Monday 11 April 2011

Toybox REVIEW: Bandai Robot Spirits Taubarn



Just over a week after one of my new favourite animes finishes I manage to get my hands on its star robot. Star being the keyword here, as what we have here is Taubarn, the cybody piloted by protagonist and Galactic Pretty Boy Takuto Tsunashi in the anime Star Driver.

The first thing that should be mentioned about Taubarn is its size - what it lacks in bulk, it certainly makes up for in height. The picture below illustrates it better, but most Robot Spirits/Revoltech/figures of similar scale only come up to around its waist. The sculpt lives up to Bandai standard - managing to accurately recreate the outlandish proportions of the Taubarn while retaining full posability. The colours are particularly vibrant - metallic red on top on white. The joints are gold The plume is moulded in clear plastic, and the propulsion parts that float freely on Taubarn's back in the series are held on via a clear connector to help carry out the illusion.

Tauburn comes with a variety of alternate hands (2 open, 1 close fisted and 1 set of sword holding hands) and its signature weapons - star sword Emeraude and star sword Saphir (both moulded in clear plastic). What's most notable about this Robot Spirits release is that it also includes a stand - something I've complained about the lack of on past releases. I imagine this is mostly due to the difficulty of standing (let alone posing) the figure unaided, but nevertheless the stand is certainly unique - a clear red star with a movable arm which can help with a variety of poses.

This is the first I've found it difficult to reach a (somewhat objection) final conclusion on. As a massive Star Driver fan I think its definitely worthy of full marks - posability isn't hampered by the sculpt, its the perfect representation of the robot and it even comes with a stand. The only thing I think its lacking is some sort of Tau missile effect part, and even that isn't a big deal. If you're not a fan of Star Driver, there's every possibility you'll hate Taubarn's design - it's certainly not your everyday robot. There's also the problem of it being difficult to stand on its own, but then how long could you stand for in such extravagant high heels?  Keep these things in mind and you should have much of blast with this figure as I do.


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