Soul of Chogokin Gx-102 Mazinkaiser SKL
Story
Set in an alternate timeline, where Koji Kabuto, Mazinger Z and Doctor Hell never existed, a powerful machine is discovered underneath the ruins of the abandoned Photon Power Laboratory by the WSO (Wide-area Surveillance Organization). Dubbed as the “Kaiser”, mercenaries Ken Kaido and Ryo Magami of the Skull Force’s Death Caprice Squad are the only ones capable of piloting the destructive Super Robot into battle against giant monsters and terrorist-piloted mechs.
Mazinkaiser SKL’s pilots:
Ken Kaido (codenamed: Amon-6) – a hot-blooded, rude and reckless former WSO prison inmate, Ken is selected to be one of the pilots for Kaiser as he is the only other person besides Magami who could handle the massive power output of the machine, which usually drove its pilots mad to the point they would kill themselves unless they possessed incredible willpower. Ken is usually armed with various knives as well as a Katana when not piloting the Kaiser.
Ryo Magami (codenamed Lucifer-4) – cool and nihilistic (lacks any moral principles and views life as meaningless), Ryo’s memories of his past are shrouded in mystery. Through flashbacks in the Manga, it is revealed that he is an artificial human created by the evil scientist Faust. Magami is in fact one of many clones of an unknown person. It is later shown that Ryo murdered the original and chooses to forget his origins, any attempt to remind him of his past drives him into an uncontrolled rage. Ryo is somehow recruited by the WSO and paired with Kaido to pilot the Kaiser. When not piloting the Kaiser, Ryo wields dual handguns that he uses with his own unique fighting style.
Skull Pileder
Interestingly, the wings on the Skull Pileder are actually articulated (can be rotated). It won’t be able to transform into its “docked” mode though.
To dock with Kaiser, you will have to use the alternate Pileder unit.
To equip the Breast Triggers, you’ll have to unplug the skull emblem first.
Make sure to clip the triggers together TIGHTLY otherwise, they won’t fit into the slots. Also note that for whatever reason, skull emblem is shorter than the pegs on the triggers, this makes the whole assembly somewhat unstable and the chest panel tends to pop free very easily. Sigh…
To equip the Ganzanto, just rotate the back panel to expose a mounting peg.
Unlike Koji and Mazinger, there’re no “command shouts” when the Skull Pileder calls in and docks with the Kaiser.
*docking sounds*
Mazinkaiser SKL
Accidentally unearthed inside an abandoned Photon Power Laboratory and dubbed “Kaiser”, the powerful machine is given to the Skull Force by the WSO as a means to fight back against other powerful enemy machines and giant monsters.
In the Mazinkaiser SKL OVA, we see that that Kaiser is capable of traveling unassisted underground by tunnelling itself through solid rock via remote control. It later emerges wherever the pilots decide in order to dock with the Skull Pileder.
According to the official novelization, “SKL” stands for “Separated Killing Lord”
Mantle – When we first see Kaiser in the OVA, he is covered in a mantle (shroud). It doesn’t seem to offer any protection for the giant mech and is immediately burned away after being hit by an onslaught of explosive arrows by Garan’s army. Kaiser remains without the mantle for the rest of the series.
To attach the mantle, you’ll have to pop off Kaiser’s head first.
The mantle actually has some articulation up top to give it clearance for Kaiser’s shoulders to move.
You can still equip the Ganzanto on the figure while the mantle is on it.
Mazinkaiser SKL’s attacks
Tornado Crusher Punch – Kaiser’s version of the “Rocket Punch” attack.
To do this pose right, you’ll have to remove the mantle, there’s no way you can lift up Kaiser’s arms this high evenly with the mantle on.
Using a third party display base, I tried recreating the pose. To “hook” the arms in place, I tried folding the elbow joints in a bit to give the grip a notch to latch onto.
For the curious, the forearms are really meant to be detachable, despite the odd look of the pegs sticking out.
Lol.. in the OVA, we see that Kaido gets bored waiting for the arms to come back after they’re launched.
Ganzanto – Kaiser’s huge sword. Its name literally means “Fang Slashing Sword”. It can only be used when Kaido is in control of Kaiser.
I love that Bandai included a little rock for holding the Ganzanto in place.
The top of the rock base has a slit to fit the Ganzanto into. Note the orientation of the blade’s fangs, it can only be inserted one way.
The Ganzanto can be inserted and left alone without worry of the whole thing toppling over, the rock base is actually pretty sturdy.
Getting the pommel from the handle off can be quite a chore, but it can be done in order to fit the fists into place.
Thankfully, they made the Ganzanto nice and shiny, unlike the older Super Robot Chogokin version, which was just painted silver.
The handle can be extended and used as a polearm to expand the blade’s reach. It also helps recreate this “over the shoulder” pose from the Anime. Just simply rotate the handle first to unlock it and then pull the polearm shaft to extend.
Breast Triggers – Kaiser’s heat sinks are deployed as a pair of handguns. These can only be used when Magami is in control of Kaiser.
Make sure to pull out the barrels on the guns to properly recreate the look.
Interestingly, when Magami takes control of Kaiser, his controls are motion sensor-based and linked to the twin Breast Trigger replicas inside the c0ckpit (like the Nintendo Wii, lol). While Kaido’s controls are more traditional with levers and switches.
I love how the Triggers have actual ejectable ammo clips.
In the OVA, it was shown that the Breast Triggers do require reloading. The ammo clips are ejected from the Kaiser’s forearms. This is included as a gimmick for this figure as well. However, it is just one clip per forearm.
