Release Date: November 2025
RRP: 10,000 yen
True to any toy company that wants to make money, it didn't take Bandai long after the release of SMP Wolkaiser to follow it up with its obvious remould. Shokugan Modeling Project Sainkaiser is the third release in the Mahou Sentai Magiranger range - based on the movie-exclusive mecha from Mahou Sentai Magiranger the Movie: Bride of Infershia. After travelling to Infershia atop the Horned Sacred Horse Unigolon in order to save his friend Yuka, Kai Ozu's Magiphoenix form combines with the unicorn to form the Holy Majin and defeat Glúm do Bridon. This Premium Bandai exclusive set includes both Saint Magiphoenix and Unigolon, as well as the very first poseable Wolzard Fire figure.
As with all SMP Super Sentai releases the Saintkaiser set comes in a large box directly inspired by the original DX toy packaging from 2005. The background, design layout and character/series logos are all nearly identical, although interestingly the front of the SMP box is a lot brighter than that of the DX. Featured on the front is a nice big image of Saintkaiser, with a smaller shot of Saint Magiphoenix riding Unigolon in the bottom corner. The back then shows off both forms once again, with some smaller boxed images showing off some of the other set's other features and combinations. One side of the box shows off all the different modes/combinations with Saint Magiphoenix, whilst the other shows off the ones with Wolzard instead. Although this set includes a Wolzard Fire figure, the pictures here are that of the original Wolzard to match the look of the DX packaging as there was no DX Wolzard Fire release. Inside the parts needed to build the kit are spread across a number of red, black, white, gold and silver runners along with a a selection of pre-painted parts. Also included are building instructions, combination instructions, a sticker sheet and a single piece of soda flavoured candy.
First out of the box is Saint Magiphoenix, a very slight remould of the standard Magiphoenix with gold accents as opposed to red and silver. The shiny new gold stickers are very eye-catching, and definitely give the Saint version an "upgraded" feel over the original. For the most part the sticker requirements remain the same, however Bandai have at least learned from their mistake with the previous version (or alternatively have more budget to work with on a Premium Bandai release) and painted the eyes on the head. The sticker sheet still inexplicitly has eye stickers on it, but it's nice to see they're not a requirement any more.
While the obvious changes to the deco make Saint Magiphoenix immediately stand out from the standard version, underneath the hood it's still exactly the same figure and so the articulation remains unchanged. As such Saint Magiphoenix features;
- Head, bicep, and waist swivel
- Swivel hinge shoulders and hips
- Butterfly joint shoulders
- Hinged elbows and knees
- Ball jointed toe sections
The way the hips are put together (which is designed more with the transformation in mind rather than articulation) is still a little weird at first, but overall it's still a nice little kit with plenty of poseability. In this form Saint Magiphoenix wields the Saint Horn - Unigolon's horn which doubles as a sword. While this didn't appear onscreen in either of Unigolon's appearances, it is a feature that has been carried over from the original DX toy.
The next component is technically the last segment in the building instructions, but the inclusion of Fire Wolzard is a nice follow-on from Saint Magiphoenix. As previously stated this is the first articulated figure of Fire Wolzard ever, making it a very special piece of the set despite not being part of Saintkaiser per se. Like the suit itself Fire Wolzard is a straight repaint of the standard purple Wolzard included with Wolkaiser, swapping out the purple for red without any other chances. Even the stickers remain exactly the same, which means the kit misses out the additional silver detailing Fire Wolzard gets on his skirt section. Again it's a shame none of these pieces are pre-painted, but being a straight repaint it was to be expected here. The Wolzard figure itself is just as good as ever though, the red colour scheme a big contrast to the original purple but every bit as striking.
