LIKASTRON by Lester Bernaldez

Foreword

We’ve been excited for this guy since Christmas last year… I mean, it was already announced even before Toy Book 6 was released. And on this blog, I’ll be covering the first combiner of 2014—Likastron.

Likastron is basically like Gubatron, only made of different animals that can be found on our Philippine forests. It also has five members made up of a flying lemur, a porcupine, a bearcat, a pangolin, and a mouse deer as its leader. I won’t be posting the official patterns here because some of us fans are begging for some of the missing pieces. However, I’ll give you a link to the patterns of the original Likastron made by Lester Bernaldez (the same guy who made Gunawtron).

Note: I decided to not give you the link because I decided to remove my Facebook account for the sake of my safety.

Now, to get things straight, I will review them one by one starting with the most recent member all the way up to the first one. In other words, reverse chronological order.

In addition, here’s a nice video review of the Likasbots both versions by John Dave Salazar. You may also refer on these videos for the bios, specs, and other details. I also added some design alterations to the combined form.

Update as of 19 April 2015: I edited some of the stuff in this blog, so you don't get confused.

KAGWANG

Kagwang is basically what we call to a flying lemur or more specifically a Colugo, and it’s the name of the first Likasbot in my list. Alterations from the original, is that he doesn’t form a leg anymore. Instead he forms the upper torso. How is that possible? First, his wings are now detachable unlike the original. Second, the wings form the waist due to the slits on both the tabs and the wings itself, as a part of the gimmick. And lastly, there is a hole on the back of Kagwang. Why? That’s where the waist pieces go in.

The lemur’s head and tail now also has a new purpose, and that’s where you attach the arms in by using two paperclips to hold them into place. The wings by the way are attached by inserting the tabs onto the sleeves which also have a purpose later on. Changing him into his Foldabot mode is a breeze, but putting him into Likastron is very tricky at first.

TALAS

Known as Tulis originally, this Palawan Porcupine Foldabot packs up a splinter. Now, a lot of us have intrigued of a possible sixth member but what I realized is that this lady will split in two parts and not two different characters, but not in the way other combiners had like Riles splits vertically and Manananggal splits horizontally in the waist. It’s also the first to do so. Originally, this Likasbot only forms the left arm, and its spikes are not the same as the ones on the official version. What also impresses me is that you only have enough spikes to glue onto the back piece unlike Higadrone which has a lot of blade hairs but less glue spots, what I did on that is I glued two pieces to make it stronger and yet it almost uses all the pieces up. Now, Talas also has a slit on her legs, and I know where to use this, which I’ll cover later.

MUSANG

Originally named Kapit, this Palawan Bearcat or Binturong is very unique. The one thing that makes him stand out is his blue fur. While other Likasbots are morely of brown, Musang is the only one that differs. His arms are now slotted in just like any of the Sporticons or the two Stormicons who forms the arms which were ships. He is originally the right leg and he also has the same mouth gimmick as Kagwang who forms the left leg in this version. Now, he forms either of the legs because the pattern and design of Musang is almost the same as the next Foldabot in our list. And technically, Musang forms the left leg this time. The new gimmick applied on this guy has got to involve detaching both the head and tail, the head is reattached on the other end of the sleeve where it will act as the foot, while the other sleeve serves as the connector for the leg. The output of its limb form adds a lot of stability due to this new gimmick.

GASPANG

Kaliskis is the original name of this Foldabot based on the Philippine Pangolin or Malintong. Now, he almost has the same pattern as Musang, but with the presence of a slit on his left hand where you can place the tail as his weapon. The pangolin head also has a longer neck than Musang’s. Also, Gaspang forms the right leg and the bonus tail staff when you put both Musang and Gaspang’s tails together. Where do you put this? If you look at the official illustration of Likastron, the staff is held on the left hand, I mean the porcupine’s mouth, also noticed that they also made a hand which can be found with Talas. I will cover that part later as we get to that. In the original however, he forms the right arm.

BATIKRON

He is the leader and the first of the Likasbots published. Based on the Visayan Spotted Deer (not mouse deer), this Foldabot also has the biggest alteration so far. First, the size, he is a lot smaller than most of the team and he’s barely the same height as Kagwang. In fact, Talas is the tallest of the five, but having the same height as Elisiyo(the bomber plane made by Jhine Clarenz Manapiis and the first Foldabot of the year). The great about this is that it’s the first to have legs which are different from its original version, where it was based on both Tamarax(for the deer legs) and Alakdan(for the overall body. Another design failure is that the shoulders are very wide and it’s not meant for Gaspang and Talas’ tails which should act as connectors. Instead, Paperclips were used to attach the arms. In this version in the other hand, aside from a simplified design, he also showed us something very different, the back has an opening where most of us were puzzled at that time. The deer legs fold out and serve as connectors for Gaspang and Musang to form the legs which was later revealed. Originally, Batikron forms the whole body, but now he forms just the lower waist part. In addition, he also comes with Likastron’s head which will be saved for the rest of this set. And then there’s this, how and where will you put the deer head in Likastron? That will be answered as we move on to the last part.

LIKASTRON

There is one thing I have to say about this gestalt…TERRIFIC! Now, this version is almost similar to Komyutatron and that’s two members forming the torso and it’s the first to use this design where one forms the upper torso and the other forms the lower. The other nice thing about Likastron is that he has one hand like Magmatron while the other arm doesn’t. I also noticed that you need to put the staff onto the right hand but be careful about the slit that runs through the part when cut, it tends to be a thin delicate part which I don’t like at all. To resolve this, you must cut the slit starting from between the middle and ring fingers. That way, you’ll never have to worry about it. Another question comes in mind, where to store the arm pieces from Gaspang and Musang? Simple, after placing the waist piece onto Batikron, you can drop the arms inside it. That way, no piece gets left out when in combined mode. However, the head also has its downside to it, which is the neck that is a bit long which can be fixed by folding inward between the head and the black part then fold outward between the black part and the Agimat crest. Usually, most combiners don’t have noticeable necks except for Kontrolion since it was designed to be like a western dragon or a ‘Kaijuu’ like Godzilla. Now about that deer head and where to put it, some would usually put it on the right shoulder which also puts the lemur head inside the arm, and some don’t even utilize this piece. What I like to do is to put the deer head onto the left instead on the right. Another thing is the arms can be clipped onto both heads, feet, and tail of Kagwang, which can help if you want the lemur head exposed.

Summary

As we end the first half of 2014, I would like to say it’s a great pleasure to have something new especially now we got Likastron complete and ready to face his greatest foe yet to come in the next five months which is indeed the Trosobots. It may have ups and downs about this combiner, but take it from me, I may have done Lester’s Gunawtron way back, and I am glad his other combiner became official. Thankfully, I decided to post this just a day before June ends, and that to keep my promise.

Well, I guess that ends this post and I will be back soon with yet another surprise!