RRP: 8000 yen
2024 was the year Seijuu Sentai Gingaman stormed onto the Shokugan Modeling Project scene, and despite a brief stopover to round off the GoGoFive range with Victory Mars, Bandai made sure to return to the 22nd Super Sentai series to round off the year in suitable fashion. And of course the next obvious port of call is the show’s sixth (or extra depending if you’re going by Gokaiger categorisation) hero Black Knight – or more specifically the Shokugan Modeling Project Beast Combination BullTaurus & Galaxy Decisive Battle Set. This Premium Bandai exclusive release goes a little bit further than simply Black Knight’s Starbeast partner – covering off other aspects seen in both Gingaman and its follow-up crossover movie KyuuKyuu Sentai GoGoFive vs. Gingaman.
At this point it goes without saying that the packaging is a loving tribute to the original DX toy’s packaging, but what’s interesting about BullTaurus’ is that it actually references two different releases from the original Gingaman toyline. The “front” is of course a tribute to DX BullTaurus, right down matching the (rather static) poses and text placement – the latter of which is identical save for the newer Bandai Namco and Shokugan Modeling Project logos. The other side however instead references the DX BullTaurus Daikessen Set – an additional release which included a Black Knight figure, the Knight Axe and Beast Armour Shine parts for DX GingaiOh. Given what’s included in this release, it makes sense to reference this set on the packaging as well. While the original Daikessen set had windowed packaging which showed off the actual contents, the SMP version simply makes to with a printed version of the window – rather humorously using a picture of the actual Bull Black suit rather than a toy version. Open it up and inside you’ll find all the parts needed to build the model kit neatly bagged up, along with some separate pre-painted parts. Also included is a sticker sheet and a single piece of soda flavoured candy.
The first part of the set is a miniature figure of Heavy Knight, the alternate form Black Knight assumes when growing to giant size. The figure itself is a really simple build with very little painting or stickering required, making it a nice way to ease yourself into the overall set. Heavy Knight stands at around 3” tall, which probably makes it one of the smallest components in a Super Sentai SMP set. It may be simple, but even at this size it manages to capture nearly all the colouring and detailing of the suit itself. Not a bad way to kick things off at all.
Despite only being a very small part of the overall set, the Heavy Knight figure particularly impresses with just how articulated it is. The head, hips and ankles are all ball jointed, together with swivel hinge/butterfly joint shoulders as well as double hinged elbows/knees and even waist, bicep, wrist and thigh swivels. It’s effectively a fully articulation action figure, capable of a great deal of poses (and even more with the use of a display stand, which can plug directly into the figure’s back) even before bringing GoTaurus into the equation. Also included are two miniature versions of the Bull Swords for Heavy Knight to wield – both of which fit comfortably into the figure’s hands.
The bulk of the model however is the Heavy Starbeast GoTaurus, the animal partner of Black Knight which hails from the planet Taurus. Despite its bulk, GoTaurus is a fairly straightforward model to build with lots of big parts that snap together easily. It’s also a kit with far less stickers than you might expect. There are a couple of slightly fiddly areas that look much better painted (the squares on the back for example, which otherwise gives you the choice of tiny stickers to fit in the spaces or strips that just go over the top), but for the most part the stickers required feel essential and/or are easy to apply. The use of a proper metal chain for the reins goes a long way too in giving it a far more visually appealing look. GoTaurus can be displayed on its own, or Heavy Knight can sit on top of the Starbeast and take control. The chains themselves don’t fit tightly into Heavy Knight’s hands, but you can wrap them around so that the figure has a decent grip on them. Likewise Heavy Knight doesn’t peg onto GoTaurus anywhere, but with all that articulation in the legs you can sit him down comfortably.
GoTarus’ posing isn’t especially dynamic but that doesn’t mean the model doesn’t have plenty of articulated parts that can be used in this mode. The head features a hinged jaw and ball jointed neck, while legs all have swivel hinge joints where they connect to the torso, thigh swivels and hinged knees. The front legs also have butterfly movement that allows them to pull down from the torso, while the back legs also have ankle tilts and hinged toes. Articulation primarily meant for the robot mode, but nevertheless usable in beast mode. This means you can get GoTaurus in some rather good stomping and charging poses, which pretty much everything you could want from a bull mecha. Just as much of the fun comes from posing Heavy Knight riding on top of GoTaurus, even if there isn’t really a stable way to fix him on.
The transformation from GoTaurus to BullTaurus isn’t especially complex as it basically boils down to the bull standing up on its hind legs, but there are a few little quirks that have been carried over from the DX toy. After standing GoTaurus up on those back legs and swinging the front ones down to become arms, twisting the forearms and lower legs extends them down to become fully formed limbs. Whilst simply pulling them down would arguably having the same effect, the twisting gimmick is far more interesting. As the tail folds between the legs the crotch piece is pushed up into the correct position, while the torso is opened so that a folded-up Heavy Knight can be stored inside. The chains emerging from the chest are clipped together at the back of the mecha, and then finally the bull head is flipped down to reveal a fully painted robot mode face. Simple, yet undeniably satisfying. As BullTaurus the mecha looks very bit as imposing as you’d want it to, with a big chunky body and thick lower limb parts. But again what’s really good about this release is just how little is has in the way of stickers. A lot of the legwork is already done by pre-painted parts, and what little there is to do is easy to apply.
