Soul of Chogokin Gx-107 Gurren Lagann
Thanks to the packaging’s orientation, the overall appearance of the box seems much bigger than it actual is. Still, it measures an impressive 12 x 18 x 7 inches in dimension.
Take extra care not to lose this tiny black piece for holding the stand together. It’s very inconveniently placed at the bottom. This should’ve been placed more in the middle.
Story
In a post-apocalyptic future, a young boy named Simon discovers a buried ancient mech. Dubbing it the Lagann, he and his friends go on a mission to win back the Earth’s surface from the tyrannical Spiral King Lordgenome.
To make Lagann properly stand, you’ll need the included base.
Lagann
A sitting Simon figure is included with this set.
You’ll need to remove the Lagann’s canopy though, you can’t have Simon in with the canopy at the same time.
Simon’s Gunmen unit, the Lagann. Gunmen are machines created by the Spiral King, Lordgenome, for his Beastmen (and originally, Spiral Warriors) to pilot. Small and agile, the Lagann is capable of assimilating larger Gunmen machines and giving it “power ups”. Its name (given by Kamina) means “enveloping face”.
As the series progresses, it’s revealed that the early Laganns were discovered by Lordgenome, when the latter was previously heroic and fought the Anti-Spirals as one of the greatest Spiral Warriors several centuries ago. After being driven to despair by the revelation by the Anti-Spirals with the Spiral Nemesis theory (an apocalyptic event that causes destruction of the universe by rampant Spiral Power), Lordgenome lost his resolve and betrayed his fellow Spiral warriors, destroying them all. Somehow this particular Lagann unit survived the purge and is discovered by Simon centuries later. The unit is the last of its kind.
The set gives us extra faces for Lagann.
Gurren
A Gunmen machine captured by Kamina. It is restyled by our heroes and given massive sunglasses for weaponry. Large and durable, the Gurren is capable of holding its own against enemies even without combining with the Lagann. Its name means “crimson lotus”.
Originally created by the Lordgenome to grant those with Spiral Power to fight the Anti-Spirals before humanity lost the war, all Gunmen units were then modified to be solar-powered in order to be usable for the Beastmen, as Beastmen do not have Spiral Power. Team Gurren’s Leeron was able to revert captured Gunmen mecha to once again run on Spiral Power.
Like most Gunmen units, when piloted by Spiral Warriors, any damage to the machine is felt by the pilot, and any direct injuries to the mecha are reflected on the pilot’s body after the battle.
A pretty cool gimmick here, if you remove the sunglasses, the Gurren’s “brow” becomes visible. It’s on a joint, so you can tilt the brow to either side, adding much character to the figure.
The sunglasses clip on fairly hassle-free.
You can open up the torso hatch to reveal Kamina inside the c0ckpit.
While in the Gurren, Kamina cannot use any special attacks and has to rely on only physical attacks on opponents, while shouting memorable lines like “Who the hell do you think I am kick!” and “Hands off my beloved brother punch!”, as well as his finishing move “Perfect combustion of manly souls! Cannonball attack!”.
With his “li’l bro”, Simon.
LAGANN IMPACT!!
“A combining of courage that sets a man’s soul on fire! Gurren Lagann! Who the hell do you think I am?”
Alternately:
“We brawlers are sustained by willpower, even when mocked as crazy and reckless! If there’s a wall in our way, we smash it down! If there isn’t a path then we carve one out ourselves! The magma of our souls burn with a mighty flame! Super ultra combining Gurren Lagann! Just who in the hell do you think we are?!”
TRANSFORMATION NOTES
The Lagann can transform into a proper head for Gurren Lagann by folding out its drill to act as a connector for the unit.
To return the canopy cover for Gurren when you disengage the Lagann, just pick at this notch here to retract the canopy.
Make sure to align the plates on Gurren’s shoulders correctly. It should all clip into place if done right.
Make sure to lock the elbows down onto the proper notches when extending out the forearms, a la Transformers “Combiner wars” toys.
Don’t forget to flip out the toes and kneepads on the legs.
Gurren Lagann
The combined form of both Gunmen units. Thanks to Lagann’s unique assimilation abilities and Simon’s own limitless Spiral Power, the Gurren Lagann can virtually combine with any bigger Gunmen machine that runs on Spiral Power. The Spiral Power also allows Simon to physically generate drills of various size and shape anywhere on the Gurren Lagann’s body.
In the Anime, it’s shown that when the Gurren has damage and combines with Lagann, it’s able to regenerate any damaged parts (mostly due to Simon’s Spiral Power). However, once the Lagann disengages, any previous damage on the Gurren returns to the way it was.
While it’s not clear visible, there is some mid-thigh rotation hidden behind the thigh plates. It’s also very, very tight so at first I thought it wasn’t there, but rotation of the thighs is indeed possible.
“Pierce through the heavens!”
In episode 13, Gurren Lagann gains wings. Simon is able to capture an enemy flying Gunmen unit using drills from Gurren Lagann’s back, attaching it to the Gurren’s backside, conviniently giving Gurren Lagann full-fledged flight capabilities. The unit is called the Gurren Wing.
The wings can be folded up, just like in the Anime, just remember to pull the hinges out first.
The thruster nozzle in the back is on a ball joint and is full moveable.
GURREN LAGANN’S ATTACKS
Man’s Anger Bursting Slash – The Gurren Lagann uses the sunglasses on its chest as a melee weapon.
The shades were previously the swords that came with the Gurren Gunmen when it was under the control of the Beastmen army. Kamina had Leeron melt down the swords and remake them into the shades for the Gurren, while retaining their original purpose. Talk about stylish!
