DX Metal Append Zenkai-Oh JuraGaon / Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger Series Review
Before we get into the series proper, let’s talk about its final toy: Metal Append Zenkai-Oh. I’ve covered this mold before, so I’m mostly going to be covering the differences and my general thoughts.
What’s New: The big thing this guy advertises is new metal parts. The animal teeth, individual robot legs, and the blades on the weapons have all been replaced. I’m pretty sure each of them is new molding, but they’re all identical apart from the Jyuran and Gaon’s new legs which have all their gaps filled in. Apart from the metal, it also has a new face that’s more accurate to the show, including sharper horns.
It also comes with a few new parts. The most obvious are the leg covers, which make them look more show accurate. They slide on very easily and clip onto the back of the legs. If you want to remove them, I tend to unclip them, bend the knee, and slide them off. It also comes with a small... thing? I’ve found it useful for sticking in between the hip and shoulder assembly to keep it up for certain poses because of the added weight, but I don’t know if that’s its intended purpose.
And then there’re also a bunch of new paint details. Jyuran and Gaon’s faces now have extra black details and the number on their foreheads are gold, Jyuran has a lot more two-toned red on him, his shield (and a lot of the silver) is brighter and has additional dark grey paint around the edge, the orange bands on his arms new encircle the entire limb rather than sitting on top. And Zenkai-Oh’s exposed hip joints have been painted. Jyuran got a lot more paint than Gaon did, but Gaon really only needed his face to be accurate.
What Does This Affect: So, while this toy does wear its new metal parts gracefully, it’s still not meant to have them. The arms are now far heavier, which will probably mean it has a shorter shelf life than the original. Also, the boots affect the balance of all the other combos. I made Don Zenkai-Oh using the boots and just extending its arm one notch made him balance on the longer leg unintentionally. I could also visibly see Zenryoku Zenkai-Oh’s arms sag when I attached these guys. It’s meant to be JuraGaon and not really anything else.
Overall Thoughts: In my opinion, this is a fantastic display piece, but does not replace the original DX. The added weight does not remove its ability to interplay with the other releases in this line, but it does make them less stable. The DXMA can transform purely so you can choose your favorite mode to display, and not to be played with. If you’re primarily a display oriented collected who doesn’t play with their toys, this is probably your better option, but if you enjoy puling them off the shelf every once and a while and messing with them, then the DX will serve you better in the long run. Not a replacement; just a different type of release for a different type of collector.
With that in mind, my toy recommendations for this year would be the two Zenkai-Oh with Zenryoku Eagle so you can make Big-45-Man. I think both ZenKaiju-Oh and Enya Rideon are very cool toys, and they interplay well with either Zenkai-Oh, but they’re not necessary; just good additions if you like the play pattern. And TwoKai-Oh is passable. Only get it if you already have ZenKaiju-Oh so you can do its extra combination.
And now let’s move on to the series proper...
The Good: While the previous two seasons have been very episodic, Zenkaiger, while having some of those elements, has a lot more ongoing story lines that run the course of the entire season. The search for Kaito's parents, returning Ricky and Cutanner to normal, Gege acting weird, Stacey in general. And it's not just big swathing things like that, either. Vroom was only a Tojitendo janitor for the first four episodes, but it comes back right at the end of the show. Kaito literally beats the final boss at a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, which him being good at was a throwaway line from way earlier. Even Seichan recapping the previous episode always had an element of the previous episode in it. The show had and stuck to its continuity throughout, which is a welcome change after the last couple years.
Also helps that the characters engrossed in that continuity were all great. Kaito is a pretty simple character, being very caring and compassionate with a few quirks, like many leaders in Sentai. What sets Kaito apart is how heavily he interacts not only with other characters, but with his teammates. That they feel like actual friends that spend most of their free time together. Jyuran is a ton of fun. A bit of the wise, old mentor who wants everyone else to think he’s cool. Gaon is very caring and a bit of a worrywart. He’s also the only member of the costumed cast to go through any major character development, having a distaste for other Kikainoids during the start of the series that he eventually discards as the series progresses. I’ve said how I don’t typically like when there’s only a single female character in a season, but Magine is a very strong one. Able to easily and believably switch between energetic and shy, she’s very childlike and doesn’t fall into the usual trap of being “team girl” that others before her have. It probably also helps that Yacchan and Flint are also strong characters, even if they don’t morph. Vroom seems like a stereotypical intelligentual, but is also a bit of an extrovert which is a combination I feel I don’t see a lot, or at least in this style. Never one to shy away from asking questions, if he’s curious about something he’ll also be an inch away from your face asking about it. Zox is a little like Kaito, being a somewhat simple character. While he spends the first two or three episodes of his tenure being somewhat antagonistic, he quickly becomes just another member of the team. A somewhat cocky family man with a good heart, he fits the sixth Ranger roll to a T, but is entertaining enough that that doesn’t become boring. Rounding out the main cast is Stacey, who, despite being evil, always felt like a member of the team. He’s the character who undergoes the most actual development throughout the show, growing from being a pure antagonist, to a reluctant ally, to a friend. He fits the role of an antagonistic Sixth Ranger without actually swapping sides until the last three episodes. A lot of the characters really fit the stereotypes of their particular “colors” (even if they were swapped around), but it never felt like that when watching the show, only on analysis in hindsight, which is something it deserves credit for.
