In-Hand Images: Takara Tomy Transformers Go! Samurai Team

mmmm... look at the legs on those... oh yeah...

rockman_fan wrote:mmmm... look at the legs on those... oh yeah...

Energon Prowl will not be happy with that...

Shortcomings aside, my love for combiners and Brave obligates me to get them if I can.

wish these would stop looking so good. really liking fireman sam and the bananaplane.

Look like Transformers got Katokied.

Though they are also Obari-ish so take your pic. This isn't for everyone. I personally love Katoki and Obari.

burning_sirius wrote:Look like Transformers got Katokied.

Though they are also Obari-ish so take your pic. This isn't for everyone. I personally love Katoki and Obari.

Hajime Katoki and Masami Obari?

I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Hajime Katoki and Masami Obari?

Yes, remember Obari did most of the animation for Braves in the first place. Obari also did Call of the Primatives.

I just said Katoki because of the long legs.

craggy wrote:

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

Plus, Headmasters uses mainly Hasbro figures. Now, Victory is mostly Takara-only figures. Those combiners resemble the mecha from the Brave/Yuusha series, GoKenzan specifically resembles God Max from Yuusha Exkizer/Brave Exkaiser.

Surely there are six possible combinations? For each head/shoulders bot, the other two can become either a torso or legs, meaning there are two combinations for every main head-bot? Either that or they only combine in the three orientations due to where the connector ports line up etc

Fingers crossed for a Western release!



It's not happening.

NovaSentinel wrote:Surely there are six possible combinations? For each head/shoulders bot, the other two can become either a torso or legs, meaning there are two combinations for every main head-bot? Either that or they only combine in the three orientations due to where the connector ports line up etc

Only three combos, sorry. On first sight they're indeed like Albegas or Voltron II, but their method of combination is closer to Aquarion.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

craggy wrote:

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

Plus, Headmasters uses mainly Hasbro figures. Now, Victory is mostly Takara-only figures. Those combiners resemble the mecha from the Brave/Yuusha series, GoKenzan specifically resembles God Max from Yuusha Exkizer/Brave Exkaiser.

That's sort of what I'm saying, no?

These new figs appear to be homaging the older G1 continuity Japanese-only figures' aesthetics. These don't have anything to do with those cartoons, but the design elements are there. Which is why they seem 'meh' to me.

megatronus wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

craggy wrote:

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

Plus, Headmasters uses mainly Hasbro figures. Now, Victory is mostly Takara-only figures. Those combiners resemble the mecha from the Brave/Yuusha series, GoKenzan specifically resembles God Max from Yuusha Exkizer/Brave Exkaiser.

That's sort of what I'm saying, no?

These new figs appear to be homaging the older G1 continuity Japanese-only figures' aesthetics. These don't have anything to do with those cartoons, but the design elements are there. Which is why they seem 'meh' to me.

yeah. I totally didn't get that from the post.

I don't have any attachment to the Brave series, or any of that malarkey. Even TFs, I'm not bothered by the look of the old toys, because they're bricky rubbish for the most part. I grew up on G1, but I only buy new stuff with improved transformations and articulation. These guys look cool and appear to have plenty of poseability. That's what appeals to me. Still not keen on the plane being yellow, or the prices.

Very tempted by the animal ones though I could see myself sticking some Predacon stickers on them if I were to get them. Would love to hear news of a US release, but it seems highly unlikely. Right now, best I can hope for is that they go on sale at one of the online retailers.

The more I see of the Swordbots, the more I like what I see.

Now let's see some more of the Swordbot Shinobi Team.

I'm not digging the ludicrously long legs and torsos that are wider than they are tall. It's not so bad on the red fellow, and blue's OK, but the yellow bot suffers a lot from it. Still, it's similar to the Energon combiners, and given what they have to accomplish I can forgive it. Love it or hate it, you have to respect it as fantastic toy engineering.

Also, these guys have such a gloriously Japanese super robot/Tokusatsu feel to them that I can't hate them. I want to buy them and make a stop-motion video of them combining, complete with ridiculously manly and over-the-top Japanese narration. "DAI-SAMURAI-ROBOTU-DAN....GATTAI!!!!!"

They are definitely an acquired taste but I'm passing up on these.

