Sentai Mecha Discussion: Fiveman
 

Five Robo
https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...20130121191120
https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...20131104221143
https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net...20131104221224
https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net...20131104221534
Five Robo looks like he was meant as a throwback to a lot of the earlier mechas in Sentai. From lacking a concrete theme, having 3 components, to a primary colour scheme of red, blue and yellow, these are all very much elements shared by some of the earlier mechas. With all that said however, I really, really don't like Five Robo. He's probably one of my least favourite mechas in all of Sentai. The attempt to throwback to older design elements doesn't totally work I think and after coming off the mechas from Liveman and Turboranger, he feels like a step backwards in design. The overall colour balance is just kind of a mess, the chest in particular sticks out a lot from his mostly blue limbs; The chest is also very big which makes him look weird from many angles. I especially don't like his head. It has the Live Robo thing going on with the blue face and silver mouth which looks ugly and just in generally the head has way too many colours going on. It's also oddly boring since it's so round and lacks any other features to its silhouette.

Five Trailer
https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...20131104221919
Five Trailer is just sort of there I guess. While it is cool that there is an alternate combination for Five Robo, there's nothing else really noteworthy to talk about this mode aside from the cab looking really weird and the trailer not really looking like a trailer

Star Five/Star Carrier
https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...20130428045307
https://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net...20130428045308
Star Five looks way better than Five Robo. Better colour scheme, better overall design though a bit simple looking, and especially a better head sculpt. It's quite the nice looking head which may just be becuase it looks like Optimus Prime. I mean antenna ears, mouth plate, forehead crest, the resemblance is uncanny. He also has a bit of a boxy look to him akin to earlier secondary mechas but I think Star Five pulls it off the best, giving him a very solid looking silhouette. Star Carrier is also a pretty nice looking though I'm not totally sure whether it's supposed to be a ship or a tank.

Super Five Robo
https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...20130428045305
Super Five Robo is alright I suppose. The colours are a bit more spread out though it is still a bit messy. The feet in particular since as you go down, they change from blue to red to black. The head, while looking like a bit of a bucket, is still better by virtue of not looking like Five Robo's head. Otherwise, he is a pretty middle of the road combination. At least they didn't try to follow the proportions of the toy like Super Turbo Robo did becuase if they did, this guy would look just as bad, if not worse.

Max Magma/Magma Base
https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net...20130109210152
https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net...20130109210138
Max Magma is really just a more souped up version of Turbo Builder. All the things I liked about him are the same here. He definitely has more normal looking proportions but still retains that kind of tank like look of Turbo Builder.

Next week, Jetman.

Five Robo's chest design is really similar to Jet Garuda's chest design.

Star Five's chest design is really similar to cassette and thats remind me to Soundwave from Transformer.

Not Soundwave, but Blaster.

Transformers Background for those unfamiliar: Blaster was the Autobot boombox released during Season 2/1985 who became a rival of sorts to Soundwave. He had a predominately red-color scheme and yellow chest, not unlike Star Five. He became a notable character in the Marvel Comics, and had cassette partners by Season 3 in the show. The two rivals had a final battle in the Japanese Headmasters series and were both revived by their respective factions.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Blaster

Star Five shows how secondary Mecha were developing into respectable designs and worthy additions. Turbo Rugger was definitely the harbinger of this, but Star Five easily carries it forward. He looks simple and smaller than Five Robo, but it's not a major detriment. The two robots apparently found ways to beat opponents in less conventional ways, including Five Robo gliding along Star Five in vehicle mode or by using an opponent's Morning Star against another opponent!

http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Ikatamagin

What really irked me is how underused Max Magma is! As I understand it, it beat one opponent and was left to do "base-things" until the endgame when it was scrapped by the Big Bad with ease!

http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Kaniarigin

Thing about Fiveman is that it is not a bad show, but it suffers from feeling basic in all areas. The setup that they are teachers and siblings and also the fact that they are the first to have power-up armor as a team is something to commemorate but strangely it never clicked.

Back to the robots...
Honestly they are no different from Turboranger almost. BUT. But they feel like improvements from Turboranger. Best example of this is that the proportions for Super Five Robo and Max Magma are way better than Turboranger's Super Turbo Robo and Turbo Builder. Super Turbo Robo especially feels like this compared to Super Five Robo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g81yD_InfdQ

But Super Five Robo got it right.
Five Robo feels like a re-tooled Galaxy Robo from Maskman mostly due to the colors. Yet at the same time the composition feels like a tribute to Goggle Robo and Change Robo. Star Five as Star Carrier looks like Tank Command 2.0 but seems alright.

In conclusion, Fiveman's robots are an improvement from Turboranger and Super Five Robo and Max Magma deserve a re-evaluation regardless of how well the show did.

I have Five Robo and Star Five DX mecha

Did they actually release toys of the giant base mecha back in the 80s?

Yes, and it was in the early '90s by that time.

https://www.grnrngr.com/zords/fiveman

Five Robo is the best Fiveman mecha. It knows drunken fist.

Max magma is probably much more powerful than turbobuilder.