Wow, they weren’t kidding about how finicky GaoBison is to assemble...

Yessir, and transformation is a little nuanced too. It's all stuff you get over in the end, but I was surprised at how much it confused me even as a seasoned builder.

Built Vroomagine yesterday:

https://i.imgur.com/fUjhT4G.jpg

I think I like Juragaon more for the symmetry and Vroomagine is a bit more busy/messy but still pretty cool.

Bioman Robo is complete.

https://i.imgur.com/MrhHCzz.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tKRhoaN.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/D8qguT7.jpg

Thoughts: The Bioman robo is classic blocky sentai and the kit doesn't disappoint in the looks department. It is simple design and the accessories are nice and minimal. For people who can only dream of ever owning the original DX toy, the Mini-Pla is an excellent stand in. But I might still caution those who aren't experienced with model kits.

The fully assembled kit is great, with really good transformation. But the build process was perhaps more laborious than any other mini-pla kit I've done. Strangely, I had some pieces that didn't fit flush and I had to do a bit of sanding and remolding to get it right. And I can't even tell if it was just a particular bad mold- from my experience, it actually looks like just a bad fitting piece and all kits will be like this.

Worse yet are the stickers. I actually like the retro look of most of them, but the problem is they don't fit as perfect as you might be used to. Stickers kind of run off the edge ever so much, which means when you handle the model the stickers will peel and whiten. A lot of these stickers it would be very hard to replace with paint; at least with my typical techniques.

On the bright side, you only build 2 things here. Which was a nice break from the 5 robots found in modern sentai. I especially like the clear cockpits. Though you'll never be able to see it, I even painted the little pilots inside.

The other small nitpicks: Bioman Robo is back-heavy and will fall backwards often. The shield fits very loose in the hand. Lastly, the shield was a pain to paint, I should've just used the sticker.

But come on! Look at this thing. Looks like a vintage toy that sprang to life!

LupinKaiser

https://i.imgur.com/1g8bHR1.jpg

The bottom set of wheels are painted. The top are not. I'm not kidding when I say Gundam markers are a perfect color match!

I really want to get into minipla, but I worry about painting.

Painting is completely optional. The stickers are good, and even I still use some. If you can do SO-DO, Minipla is just a hair more.

I will give it a shot then, but what mech to get hmmm.

can't wait to build GaoRanger stuff

Just in case you guys didn't know, SMP Gao Hunter and Gao Knight are up for pre-order at bbts