I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

Towline wrote:I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

hmmm, they actually have a lot in common with the Magnaboss guys.

craggy wrote:

Towline wrote:I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

hmmm, they actually have a lot in common with the Magnaboss guys.

Which is why I refer to them as Prowl, Silverbolt and Ironhide respectively and call their combined mode Magnaboss.
The ninja team I refer to as Leobreaker, Airazor and Sky-byte and their combined mode has been dubbed Tripredacus.

Manterax Prime wrote:

craggy wrote:

Towline wrote:I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

hmmm, they actually have a lot in common with the Magnaboss guys.

Which is why I refer to them as Prowl, Silverbolt and Ironhide respectively and call their combined mode Magnaboss.
The ninja team I refer to as Leobreaker, Airazor and Sky-byte and their combined mode has been dubbed Tripredacus.

Your Tripredacus is made of an Autobot, a Maximal, and a Predacon from the wrong continuity, nice. In all seriousness, I do like the Predacon combiner much better than the Autobot one. They had to make sacrifices to the beast modes, but...it's kind of endearing in a weird way.

RAcast wrote:In all seriousness, I do like the Predacon combiner much better than the Autobot one. They had to make sacrifices to the beast modes, but...it's kind of endearing in a weird way.

What Predacon combiner? Abominus? (Or should I say Gorādora)

The lion, bird, and shark are Autobots.

Sabrblade wrote:

RAcast wrote:In all seriousness, I do like the Predacon combiner much better than the Autobot one. They had to make sacrifices to the beast modes, but...it's kind of endearing in a weird way.

What Predacon combiner? Abominus? (Or should I say Gorādora)

The lion, bird, and shark are Autobots.

...Huh, so they are. My bad.

Something about the aesthetics of the combiners don't sit right with me.

I can't place what exactly causes that feeling, but I'm not feeling Transfomers with these guys.

Maybe it's the head? Or maybe just the proportions and kibble on the guys.

Honestly I'm feeling Gao Gai Gar or Megazords with these guys.

gavinfuzzy wrote:Something about the aesthetics of the combiners don't sit right with me.

I can't place what exactly causes that feeling, but I'm not feeling Transfomers with these guys.

Maybe it's the head? Or maybe just the proportions and kibble on the guys.

Honestly I'm feeling Gao Gai Gar or Megazords with these guys.

Well the Brave/GaoGaiGar/Sentai feel is clearly what they were going for with the aesthetic, so you're not wrong. It took me a bit of staring to get acclamated to the designs, and I'm still not a fan of the Samurai team, but I really like the Ninja team for their unabashed awkwardness if nothing else.

Not a big fan,,, I will most likely not get them,, at least not for now,, I need to get all my classics and G1 reissues first

Takara Tomy's official PR twitter account has busy tweeting a series of interesting images featuring members of their design staff in what appears to be a brainstorming session at a dry erase board. They have several older Transformers figures on hand, which include Ginrai, Star Saber, Lio Convoy, and ends with an image of the soon to be released Transformers Go! Samurai team combined with Deluxe Hunter Bumblebee. What does it all mean? We're not sure, but the The Tokyo Toy Show is just around the corner. Perhaps we will find out what they're up to then. Check out the mirrored images below.

I'm concerned how the combined weapon looks in Brave Go Samurai's hand. Hope that's due to a rush job and not how the figure will actually hold the weapon.

Look at that guy´s face, like saying: "You'll have to forgive the crudeness of this sketch. I didn't have enough time".

Very suspicious, indeed.

What's Starsaber doing there? Please let it be a sign

fenrir72 wrote:What's Starsaber doing there? Please let it be a sign

Well, there is that rumored Asian market rerelease of him.

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:What's Starsaber doing there? Please let it be a sign

Well, there is that rumored Asian market rerelease of him.

They've done one grail (Fort Max), they might as well do the other.

I like the expression on the face of the guy in the first photo. I feel like he's saying "And what the f**k are you doing here?"

I'm impressed by the combined mode's size but not much else.

Google Plus user goraw GEN has shared in-hand images of Takara Tomy's Transformers Go! Samurai Combiner team, Kenzan, Jinbu, and Ganou. These images give us our best look to date at the figures. It appears each comes with a separate combiner head rather than having the entire process integrated. Images mirrored below:

Honestly, these look like something from a completely different toy line, not Transformers. They look similar to the KIA toyline in Korea. Actually, I'm really not interested in having these in my collection.

