[Librarian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Den-O

The vehicle is definitely some kind of hover thing, but it's specifically officially named just "Vehicle Mode". And it's a pretty poor excuse for any sort of vehicle. It's just a guy lying down really

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tokumonkey

Terrific gallery! I love that you defaulted to the much better Figuarts Wizard robe from the effects set: amazing to think we'll be able to retire that figure in the near future.

Time Mazine is so frustrating. I could get into the giant-robot thing, but the vehicle mode is... I thought it looked unbelievably lazy on the show. I appreciate that the robot mode is relatively fully-realized, but did they just not *want* to come up with an interesting vehicle mode?

It's heavily hindered by trying to keep the figure inside it for each mode.

But it's definitely supposed to evoke a hover bike or skybike, but almost like a Harley version of one as opposed to the more compact versions. Alluding a bit to Kiva and Decade more with a hint of Marvel's movie Ghost Rider bike. I like how it's simplified because it keeps the campiness element, while still being fun, and keeping play features and trying to limit down how much you accidentally "break" the action figure driving inside. Plus a "Time ship hoverbike" is so perfectly "Kamen Rider" especially for the 20th heisei series Celebration.

As for transformation, it's about as complicated as an average simplified transformer. About the same as Animated Oilslick or Gobots Cy-Kill really, with less leg bend because of the figure inside to avoid snapping those legs. It's a perfect throwback really in that regard, with a quick enough conversion to go right into combat mode without being overtly burdensome to get right into the play factor. These are for kids to have fun with and convert quickly back and forth, which also helps in the show to do the same for quicker transitions of combat to time ship and go etc.

How removable the legs are though seems to suggest it might get some interesting upgrades in the future more than the arm ones. So all that in mind, the simplified nature really works well, and is more a byproduct of we haven't seen all the upcoming merchandise yet in how it can evolve, or the retools from it for the Time Jackers.