, Brain corrects this in One Eight by installing the “Satan Circuit”, to make it obedient to its commands. 17 manages to liberate his “brother” from the Satan Circuit with help from its human allies. One Eight later befriends Saburo’s classmate, Isamu, and begins to become more aware of humans and their potential.
The figure features some minor mid-torso articulation.
When posing the figure, be mindful of the wedge-shaped parts, as they may tend to rub against some surfaces and even against the figure’s own joints.
One Eight features some “drop-down” joints that allows the figure to have wider ranges of articulation.
In the series, One Eight’s “Flight Unit” backpack’s wings expand out when he’s about to fly. Here, you just simply swap the whole Flight Unit piece out for a bigger one.
One Eight’s flight speed is actually much faster than One Seven, he easily outraces his brother to the battlefield in episode 25.
One eight’s firepower is focused mostly in his chest hatch, opening it up reveals a 12-shot-multiple-barrel missile attack as well as a Super Graviton Cannon built into his chest. Unlike Gx-101, no lights and sound this time around, though.
With his “big brother”, Daitetsujin 17.
One Eight’s box is a few Millimeters higher than One Seven’s.
One Eight’s box is slimmer from the side compared to One Seven’s.
When Daitetsujin 17 first meets One Eight, our hero felt some sort of kinship to its “younger brother”, holding back in their first skirmish and eventually gets shot down by One Eight while trying to retreat.
In the rematch, 17 finally goes on the offensive and takes down One Eight without destroying it. 17 then proceeds to bring it back to a secret Japanese army facility for the human scientists to remove the Satan Circuit. Later on, befriending the young human boy, Isamu, One Eight proceeds to join the good guys in their fight against Brain in the succeeding episodes.
The “Electromagnetic Filter” – Appearing in episode 26 as a plot device, Brain plans to use its latest robot, the highly agile “Harken Killer”, to attach the Electromagnetic filter on Daitetsujin’s head to shut down its computerized brain.
In order to help its “big brother” take down this new, agile and “Graviton-shielded” enemy, One Eight feigns switching sides in the middle of battle when it learns of the Electromagnetic Filter. It secretly places a time bomb on the filter before attaching it to 17, this causes the Electromagnetic Filter to be destroyed and free Daitetsujin 17 a few moments later.
Tragically, One Eight later sacrifices itself in the same episode in order to defeat the highly mobile enemy mech, holding it down to prevent avoiding 17’s Graviton blast. The weakened Daitetsujin 17 eventually fires its Graviton to finish off the Harken Killer (and consequently, its brother, One Eight) for good, destroying both robots in the blast.
Side note regarding Daitetsujin 17 : Be mindful when posing Daitetsujin’s feet, as they do tend to scrape against the lower legs. Special thanks to Getterboi over at Robot Japan for the heads up on this.
The Good
-One Eight stands roughly 6.75 inches and weighs 217 Grams.
-Diecast parts include:
–Only the feet
-Drop down joints! I haven’t seen these in a while. They’re a welcome sight for poseability.
-Beautiful paint finish, simple yet stylish.
-Nice inclusion of the Electromagnetic Filter accessory for this robot.
-The figure is actually more fun and dynamic to pose than Gx-101 Daitetsujin, thanks to the drop-down joints.
The Bad
-Same as with Gx-101 Daitetsujin 17, no styrofoam tray is included.
-While the figure looks good, I was surprised at the minimal amount of diecast it has. Just the feet? None in the joints?
-Similar to Daitetsujin, One Eight doesn’t really come with much in terms of accessories.
-No display base.
-Electromagnetic Filter accessory can be difficult to place leveled on Daitetsujin 17. I wish they designed it to be simpler to put on.
-No electronics unlike Gx-101.
The Ugly
No quality issues here thankfully. Given that it’s a Premium Bandai website exclusive, getting this returned would have been tricky.
Overall, a pretty decent SOC release. Nothing particularly special about it, but its simplicity does have some elegance to it. The all-silver finish of the figure is really eye catching on a shelf, plus it goes pretty well side by side with the bright colored GX-101, so the figure does its part quite well as an “accessory piece” to the Daitetsujin 17. I do wish it had some more diecast and/or additional accessories or effects parts, but I guess it is what it is. At least it’s not a crazy-expensive release, despite being an exclusive.
As a personal added bonus, P-Bandai items are now cheaper to acquire locally here in Manila, thanks to the Premium Bandai store finally directly offering this (and future P-Bandai items) through the online merchant store, Shoppee. Finally!
Funfact: One Eight’s design was originally meant for Daitetsujin 17, before the producers decided to go another direction for the titular mech’s final look. Eventually, this design would be brought back for use as Daitetsujin’s brother, One Eight.
Gold