As with Magiphoenix any changes from the original figure are purely cosmetic, so Wolzard Fire sports exactly the same articulation as the standard Wolzard. Altogether this consists of;
- Head, bicep, and waist swivel
- Swivel hinge shoulders and hips
- Butterfly joint shoulders
- Hinged elbows, knees and ankles
As such it's the same praises and complaints all over again. Even though they may be there primarily as part of the transformation, having butterfly joint movement on a model kit figure this small is heavenly. The feet movement is a bit rubbish as the ankles can only move forward/backward rather than side to side, but otherwise it's a nice array of movement that gives Wolzard Fire plenty of personality even without the rest of the set to go alongside him. His accessories again include the Wolsaber and Jagun Shield, the latter of which is now "purified" and share's Wolzard Fire's new red colouring. It does however still open to reveal a (fully painted) eye of N Ma, and when not in use the Wolsaber can be sheathed inside of it - though it needs to be broken down into two separate components.
Two articulated figures is already impressive, but the bulk of the parts still make up the Horned Sacred Horse Unigolon - a remould of Varikion which transforms the dark steed into a mystical white unicorn. Nearly all of the black and silver parts are replaced with white, together with remoulded head, mane and tail parts. Admittedly the differences aren't huge, but complete contrast in colour palette as well as additions like the giant gold horn are more than enough to make Unigolon stand out even alongside Varikion. As with the previous version of the mould Unigolon features a fairly liberal use of stickers, with much of the detail moulded onto the body if you would rather paint instead. The primarily white body also makes painting considerably easy too so it's a really nice kit to build.
A running theme with this model kit, none of the remoulding present on Unigolon has any impact on the articulation so poseability remains the same as it was with Varikion. The front legs feature swivel hinges at the shoulder and then hinges at the knee and foot, as well as also having rotation at the knee. The back legs are a lot more simplified however, and can simple raise/lower at the hip. Finally the tail is both hinged and can rotate at the point it attaches to the body. Strangely the head doesn't really feature any proper articulation, which you'd think would be one of the most obvious points after the legs. So while you aren't going to get any crazy poses out of the kit, the ability to pose the legs at slightly different angles to make it look like it's trotting/galloping does make a difference. With the help of the included adaptor piece, either version of Magiphoenix or Wolzard can ride Unigolon.
However before getting to the full Saintkaiser combination this set is capable of everything the Wolkaiser one was as well, meaning the figures can also be combined into centaur mode as well. This is purely a toy-only invention and never appeared onscreen, although the original DX toy was capable of it as well. Simply remove Unigolon's head and slot your chosen figure in its place, with the parts that make up the head and mane transforming into a lance weapon. The lance can be held either via the long handle that runs through the middle of it, or via a smaller one located just above - the latter being the much easier one for display and posing. The centaur mode has all the body articulation of Unigolon combined with the upper body movement of Magiphoenix/Wolzard, creating a slightly limited but still somewhat respectable range of movement for the model.
The transformation into Saintkaiser remains exactly the same as it is with the Wolkaiser set, however in using Saint Magiphoenix as the central component it follows the Firekaiser transformation scheme rather than the Wolkaiser one. With a little bit of parts removal/swapping required to clip on the lower legs, Unigolon becomes the body in which Saint Magiphoenix sits, with the Majin separated in two in order to fit. The legs are slotted inside the larger robot legs, while the torso is folded up to become the chest piece. One portion of Unigolon's tail piece fits in the middle of the chest to complete the Magiranger "M" insignia, while the other forms Saintkaiser's head. The head sculpt is similar to that of Firekaiser, but with different helmet decoration, a new spikier ponytail and a fold out horn. It definitely fits the movie-exclusive mecha bill of feeling like a slightly upgraded version of something that's already in the show. But the white and gold colour scheme is certainly striking, The red chest also goes really well with the newly coloured shoulder pauldrons. As with most SMP kits the upper body proportions can also be slightly altered should you so desire - the standard transformation will give you a silhouette more akin to the suit/DX toy, but the shoulders can then be pulled away for a more dynamic interpretation.
