Movie REVIEW: Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters

With Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger having just drawn to a close, it was only a natural that the annual Super Sentai vs. movie would accompany it. However with Kyoryuger being the third dinosaur themed Sentai, Toei decided to do something special for this year's. Fully titled Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters: The Great Dinosaur Battle! Farewell Our Eternal Friends, the movie brings back previous teams Zyuranger and Abaranger for an all-dinosaur themed rumble. But when this news broke, there was one question on most people's lips - where exactly did this leave the non-dino themed but part of the movie Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters?

Movie REVIEW: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Returns vs. Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters was a rather polarizing series. Some, such as myself, enjoyed the fact that it was a series unafraid to do things differently immensely. However others were extremely critical of how different it was to your standard Super Sentai show, and sadly these were probably the most vocal group as Go-Busters has gone on the be the the most poorly-viewed show in the franchise's history. However regardless of that the 36th Sentai are back for a straight-to-DVD "Returns" movie (just like Shinkenger and Goseiger had) titled Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Returns vs. Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters, which serves to answer a question that had been on a lot of fans' minds:

What if Go-Busters had been more like your typical Super Sentai series?

Demons, Sentai style

Set on New Years' Eve 2012 (curiously setting it during a week Go-Busters didn't air), the Go-Busters are alerted to an attack on the city that isn't of Vagras origin. As they investigate, they discover the Great Demon Lord Azazel, who quickly destroys their Buster Machines before killing them all on his fiery rampage.

Nick awakens in heaven, where he is told by a rather familiar looking God that as the 1,000,000th entrant to heaven that year (Beet J Stag being the 999,999th) he will grant him one wish. Nick wishes to live in world where the the incident that gave birth to Messiah 13 years ago never happened, transporting him and J to world where the Go-Busters live very different lives. Hiromu is starting his first day as a student teacher at the Energy Management Highschool, where Ryuji is already a teacher. The school is run by Kuroki, while Jin is the groundskeeper and Yoko a student.

It's funny because here he's the messiah.

However proving that you can't keep a good Sentai down, their peaceful lives are interrupted by the arrival of the Machine Empire Mechalion, led their Empress Transister (who again looks awfully familiar). Kuroki reveals he knew the day was coming, presenting Hiromu, Ryuji and Yoko with changers to become the Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters! What follows is a look into the year-long adventures of the team, including the arrival of new powers, new mecha and new members!

Meet the Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters!

The world of the Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters is much more than simply giving the Busters new visors and renaming a few things, its a hilarious tribute to all things classic Super Sentai. As soon as the team roll up on the screen they're spouting a brand new rollcall and using classic Sentai fighting techniques right out of the Showa era (see: Go-Buster ball). To see the Go-Busters use these kind of attacks is so bizarre it's fantastic. Plus they even get their own theme song! Next we see segments as if Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters was a real show, divided up by episode number/titles that play around with common Sentai tropes. Hiromu and Ryuji have a fist fight before becoming closer friends, mysterious new members appear before dying in a blaze of glory several episodes later and there's even a hinted romance between Hiromu and Yoko. All things considered the film should be wildly predictable, but you never quite know what's going to be parodied next.

Frog him up and he'd have fit in the proper show

As mentioned earlier this alternate universe adds two new Go-Busters into the mix. The first is Green Hippopotamus, whose real identity is complete stranger Atsushi Domyoji (played by Usada Lettuce's voice actor Tatsuhisa Suzuki). He isn't around for very long (both figuratively and literally), but it's pretty cool to see a hippo themed ranger and the appearance of a complete stranger is VERY fitting to both how Super Sentai and Kamen Rider handle their additional members. Fans who were hoping Kuroki (sporting a pretty fancy Hitler 'tache here) would saddle up as an additional Go-Buster get their wish, as he makes a brief appearance as the sassy Black Puma - even piloting Tategami Li-Oh while he's at it!

Of course, as per usual the comedy highlight of the film is non other than Beet J Stag. Tagging along for Nick's adventures in the parallel universe, he simply goes along with everything that happens - so much as perfectly taking on the roll of Silver Stag much to Nick's instant confusion. From his regular hijinks concerning enertron to him running between two roll calls in the film's climax (after all, there is only ONE Beet J Stag), it's just a constant reminder about how much of a funny and endearing character he is. And also how much he's going to be missed.