That good articulation in GoTaurus mode translates to great articulation on BullTaurus, which shouldn’t be any surprise to fans of the SMP line. In robot mode the model features;
- Ball jointed head
- Swivel hinge shoulder, hips and ankles
- Butterfly joint shoulders
- Hinged elbows, legs, knees and toes
- Waist, bicep, wrist, thigh and foot swivels
One of my favourite additions to the SMP kits continues to be the option to extend the arms outward to give them a fuller range of articulation on top of the great movement that’s already provided by the butterfly joint movement itself. The hip joints are similarly interesting due to the added hinge joint where the leg plugs into the hip – giving the legs extra forward motion on top of the moveable hip guard pieces. BullTaurus’ big feet also mean the figure is well equipped to balance in more dynamic action poses – those feet in turn also packed with some particularly good articulation. The standard ankle tilt work wonders, but together with the foot swivel (brought about by the extending limb gimmick) and hinged toe section balancing shouldn’t ever be an issue here. The rest may be pretty standard articulation for an SMP kit, but that in itself is a tried and tested formula by now that delivers everything you could need.
In addition to great articulation and a rather nifty transformation gimmick, BullTaurus also comes pretty loaded in terms of accessories. With multiple weapons at its disposal, the mecha comes with both its two Bull Swords and the Knight Axe. Larger than the versions intended for use with Heavy Knight, the Bull Swords can either be connected to BullTarus’ chains and be wielded separately or combined together on a single grip to form the “Twin Bull Sword”. Attaching either the Twin Bull Sword or the Knight Axe to the model involves first removing a piece from the weapon (the pommel on the axe, and one of the blades from the sword), slotting the handle into the chosen hand and then reattaching said piece. These impressively sized weapons work very nicely with BullTaurus’ bulky build, the Knight Axe particularly impressive with the screen accurate moulding on the blade piece. The axe is moulded entirely in gold plastic (with the exception of the pommel) and uses curved stickers for the silver blade tips, which is definitely an area I’d recommend painting if you can as stickers like that never quite have the same effect. As it’s only a small strip of the blade, it’s easy enough to do even for a beginner painter/model maker.
It’s at this point in an SMP review that we’d usually get into any additional combinations with previous robots that the model may have, but interestingly BullTaurus is a completely standalone mecha and cannot combine with any of the other Gingaman mecha. However it’s in the absence of that that Bandai have made this an extra special release – dubbing it the “Galaxy Decisive Battle Set” and calling upon the Lights of Ginga with the inclusion of Beast Armour Shine parts for both GingaiOh AND Victory Mars. While the former’s release feels like it was inevitable for the line given how expansive it tends to be within a respective series, giving one last hurrah to GoGoFive by covering the events of GoGoFive vs. Gingaman is quite the surprise. Both sets of Beast Armour Shine parts consist of a crown and faceplate – identical in design but sized differently to fit each robot along with unique connection parts. Also included is the upgraded hilt part for the Silver Armour Sword, along with a new cylindrical grip part to make it also compatible with Victory Mars. The new hilt simply clips over the old one, and proudly features the symbols for both the Gingaman and GoGoFive teams on each side. While as you’d expect the large breast plates do slightly hinder forward articulation in the arms, there’s no denying that they add so much display presence to both robots. This is also the one part of the set where I would definitely recommend spray painting the parts as opposed to sticking with the flat plastic colours, because adding a bit of metallic colouring to the armour really makes it live up to the “Beast Armour Shine” name.
All these extra parts mean storage also potentially becomes an issue, particularly since BullTaurus doesn’t have any built-in accessory storage in the same way GingaiOh does (although admittedly that’s only the swappable fists). However Bandai have covered that aspect off brilliantly in the release too, including a small stand piece that can comfortably store nearly all of BullTaurus’ weapons and the Beast Armour Shine parts for both GingaiOh and Victory Mars. Everything either clips onto or slots into a designated place, with only the Twin Bull Sword or Knight Axe left over depending on which you choose to store – the remaining one presumably intended to be held by the figure itself. It’s not the prettiest thing to look at as it really is just a mass of parts piled onto each other, but it’s a very effective way of keeping all the parts together when not in use. Probably the best Bandai have ever done on an SMP release to be honest.
Despite lacking the usual combination gimmick that helps make new Super Sentai mecha all the more enticing, the Shokugan Modeling Project Beast Combination BullTaurus & Galaxy Decisive Battle Set more than makes up for it by being one of the most accessory-laded releases in the range thus far. That’s certainly not to detract from the model itself either, with meets the usually high SMP standard with its fun build, highly articulated mini-figure and gimmicky transformation. The Beast Armour Shine parts really are just the icing on the cake, particularly when simply the parts for GingaiOh probably would have been enough to satisfy fans. It seems overly repetitive at this point to go on and on about just how good the SMP line is, but it only takes handling one of these model kits to see exactly what makes this line so special.
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