SHOKUGAN MODELING PROJECT V-REX ROBO | Figure Review

After my mixed reception to the SMP Time Shadow, I was hoping beyond hope that the Quantasaurus Rex (V-Rex) wouldn't disappoint. Also, I broke one of the leg joints on Time Shadow while messing with it, so now I have no choice but to rely on those stupid back pieces I don't like to hold the Megazord mode into place. I personally blame the fact that I bought that kit used and it didn't come with the piece of gum. I got my Q-Rex brand new, it had the gum, that has to count for better vibes, right? 

Doing these Time Force (or Time Ranger if you're not a dumb American) model kit reviews has opened the nostalgia flood gates for me, I started binging the entire show while assembling the first Time Robo kit. I was brought back to the moments where I noticed Mode Blue only killed one monster in the entire show (Time Shadow combinations don't count), Katie is wonderful, and I love her, and, just how much of an emotional ride those final 3 episodes were. 

Then I randomly remembered the toy commercial for the Deluxe Quantasaurus Rex Megazord figure. I think I've made it clear enough that I like dinosaurs and giant robots through the course of my reviews, so is it any wonder that the Q-Rex was my favorite Zord from the show? Hell, it might be my favorite Megazord, period. I remember wanting that toy, but for whatever reason I could never bring myself to ask my parents to buy it for me. But now I get to scratch that itch with this new model kit. That is currently, more than double the price of what the original toy went for.
Actually, I could've probably bought the original toy for what I paid for this kit. But capitalist hellscape worries aside...

One building session later, with surprisingly little sticker placements (I still used sharpies for some bits,) I was looking at the Q-Rex in all it's glory. 

This thing looks fantastic! 
It's not an exact show model match, but I still think it looks close enough. It actually looks closer to the show model while combining aspects of Bandai's original Deluxe Megazord figure, and with good reason.
This head sculpt is appropriately fierce looking, you can almost hear the stock dinosaur roar sounds coming out of it. I love how the eyes look, the inner jaw panel in the mouth. As for the emblem on the top of the head, I'm glad they made that a sculpted piece and not a sticker, it sticks out so much better.

In terms of paint everything looks pretty good. I have seen some people who have spray painted their grey bits to look more metallic, and while that would have been cool to do, I'm personally fine with how it looks. The only stickers you'll see in it's dinosaur mode are the 6 emblems on the head and the green bits on the laser turrets. 
The chest though is where things get iffy as I remember it being black, not grey. That really sticks out to me. Perhaps I'll color it myself later. 

The rest of the body looks nicely sculpted, compromises aside. I also love all the little panel lines and details all throughout the body. I was about to complain about the lack of any covering on the neck to hide the head of the Megazord Mode, but while rewatching the "Clash for Control" 2-parter, that is in fact show accurate. Maybe not to the extent the figure shows it, but I still find it funny seeing that head poking out.

The laser turrets/Megazord arms really add to the commanding presence of this big mechanical dinosaur and the backs of them are made of metallic plastic, that'll look awesome later...

When it comes to articulation, the Q-Rex excels in some aspects and falls short in others.

Aside from the mouth which can open super wide, the head and neck are stuck in place. Unless you unpeg the pieces I'm showing now the head is on a ball joint and now you can rotate the head and make it look up in all it's sculpt breaking glory.

The entire torso is basically one big plastic brick. 

The arms can move in/out, up at the shoulders, bend at the elbows and the hands can rotate. The upper 2 claws can open and close. 

The laser turrets can rotate on the side of the body. And that's all I'll say for now...

The legs can move forward/backward, move in/out at the hip, and rotate at the thigh. The knees are double jointed. 

The feet can bend, turn left/right (not a full rotation) and pivot. I would recommend using a lot of caution when moving the feet as I'm afraid this entire structure of joints holding the feet might break if not handled with care. 
Also, there are wheels at the bottom of feet. They're tiny and kinda functional. 

Finally, the tail is on a large hinge allowing it to move up/down (again, more relevant later.) The tail is made up of 6 pieces 

Q-Rex can get into some pretty cool poses and it also comes with a stand adapter you can plug into the chest and then attach it to a standard Bandai figure stand and that can help improve the posability of the figure. 

Have I mentioned that this sucker is HUGE?! The scale of this figure is nearly twice as big as Q-Rex was in the show. This may bother some, and yeah it sticks out to me, but I don't care that much.

