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:

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SH MONSTERARTS KING GHIDORAH (1972) | Figure Review

Link the figure stand in this picture if you're interested.

One figure collecting tip I've picked up is sometimes you have to let go of some of them in order to obtain more. I recently downsized a good portion of my collection, and got a pretty large chunk of scratch for them. 
I probably wouldn't have been able to bring myself to purchase this had I not. 
But, if I may be fair for a bit...

Oh look, we have another SH MonsterArts King Ghidorah figure. So what's wrong with this one? Fragile wings? Numerous loose joints? Not screen accurate enough? 
For starters, the tails will need to be attached to the figure out of the box and they attach easily enough. 
Once that's over with, I think this figure looks great. The sculpt looks really good and generally matches his film appearance pretty closely, at least not including stock footage during and before 'Destroy All Monsters.'

The head sculpts are well done, even down to the flat lower jaws. I really like how the hair looks too, maybe could've used a little more brown shading, but it looks fine enough. We need more modern Ghidorah designs with hair.

The rest of Ghidorah's body is sculpted nicely, with scales a plenty covering his body with a bright shade of gold. The scales on the sides of the torso can feel a bit rough, so take extra care when handling them. 

The wings are nice and big and I always appreciate sculpted folds all throughout the flaps. The tails are a pretty good length and feature nicely sculpted...plumage? I never knew exactly what to call those things on the tips of the tails. The point is they look good.

Where I'm generally conflicted is with the legs. They don't look bad, it's just that sometimes they look too long and lankier than I remember them actually being. It's really a matter of how you pose them and it doesn't break the figure for me.
Of course I care about film accuracy, but I'll take close enough. 

Speaking of pose, will it be a neck or a tail that snaps off?
The answer is surprisingly neither! At least on mine.

From head to body, the necks can move pretty fluidly, hold their poses and at least with my copy, no joint has snap off.
The mouths look like they should open wider, but you won't get any wider than what I'm showing, do not try to force them anymore and completely ignore the tongues!

The body can rotate at the waist, bend pretty far forward and you do get a slight side-to-side tilt.

The wings.
Oh, here we go...the wings.

They're good.
The joints on them feel pretty strong and make me confident when I flap them and move them up and down.
There's also these pieces that you can position in place to hide the joints. Really the only problem area, at least on my figure, is the left wing. It doesn't stay up for too long though because of the weight and the extra piece is kinda stuck in the upper part. But I can confidently say that these are the best SH MonsterArts King Ghidorah wings I have ever handled without worrying about breaking them. 

Legs move forward/backward and in/out at the waist, bend at the knee, there's a bend at the calf for some reason (?) and finally the feet can bend up/down, rotate and pivot.

For me, it's usually been an exercise in anxiety when handling SHMA King Ghidorah figures, whether it was loose joints or questionable engineering. I always make sure to handle my figures with the utmost care and I have to say, I've had more fun handling this Ghidorah figure than any other Ghidorah figure I've ever owned. Even when I ran into a minor imperfection like at some point the spikes on the wing began to touch the surface of where I had it, a small adjustment was all it took to fix that.

This Ghidorah looks great, moves good, is very posable and I would probably call it the best out of all the SHMA Ghidorah's.

Now that being said...

Picture taken from The Articulation Series

To put this in perspective, and I will be estimating: 
The first 1991 SHMA King Ghidorah figure cost about $125, and it came with Gravity Beam effect parts and stands to hold them.
Then that got a Special Color Version for $142, that came with the same aforementioned accessories (some were different colors) along with a flight stand and a small vehicle model.
The 2019 figure came out for $180, with stands for displaying the figure, and that later on got a Special Color Version for $230, with the same accessories.
So why does this figure, that is smaller than those previous figures, with no accessories cost THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS?! Because it's a Premium Web Shop exclusive? I still don't see the logic. 
For that price we should have at least gotten some Gravity Beams and a flight stand, hell, go the extra mile and add a Godzilla Tower accessory. You don't even need the excuse of a "Special Color ver." branding to include the Gravity Beams since no significant part of this Ghidorah lights up when firing them.
Honestly, this feels more like a $150 figure, if we want to be generous to Bandai. 