The action in this season was very experimental, especially at first, but not bad. A lot of fighting on green screen sets with weird backgrounds. Every robot battle has tons of props everywhere. Near the end of the show we had a bunch of CG only fights. And while not all of these were super exciting, they were fun, and I enjoy that they tried something new.
And lastly we get to the designs, which were a lot different than normal. Gone is the slender spandex, replaced with much heavier, detailed designs. And I really like them. As someone who collected all the toys for this line, it’s cool having versions of the characters that also do all that transforming and combining I like. I also like how all the costumes call back to different seasons, with Zenkaiser being GoRanger and JAKQ, Twokaiser being Gokaiger, Stacy being Battle Fever, and everyone else being the first quarter robots of their respective years. Not to mention how the starring Ranger was white instead of red with red being second in command. It’s a very cool change of pace.
The Bad: Lumping story and characters together here, but it’s disappointing that the costumed crowd didn’t get a ton of individual development. While they had a bunch of good moments in all the humans’ episodes, they really only got a small handful of episodes a piece, and had very simple personalities, even if I enjoyed them.
Some of these experiments are a little weird, and feel more like prepping for next season rather than adding to this one’s story. Mostly the heavy use of CG characters like Ricky and Cuttaner, the few instances of one-off CG Megazords, and stuff like that. I don’t have an issue with them using CG; they’ve done good models and fights in the past, but they were all big things and not day-to-day. It felt like they were getting practice more than anything, and that is, at the end of the day, a good thing since practice makes perfect. It’s just going to take a while.
And while I don’t hate the ending (I do quite like it), I was building myself up to the idea that Not-Gege was going to end up being the antagonist for DonBrothers, and that the two seasons were going to be direct sequels to each other. And while that could still sort of happen (I haven’t watched DonBrothers at the time of writing this), I had the idea in my head that maybe seasons 45-50 might all be a continuous story, which would have been totally awesome, but at this point I don’t think that’s what we’re going to get.
The Don: From what I’ve heard and seen of DonBrothers so far, it looks interesting and also experimental. All CG characters, an evil team, first quarter Megazord not being released until May (ok, maybe I’m not excited about that particular aspect, but there are quality assurance and future integration things that can benefit from that delay; guess it makes sense why Rideon came out when it did). Definitely curious about it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Not the best, but a lot of positives and not a lot of negatives. Some of those negatives come from being different and trying new things, and I think we all want Sentai to do that more often than not. An experimental bad series will always be better than a safe bad series in my opinion. Hopefully DonBrothers will hit a similar stride.
And we’re at the final Zenkai machine! While I’m not the biggest fan of the roleplay toy turned Zord, especially when lacking an individual robot mode, I can’t argue that the final results and combination this time around are exceptional. No loose parts, doesn’t fall apart, good balance, some posability, and it doesn’t look like a hot mess. I honestly can’t think of another final combo that even comes close to it. Spoilers, but it’s worth the price of admission alone.
The Good: While this may only be a five-Zord combination, for a final combined machine consisting of two Megazords and a large Aux Zord, this thing is remarkably solid. I can literally pick ZenZen up by the waist with one hand, without fear of it falling apart, which is something combinations like Wild Tousai Dodeca King or Good Cool Kaiser VSX have a lot of issue with. And it’s just about the same size as those combinations, too.
And while Zenkai Cannon itself isn’t very complex, the actual combination sequence hits that sweet spot of just complicated enough. Disassembling everyone only requires removing their arms, and the places each hook back into are very solid since they use ratchets as their connections.
Also, for as massive a combination as it is, it’s surprisingly posable from the waist up. It only has 3 positions for each arm naturally (down and 45° front and back), but the transformation joints in Juran and Gaon allow for some inward bend, hands, and a few other things. I’ve even gotten it to hold its sword a few times. I’m normally cautious about displaying combos or having any mech hold a heavier weapon, but the way everything works here, I’m not concerned about that at all.