So great words don't convey it

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Returns vs. Dōbutsu Sentai Go-Busters is many things. It's a final send off to the Go-Busters, an extra adventure that slots into the events of the series nicely, a loving tribute/parody of classic Super Sentai tropes and storylines, a massive middle finger to all those who mocked Go-Busters for being so different but also an opportunity for them to sample what might have been had it chosen to be a bit more "generic". "Returns" films are often a mixed bag when it comes to Super Sentai (Shinkenger's is awful and Goseiger's nice but rather forgettable), but Go-Busters has single-handedly turned all of those expectations around. This isn't just the best "Returns" film there's been, it's also one of (if not the) best Super Sentai films ever made.

Not bad at all for the "lowest rated Sentai in the history of the franchise".

Legend Ranger Key Set: Go-Busters 02

This is a ranger key set that's been out for a quite a while now and I've never got around to getting. But thanks to Hobby Link Japan's amazing sale recently, I managed to pick up the second Go-Busters Legend Ranger Key set for as little as £3 (plus shipping)! This second set features the Beet Buster and Stag Buster keys, who were introduced into Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters midway into the show. Rounding the set off to three keys is a Beet J Stag buddyroid key.

The packaging is very similar to that seen with the first Go-Busters key set, only this time swapping the yellow backing card for a cooler blue colour and replacing the "It's Time for Buster" slogan with the more appropriate "Boost Up for Buster".

One thing that's a little disappointing with this set is that the Beet and Stag Buster keys aren't metallic, with the gold and silver colouring more orange and grey. While I don't consider this a necessity (after all, none of the other gold/silver ranger keys are metallic), its only striking here because the Beet J Stag key DOES have a number of gold/silver paint applications and thus kind of puts the other two to shame.

While inserting these keys into the original release Mobirates will just yield the "special ranger key" noises, putting them in the Legends release will activate the Go-Busters sounds and bio (if activated in encylopaedia mode).

Movie REVIEW: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Gokaiger

Ever since 1995's Chōriki Sentai Ohranger, the Vs. movie series has been a staple of Super Sentai shows. While for last year's anniversary series things took a different turn with Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Gavan (the Goseigers having appeared in the early 199 Heroes film) things are back on course with this year's Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters vs. Gokaiger. This hour long film fits in somewhere toward the end of the Go-Busters series (after the original Escape's death) and acts as an epilogue to Gokaiger.

Across the galaxy are five Phantom ranger keys, which are able to grant unlimited power to those who possess them. Unfortunately, four of the five keys have come into the possession of Enter, who has allied himself with Bacchus Gil, nephew to Ackdos Gil and new leader of the Zangyack Empire. They return to Earth in search of the final key with an additional surprise, the Gokaigers are now working under the Zangyack! As the Go-Busters do battle with the previous Sentai team, a portal in time is created when the five keys are gathered and they are sucked through, along with Yoko and Beet J Stag.

You wanted pirates? Here's your pirates!

As the Go-Busters team up with a confused Gai Ikari in a race through time to find the Phantom Ranger keys, they discover the real reason for the Gokaigers' turn and Enter's plans. Can the combined force of the 35th and 36th Super Sentai teams put a stop to this deadly alliance?

As soon as you see the main five Gokaigers in their "badass" pirate costumes, its pretty easy to see where the story is going. Yup, evil Gokaigers. One team going rogue isn't a new thing for the vs. films, but having just see it (partially) happen in Super Hero Taisen to same outcome makes the whole shock value of it all fall a little flat. Not that it lasts very long anyway, because the film's plot moves at lightning speed and it isn't long before the Gokaigers are back to their heroic cocky selves. What really drives Go-Busters vs. Gokaiger is the relationship between the Go-Busters and their Buddyroids, and how it affects the team when that is taken away. It makes for some really powerful emotional scenes, and shows that the Buddyroids are much more than glorfied accessories to the 36th Sentai team.

Oh hi there Kaoru.