Again, everything is exactly the same mobility-wise as it was with Wolkaiser - a good array of articulation that elevates the design well beyond the capabilities of the original DX toy but is not without its own problems. Saintkaiser features;
- Head, waist, bicep, wrist gauntlet and knee swivel
- Butterfly joint shoulders
- Swivel hinge shoulders, hips and ankles
- Double hinge elbows
- Single hinge knees
- Ball jointed wrists
The skirt piece can also lift at the sides (as well as open at the front, although that's more to help fit Saint Magiphoenix's legs in during transformation) to add extra clearance from the legs, and the wrist gauntlets can open outwards so they don't get in the way of the fists. Despite the arm articulation sounding good on paper Saintkaiser has exactly the same problems Wolkaiser does in regards to the design, with the wrist gauntlets making it awkward to hold the weapon without having to twist them out of the way. The slightest pressure in the wrong place can stress and potentially break the elbows, as the connection piece is two different pieces of plastic held together by the tiniest little peg. On Wolkaiser I did wonder if my issues stemmed entirely from overpainting the parts (in which case, it would have been my own fault), but I had the same issues here with the white, unpainted plastic parts. The upper legs are a bit limited too because of the way the Magiphoenix legs need to slot inside of them, meaning they have to move along with them. Still, Saintkaiser can still pull off some great poses even with these limitations - looking every bit as regal as Wolkaiser does menancing.
Saint Kaiser's weapon is a staff formed from Unigolon's mane and tail, just as Firekaiser's was. However as the two kits use slightly differently moulded pieces for those parts, there are some visual differences between the two beyond just colour. As with the Wolkaiser kit the hand gauntlets can make dynamic posing a little tricky, but as long as you make sure you know which parts of the arm are supposed to move and don't try to force anything you'll still manage to get some great poses out of it. Also included are an alternate pair of open hands with splayed fingers, giving the kit a little more variety than just the default weapon-holding fists. The hands connect to the wrists via ball-joints, so are easily swappable.
Just as Varikion was able to also combine with Magiphoenix to form Firekaiser, Unigolon can also combine with either version of Wolzard to form Bravekaiser. This is particuarly special combination for the SMP kit, because not only was Bravekaiser previously a toy-only form exclusive to the original DX toy but it was only only possible with the standard Wolzard. With the SMP finally adding a Wolzard Fire into the mix, this is the first toy release of this alternate version. Like Wolkaiser, Bravekaiser uses Unigolon's head for the robot mode combination - with the tail of the sacred horse becoming part of the weapon in its place. As well as that impressive horn rising from the top of it, Bravekaiser features a brand new face-sculpt completely different to that of Wolkaiser's. Curiously, whilst Wolkaiser features a flip-out mechanism for its face, Bravekaiser instead has a slide-out faceplate - why Bandai needed to change this when they both work exactly the same is unclear. Nevertheless Bravekaiser is a great-looking mecha with enough differences from Saintkaiser to stand out despite the identical frame - personally I think the Wolzard Fire version pops a little more as the red goes better with the shoulders, but the standard Wolzard version looks great too. Depending on which version you choose, Bandai have also included coloured accent stickers that can be placed on either side of the face. However if you plan to switch between them, it's much better to leave those areas unstickered as otherwise you'll be stuck with just one colour.
One final bonus the set has is a new scaled-up version of the Magic Sword King Calibur, which of course is intended to be used with SMP Magiking. Unlike the version which came with Magiking, this is a fully-moulded piece (as opposed to the combination of the Majins' individual weapons) with detailing on both sides. It also sports a moulded pommel part on the grip, which needs to be removed and then reattached from the blade so that the figure can hold it. The sword scales with Magiking considerably better (not that the previous one was awful though), and really helps make those sword slashing poses look even better. While Bandai certainly didn't need to include it in what's already a pretty packed-out kit, it makes for a fantastic bonus accessory.
Despite having nowhere near as much prominence or significance in Magiranger Shokugan Modeling Project Saintkaiser is every bit as good as the Wolkaiser kit, with extra touches like Wolzard Fire and the scaled-up Magiking sword adding that extra value for money. However despite some remoulding here and there it is still effectively the same kit, and so subject to exactly the same highs and lows. Obvious remoulding potential aside it's also a little disappointing for the third Magiranger release to be a movie-exclusive mecha, and with the SMP line now having moved on to Timeranger and Carranger it could be a while before we see more "deserving" entries like Travelion or Magilegend. As excellent as Saintkaiser is, it would be a real shame to see those forgotten about.
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