But before I move on to Megazord Mode, I must mention 2 final accessories relevant to Q-Rex's Dinosaur Mode. 

First, take the Time Robo in it's Correct Mode and equip it with the first accessory, a larger version of its Time Sword. Next, bend the knees, exposing the holes on the bottom of the leg pieces and plug them into the ball joints of the included clear connector piece.

Finally, plug that clear piece that into the back after removing a specific back spine.

And now you can recreate the scene where the Time Force Megazord rides atop the Q-Rex from Episode 30 "Destiny Defeated." A really cool addition. 
Personally, I would have included a way to place Ranger pieces atop Q-Rex's head, but what are ya gonna do?

Alright, Megazord time!
This Q-Rex comes with a unique gimmick, as you build the figure, you also build it's semi-automatic transformation function.

Now you can simply rotate the shoulder cannons and the figure should automatically stand upright, provided you also press the locking tab on the back, then unlock the appropriate tabs on the sides, and crotch (yes, really.) A clear throwback to the original Deluxe Figure, no Quantum Morpher required. Still would have been nice though. Bandai, do a rerelease of the Time Force Morphers!

After the simple transformation, I can say the Megazord Mode is also pretty fantastic!

Really my only grip with this mode is the head is pretty tiny compared to the rest of the body. If you're thinking of taking some "ground level" shots looking up at the figure, unlike the show, that head ain't gonna be seen. Also, do the eyes look darker than they should?
Regardless, the head is sculpted very well. It can rotate and if you pull the head up just before it pops off the ball joint, it can look up. 

As for the Megazord arms, they look great and come with their own gimmicks.

The arms can rotate, move in/out and vertically at the shoulder, rotate, move in/out and forward under the Max Blizzard cannons, bend at the elbow and both hands can rotate at the wrist. 

The right arm's Quantum Missiles can detach to make it seem like they've been fired and the left arm has a detachable Quantum Thunder Fist. A separate open hand is also included for the left arm. 
Personally I would have added plastic tubes of varying sizes to attach to the missiles and the wrist to give them an added firing effect.

The leg articulation remains the same and posability is great for the Megazord Mode. Again, be careful with the feet. 

One final accesorry is a Red Ranger piece, obviously the Quantum Ranger (TimeFire in the Sentai) and that can attach to tabs on either side of the Megazord modes shoulders. 

In the end, even with the size discrepancies, I still feel comfortable saying: This figure is amazing! I love both of its modes and after my experiences with Time Shadow, I am extremely happy that this met my expectations. A small hole in my heart formed by my childhood's lack of transforming Q-Rex toy has been filled with this new model kit. 
But as we all know, there is still one more Megazord from Time Force/Time Ranger to complete the cast that hasn't gotten a model kit announced yet. We can only hope that in the future, Bandai will...Provide Us with it.
...Eh?

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon 
and thank you for joining me here in my lair. 
So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair including updates and other related stuff:

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SHOKUGAN MODELING PROJECT TIME SHADOW | Figure Review

When one Megazord isn't enough, sometimes you need two. Especially if they can combine together.
After missing out on the pre-orders for this model kit, I began keeping an eye on various sites hoping to find one for a decent price, it took a while. Eventually I found one on Ebay that, while a bit over the original msrp, was still nowhere near the over $200+ that other sellers and third party sites were asking for. The box was opened but the contents were still brand new, so I was still able to have the pleasure of building the kit. There was no piece of gum to be seen though, so that's a tad disappointing. 
But with that out of the way, let's get to the Time Shadow. And yes, I was surprised to learn that the name of this mecha is the same in both the Sentai and Power Rangers. 

Once you complete the build, you'll have the Time Shadow in its big jet "Stealth Mode" or "Shadow Winger". You also get a big sword/gun weapon and 2 different head pieces, but those wont be relevant until later. 

But looking at the Shadow Winger, this thing looks amazing! The sculpt and paint are dead on to how it looked in the show, sometimes I feel like I might be holding the actual filming model, it looks that good!

Looking at the colors on this jet that aren't black or grey, I was initially worried that I might be entering sticker hell. Though surprisingly, sticker placement on this kit is mostly minimal. still I can't help but wonder what the point of some of them was if the pieces were going to be painted black anyway. 

These black pieces below the arch could have just been painted on, especially some of the smaller black ones you attach to the booster cannons feel unnecessary and at that point, I just colored them with a sharpie and called it a day. 

The top of the jet is where it shines the most. I love the color and details that went into this. 