Of course, with a Gokaiger film comes the obligatory Gokai changes. Having given all the ranger keys back to their owners at the end of their own series, seeing them back in their possession is a little bit of a head scratcher. Since the film dabbles with time travel (mainly so Toei can pull out their infamous Edo period set), it's not too much of a stretch to believe Marvelous had Gai retrieve them from the past, but it isn't something that's ever fully explained. Thankfully they are still kept to a (mostly Showa era themed) minimum, giving a rare opportunity for the Gokaiger suits themselves to feature in long action sequences. There's also a former Ranger cameo in the form of Kaoru Shiba (the "true" Shinken Red), which while tacked on is none the less appreciated.

Can Bacchus Gil hold his liquor?

Though Enter plays a big role in the film, he does take somewhat of a backseat to the newest Gil on the block. Bacchus Gil is the nephew of the former Zangyack emperor, but has no interest in conquest and simply would like to see the Earth destroyed. Other than that, there isn't much to his character other than being an alcoholic. The Gil's weren't the best of characters to begin with, but Bacchus does little to elevate himself above the levels of monster of the week. His subordinate Wardonaier is even less memorable. Past Super Sentai fans will also be pleased to see a couple of older faces appear too, particularly Gokaiger's Basco, Damaras and Jerashid, as well as Abaranger's Yatsudenwani.

VAMOLA!

And of course, over the last few years a staple of these Vs. movies has been the introduction of the next Super Sentai team, in this case the Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, who take you the completely forgettable Waredonaier. It's a fairly humorous introduction with King (Kyoryu Red) appearing before Gokai Red and Red Buster without his team mates, causing the two to be more than a little confused. The rest appear later, setting up the fact the five team mates live different lives well, before engaging in some great fight sequences like the show itself has displayed so far. The weapon noises are also kept to a very effective minimum.

Bring on the giant robots!

But of course, if you've paid attention to any of the trailers for this film it's true appeal is that it includes a number of MECHA Gokai changes. Gozyujin to Daizyujin! GokaiOh to Daibouken! Buster Hercules to MagiKing (I see what you did there Toei)! Go-Buster Li-Oh to GaoKing and GaoCentarus! Go-Buster Ace to Gekitouja, Flashking and RyuuseiOh! It may only be a short spectacle, but its a fantastic one nonetheless and redeems the problems many people had with the Gokaiger mecha fight sequences. Plus it's amazing to see suits like Flashking and Daizyujin back in action, who haven't been seen properly in years.

Overall Go-Busters vs. Gokaiger is a very good film. The plot is rather on the thin side and speeds along particularly fast in its one hour run time, but the excellent fight footage and emotional scenes featuring the Buddyroids do a lot to balance it out. This film isn't Goseiger vs. Shinkenger or Hurricanger vs. Gaoranger levels of great, but a treat to the eyes that's far more memorable than the standard Vs. movie fare.

Series REVIEW: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters

When Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger ended back at the beginning of 2012, many Super Sentai fans wondered where the series could possibly go next. As news and magazine scans of the 36th Sentai team slowly leaked, the reaction was mostly surprise. From pictures alone, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters teased a shakeup of the traditional formula. Once again returning to a three piece team, gone were the traditional spandex suits - replaced with leather and zips. Each team member was accompanied by a robotic partner, padding out the team in a new and interesting way. Anticipation was high, so could Go-Busters live up to expectation?

The computer controlling the world's most-advanced energy source (known as Enetron), was infected by a virus - creating the energy being known as Messiah, who wishes to enslave humanity and create a world for machines. To stop his rampage, the scientists of the Energy Management Centre sacrificed their lives, transporting both them and Messiah into hyperspace. 13 years later, Messiah and his Vagras army resurface, and the children of three of scientists step up to fight them. Infused with a special vaccine granting each of them a special ability - Hiromu (Red Buster), Ryuji (Blue Buster) and Yoko (Yellow Buster) battle as the Go-Busters, aided by their three companion buddyroids Nick Cheeda, Gorisaki Banana and Usada Lettuce.

As the battle with Messiah's humanoid avatars Enter and Escape continue, the Go-Busters are joined by allies from an unexpected location. Having survived the trip to hyperspace, the genius scientist Jin Masato returns as Beet Buster, aided by his buddyroid partner Beet J Stag (Stag Buster). With newfound hope that their parents may have survived, the Go-Busters take the fight to Messiah. But even after the fall of the virus, Enter and the Vagras survive to continue what their majesty started.


