[Tokumonkey]

I suspect Don OniTaijin may be the first DonBrothers figure to be worth picking up.

So far, I bought the Change Hero figures, including the Change Hero Don Momotaro Alter and ToQger Alter set, the DX EnyaRideon.

The regular Change Hero figures are tiny! If I didn't know they were Change Hero, I'd have assumed they came from whatever they're calling this year's version of Sentai YUDO. That's about their quality level, although there's no stickering. Don Momotaro is roughly the right size to ride the bike. InuBrother has a little more articulation than you'd expect. KijiBrother is exactly as awkward you'd expect given his proportions.

The Don Momotaro Alter and the ToQger Alter set... okay, here's my objection: the super-compatibility with Change Hero figures has resulted in connection points that do not want to stay together. If you want to turn it into its peach form, be prepared for it to come apart several times. The head likes popping off, but not nearly as much as the waist likes coming apart. And the hips. It's more than a little frustrating. The ToQger alter is cute but limited in what it can do. You have freedom to move parts around for different places, but it doesn't have the well-thought-out play of the RyuSoulger toys.

(It took me way too long to realize, with RyuSoulger, that Bandai deliberately came up with suboptimal configurations for the various parts specifically so kids could come up with cooler, more obvious combinations on their own.)

The EnyaRidedon (sail away! sail away! sail away!) is nifty enough, and it can connect to both Zenkai Zyuran and Zenkai Vroon. I don't know whether the new Zyuran/EnyaRideon set has new sounds, but the original Zenkaiger toys just unite with Rideon to the same "Super Zyuran" or "Super Vroon' sound as if they'd connected to the DX ZenkaijuOh, which is a little disappointing, albeit understandable. (I don't know how far ahead Sentai is planned.)

This new mecha seems like a huge change in approach. I don't recall DX mecha being this well-articulated... well, ever, really. They seem to have abandoned the "must maintain compatibility with last year's toys" design imperative. Maybe this is a response to poor sales?