Thursday, June 30, 2016

Transformers Go!: Sensuimaru G20

Today's post brings the 2nd member of the Shinobi team from Transformers Go!, Sensuimaru. Along with Hishoumaru and Gekisoumaru, these two sword bots form a combiner were either robot can form the top, middle or bottom. It's a different approach to the traditional Transformers combiner and while their combined form isn't my favorite, I do particularly enjoy Sensuimaru.

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The back of the packaging shows Sensuimaru's robot and alt mode (a very cool shark) as well as the team's combined form w/ Sensuimaru forming the top part of the combiner, GoSensuimaru. The tech spec rankings are found one end of the box, while the other end has a larger image of the combined form.

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Sensuimaru sports a rich purple color scheme with black robotic parts with red and white paint in certain areas. The robot mode does have a few drawbacks however. First is the kibble on his shins is quite large, but thankfully it doesn't detract too much from the over look. The 2nd drawback, and quite the biggest issue with the robot mode is the fact that he's all legs. The small waist "skirt" needs to be a little larger to help hide the fact that the legs continue past his waist. Flip Sensuimaru around and you'll see just how awful the robot looks,

Because of the combining gimmick, his articulation is limited. His arms have a good range of motion in the shoulder and elbow areas, but with no true waist the leg articulation is limited to the knees. You can spread out the legs a bit, but the further you move the legs apart the more apparent it is the lack of a waist.

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While I prefer Sensuimaru's headsculpt over Hishoumaru's, the head just seems to float above the body too much for my tastes. With his alt mode being that of a shark, I'm OK with the head being molded into the body of the alt mode.

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Sensuimaru's kabuto is a bit smaller than this teammates. This piece is used for when Sensuimaru forms the top part of the combined mode, but can also be attached to both the robot and shark modes or wielded as a shield or a weapon.

I particularly like the way Sensuimaru's kabuto looks. The head sculpt looks fantastic and the gold sections helps make the chest look fuller in combined mode. At first I thought the silver portion at the bottom was a missile or some type of weapon, but after looking at it again it's actually an anchor. Makes since since he has a marine alt mode.

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Sensuimaru's kabuto can be attached to his robot mode, but in my opinion it just looks odd all folded up on his back. You can almost fold it up far enough that the anchor tips sit on his shoulders like rocket launchers.

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I'm not sure what his weapons are supposed to be. Are they shuriken of some sort? Or are they just a generic bladed weapon like a pick axe? Either way, he can wield these one in each hand, or combine them for a larger weapon.

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Sensuimaru has the best alt mode of the 3 Shinobi team members hands down. While he is clearly a shark, he almost has this submarine vibe going on as well. While he does have a good bit of under carriage in alt mode, at least he's armed. While I'm not the most versed fan/collector of Takara's Brave series of toys, from day one I've always thought that Sensuimaru had a Brave aesthetic.

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There is so much detail sculpted into this figure that I can forgive the overall lack of articulation. In shark mode his jaw is articulated as well as the front purple fins, but that is about it.

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The kabuto piece attaches to underneath of the shark and actually blends in well with the figure. When you place the shark on a smooth hard surface you'll see that the nose leans down a little more than when the kabuto isn't attached.

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Sensuimaru to me is one of those figures that you'll either love or hate. He has a decent robot mode and a fantastic alt mode. He isn't the most articulated and he has some flaws in robot mode, but overall I think he's a solid figure. Because of his large legs I opted with keeping Sensuimaru the lower portion of the combined robot, but his kabuto does have a great head sculpt and I wouldn't hesitate switching around the order of these 3 bots.

Like with his Shinobi teammates, I don't think he sold very well and hit the clearance racks fairly quickly. As of this post, you can still grab him brand new for $16.03, roughly 50% off his original retail price at eToysJapan. If you're looking for a different type of combiner then you may want to give the Shinobi team a chance...especially since the prices for the 3 figures have fallen so much.

Related Posts:
Gekisoumari G05
Hishoumaru G10

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