Busters & Buddies: Gorisaki, Ryuji, Nick, Hiromu, Yoko and Usada

When the series began, the show truly did show off the shake up the initial news had teased. Western fans were treated to hear that Power Rangers phrases and terms such as "It’s Morphin Time" and "Megazord" were included. While the former was predictable the team's transformation call, the latter referred to the giant robots of the series – on either side. Metaroids no longer grew, instead having enemy Megazords sent from hyperspace every time a new Metaroid was created. Not only did this allow for multiple fights to go on at the same time, but battles occurred in real-time - indicated by a stop clock in the corner showing the audience just how much time the Go-Busters had until the Megazord arrived. Every little detail had a scientific explanation, making this one of the few Super Sentai series that strived to make the show somewhat realistic.



The ever-lovable Beet J Stag and his creator, Jin Masato

However about 10-15 episodes into the series something went wrong, eventually leading Go-Busters to earn the title of being the worst rated Sentai series of all time. The episodes themselves were still enjoyable, but the plot had crawled to a snail's pace as it became a constant power struggle between the Go-Busters and the Vagras. The spy/special ops theme seemed forgotten, as had the real-time battles the early episodes had displayed. Viewing figures dropped, and so Toei decided that a show retool was in order. The story began to move forward as the show came to a mid-series climax, essentially eliminating Messiah and promoting Enter to the position of main villain. A team up with the new Gavan Type-G served as a connection between the two halves of the show, and from then on out Go-Busters was nothing but solid gold. If you'd been enjoying the show before things got even better, and if the mid-portion had put you off this was enough to rope you back in. Tension was much higher, with plot twists you wouldn’t see coming and a much darker story with a bitter sweet ending.


Could a new Metal Heroes series be coming soon?

The Go-Busters team members vary, but together provide an excellent team dynamic. Hiromu initially comes off as a rather cold character, putting the mission before everything else. Meanwhile Yoko is the weakest of the main three, with most of her character development coming off the back of Ryuji. Despite not doing all that much until later in the show, their Buddyroid partners all play off them excellently, along with each other. With the inclusion of Jin and J, a well-needed comedic edge is added to the cast. Jin is forever cheerful, but as his story unfolds his demeanour makes things all the more heartbreaking. Meanwhile Beet J Stag is a constant source of humour, amusingly arrogant and curious about the world like a toddler. But like Jin under his boisterousness lie secrets he has to keep to himself, and later episodes show just how much he cares for his creator.

Messiah might (initially) be the head of the Vagras, but where the villains are concerned there’s only one real star of the show – Enter. Evolving from a French-talking henchman with a penchant for dressing up into the fully fledged big bad of the show, he’s earned his places as one of (if not the best) villains in Super Sentai history. Calm and collected, Enter plays his plans slowly and is always one step ahead of his enemies and remains a formidable foe throughout the series. And if you think he looks good as a human, just wait to you see the forms he takes at the end of the show...


Escape and Enter

Messiah himself is a fairly unexciting villain, mostly barking orders and claiming to be superior to humans. As he loses patience in Enter’s early failings, he creates a second avatar to do his bidding – Escape. Escape comes off as a second rate Enter, fiercely loyal to Messiah even after his death and always looking for a challenge in battle. However she does develop a fairly satisfying rivalry with Ryuji, and meets her end in a particularly twisted and inspired way so all is not lost on the character. The Metaroids themselves also feature some fantastic monster designs, making it very hard to pick out a sure favourite.

Many divergences Go-Busters takes from the Super Sentai norm have already been pointed out, but there’s one element that’s the most apparent - the mecha. While almost every Super Sentai series ignores individual robots after the first few episodes, jumping straight to the combined robot, Go-Busters does the very opposite. Combined forms are used sparingly, appearing only when battling a certain Megazord type that can’t be defeated otherwise. There is no "ultimate combination" (Go-Buster King, the final combined form in the show, appears only three times). Instead almost all the mecha fights are done by the individual Buster Machines, which include a variety of interesting animals - how often do we see a rabbit mecha? The sparing use of the larger combinations works to the show's advantage, as the majority of them are clunky messes of parts that ruin the great aesthetic the singular robots have. The unique way Go-Busters handles its mecha is perhaps its biggest selling point.


