[Locke]

Gobus 38.

Although not as bad as the last episode, this episode was oddly narrow minded. I mean I love Ace as much as the next guy, but not only is it now no longer the strongest single Buster machine - why Ace specifically in the first place?

Considering you need the others to use the Combine Operation, and that J and Jin's machines operate outside of the Core Buster Machines surely it makes sense to gather information on all of them? I get that eventually the focus shifts more to what effect the machines have on the body when used for prolonged periods, but it still seemed odd to use only one example.

Still the fact I respond this way surely shows the strength of the mech stuff in this show, which I guess is odd, as the mech line is the main toyline and this is the best I've ever seen it used. Usually the toy ad is literally tacked on at the end of the show with no wider purpose. It's funny how much a show largely written off by everyone gets right, much more so than a lot of the shit in the sentai canon.

Obviously it'd never happen after the shows failure, but I would be really interested to see a sentai taken to Gobus logical extremes, centred around a bunch of ace mech pilots. I guess I have an idea for a fanfiction if I ever write one.

The designs for the mechs in this show are fantastic as well. There were missteps, Epsilon looked pathetic with its giant knees, the combination of Jin and J's vehicles is a floppy mess - the closest this show has to a true clusterfuck - and when Ace combines with Two and Three...it gets a huge gut and a moustache?!

But when it comes to combining LOTS of vehicles this show is pretty damn incredible, as they still come out of the other side looking like a giant robot and not like a kid just had two litres of cherryade to himself and played buckeroo.