The top also features an opening cockpit that you can place the Ranger pieces into. I'm not going to, because getting them into the Time Flyers was already a bit of a pain and I see no reason to do so for recreating a moment that, as far as I can tell, didn't even occur in Time Force. Maybe it happened in Timeranger? Let me know. 

The bottom of the jet looks pretty good though, despite the fact that you can see what will become the head and the legs later. But to be fair, that head does make a convincing enough front cannon and the legs are good at being the boosters/laser cannons.
The bottom also has a hole at the bottom that you can plug a Tamashii Nations stand into for flight poses

This thing is pretty big compared to the Time Flyers.

Before I move on, there's a part in the instructions that tells you to put the massive "Pro Divider" weapon and plug it into the top of the Time Shadow for some kind of weapon storage.
It doesn't work...

Now let's get into the Time Shadow Megazord. The transformation is pretty simple and matches how it occurred in the show, minus the jump cut, of course.
The wings on the back is gonna assure that this Zord will have some prominence on your shelf. Also, the gold rockets sticking out is a nice touch. 
I do really like how the Time Shadow Megazord looks, but if you put it against a picture from the show, it becomes plain to see where certain compromises had to be made. However that doesn't make the Megazord mode bad. As far as looks go anyway...

I think the less that's said about this, the better...

The head sculpt looks nice, I like the ninja motif the designers went with. The eyes are nicely painted, even though you can barely see them at times. The only thing I find kind of distracting about the head is the blue triangle, I can't help but look at it and think it looks like the Megazord is giving a big goofy smile. :D

The back of this figure looks...
-sigh-

Okay, now we get into my major problem with this model.
See, in the show, this Megazord is portrayed as being swift and quick on it's feet, like a big, robot ninja should. So you would expect that an action figure of it would be able to strike some appropriate action poses. 
But these back pieces make that all but impossible! They are attached to the back and legs of the figure, meaning: No Waist rotation or bend (not that it had any to begin with), no forward/backward movement, no bend at the knee, no possibility at all, outside of the head, arms and feet.

If you want to get any sort of leg movement, just go ahead and remove the rear leg pieces, as well as those yellow barrel parts inside the hips. If the show can do parts forming, so can I!

So problem solved right? Wrong! What you gain in movement, you'll lose in figure balance. The wings are heavy enough that it'll send the figure toppling over unless you have some kind of figure stand. Normally, I wouldn't be too upset, except I paid a lot for this inconvenience. 

With all that out of the way, the possibility is serviceable, but it could be so much better.

You also get some arm blade accessories which can be stored inside it's legs. Again, they don't exactly match up to how they looked in the show but they look alright. 

But wait, there's more! The Time Shadow can also combine with both of the original Time Force Megazord modes to form the Shadow Force Megazord! 

The original Megazord came with a few extra fold out tabs at it's "feet" that seemed extraneous at the time, but are now essential are the combination process.

Starting with the Mode Blue formation, this thing looks pretty cool, even though the combination process can be a bit of a hassle. The opening cockpit of Time Flyer 1 can be switched out with an alternate head piece for this Megazord. To complete the look, take the Pro-Divider or Shadow Force Megazord Saber with the blade part folded back for its Blaster Mode. 

But while the combined Zords looks amazing, the baggage that comes with both modes comes with it. The same back pieces restrict leg movement, and even if you remove them, you still have to deal with Mode Blue's fickle shin connection. 
And the wings on the back ensure that you're no longer getting shoulder rotation, making this essentially one big display piece in a static pose. 

The same pretty much applies for Mode Red (aka Best Mode), except his head piece simply plugs into the front of his regular head and the blade on the weapon folds forward to become a sword. And predictably, this is the best looking mode in my opinion, I'm especially fond of the shoulder cannons. 

Oh, and no matter which combination you do, the head of the Time Shadow is just gonna hang off the back, looking up at the sky. I find that pretty funny.

So overall: We have a fantastic vehicle mode, a nice robot mode (despite it's limited movement), and a couple of combinations that look good. The Time Shadow isn't a bad model kit, but I think it leaves a lot to be desired.
I can only recommend picking this up if you're a huge Time Force/Timeranger fan like I am.
I really hope the Q-Rex turns out better than this.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon 
and thank you for joining me here in my lair. 
So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair including updates and other related stuff:

https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/

I’m also on Bluesky if you want to follow me there: @thegryphonslair814.bsky.social Thanks!