While I’m not as big a fan of Zenkai Cannon or Zenryoku Eagle as I am ZenZen, they’re both serviceable. The weapon combination adapter is the only odd piece, but has multiple locations in which it can be stored in either mode which was an issue the Zenkai-Oh Special adapter had. There’re also quite a few different sounds it can spew out, with 11 finishers in gun mode, and you can cycle through them by holding the trigger.
And as a quick aside, the dial is only perfectly straight when the Machine (car) and Beast (lion) are at 12 and 6, and the tiny gear gears are at 3 and 9. I also haven’t figured out what is pointing at what to determine which finisher is triggered in gun mode, only that spinning it a lot triggers the All Sentai finisher.
The Bad: My biggest issue is a lack of instructions. If I hadn’t seen a video of how this guy is assembled before it showed up, I can’t help but feel that I would have been very frustrated staring at the one picture of it on the box and trying to figure out where everything goes. I did get somewhat frustrated trying to figure out what goes where on the combined weapon. Had to Google that since there’re no clear pictures of it.
Also, with Zenkryoku Eagle, the gear chest (specifically its gold chrome and painted emblems) are about a millimeter off the ground, so I can imagine it getting very easily scuffed or scratched if you’re not careful. Apart from that, I wish it had an individual robot mode, but I’m also extremely happy with the final combo, so it’s a give and take.
Overall, if you have the two Zenkai-Ohs, I’d say this is a must. ZenZen is such a fantastic combination, and a lot easier to get all the pieces for than something like Dodeca King or Samurai Ha-Oh. On its own, however, I’d give it a pass. It’s only interesting as a combination piece, and is very lacking outside of that.
I’m sad this is our last new mold, but not our last new toy as we’ve gotten confirmation of our first Artisan release in a while (preordered). As the season closes, another opens. Haven’t seen anything about what the next season will be like, and I think it’ll be hard following Zenkaiger, but that could mean we get a weird season, and those tend to be my favorites.
ZenKaiju-Oh / Zenkai-Oh Special / Twokai-Oh Special
For a series that has a catchphrase about being the first at something, this is an actual first. While the other two Megazords have had very cool transformation schemes, every series does. ZenKaiju-Oh is actually unique, having two robots combine into a non-robot form, and having that non-robot form split apart to upgrade two separate other Megazords. It’s a super cool ideas, and I hope Zenkai Cannon at least matches what this guy brought to the table. It’s a tough act to follow.
The Good: This is another Sentai mech that does a lot. It has its two separate robot modes, its combined Kaiju mode, a flight mode (that appeared in the show), and two combined modes with other mechs you can create simultaneously. As I said before, it is very unique among Sentai toys. With transformation joints, you can also achieve a decent amount of posability with both Super Zenkaiser and ZenKaiju-Oh.
Their scale next to the Zenkai-Oh and Twokai-Oh seems a little strange at first since ZenKaiju-Oh is a little shorter. However, it scales very well next to every one when they’re separated (since Kaito technically isn’t there to combine them), while Super Zenkaiser scales well next to their combined forms.
I’ll also say transforming Super Zenkaiser into Zenkai-Oh Special is really cool. The way it compresses in half is very creative, even if a lot of the accessories have to come apart.
The Bad: The handle on the spear is a little thick, so it’s tough to get into everyone's hands.The chest plate comes unclipped pretty easily. I’m a little concerned about the clips on ZenKaiju-Oh’s back eventually breaking (the ones you plug SD TwoKaiser into). And while this might seem a bit nit-picky, I don’t like Super Twokai-Oh’s face. Super Zenkai’s eventually grew on me (it looks better in hand than in photos), but Super Twokai’s feels too small. I guess it needs to fit through the crocodile mouth, but it still could have at least been a little wider.
And it kinda sucks that you can’t attach the second cannon the ZenkaiVroom’s back as Zenkai-Oh Special. They made you use one adapter already why not two?
Overall, this is a really cool toy full of cool ideas. More than anything, I hope they take some of the ideas from this one into later seasons. I actually had an idea about an animal Sentai team where the Zords combine into a giant lion rather than a robot. I’d be curious if anyone else thinks that would sell...?
It it weird that I was scared by the ZenkaiRed special? (Which I have but haven’t watched yet.) Not that there was literally anything at all to be scared of in it, but because I saw the screen caps of the human versions of all the mechanical cast members, and I thought that was going to be a change made to the main series. I love the designs from this series, and going back on the decision to use robot characters before the show is even past the 10 episode mark gave me series Kyuuranger flash backs. If you decide to do something bold, embrace it! Don’t chicken out; don’t go back on your decision! Really glad that was for the special only, though.