Gurren Boomerang – Gurren Lagann throws its chest sunglasses at an opponent like a giant boomerang.
The set includes three different variations of the sunglasses, one “clean” one is for when it’s used as a melee weapon, another one features a peg for connecting to a Soul Stage to recreate it being thrown and the default one for connecting to Gurren’s chest.
Double Boomerang Spiral – Gurren Lagann throws both its chest sunglasses AND its wings at his opponents. LOL, I’ll have to go back and do this shot. I completely forgot to do it.
Drill attack
The set provides a medium-sized drill for Gurren Lagann to use. You’ll have to swap out the hand in order to plug in the drill.
Full Drillize – Gurren Lagann’s body shoots out drills all over its body to damage all enemies near it.
There are a LOT of drills to attach! 32 small drills to be exact.
When attaching the drills, I strongly recommend removing the sunglasses to avoid accidents.
Don’t forget to attach the drills for the helmet and the front teeth.
Be mindful of the small pins when attaching the variant helmet crescent. I worry they’ll break if improperly handled.
Display base
Gurren Lagann Logo
You can opt to equip all the Giga Drill Maximum drills on Gurren Lagann while it’s on the display base.
Gurren Lagann connects onto this pedestal on the base. It’s not too bad, but somehow, I wish they made the pedestal and base connection more solid than just a peg and a hole?
You can also opt to plunk the drills into the storage compartments instead of returning them to the tray, if you’re feeling lazy.
The medium drill and the extra sunglasses can all be stored on the underside of the display base.
GIGA DRILL
BREAK!!!
Gurren Lagann’s most powerful attack. Formed from incredible amounts of Simon’s released Spiral Power, the power then concentrates into physically manifesting a humongous drill.
Note that the drill requires some assembly.
Due to the size and weight of the giant drill, you will need the display base for support (no way the figure can hold the drill up by itself unassissted).
Fully assembled, the display will eat up roughly 20.5 x 6.5 x 8 inches of real estate on a shelf.
Likewise, the display base needs to be reconfigured to support the giant drill. First replace this section of the base with the bigger armature.
Don’t forget to snap this lock into place (this piece REALLY easily gets lost).
There’s a really nice spinning gimmick for the giant drill that involves rotating this gear at the bottom of the base. It’s not quite as smooth as I would’ve liked, but it gets the job done.
It’s a shame we don’t get the option to point the Giga Drill Break horizontally. I had to improvise a bit here just to get this shot.
The Good
Stats:
Gurren – 3/4th of an inch
Lagann – 7 inches and 445 Grams
Gurren Lagann (with wings) – 9 x 12 inches and 491 Grams
-Diecast parts include:
–Main joints
–Core section of Gurren’s crotch.
–Sides of the lower legs
-Styrofoam tray!! Good thing they still use this now and then. It just brings a classic toy feel to the packaging.
-The Gurren is wrapped in the new packing material we’ve seen before. I wish I knew what this is called. It feels classy.
-Attaching and removing the sunglasses is thankfully not that hard to do. Somehow Bandai designed it in a way that the clips for the glasses tend to find their way into the proper slots without too much effort.
-Love the tilting brow gimmick on Gurren!
-Transforming Gurren is pretty hassle-free. I’m glad they didn’t go with telescoping arms and legs and executed the transformation the way they did.
-A lot of fun poses can be done. The figure doesn’t feel fragile or difficult to handle.
-Thankfully, attaching the smaller drills isn’t too hard. I remember having a really tough time with the SRC version.
-Giga Drill Break spinning gimmick is a nice touch.
The Bad
-The sunglasses are clipped on via very thin pieces of plastic. Be careful not to break this. Bandai should’ve included a spare set in case this piece snaps.
-No way for Gurren Lagann to hold the Giga Drill Break horizontally. I wish Bandai added some sort of display base option for this.
-No proper figurines of Simon and Kamina. I think it would’ve been cool if they included some figures of Simon and Kamina, like how Sentinel Toys did with their Riobot Gurren Lagann release.
-Giga Drill Break doesn’t quite rotate as smooth as one would’ve thought. There’s some friction in there.
-No ratchet joints? Bummer.
-Even though the figure has decent heft to it, you can’t really feel the metal on most surfaces. The metal is mostly internal, I think.
-I wish the sunglasses were a bit more transparent. They practically cover up the brow gimmick of the Gurren when equipped.
-The adapter pedestal piece for the display base ports into the base via a peg and hole. It’s a bit awkward. I wish they designed that better.
-I wish Bandai included a functioning gear motor for the Giga Drill Break. There was a display somewhere in Japan that had the Giga Drill Break spinning continuously thanks to having a motorized gadget constantly turning the gear on the side of the base.
-No Core Drill. This was a nice bonus back in the Konami figure release. It was diecast too.
-No Gurren House? This was also another bonus item from the Konami diecast Gurren Lagann from 17 years ago. I wish Bandai included such bonuses from previous releases.
The Ugly
Thankfully no QC issues here.
Overall, pretty good. The figure is well done and features lots of fun playability. The lack of ratchet joints was unexpected but not a real deal breaker. The drill gimmick is fun to mess with, but I do wish it rolled smoother.
I think the figure’s biggest problem is that it’s being compared to Sentinel Toys’ Riobot Gurren Lagann that came out earlier. I passed on that one, but the Riobot figure does seem to have the finer details done better, has better sculpt detail, better engineering for Lagann (can do lots of poses?) and even comes with figurines of Simon and Kamina. I have no idea about the diecast content for the Riobot though so I can’t comment.
But if you’re getting the SOC version, then the figure itself doesn’t disappoint.
Man… I can’t believe it’s been 17 years since this Anime came out. Time sure flies.
WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE??!
Gold
