Figure Review: Robot Spirit – Big Tony
When the Tony is big…
Sakugan was one of the most anticipated series in 2021 – with a unique setting and concept and some great personnel on the staff. However, it failed to create an impact with a pretty mediocre season with an anti-climactic cliffhanger. Despite being based on an award-winner novel, Sakugan didn’t manage to capture the audience with its uniqueness. However, the main mecha did get a few toy release from Bandai. We’re taking a look at the Robot Damashii – Big Tony – the “high-end” product compared to the usual model kit.
– Info:
Robot Damashii – Big Tony
Series: Sakugan
Price: 6,400 yen
Release date: 20 Nov 2023
Get yours here: https://www.hlj.com/robot-damashii-side-mb-big-tony-bans61886?utm_source=mecha_alliance&utm_medium=affiliate
Robot Damashii – Big Tony
Series: Sakugan
Price: 6,400 yen
Release date: 20 Nov 2023
Get yours here: https://www.hlj.com/robot-damashii-side-mb-big-tony-bans61886?utm_source=mecha_alliance&utm_medium=affiliate
– Design: Big Tony is a pretty funky looking mech. The rounded face makes him look pretty cute. The legs are obviously kibble since there are treads on them. The overall look of the mech is quite fresh compared to your usual “war machine” style. This mech is more of a transformable campy car for exploration – which is the theme of the show. The gap that an exploration vehicle can be used to fight so harshly really give Big Tony his shine. Tony in his robot form looks like a vehicular Paul Bunyan journeying with a pair of goofy father and daughter.
– Build quality: The Robot Spirit is decently solid. But due to the transformation gimmick, the hip joints can get loose quite easily. The arms/shoulders articulation is on two separate swivels and might take a bit of time to get used to, but the total range on them is quite extensive. The elbows aren’t double jointed, but it can fold enough since the forearms are quite thick. The knee joints are quite good since the transformation gimmick is also incorporated into it. The feet pivot is quite nice but they are loosely jointed to the legs so you might need a stand or a specific pose to stabilize it on the ground. Another thing is that the heels aren’t going to sit flat if you spread his legs at an angle. However, it is fully capable of pulling off all the scenes in the anime.
– Articulation: Since he is a martial artist, bondi puts some heavy emphasis on his articulation. thanks to his simplistic design, the shoulder armor and the chest armor are not connected, Allow for his shoulders and arms to move freely. the torso has a quite limited range of movement but it’s still enough to give him a decent ab-crunch. Compared to even the Ultraman suit action version, Z still has much more articulation on his upper body. his shoulders can move in and out like a butterfly joint To recreate the Zestium Kousen.
His hip join his also very good, with the ability to move the joints up and down to extend some articulation. However the Kenny doesn’t have as much articulation as we would have wanted. but in exchange his feet pivot is really good, allowing him to balance on the ground without any supporting base. you can even pull off some crazy moves from karate Or just like Blazar. The various hand options also help with recreating dynamic poses from the series.
His hip join his also very good, with the ability to move the joints up and down to extend some articulation. However the Kenny doesn’t have as much articulation as we would have wanted. but in exchange his feet pivot is really good, allowing him to balance on the ground without any supporting base. you can even pull off some crazy moves from karate Or just like Blazar. The various hand options also help with recreating dynamic poses from the series.
– Accessories & Gimmicks: In terms of accessories, Big Tony doesn’t come with a lot, but combined with his gimmicks it is very good:
x 2 drill hand parts
x 3 visor parts
x 2 red eye parts
x 2 pilot figures of Gagamba and Memepu
x 1 anchor wire
One of the most frustrating parts of the figure is the pilot figures. The Memepu and Gagamba figures are half hard plastic and half soft, so you can squish them a little bit, but the cockpit is incredibly tight and poorly designed that getting them in their proper position is very hard. You need to really push it in hard and that has a chance of damaging the figures. So my advice is just leave them in there loosely or just keep them out – there are zero impact to anything else.
Big Tony’s “face” is one of its good points. The eyes can swivel left and right and combined with the right faceplate, you can get some pretty good expression.
The anchor wire is pretty much a Gunpla wire, so not too impressive since it’s really hard to straighten it after bending it once or twice.
Another great gimmick is the arm can open up and the stabilizer can fold out, which really gives a nice impression of a pressurized pile bunker even though it’s not exactly that. Nevertheless, that gimmick is very cool to play with.
Now we come to the biggest, most complicated and ,sadly, disappointing gimmick: the vehicle mode. The robot can transform into pretty much a jeep with treads. But the transformation isn’t very…good. For the treads, you pretty much have to contort it in a very specific way and it is very hard to make both sides the same. So high chances are you’re gonna have an uneven vehicle mode. The joints for the transformation gimmick isn’t very efficiently engineered much so you’ll spend quite a bit of time trying to get it right. The instruction booklet doesn’t help much either. For me, you should just pick one mode and stick with it (preferably the robot mode)
x 2 drill hand parts
x 3 visor parts
x 2 red eye parts
x 2 pilot figures of Gagamba and Memepu
x 1 anchor wire
One of the most frustrating parts of the figure is the pilot figures. The Memepu and Gagamba figures are half hard plastic and half soft, so you can squish them a little bit, but the cockpit is incredibly tight and poorly designed that getting them in their proper position is very hard. You need to really push it in hard and that has a chance of damaging the figures. So my advice is just leave them in there loosely or just keep them out – there are zero impact to anything else.
Big Tony’s “face” is one of its good points. The eyes can swivel left and right and combined with the right faceplate, you can get some pretty good expression.
The anchor wire is pretty much a Gunpla wire, so not too impressive since it’s really hard to straighten it after bending it once or twice.
Another great gimmick is the arm can open up and the stabilizer can fold out, which really gives a nice impression of a pressurized pile bunker even though it’s not exactly that. Nevertheless, that gimmick is very cool to play with.
Now we come to the biggest, most complicated and ,sadly, disappointing gimmick: the vehicle mode. The robot can transform into pretty much a jeep with treads. But the transformation isn’t very…good. For the treads, you pretty much have to contort it in a very specific way and it is very hard to make both sides the same. So high chances are you’re gonna have an uneven vehicle mode. The joints for the transformation gimmick isn’t very efficiently engineered much so you’ll spend quite a bit of time trying to get it right. The instruction booklet doesn’t help much either. For me, you should just pick one mode and stick with it (preferably the robot mode)
–> Overall: The Robot Spirit Big Tony is quite accurate to the anime – looks amazing, well articulated but a pain to transform. However, while in robot mode, Big Tony is a ton of fun to play around with a lot of interesting gimmicks, especially the arm and the faceplates. If you’re looking for a good “transformable” toy, then this guy isn’t it. It’s a shame that the anime ended the way it did and didn’t succeed enough for Bandai to put more thoughts into the figure. Even so, the unique design of this guy makes him worth it if you can get him on sale for at least 50%.
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