Artstorm ES Goshogun

I just posted a review of CM's Goshogun and thought it will be funny to post these official ES Goshogun pictures as comparison.

Artstorm will be starting a new ES series in September, and the first releases will be Goshogun and Kotetsu Jeeg.

From these official pictures, you can see it comes with pretty much the same gimmicks and accessories as the CM version. Although it is in the deformed style, this toy is not too short and stands at 145 mm (185mm with Go Flasher). It will retail for 7800 yen and will be mostly made of diecast material with some ABS.

Source: Artstorm website

Review: CM's Brave Gohkin Goshogun

The Goshogun anime arrived on July 3rd 1981 for a 26 episodes run, for some reason, I've always had a soft spot for the Goshogun design. Let's face it, in the immediate post Gundam era, anything still fighting with just swords and arrows weren't very cool anymore. Ironically, giant swords and steak knives are making a comeback these days...say hello to Exia's GN sword...

I had a fairly good deal picking up this CM's Corp Goshogun on eBay a couple of years ago, and it comes with a bunch of accessories such as soft rubber spare hands, 2 axes, a sword, a bazooka, the Go flasher (energy beam weapon thingy on the back), 3 mini vehicles and the smokey afterburner effect shaped stand to display them.

In the show, the 3 vehicles are actually piloted by our heros and heroine, and can be combined to form a mini robot, but of course it's no match for the bad guys, so came the Goshogun to save the day every time. CM dutifully reproduced the 3 vehicles including the transformation into the small robot (I didn't include any picture of it, sorry). The "steam or smoke" effect stand was supposed to help replicate a scene in the opening theme

If these poses look familiar, that's because I fashioned them after the poses on the box...

The item itself feels very hefty, shiny metal parts are generously used throughout, and I'd guesstimate 90% of which is metal. I think only the shoulders, the chest and leg storage panels (which opened up to accommodate our 3 vehicles), the hands and the back thruster were made of plastic.

The hands are made of a softer plastic, almost rubber like, which is great because you can swap them in and out without any fear of breaking them.

When I was considering this item, I came across some eBayers commenting on the (small) size of the item, so I included this comparison shot of a Chogokin Eva 04 that I picked up recently. You can see they are about the same height (7" or 8")...I do acknowledge this though, most pictures I've seen of the Goshogun box tend to give the impression that the item is really big in size.

The workmanship on the Goshogun is superb and I'm very happy with it.