Who needs impressive combinations when your mecha look this good?

Despite its poor viewer ratings and fair share of haters, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters is an excellent show. Every Super Sentai series has its proportion of bad episodes, the only problem was Go-Busters was unfortunate enough to have it's all in a row. While these early episodes might not feel like they're really going anywhere sometimes, there's light at the end of the tunnel and by watching them you'll be rewarded with a gripping storyline that really shows what Go-Busters should be remembered for – challenging boundaries and breaking the mould to make Super Sentai fresh again.

Toybox REVIEW: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Minipla LT-06 Tategami LiOh (Part 2)

This second part of the minipla Tategami LiOh review looks at his various combinations with the other Buster machines.

Go-Buster LiOh
This is LiOh's combination with GT-02 Gorilla and RH-03 Rabbit, so its essentially a version of Go-BusterOh that uses LiOh rather than Ace as the core component. While the transformation is quite similar to that of Go-BusterOh (Gorilla becomes the feet, the Rabbit the arms etc.), there are a few minor differences. The rabbit and gorilla headpieces attach to the back of LiOh, whose arms need to be rotated up for the new arms to fit into place. The lion head attaches to the centre of the robot, and the front of the heads need to be switched (with the basic LiOh head being housed in one of the legs). Despite Ace not actually being part of this combination, his sword is Go-Buster LiOh's primary weapon.

Truth be told, the Go-BusterOh minipla combination was an unstable mess and (for me personally) the weakest part of this year's line. However thankfully Go-Buster LiOh fixes all the problems I had with that and proves to be a very stable combination with tons of play value. The added gorilla feet give LiOh much needed proper feet articulation and its sleek build is much more imposing than the short bulky mess of Go-BusterOh. Colourscheme wise it even blends much better. The only real flaws are the fact you need Ace's sword when it could have easily been included in the LiOh kit (see Kanzen GokaiOh's Gojyujin arms) and  how far the chest sticks out in comparison to where the shoulders are, but that's more a by-product of the design itself rather than the toy.

As far as the big Go-Busters combinations go (so Buster Hercules doesn't really count), Go-Buster LiOh is definitely the stand out one. Its a bit of a bummer that you need Ace's sword for the weapon, but Ace comes so highly recommended anyway that you should already own him if you're considering LiOh. Finally a combination worth raving about.

Go-Buster King
Moving up into the 5-piece formations, Go-Buster King is the combination of LiOh, GT-02, RH-03, BC-04 and SJ-05 - making it the equivalent of Great Go-Buster. While Great Go-Buster was fairly underwhelming on the show, the minipla turned out to be a surprise hit with me. Can Go-Buster King repeat it success? The answer is sadly....no.

Once again many of the transformation components are similar to Great Go-Buster, with the lower half of BC-04 once again forming feet and SJ-05 becoming the arms. Its when you get the the backside of the King that the problems really start to become obvious. Everything that hasn't been used in the combination so far just sort of hangs there, with parts joining together with no real rhyme or reason. If the giant helicopter blades strapped to the back weren't bad enough, a complicated backpack of BC-04, GT-02 and RH-03 parts stuck near the top of the robot makes things even worse. Not only does it look ridiculous, but it has some real trouble pegging in securely properly so if you as little as breathe on the thing it completely falls apart. Not great when one of the selling points of this line is that they have articulation.

On a personal standpoint, the SJ-05 just don't have the same bulk that the RH-03 ones do on Go-Buster LiOh. Its undeniable that King is an absolute beast of a combination in terms of mass, but the weedy little arms look stupid no matter how much huge weaponry its carrying.

After Go-Buster LiOh turned out to be such a roaring success I was excited for the Go-Buster King combo, especially since Great Go-Buster had turned out so well. But in reality this formation is just as underwhelming as Go-BusterOh was. Its a complete mess of parts, much of which many feel like an afterthought, and often struggles to stay together unless you leave it completely static. If you want a hulking brute of a robot, stick with Great Go-Buster.

