Got this from HobbyLink Japan, the 125mm tall Revoltech Getter Dragon by Kaiyodo that was released in September of 2009. Getter Dragon holds a very special place in my heart because I grew up watching the Jim Terry produced Force Five. This particular toy was modeled after the Getter Dragon in Change! Getter Dragon. It lacks the yellow and light blue colors that denote the Getter Liger and Getter Poseidon crafts that helped merge to form Getter Dragon.
Getter Dragon first appeared in Go Nagai’s Getter Robo G anime series and was repackaged in the US as Starvengers to be part of the Force Five series of Jim Terry. I have to point out that the Getter Robo G opening sound track is one of the catchiest I’ve ever heard, one reason too why it appealed to me.
As for the Change! Getter Dragon anime, I really have nothing good to say about it. Because the creators of that Getter series butchered a favored and cherished childhood memory by turning the latter part of the Getter franchise into some dark-twisted-morbid and sick tale. The giant robot series was my entry point in to the wonderful world of anime, at that time of innocence everything was so simply put, black and white, good versus evil. So for me, Getter ended with the Getter G series. Change! Getter Dragon was so bad that I didn’t bother finishing the last few episodes…make it stop please make it stop!
As like most of my reviews, first the bad news. The spikes and blades found in this toy are pretty sharp (particularly on the Getter Tomahawks and shoulder blades), so I wouldn’t let a kid play with this as he/she might end up bloodied. I know where I’m coming from with this as I had a pretty huge wound on my foot as a boy after stepping on my Grandizer toy.
I was play acting at that time and I thought I was a big robot stepping on Grandizer. To which I did and I ended up with a single hole in my foot from one of the horns of that Grandizer toy. So one shouldn’t underestimate the lengths that a child’s imagination will take them to when playing with toys *snicker*
When fiddling with the toy, some paint chipped off on the hands as I tried to get the Getter Tomahawks on. Something to keep in mind when you are thinking of applying force to this toy. Looking at the quality of the painting I noticed that some panel lines weren’t completely done in some parts of the toy. No biggie however for me as in general I like the toy a lot. But of course I have to point out that there is a bias in my review as aforementioned that Getter Dragon was a cherished childhood memory.
As always, the sculpting of Katsuhisa Yamaguchi for the Revoltech line is excellent. But that’s to be expected from Kaiyodo toys. And also like in all Revoltech toys, the Revolver joints design that they are touting is something definitely to be admired in an engineering and poseability perspective. If you like posing your toys you will really have fun with this. You can actually buy spare Revoltech joints and other accesories from the Revoltech line. Quite nifty if you are into scratch building your kits.
Aside from the Getter Dragon toy, the kit also comes with other accesories. Such as a two piece stand with revoltech joint, spare hands, two Getter Tomahawks, spare head with Getter Beam firing action, two part mach wing set, Beam Effect part that mimic a flash when firing into the ground and two Getter Tomahawks co-joined to form a Boomerang which you can use to simulate the Getter Tomahawks flying through the air. The kit also comes with an orange Revocontainer to store your parts in and coin-like Revo Chip worth 10 points.
So if you ask me, I’m happy having this toy in my collection as it means that once again I get to keep another favored and cherished childhood experience in my display cabinet. It no longer just resides in my memory. It also makes for a great conversation piece with my son as I tell him tales from my childhood as we look at my collection.