Thanks to joint designs on this figure, you can pretty much recreate Kaiser’s dynamic poses from the OVA while he’s shooting up everything around him.
When Magami gets bored of shooting and likes to get up close and personal, he then uses the Breast Triggers as hand axes to take down Kaiser’s opponents!
While this isn’t mentioned in the manual (I think?), you can actually peg the guns in between the open hands’ fingers to recreate the hand axe attack. It’s not perfect and it doesn’t last long but it does get the job done nicely for photo ops.
Whenever Lucifer-4 is in control of Kaiser, he does not have access to the Gazanto. Instead, he uses a long battle axe created from the combined Breast Triggers, which are now mounted on a polearm, called the “Breast Tomahawk”.
The Breast Tomahawk actually uses a different set of Breast Triggers from the ones on Kaiser’s chest.
Lastly, the set features an optional face plate for Kaiser, which recreates battle damage it received from Garan’s Geistteles. When Magami lost his senses after being reminded of his being an Erbsunde (an artificial human in this case), the powerful enemy machine managed to stab Kaiser in its right eye with the end of its lance. Interestingly, the damage is never repaired and stayed damaged even until the next mission in the series’ epilogue.
LOCKED WEAPONS!
Since the SKL is so incredibly dangerous, for fear of it falling into the wrong hands, the WSO (Wide-area Surveillance Organization) built in a failsafe system to keep it in check. Its most powerful attacks are locked away by the WSO’s programming and can only be accessed once Kaiser is docked with the Wingle (particularly the latter’s “Tiara Ale” and “Arsine Guard” components).
The Kaiser’s new attacks include:
-Rust Stream
-Inferno Blaster
-Thor Hammer Breaker
-Once in “Full Power” mode, the Breast Triggers now fire lasers instead of bullets.
Display base – The set comes with the same base we saw from the Soul of Chogokin DC (Dynamic Classics) sub-line. Only this time, the base does NOT feature any accessory tray inside.
Adjustable support arm still included to “quake-proof” Kaiser.
You can also have the Ganzanto equipped on the figure while it’s on the stand, but you will have to place it on an unnatural angle…
Yeah… it looks off…
I think this is a better way to display it.
Parting shot: – I tried to recreate this pose from the closing credits, it’s not quite perfect but I think it’s close enough.
I did have to use Kaiser’s spare open hand as a pedestal to arch his leg up behind the rock, as having Kaiser step on the actual rock makes him look super awkward.
The Good
-Mazinkaiser SKL stands roughly 8.5 inches tall and weighs 440 Grams.
-Diecast parts include:
–“Skull” Emblem on Kaiser’s chest.
–Sections of the torso
–Lower legs
–Feet
–Hip joints
-Ejectable Breast Trigger ammo clips!
-Kaiser’s forearms also have removable Breast Trigger ammo clips/ magazines!
-Articulated wings on the Pileder.
-Chromed finish on the Gazanto!
-The little rock base included for holding the Ganzanto is a nice bonus!
-Thanks to the butterfly shoulder joint design, Kaiser can do great poses while holding the Breast Triggers.
-No firing Tornado Crusher Punches (heh).
-The figure is actually fun and dynamic to pose (provided you don’t stab yourself while handling it).
-The mantle accessory features decent articulation.
The Bad
-Wingle parts/ Kaiser’s wings not included.
-Skull Pileder can’t perfectly transform into “docked” mode (still needs an alternate Pileder to be plugged in).
-Sharp, sharp points!!! Be careful when handling!! Every inch of this figure from the waist up wants to cut you!
-The Pileder connection goes back to basic “peg and hole” connection. I kinda miss the magnets that Bandai used with Gx-70 Mazinger..
-No ratchet joints anywhere on this thing. It’s all friction.
-Removing the pommel from Ganzanto is really, really hard at first.
-The mantle doesn’t really have a lot of clearance for Kaiser’s chin when it’s equipped. It limits the head mobility a bit.
-Breast Triggers tend to fall off easily from Kaiser’s chest.
The Ugly
Sigh… I broke a piece of the chest piece off when it fell off the Kaiser’s chest. I really wish they made the connection for the chest piece more secure. As it is, there’s a high probability that the Breast Triggers will fall out more than 50% of the time while you’re posing the figure.
I really wish Bandai made the Skull emblem a bit longer so that the chest panels peg in better. It’s a stupid oversight to make it shorter than the pegs on the triggers.
Also, just a headsup, the shoulder joints are on a ball joint and can accidentally pop free if you’re posing the figure too much. No biggie though, you can just pop it right back in. It took me a moment to realize this, lol… for a second I thought I had totally broken the figure. Whew…
Overall, A pretty good release. Despite the total lack of ratchet joints (hmm… shades of Sentinel Toys’ joint design?), the figure does feel pretty solid and is a lot of fun to pose, mainly thanks to the butterfly-jointed shoulders and mid-torso ball joints. I only wish they made the Breast Triggers lock in tighter on the chest panel. Or included an entirely different set of Triggers that can hold on better to the figure.
As is, I would recommend removing the Breast Triggers every time you pose the toy to prevent accidents like it falling off and chipping a piece off (like what happened to me). It’s not a deal breaker, but it does add a pesky layer of having to be extra careful that shouldn’t have been an issue in the first place.
Lastly, be VERY careful when handling this figure. I am very serious when I say every inch of it above the waist is intentionally designed to cut or stab you. lol…
I wonder if Bandai will release a Wingle figure down the road to complete Mazinkaiser SKL’s look?
Funfact: While Mazinkaiser SKL’s eyes are normally blue, they become yellow once it docks with the Wingle.
Gold