The Good: Magine and Vroom are so much fun to transform. Vroom is very simple to get from vehicle to robot, but has this crazy thing he does with his hips when you go to combine him. Magine does a similar thing, but her overall transformation is insane. The amount of shifting her body does to go from Dragon to Robot to Combined is super cool. She might be one of the most complicated toys has Sentai put out...maybe ever? I’m not a fan of having to pop her wings off for every conversion, but I 100% understand why she does it.
Magine also balances really well despite having tiny legs and an enormous backpack. Even without her staff, she stands really well even though she’s a ridiculous triangle from the side.
The Bad: My issues are mostly aesthetic. I don’t like Magine as a leg. She’s very cluttered, and when she’s JuraMagine her balance is tenuous. Magine’s backpack, as I mentioned before, is also enormous, and she doesn’t look great from certain angles. Vroom’s giant shoulder is a little weird since it’s so much bigger than both Magine and Gaoon’s. And just, compared to JuraGaon, Magine and Vroom don’t mesh well together. The disproportionate shoulders, the hips, the mismatched head clamps. They almost look better as JuraMagine and VroomGaon. All nitpicks I can easily overlook.
The only actual issue I foresee with this toy in the future is the painted chest details for Magine and Vroom end up on the bottom of their feet, so that might eventually scrape off if you’re not careful.
Overall, Magine is one of the coolest toys Sentai has ever done, and Vroom is pretty cool, too. You could get this and not JuraGaon and you’d probably be happy, but I think having the set is worth it. Even more excited for TwoKaiOh, now, even though I haven’t seen it yet. We have seen TwoKaiser, though! So hopefully we’ll get a good look at it and its apparently 7 modes pretty soon.
I’m three episodes into Zenkaiger, and am very much enjoying it. It feels even more comedic than Kiramager was, but also not to its detriment. It’s also taking its time introducing the team, and giving a good amount in their starting episodes to show off their personality and relationships with the other Rangers. It’s definitely lacking some of the oomph and reverence that Gokaiger had, but that might come in time, and even if it doesn’t it should be fine. We don’t want every anniversary series to be the same, after all.
The Good: I have had so much fun transforming this toy. Jyuran’s T-Rex Mode is pretty sizable, having similar bulk to the Rexes from Jyuranger and Abaranger. His integration of his weapons is also neat, with the sword obviously becoming the tail, but the shield folds to fill out his stomach. Gaoon is equally as large, dwarfing most other lions.
Despite where the transformation joints are, the individual robot/Ranger modes are very solid looking. Jyuran is able to hold his large sword with no issue, and also has a neck joint. Gaoon is able to hide his head away since he doesn’t have to house electronics. I also like how when his paws fold up they become his shoulder pads.
I love the symmetrical docking feature. While most Megazords stand out do to their aesthetics, this one has the added advantage of color separation. Despite its thinner legs, it has no balance issues, and can be positioned with both hands straight out, holding its weapons (if you store the buckler on the side of its red arm), without the fear of tipping. I’ll also add that these are the most intricate transformation schemes we’ve gotten in a while, with a ton of moving parts. It’s a lot of fun.
The Bad: A problem with that more complicated transformation scheme, however, is that this release doesn’t come with an instruction manual. It comes with a sheet telling you haw to assemble ZenkaiOh from the parts in the box, but that’s it. You have to suss it out for yourself, which isn’t too hard, but it took me a minute to figure out where everything goes and the order of operations.
Jyuran Tyranno’s legs are a little silly, and I wish his head could fold away at least a little bit. Also, his face mask pops back up very easily and is the only thing on this release without a detente. Gaoon Lion is a little anemic around the stomach. Zenkai Gaoon is also lacking a lot of paint on his face. There are plenty of recessed areas around his face where they’re supposed to go if you want to paint them yourself, but unless I decide I’ll be displaying them in those forms for the long run, I’ll skip doing it myself for now.
My only issue with ZenkaiOh is Jyuran’s head being tucked right behind his red arm. It’s not easy to see, even with his arms up, but it’s still a little silly. Also, don’t push it beyond where the detente is, as I’ve discovered a very tiny bit of stress on the plastic, even after a single day.
Overall, my enjoyment of this toy heavily outweighs any qualms I might have with it. It’s the first time in a long time a Sentai toy has been a desk toy for me, and it makes me even more excited for the next set we’re getting. I’ve also already go TwokaiOh on preorder, and we haven’t even seen any promotional images for it, which should show how excited this line has me.