When it comes to figure collecting, I cannot overstate enough how satisfying it feels to complete a cast of characters from a certain movie. The Showa Godzilla films seem to have the worst record for cast completion as of the writing of this review, unless they announce a Landing Stage Hedorah or a 1962 Kong, the count currently stands at 1. 

Even though It's not my favorite Godzilla movie, I cant deny having the whole cast of Godzilla vs. Gigan assembled looks fantastic, but I also cannot deny that it cost a lot to get here, maybe even too much. So I'm truly conflicted here, I love this figure very much and given the circumstances, I can't say if I would've bought this figure otherwise, nor if I would recommended it given that fact. At the end of the day, vote with your wallet, make the decision that works best in your favor, even if it means letting go of a few things for other things like I did.

And don't bother bringing up that bootleg figure from Aliexpress. I have bad experiences with that site and have chosen never to buy from them again. 

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 ROBO | Figure Review

Model kits. They can be a relaxing activity, an occasionally stressful time, and a rush of excitement upon completion. I have some experience with them, mostly simple Pokémon ones (Mega Blaziken, Charizard, Dragonite and Groudon, if you're curious) and a Lady Avenger model kit that I technically finished minus the tiny stickers I simply don't have the patience for.  
My friends have a few Megazord model kits from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers Wild Force, and seeing these made me really want to own Megazord model kits from my favorite Power Rangers show, Time Force.
Yes, I know they're Japanese toys based off of the Super Sentai shows and this is from "Mirai Sentai Timeranger." But I didn't grow up with Super Sentai, I'm a dumb American who grew up with dumb Power Rangers and I will continue to use those dumb names. Calm down, Sentai fans!
I'm sorry for your loss btw...

Anyway, I got my wish around the beginning of the new year when I saw a Tokullectibles ad on facebook showing the Time Robo figure, clicked on it, and immediately saw they also had the Time Shadow and Quantasaurus Rex also up for pre-order.
After some deep thinking, I decided to pre-order them. Never mind the fact that I waited too long and ended up missing out on the Time Shadow pre-order. (I'll get it eventually)

Opening the box for this kit, I have to admit I was a tad overwhelmed. This included a lot more frames of pieces than I was used to. It felt like I was building my own Transformers toys. Also, there was a piece of gum inside the stickers/instructions bag. According to my friend, that's apparently a thing Japan does with their products to cut through the red tape of overseas shipping, by marking their shipments as "consumables." I admire the sneakiness. 

After a couple hours of snipping, attaching, pressing, and laying on stickers later, I ended up with 5 Time Jets, a Time Flyer and a sword.

Let's start with the Time Flyer (aka: Time Jet.) It's a smaller craft that's not as detailed as the bigger vehicles, but what detail we do get is pretty good. I think it could've used more gold accents around the laser barrels, and it would've been nice to get some Ranger pieces to attach to the Jet, but that's just me.
Also, the Jet turns into a gun. More on that later...

Now we move on to the Time Jets themselves. (aka: Time Flyers. Wait what?)
Building them was both a lot of fun and a test of stress. I have pretty big hands so delicate handling isn't always my strongest suit, especially with the stickers. I think I did an alright job with them, although I just know that some seasoned model builders out there will want to tear out their hair and scream at me over some minor thing I did.
Just don't look at that one panel on Time Flyer 3 for too long...

Once finished they all look pretty good. There's not much I can say on the designs in general other than they make for decent looking futuristic vehicles. I know there's only so much that can be done with figures this small, so some of the finer details aren't going to show up as well, but I think they look good regardless. One nice feature I appreciate is each Flyer comes with an opening cockpit and you can put a little Ranger pilot piece in. 
Of course the Flyers can combine together to form even cooler things and the instructions are easy enough to follow for all 3 combinations. 

Stands aren't included, I used my own.

Getting this out the way first, is the Time Jet Gamma (or Time Force Megazord Jet Mode) and it's mainly just all the Flyers smooshed together to form a bigger Flyer. I haven't seen Time Force in a while, but from what I remember this thing wasn't utilized much except to cause tornadoes and blow mutants away before turning into the Megazord. 

