MiniPla Shuriken Gattai Series 01: Shurikenjin Review

#foldabots #TheFoldabotsBlog #Zootron

I'm so thankful myself I got both K-Zone issues of May with Baluti made by Ronnie Aberin and June with Tindig by Yuri Han. That means, all roads leads for July, which will include Zootron's parts such as the head, the flame effect for Baluti, and the hands which I never mentioned in an earlier blog. According to the picture which shows the (roughly) combined Zootron, the gestalt appears to have hands, which could be necessary to hold the Bolo blade that can be found with Tindig. One other thing I never mentioned before, is Leonator from March, was made by Vince Vios. Once we got all the components for making Zootron, we'll be reviewing the whole thing as soon as I get the July issue, later this month.

A little something I want to mention before we move on. In the Crystal Warrior reviews, I mentioned at the early parts of the blog, "Planet Saver". The name of that robot is actually "Star Saver", which was mentioned in the packaging. In addition, the third robot is called "Uranus Saver" and the final combination of Solar, Star, and Uranus is "Cosmos Saver".

THE REVIEW!

Some big things can be found in small packages, especially if you are on a budget and you can't simply buy the more expensive and hard to find toys. During my shopping, I came across to a lot of model kits which comes in several small packs bundled, including the rare TF GAIACROSS kits (with free gum inside) which a lot of buyers there were never seemed to be interested to pick it up, even me although I wanted to get it real bad. However, this one caught my eyes, as if I recognized this somewhere else.

The first time I saw this, was back in YouTube. I was watching this.


Video courtesy of youheidx

And finally, I got what I needed.

WHAT IS MINIPLA?

MiniPla, is a small-scale plastic model kit made by the same company who makes GunPla. MiniPla mostly focuses on Super Sentai and rarely on Kamen Rider. More recent kits include a piece of candy wafer which sometimes shaped like a flower. One other good thing is, each include the instructions printed inside the box.

Now, the one I got is Shurikenjin from Shuriken Sentai Ninninger. The set has a nice gimmick of having two different configurations in just one set of five small boxes. I'll explain why as we move on. Also, this is the first of the "Shuriken Gattai Series", and the next set coming up is Bison King.

THE BOX ARTS!

First things, first, let's all take a look at the box designs. I decided to take pictures of all the boxes at once, so that this blog would not end up long.

Front: Right to left, #5, #3, #1, #2, #4. Two of the box arts feature Shurikenjin Drago instead, and each feature the individual members except in #4 where Momoninger is behind Shironinger.

Left: Same arrangement as above, here it shows you the lineup, and the part it forms.

Back: You can either form Shurikenjin or Shurikenjin Drago, using the five OtomoNins. In other words, it's the same image on all boxes.

Right: Safety hazards and precautions. Nothing interesting.

Top: Almost the same thing in the front, but with just the parts, and the characters in it.

Bottom: More information written here.

THE CONTENTS!

Now that we've looked at what's on the outside, let's open it out and take a look on the inside.

Contents: One plastic pouch containing the runners, sticker sheet, combination instructions, and candy. Yes, candy. What's a CANDY TOY without a candy in it?

With careful hands, and bit of patience, here are the contents out of their pouches, and the boxes folded out revealing the building instructions.

Building guide for Part 1: OtomoNin ShinobiMaru with OtomoNin Shuriken (Aka/Red).

Building guide for Part 2: OtomoNin DragoMaru with OtomoNin Shuriken (Ao/Blue).

Building guide for Part 3: OtomoNin DumpMaru

Building guide for Part 4: OtomoNin WanMaru with OtomoNin ByunMaru [A].

Building guide for Part 5: OtomoNin ByunMaru [B].

Runners for part 1: White and red. All the stickers in this set are metallic like in GunPla.

Runners for part 2: Black and blue.

Runners for part 3: Black and yellow.

Runners for part 4: Black and white. In Ninninger, the members are Akaninger (red), Aoninger (blue), Kininger (yellow), Shironinger (white), and Momoninger (pink). No black nor green like in Kyoryuger where there was no yellow (and sometimes white) in the team.

Runners for part 5: Black and red.

In total, we have 4 black runners, 2 reds, 2 whites, 1 blue, and 1 yellow.

