Toybox REVIEW: Super Robot Chogokin Gurren Lagann Drill Set of Manliness

So just why did Super Robot Chogokin Gurren Lagann come with barely any drills? The answer for that is simple – why bundle them in with the figure itself when an accessory pack can be made out of it! Released the same time as the main SRC figure was the appropriately named “Drill Set of Manliness” accessory set, which not only features Giga Drill parts but also pieces to recreate Gurren Lagann in "fully drillized" mode. 

You know an accessory pack means business when the box is the size of a Super Robot Chogokin figure itself (albeit much lighter though). The front features Gurren Lagann in his iconic "Giga Drill Break" pose, showing off pretty much all the accessories this set has to offer. Strangely, the English name for the set isn't included on the front, instead on the back in smaller text along with some smaller image of the set being used with the figure itself. Open the box up and you have probably the most extensive and neatest arrangement of plastic drill pieces you'll ever see.

So how many drills are there in the Drill Set of Manliness? Included are 28 smaller drills that can be plugged into each hole on Gurren Lagann's body (with two spare ones left over, featuring slightly different peg pieces like the ones included with the main figure), a large drill piece, a spinning drill effect piece, an alternate head crest and another Tamashii stage port.

Changing the head crest is easy enough, but adding the small drills to all the available ports is a much more fiddly affair. Once they're properly fitted into the ports they’ll stay there snugly, but until then expect a fair bit of frustration and they drop off as you try to put every one on the figure. The other thing to be careful about is just HOW you place them in, as they are made of soft plastic and will bend if you hold them by the tips as you force them in. Once you've managed to place them all in, you’ll have a pretty imposing Gurren Lagann on your hands. Poseability isn't hindered by them at all (although the arms can’t really sit parallel to the waist anymore), but make sure to handle to the figure in surface areas with minimal drills to prevent more droppage.

The larger drill is considerably smaller than the one included with the Ver. KA figure, so it's debatable whether you want to call it a "Giga Drill" or not. Regardless, I’ll be calling it that for the sake of clarity in this review. It plugs into the arm like a normal hand, and due to the figure's weight it can hold the drill upright pretty stably, although posing it thrust forward would obviously require an additional stand. The spinning effect piece slots directly over the drill itself, and then you turn it to lock it into place.

Adding this piece adds a fair bit of weight to the drill, and this is where the figure begins to struggle holding it by itself. Upright "Pierce the Heavens" poses are possible with some careful balancing, but anything else is pretty much impossible even with the support of the other arm. Which brings me to my biggest gripe about this set – why not include a stand? For 2730 yen (although admittedly many online retailers are selling it for cheaper than RRP) a bunch of small drills and two larger pieces is rather meagre...especially when the larger pieces are somewhat dependant on a stand. It wouldn't have been too much effort to include one (I'm not even asking for a Gurren Lagann specific one, though that would have been nice) and lesser deserving Bandai figures have had them before...so why not here? The set is good, but when you get to playing around with the larger drill pieces this is a really noticeable flaw.

Would I recommend this set? The answer really depends on how much you like Gurren Lagann. It's not a perfect set by any means and the lack of stand does bring it down a notch, but at the same time it's a relatively inexpensive addition that adds a lot more play/display value to SRC Gurren Lagann. It's one of the few pre-built figures (and the only one of its scale) that has a customisable "fully drillized" mode, and even when you factor this in with it the Super Robot Chogokin is still significantly cheaper than the Riobot.  If you're looking for a toy engineering marvel, buy the Riobot. However if you're looking for a fun toy to mess around with, pick up the Super Robot Chogokin and give this accessory set a good think about too.

Back row (left to right): Ver KA and Riobot Gurren Lagann
Front row (left to right): Revoltech and SRC Gurren Lagann

Fun with Fourze: S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Fourze Module Set 01

In my earlier review of S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Fourze I said that despite him being a great figure, just how great he can be depends on how much money you're prepared to spend on him aside from the initial figure. At the time of writing that only the first module and stand/effect sets had been released, now as we come to end of Kamen Rider Fourze a total of four module sets have been released, with perhaps the possibility of more to come. Initially I didn't have plans to buy anything else outside of the stand set (because I'm a sucker for character-centric stands) but when AmiAmi had Module Set 01 on sale for 500 yen (£4/$6), it seemed too good an offer to pass up. Included in this set are the following switches.

Switch 02 Launcher (Right Leg)
Switch 04 Radar (Left Arm)
Switch 05 Magic Hand (Right Arm)
Switch 06 Camera (Left Arm)

Packaging is a typical black Figuarts style box (albeit smaller) with some Fourze style pattern and an image of the character in the bottom corner. The back has an image of all four modules attached to the figure, and included in the tray is also five interchangeable switches that can be inserted into the Fourze driver (two versions of magic hand, two of camera and one of launcher). These switches are tiny (although they have tabs attached which need to be taken off to fit in the belt), so to save me the stress of not losing any of them, I've not changed any of them while taking photos for this post.

First up we have launcher, which is easily my favourite of the bunch. To attach it to Fourze you need to remove the lower leg section and insert the module, and then plug the foot into it. There's some really nice panel detailing on the launcher and the missiles are removable, which adds to little extra to action poses.

Radar (like all of the other arm modules included in the set) is attached by replacing the forearm and then popping a hand onto the module. While it isn't a particularly interesting module, it is one of the more commonly used ones in the early episodes of Fourze and does include a hinged dish (which I hadn't realised when taking the photos). Camera is a similar piece, but much larger and arguably one of Fourze's sillier switches. The detailing is really nice and I like the hinged viewpiece, but its not one I can ever see me displaying Fourze with.

The same goes for Magic Hand, but for slighly different reasons. In terms of features its certainly the centrepiece of the set, boasting an impressive amount of articulation and a fully moveable claw. The downside is that its simply too heavy for the arm, so any interesting posing without the aid of a stand usually goes the way of the figure flopping over.

I can see me definitely playing around with Launcher again and perhaps Radar (since they go together pretty well) but Camera and Magic Hand don't really strike me as things I'd use for display pieces. It makes sense for Bandai to package some of the interesting switches with dud ones (although these are in numerical order too) so that completists will be obliged to buy every set. I still don't think these module sets are particularly worth it (even if they were all 500 yen a pop), but it is nice to own a module for every limb. On a different note, its also made me want that stand set even more...