Ah Mazinger Z… why did it take me so long to finally get a good figure of you?
Oh yeah, there’s way too many to choose from!
You have the original Soul of Chogokin, which is cheap, but isn’t scaled properly with the rest of his friends and isn’t very good. You have the Renewal version, which is great, but horrendously expensive. There’s the Shin Mazinger version, which is cool, but there isn’t a Great Mazinger or Grendizer in that scale. Now we have the Super Robot Chogokins, which is scale that lacks any Getter or Grendizer, but you know what? I really don’t care.
This figure is awesome.
Here we have the Shin Mazinger version of Mazinger Z. I figured the time had finally come for me to add a Mazinger to my collection after all these years, and I figured if it would be any one, it’d be the one from the one Mazinger TV series I could actually sit through. I was originally going to pass this one up, until I noticed one thing about it that completely sold me, but I’ll get to that later.
Like Mazinger’s color scheme in the Mazinkaiser OVA, Shin Z uses the color scheme from the original Mazinger manga, with the arms and legs in black instead of blue, and the red “eyeliner.” I actually like this color scheme more. While it’s less colorful, it gets the whole “demon god” thing across better.
The articulation on this figure is absolutely fantastic. Lots of “hidden joints” (like the elbows) and the ratchets are extremely heavy and hold poses very well. I’ve been having some trouble with the hip joints, which are extremely tight, but I think I just need to break those in a little bit.
The Pilder in the head is removable, but there isn’t a non-docked Pilder included, so it makes me wonder why they even bothered to make it removable in the first place…
Of course, awesome articulation and paintjob don’t make a new Mazinger release, do they? Not at all. The accessories are what makes this figure so great.
Shin Z has a decent selection of hands: two fists, open hands, “grabbing stuff” hands, pointing right hand, and HOLDING GARADA K-7’S HEAD. YEAH. That’s pretty awesome. I have to wonder why they included hands for holding stuff, since he has no actual weapons to hold. I guess you can just give him the Mazinger Blade from Great or the first version of Z.
Two versions of the Breast Fire plates are included: classic style, and the “Atami Night” ones from the first appearance. I personally prefer the Atami Night ones, they look really cool when you use them for the one thing that sold me on this release…
…the Breast Fire effect part. Oh my god this is awesome. It’s beautiful! I’ve been displaying my Shin Z with Great Mazinger, each of them using BREAST FIRE and THUNDER BREAK. It looks so damn cool.
But of course, it wouldn’t be Shin Mazinger without the God Scrander, now would it? This is a pretty great accessory, but no, you can’t turn it into the Big Bang Punch. Sorry, but you’ll have to get your Arm of Zeus in the Soul of Chogokin.
This accessory is quite articulated, however, and moves kind of like the cloak on the Gundam Deathscythe Hell Custom. Heck, even the fingers are articulated! The belt is a separate piece, and a belt for the regular Jet Scrander is included as well, but I’ll cover that in the weapon set review.
So yeah. This new version of Mazinger Z is absolutely fantastic and I cannot recommend it enough. I can easily recommend this figure to both fans of Mazinger, and people just looking for a good toy. Make sure to come to FPNYC for yours and all your Tamashii Nations needs!
Now to take a look at the weapons…