Combination guide for Shurikenjin and Shurikenjin Drago. Same on all five.

Shurikenjin Drago continued.

All the five candies that came with it. The candies are called "Ramune" due to their flavor. I tried it myself, and it tastes good, especially since it's still new.

After a few days of putting it together, I found out that each of the parts are made of ABS, the same plastic used in making LEGO, making them durable yet good enough for children to play with. And unlike GunPla which have special soft polymer parts for articulations, this can have sometimes loose and sometimes tight joints, depending on the part.

THE OUTPUT!

SHINOBIMARU - The only humanoid in this set.

A lot of action packed in this small figure. The head can rotate, arms can go 360, but the position of the elbows are stuck due to gimmick. It also has bending waist, bend at the legs and at the knees due to combination gimmick. It could have more pose-ability if the fist part placed between the legs is removed, but it will dismantle the left leg.

DRAGOMARU - Enter the dragon... that is blue.

Unlike the first one, this had more parts, especially if you're looking at how big its wings are. It somehow lacked paint app or in this case, stickers because they don't want to damage them sooner as they're played. So that's the reason why the body's more black than blue. Articulations are the head pivot, arms rotation, waist bend, leg swivel, knee bend, and of course, the wings flap like a boss.

DUMPMARU - Big box that actually throws shuriken! No kidding, it's true.

I had no problems with this one, but the only part that annoyed me was getting the small stickers to the tires, especially around the mags. Wheels can roll well, but sometimes the grills and bumper get in the way.

WANMARU - Not all 'Zords' are cute, this one is.

The smallest of the five and probably the one with the cutest pose gimmicks. Head is on a ball joint so you can rotate or tilt the head like a real dog. Both front and hind legs are stuck as pairs due to  gimmick, but you can swivel them in or out.

BYUNMARU - Something ToQGer left behind for their successors. A Ninja-themed bullet train.

This is actually a two-part unit (like UberZord's Uber-Liner), one being a small part that came with the one before it, and the other being the rest of it. There is no pink plastic this time used in this one unlike Dricera from MiniPla Kyoryuzin and Pink Ressha from MiniPla ToQ-Oh.

All five OTOMONIN in this set.

Now, let's look at the figures again, but in the way they come in their respective box. I didn't add DumpMaru because the whole thing doesn't include extras or lack parts which can be found on another box.

ShinobiMaru with OtomoNin Shuriken (Aka)

DragoMaru with OtomoNin Shuriken (Ao)

WanMaru with the first part of ByunMaru

Rest of ByunMaru

Since we've looked at the main components of the set, let's look at the items, which actually forms the heads of the combined giants.

OTOMONIN SHURIKEN - Right: Aka, Left: Ao. I intentionally left the blue one faceless because of my preferences.

SHURIKEN GATTAI!

Combination for this is pretty easy, yet uncommon.

SHURIKENJIN DRAGO - I decided to do this first because it requires more posing to get it right. Also note ShinobiMaru is the left arm on this configuration and the OtomoNin Shuriken corresponding to the figure.

SHURIKENJIN - Here's the star of our review, or in this case, the SHURIKEN. Utilizing DragoMaru's wings as the Drago Shield, and the tail as the Drago Sword, you also need the Shuriken for the combination.

I decided to put the posing in another picture, and here's one example. Articulations are on the face swivel (Drago: head swivel), arms rotate on both sides (Drago: limited range due to the wings), elbows bend with extra bend on the left arm, right wrist rotate, left wrist hinge, waist pivot, leg rotation and extend, knee hinge and pivot, and lastly ankle pivot due to combination process.

THE CONCLUSION!

Overall, I would rate this toy 17 out of 20 Agimat because it has playability options, but it gets better if you got Shuriken Gattai Series 02: Bison King, which unlocks a new combination called King Shurikenjin. Though misses some paint apps, but it can be done with Gundam Marker and a bit of colorless nail polish to fill them out, especially if you haven't added the stickers yet. Pose-abilities are excellent, both separate and combined.

Next time, we'll be taking a look at Combiner Wars Menasor! So stick around for that, and again this has been The Foldabots Blog, WE'LL SEE YOU NEXT TIME!

WASSHOI!!!