Saturday 26 July 2014

Toybox REVIEW: Ressha Sentai ToQger Minipla Police, Fire & Shield Resshas

ToQger Minipla Police Fire Shield Resshas

Auxiliary limbs and weaponry are pretty much a staple of Super Sentai robots these days, and being based around a whole fleet of trains Ressha Sentai ToQger is no exception. After being snubbed for the first two releases despite being one of the first Resshas introduced in the show, the Shield Ressha makes its grand debut in the line's third wave, accompanied by the more recent Police and Fire Resshas. Since these three tiny trains probably couldn't make up a wave on their own, it has also been padded out with a re-release of ToQOh.

Boxes 1-3 of 8

Collect them all...again!Mmm, delicious candy!

These three Resshas take up a single box each in the wave and are numbered 1, 2 and 3. While Police and Fire featured white/grey and red/grey runners respectively, the Shield Ressha is moulded on a single dark green runner. Also included in each box is everyone's favourite pieces of soda flavoured candy.

The case breakdown for this wave is particularly awkward if you were planning to split it with someone, as it features two Police Resshas, two Fire Resshas, one Shield Ressha and one each of the ToQOh components. If you don't already have a ToQOh that's not a bad breakdown, but if you do (and many people probably will as this is the third wave in the line), only one person's getting a Shield Ressha.

POLICE RESSHA

ToQger Minipla Police Ressha

Nee-naw nee-nawBackside of the law

Going in numerical box order, we start our journey through the auxiliary trains with the Police Ressha. This could-have-easily-been-a-Dekaranger-tribute Ressha is comprised of two carriages, each holding a different police-themed weapon. The first carriage houses a handgun which can swing out over the front of the train, while the back features a handcuff that can open and close in a claw like fashion. Thanks to the implementation of these two weapons the building of this train is a little different to the painfully similar Resshas that have come before it, but it's still incredibly simple even for minipla standards.

While the stickers will give painters a good guide of where paint needs to be applied, the one area missed out on the model is the gun itself. On the show, the top half of the gun is blue, while here it is moulded in solid grey.

Police are packing Is that a dekawapper or are you just pleased to see me?

ToQOh Police!

Gun-slinging actionYou're under arrest

But of course, the best part about this Ressha is that it can also become a nifty pair of arms for ToQOh and Diesel-Oh! After splitting the two carriages apart, these can replace the front ends of the Yellow and Pink Resshas to form ToQOh Police or the forearms of Diesel-Oh to form Diesel-Oh Police. In these formations, the handgun flips out of the right arm for some gun-slinging action while the cuff also completely flips out to act as a claw. Thankfully both arms also still have fully functioning elbows too so there's absolutely no loss of poseability.

Old school copLong arm of the law

FIRE RESSHA

ToQger Minipla Fire Ressha

Are fire trains actually a thing in Japan?Fire on the tracks!

Continuing through the emergency services (ambulance and coast guard Resshas when Bandai?) our next stop is the Fire Ressha. While the basic design and layout is similar to that of the Police Ressha, the way things work is quite different. The Fire Ressha features two hosepipe-like guns - a smaller one which can swing up and down on the front carriage and much larger one at the back. The larger gun is not only attached a ladder piece which can rise up, but it can also swing around 360 degrees. A final feature is that the front carriage can detach and fold out into a fire hydrant shape. This is more something do with its weapon mode for the larger robots, but as the way Right originally found the Fire Ressha in the show I thought it worth mentioning.

Extendable ladderingFire hydrants aren't toys...except when they are

Diesel-Oh Fire!

Putting out dem firesAlthough this combo does actually SHOOT fire...

And like before, splitting the two carriages and attaching them to ToQOh and Diesel-Oh create the ToQOh Fire and Diesel-Oh Fire formations! However there is one obvious difference to Police. Here, only the right forearm is outright replaced. The front half of the Fire Ressha when folded into hydrant mode doesn't act as an arm, but rather pegs into the fist hole of each robot to be carried around as an actual weapon. As someone who isn't a fan of spare mecha parts lying around with nowhere to go, this is a pretty appealing feature of the combo and its a shame that it wasn't implemented in both arms.

I should also mention that these combos should also work the same way on the forthcoming Build DaiOh minipla, so I'll be sure to include some pictures of that in my next ToQger minipla review!

Fire skills are second to noneTaste my hydrant

SHIELD RESSHA

ToQger Minipla Shield Ressha

Tiny little trainIsn't it cute?

And then finally we take a trip back in time to revisit the first auxiliary Ressha introduced in ToQger  - the Shield Ressha. This tiny train is the most basic one yet, taking a fraction of the time it takes to build the others (which in itself is roughly a matter of minutes). Painters will also have a very easy job of this one, as it lacks any of the finer details that were seen on the Police and Fire Resshas. All you need are the black, grey and white for the stripes you seen on all ToQger Ressha, some yellow for the headlights and the five core colours for the shield part lights hidden inside the front of the train.

Five colours in her shield

Combining the Shield Ressha with ToQOh forms the ToQOh Shield combo. This can be achieved by unplugging the lower arm part of the Pink Ressha (or the Yellow if you'd prefer, but the official combo uses the left arm) and replacing it with the Shield Ressha. The two halves of the front carriage then open up via a hinge to reveal the Shield section, featuring the five colours of the ToQger team as signal lights. Adding the the Shield Ressha really does add that extra bit of oomph to ToQOh when posing him with the sword, however I do wish the Shield could just be held like the hydrant part of the Fire Ressha rather than being an entire limb. 

There's no reason you can't do a Diesel-Oh Shield combination as well, but with Diesel-Oh lacking a melee weapon I thought I'd leave the pictures to the sword-wielding robot. The transformation scheme is exactly the same.

WHAT DOES A PINK LIGHT MEAN???Knight of trains

Of course, there's no reason to say that you're bound by these three basic combos. A recent episode of the series debuted a Diesel-Oh Fire + Police mode, where one arm of each was used. I fully expect this to happen again in the future with ToQOh, since limb swapping is always fun due to the variety of it all. And since these are minipla kits covered in all different types of ports, you're free to go wild and create your own combos too! Stick them on Chou ToQOh, or even see if you can attach them to your previous Super Sentai model kits!

Full Ressha showdown

Dual-wielding itFire or handcuffs...your choice

The Police, Fire and Shield Resshas are fun little trains, but to be honest they are also the part of the ToQger minipla line that is easily skippable. They don't form their own robots and are just extra limbs that need only really be collected for the sake of completism. The fact they leave excess robot parts lying around of you use them is also a bit of a sour note. However if you don't have a minipla ToQOh yet and are planning to pick one up, the Armed Ressha case is definitely the one to get!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

They're only a completionist's set for now. If you're not too averse to spoilers, look up the Hyper Ressha for the last giant-robo and combos of the series.