Toybox REVIEW: Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Minipla LT-06 Tategami LiOh (Part 1)

As 2012 draws to a close, this year's Super Sentai series is also hitting its final stretch. With Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters going to under an extensive retooling to try and recoup lost ratings, the show has stepped up its game significantly and also introduced a few new additions into the mix, such as super modes for the main three Busters and a brand new mecha. The new mecha is the gigantic Buddyzord LT-06 Tategami LiOh, who has finally been released in minipla form. As well as three individual modes, LiOh also have the ability to combine with GT-02 and RH-03 to form Go-Buster LiOh, and then with those two plus BC-04 and SJ-05 to create Go-Buster King! This review will be split up into two sections - the first looking at LiOh's individual modes, while the second covers the larger combinations with previous mecha.

As the biggest individual mecha in the Go-Busters line, Tategami LiOh is a three-box candy toy model kit. The pieces are moulded in blue and black plastic, with stickers to cover most of the gold detailing. However this is one kit I'd say Bandai really skimped out on the stickers for, lacking any claw stickers for the lion feet or gold rim for the lion mane. While personally I probably wouldn't have used these stickers and would have opted for paint it still would have been nice to include the for those who do use them. The only other glaring inaccuracy would be the staff weapon, which is moulded in blue plastic but is in fact silver.

On a side note, the candy included with these boxes is a different shape! Instead of the usual pill-like circular pieces, they are instead a flower shape. Its the usual soda-pop flavour though.

We'll start the review with robot mode, since that's the mode it'll be in once you finish building!

Tategami LiOh may seem like a sleek robot from front view, but turn him to side and you can see just how long it is. The shoulders slot in at a permanent angle (but can be raised up for lifted arm poses), but the arms can still swing down for the arms to be parallel to the arms. The head is on a balljoint, while the torso can also swivel at the waist. Moving downwars, perhaps the biggest eyesore in robot mode is his obvious parachute pants, complete with particularly low knee joints. Using the knee joint effectively involves unclipping the wheel pieces so that the joint can bend properly, but the lack of a decent hip joint means the legs will always be facing forwards anyway. The feet have a good surface area for balancing, but the strange way they connect to the legs (via a ball joint that's on an l-shaped stem) results in them sometimes flopping about. The lion head shield (which freely spins) can be pegged into a slot on the side of the arm, while the staff weapon can be pegged into the hands.

Transforming into bike mode involves some parts swapping. The arms swing upwards, fixing the tyre used for the shield (with the lion head removed and the flaps closed up) in between to form the front of the bike. These are locked into place by two panels on the sides of LiOh. The legs slide up behind the back wheels to form the back. Meanwhile the chest piece needs to be switched around, with the handlebars taken off  and pegged in differently. Finally the lance weapon needs to be rotated and inserted into the lions mouth, attaching it all to the front of the bike. Its a reasonably simple transformation, and voila! You have LT-06's vehicle mode. This mode features freely moving wheels, and can be rode by the Go-Buster Ace minipla! To attach Ace, simply split the bike at the middle and peg the back piece into Ace before putting the bike back together. The handle bars don't fix to Ace's hands but it isn't hard to get him into a vaguely convincing riding pose.

Finally we have lion mode, which is probably the mode LiOh spends the most of the time as in the show. This is a fairly simple transformation from bike mode, starting by removing the lion head and front wheel. From there bend the arms straight down, flipping out the lion legs. The back end simply requires swinging down the legs from the sides of the bike and then attaching the staff in the tail shape (which is a "Z" shape") to the back. Finally reattach the lion head to the front tyre and stick it to the front of the body. While lion mode looks pretty good, its articulation is particularly disappoint. The front legs only bend forwards, and the back only swing up sidewards. So in reality, the only pose it can really achieve is a sort of bowing stance. Compare this to Ace's cheetah mode, which has a full range of forwards/backwards motion in both sets of legs and its rather underwhelming. Once again Ace can ride this mode, and is attached exactly the same way he was in bike mode.

As a standalone mecha Tategami LiOh is very good, but feels rather limited in the articulation department. He may have size on his side, but both Ace and Go-Buster Beet are much more expressive and fun kits. LiOh is definitely a recommended purchase, but not the stand out mecha of Go-Busters he perhaps could have been. How will his combinations fare? Be sure to check out the next part of the review to find out!