You'll also need a few separate clear parts to attach the Yellow and Pink Flyer pieces to the bottom. Yes, just like the show, even the models resort to parts forming.

Alright, Megazord time!
Keep in mind, you might need to have a tool on standby to help with the folding or separating of certain parts. I used a flathead screwdriver.

First up is Time Robo Beta (Time Force Megazord Mode Blue) and I gotta be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of this Megazord design, it just fits into the alright category. When you look at the plethora of Megazord designs, this one just sticks out as the odd one out. 

Aside from the absurdly huge shoulders, the figure itself feels a tad oversized in some areas, I assume mostly to compensate for the combination and articulation. 

Speaking of articulation, it's certainly there. 

The head ain't moving more than a tiny wiggle. 
The arms can rotate all the way shoulder and you can move them forward and backward, bend/rotate at the elbow and the hands can rotate/pivot.

Waist can rotate. You can bend backward, but that bit of movement isn't as relevant until the next transformation. 

The legs are where things get a little funky.
The legs can move forward/backward at the hip, but the front and back skirts limit that movement. That's when you want to take advantage of the joints just below the skirts, rotate them accordingly, and now they can really go forward/backward.
And if you move up the side panels, the Megazord can do the splits. 
The knees have a nice bend, the feet can rotate, move up/down and have a slight pivot. 

Mode Blue can get into some decent poses. Despite the massive shoulders and hollow feet, getting this figure to stay standing isn't too big of an issue.

One gripe I do have is that the shin connection isn't the best and always ends up separating when ever I try to move them. I would just glue those pieces together, but I can't or else I can't complete the other transformation. 

Lastly you can take the tiny Time Flyer, fold up the wings, extend the turrets and it becomes a gun for the Megazord. 

Moving on to the mode that actually matters.
Time Robo Alpha. AKA: Mode Red. AAKA: The mode that always gets the job done. 

This is more in line with what I think of when I picture a Megazord in my mind and this figure brilliantly captures it's show appearance. The sculpt is fairly proportionate, although the legs may be a little thicc and they will rub against each other. 
The back of the figure is also good, but unfortunately there's no getting around the massive gaps in the legs.

The painting is also nicely applied, but to be honest the ratio to parts that are painted and what parts are stickers could be better. I'm talking about the silver below the waist specifically, I'm probably gonna have to get a sharpie for that.

But not only is Mode Red better than Blue in terms of design, sculpt and paint, but also the articulation is significantly improved!

We have actual head movement this time! It's on a ball joint so it can fully rotate, tilt side-to-side, sort of look down, but it can't look up at all. 
Arms rotate and move in/out and forward/backward at the shoulder, you can move the shoulder pads out of the way for extra movement.

The same joints from Mode Blue come in handy to maneuver Mode Red's arms. You can rotate the hands, but the covers for the Flyer modes just make it a pain to do so. I would have just included some removeable parts for Flyer mode to add hands to.
Body can rotate and crunch forward at the waist.
At the waist the front and side skirts can lift up which allows the legs to move forward/backward and do the splits. Knees can bend, as can the feet and the feet have a nice pivot to them.

Possibility is improved from the previous mode.
In fact, some poses would look even better with some weapons and that's where the Chrono Shield and Space Time Sword come in! And yes, the guards can move like clock hands.

Mode Red can also wield the gun. I tried to make Mode Blue hold the Sword and Shield, but it's a tight fit on the hands, so I wouldn't recommend it.

THIS WAS A MISTAKE!

This whole set is overall amazing! You basically get 9 toys for the price of...well 9 toys in this economy, but they're all great! Despite my opinions on the designs and gripes with stickers and functionality, I think Bandai's Shokugan Modeling Project line are pretty much the definitive toy lines for any Power Rangers Zord/Super Sentai Mecha enthusiasts out there. 
Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming Time Shadow and Q-Rex models.
Also, what about that one Zord that sends the other Flyers through the time portal, we are getting a model kit for that one...
Right?

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!