FansProject Ryu-Oh

 

The combined form of the Saurus team, Ryu-Oh (“Dragon King”) is the third party version of Victory combiner Dinoking. Initially announced to some degree of excitement, it seems the enthusiasm for Ryu-Oh cooled over the time of release, which is really unfortunate. Six all-around solid if individually non-distinct figures, and one really tremendous combined mode. Maybe it’s the lack of Western presence for the characters that caused people to tune out during the life of the set; maybe a Monstructor would have been a bigger hit; maybe the individual bots really needed their dinosaur shells. Who can say?

*Deep breath* Dinoichi, Dinoni, Dinosan, Dinoshi, Dinogo, and Dinoroku,  whose names amount to Dinos one through six in Japanese, merge to form the rather serious looking Ryu-Oh, who is very spikey and mean-looking. The generally mated colors of the individual bots come together very well, so Ryu-Oh looks good and uniform. The look of the combined form is very intimidating. The face sculpt bears a permanent scowl, but adds to the overall menacing look of the combined form.

Since the individual figures don’t really transform into anything recognizable, Ryu-Oh looks like a more organic construction than an amalgam of six separate robots. Compared to combiners like Hercules, or Ares, or any combiner whose components are readily definable things, like cars or tanks or rhinos, there is not much to visually pick out that would identify the separate parts. Sure, there are monster heads on the Ryu-Oh shoulders and knees, and very clearly on the chest, but the heads are the heads of nondescript creatures, so it’s not the same as seeing Aethon and recognizing that the leg of Ares is a bull, or seeing Structor and realizing that one of Hercules’ legs is an earth mover. A long-winded and poorly composed way of saying that Ryu-Oh actually looks like a single entity, or maybe it would be better to say that it is uniform in appearance despite the pastiche of colors and asymmetrical armbots. Combiners often look like a torso with vehicles stuck to it, a la Menasor or Superion, but Ryu-Oh looks like a true mixture of its component pieces, and that can be ascribed to those components not really being anything. Accompanying this mixture are a number of monster heads bursting out from the combined form, giving Ryu-Oh a generally evil look, using the monster heads as actual monstrous features as opposed to say, the animal heads on Ares, which seem decorative. Ryu-Oh looks like the individual monster heads could be sentient and independent biting and growling entities.

There are some issues with Ryu-Oh that should be addressed. The legs and torso are big and stocky, but the arms are shorter, because Dinoni and Dinoshi are smaller, slighter figures. They transform to arm mode mainly by rearranging the beast legs, but they are stumpier animals, and thus shorter arms. There are limited elbows in the arms, so they are able to bend and the figure can hold its weapons and pose slightly, but they are smaller than the legs. It seems that the shortness of the arms is some type of forced perspective thing, as the figure itself stands best when the legs are spread wider apart, a more A-stance, which spreads the figure out more than if it were just standing at attention. The combiner feet are huge, while the hands are very small, so it does seem that the size differences are intentional, and, in truth, when posed in the wide stance with the arms out to the sides or bent at the elbows holding weapons, everything looks good. The enormous feet don’t grip surfaces too well, so Ryu-Oh slides under its own weight. The hip joints are fairly solid, but the figure does slowly dip into the splits until it reaches a certain point, where the movement stops. The Saurus team employs three different combiner joints (round pegs for the arms, small block-type pegs for the two torso parts, and larger square blocks for the legs), and while the leg figures attach solid and well, the sliding of the feet causes the leg figures to work themselves a bit loose.

Tried to catch the right light here.

But, all of the combiner joints are strong. Picking Ryu-Oh up by the shoulders does nothing to separate the two torso figures, Dinoichi and Dinosan. The figure can survive a bit of a shake as well, and everything remains sturdy and connected. The figure is also super pointy, with spikes and teeth and claws all over the place, so sometimes, the only way it can be picked up is by the shoulders. All of the sharp edges add to the real menacing appearance of the combiner, giving a road warrior or slightly demonic look. Though short, Ryu-Oh is a real intimidating presence. And the shorter arms aren’t necessarily a detriment to the figure, as in combined mode they look correct, and don’t detract from the general menace. The gold of Dinoichi catches the light really well, and the matte colors are surprisingly shiny in brighter lights, almost giving a devilish or demonic appearance under the right lighting.

Ryu-Oh is also wildly armed, continuing the 3P combiner tradition of wielding almost ludicrously large weapons. All six of the nondescript plastic chunks the individual figures come with that serve as their “weapons” combine to form an enormous and rather handsome blaster rifle, slightly amazing considering how exceptionally bogus the pieces are on their own. The rifle is very cool, and attaches to Ryu-Oh’s hand via a fairly thick rectangular peg on the inside of the fist that slots in to a similar open spot on the handle. The connection is very strong. The other weapon Ryu-Oh carries is a massive ax, packaged with Dinoroku, and intended to represent the ax that Dinoforce leader Goryu carries in Victory. There is no way the smaller figure can carry this piece, but Ryu-Oh manages just fine. The ax attaches to the hand in the same way the blaster does, but the slot is very far down on the handle, so Ryu-Oh has to hold the ax in a slightly unwieldy fashion. It would have been much, much better had the slot been maybe halfway up the ax shaft, so the figure could hold it in a pose; as it stands, Ryu-Oh essentially holds the ax straight out in front of him in a fashion that would indicate he’s engaged in a test of strength or something like that, trying to prove how long he can hold this heavy object in front of him before his arm gives out. Both of the arms are totally capable of holding the massive accessories, as the elbow joints are all very strong and they bear the majority of the weight, not the shoulders, which are almost equally as strong at any rate. Both of the weapons can attach to the back via pegs and holes in the rear monster feet of Dinosan, and that is the best option for lugging the ax around. The fists also sport dual cannons at the knuckles, an insurance policy most likely, and they add size to the hands that is really needed, when they are compared to the huge feet.

Gotta have a firm grip on the shaft . . .

While the individual members of the Saurus team may or may not get anybody excited, Ryu-Oh really should. But instead, it seems that the releases simply limped along to their finish, and are now just quietly available. The 3P market seems to be temporarily moving away from combiners, but this set was announced during a real high point in that niche of the market. And everything about it is terrific. It just didn’t seem to maintain enthusiasm from the crowd. Perhaps this being the Dinoforce lead to something of a disconnect for collectors, seeing as they are a part of a Japanese Transformers series, and may not be familiar enough to be in demand for a wider audience. Whatever the reasons were, Ryu-Oh was anticipated and then forgotten, but is a truly awesome third party combiner. What the separate figures may lack in terms of excitement or wow-factor (another totally plausible reason that the set overall fizzled. –mr) the combined mode absolutely makes up for it, presenting a super-cool and mean looking, monstrous robot. Online prices for a complete set appear to have stabilized around $230 or 240, and at that price Ryu-Oh would be an absolute steal. Individually, while the first four figures can be found rather cheaply, Dinoroku and Dinogo are in much shorter supply.

This set is highly recommended, if only for the ability to say that your collection is not without it. A terrific combiner figure.