I knew it was coming but...YIKES, that's a lot of backpack. I hope the Shinobi team fares better, they certainly look better in every robot mode as far as I can tell so far.

"Ganoh", eh? Guess we finally got an official spelling.

The individual robots are rather leggy, aren't they? But I like the fact that they're essentially Getter Robo style combiners. I can already imagine the head and armor portion appearing in a burst of energy and slamming into position after the three components link up.

Damn these things look awkward. You know, you would have thought that the entirely extra block of plastic for the head/shoulders could have allowed for a ball joint. The concept of samurai Transformers is cool, but the effect is lost when they look so awkward/static. These would have to be at least better molded for me to be interested in even buying them at retail

at first i really didn't like these guys at all.. but now i'm starting to warm up to them.. i wish they were being released over here.. i really like the 3 different combinations for them.. and the extra parts for each combination.

however.. part of me still thinks that these guys look a little like a big lots transformers knock off.

Am I the only one who see Blue's combined face as "grinning" of some sort?

Just an FYI to everyone, the combiner head pieces do attach to the robot modes so at least they have someplace to go.

Even though they sport backpacks in combiner mode (which obviously can't be helped) I find it better arranged than some of the Energon Powerlink ones.

Well, the plastic quality and the detailing look kinda nice. So yay?

I just really really find it hard to like these.

They don't look like they belong in the TF Prime line, they don't even look like they belong in any TF line ever. Plus they look awkward and compromised in every mode.

Dead Metal wrote:Well, the plastic quality and the detailing look kinda nice. So yay?

I just really really find it hard to like these.

They don't look like they belong in the TF Prime line, they don't even look like they belong in any TF line ever. Plus they look awkward and compromised in every mode.

Don't they look like they'd fit into the post g1 things, like Victory etc.?

I quite like the combined mode, I might be interested just for having three of possibilities, except they'll cost too much.

Takara needs to stick to paint jobs and small alterations, and leave the robot building to hasbro.. these look soo... unbalanced. i cant see these next to my transformers prime collection much less the neo classics. no.

pre-ordered the gift set of these guys. But not sure I'll keep it.

They look good, I like the combination gimmick but there's something off about them. Hmmm. Maybe need to see a proper review of them.

Mykltron wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Well, the plastic quality and the detailing look kinda nice. So yay?

I just really really find it hard to like these.

They don't look like they belong in the TF Prime line, they don't even look like they belong in any TF line ever. Plus they look awkward and compromised in every mode.

Don't they look like they'd fit into the post g1 things, like Victory etc.?

They're more Brave-like in nature, really. Then again, one could argue Victory laid the foundation for Brave, with all the combiners and Victory Saber especially (gotta have those boots!).

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Just an FYI to everyone, the combiner head pieces do attach to the robot modes so at least they have someplace to go.

Even though they sport backpacks in combiner mode (which obviously can't be helped) I find it better arranged than some of the Energon Powerlink ones.

Very true, very true. Though some of those Energon fellows did pretty well, like Inferno (giant dual shoulder cannnons ftw).

If you'r a fan of Japanese style robots, these definitely scratch an itch! Although it's a damn shame they are not a lot closer to retail prices. I'd love them, but they are too expensive from what I can find.
And to be honest, they wouldn't really look out of place with CarRobot/RiD figures In fact they excite me they way they did back in 2000 when Beast Machines left me cold. Sadly this time around...I fear I need my money for MPs...
Why do they cost so much? Or am I just seeing inflated import prices? Over £30-£40 for each bot on Kapow. Haven't searched ebay.

hinomars19 wrote:Why do they cost so much? Or am I just seeing inflated import prices? Over £30-£40 for each bot on Kapow. Haven't searched ebay.

I think I can guess at part of the answer to this.

They're Takara exclusives, so far. That automatically bumps them up an extra ten-twenty quid over a normal toy. They're also pretty big. Each one looks to be around Voyager height. And...Kapow. Sometimes the price you pay for someone else importing stuff is an inflated retail price, but you do get the guarantee that that's all you'll pay, as opposed to importing from elsewhere in the world and possibly getting customs charges on top of much, much higher postage fees.