Bootleg Shinkenoh

Hello! Shinkenger might have ended in 2010, but Samurai only just ended. And to celebrate the end of this okay scene-by-scene adaptation I am going to end my year with my very own Shinkenoh! :D

First off, some sheer brilliance by the bootleggers here. This is not the Joint-Gattai Shinkenoh. Nope! As you can see from the size of the Ranger key down there. It is actually a HUGE copy of the box which they actually put effort in to to make it look different from the official Japanese packaging. And I love it! On the back you can see the Kabuto, Tora, Kajiki and Iga Origami's. They where available on Bhiner, and cheaply at 1.48pp. But sadly I couldn't add them to the collection. I might find them again, or just go for the DX ones because this is such a good knock-off it won't really matter.

The instructions is just a huge cardboard sheet you can find in the box. Its nice they put it in. and again its a 100% copy of the original. :D

Moving on the zords themselves and starting with the lion. Its an almost 100% match with the original DX version from Japan. The knobs on front and the middle of the fire kanji where unpainted, so I decided to do that myself. And it looks great. Also I had to fix some of the black paint next to the emblem and it looks for the better. The chrome is pretty good. at least when I first bought it. It kinda feels rough now. lol

The dragon had lots of problems. Straight out of the box I noticed they placed it on the wrong leg knob and it was stuck. So I had to take a screwdriver and take it apart before I could properly display him. When I did however it was just awesome. So glad I did not pay like €50 for the Samurai version lol. But that's just going to fast on my judgement. No, it had and still has paint problems. The water Kanji symbol has been tainted by some silver paint. and I have yet to find the correct paint to fix this problem. I did however by now fix the black parts up. Speaking of black I also had to paint all of the lower head black as they did not do so. And if I must say so myself I did a pretty decent job.

Now we're getting special in terms of comparison with the Japanese and Samurai versions! Because even though it does not look like it, this bear has diecast on each leg, not chrome but diecast! Non of the other five have that, Sure its missing the emblem on the front leg but its not that much of a problem IMO. And as you can see the legs on the right where unpainted. I had to do this myself. But sadly due to the type of paint and the plastic rubbing against each other its began to chip. I'll just leave it be. It doesn't need to be perfect. I should probably do something about that mouth though.

And then we get this...Chrome turtle! Silver Kami! This is so cool, I always found that the girls got the short end of the stick with the colors in both Shinkenger and PR: Samurai. So yeah improvement, If only they made the chrome a bit thicker. It could be just reflecting to much, but it seems that there's dark patches on some places. And that makes me doubt that its going to last long. But this is just nitpicking, I am still happy with this change :)

GOLD MONKEY!! Sure it got the boot with the Samurai release but apparently this bootleg company really liked the two female Shinkengers (like I still do) So I guess yellow was not good enough. Also its face is actually painted so it doesn't look dull! It still looks evil though lol!

And surprise surprise! They can all do the emblem mode. Which is only natural since they where bootlegged around 2010, and Samurai didn't exist by then. So these all work how they should. The plastic is sturdy enough so I won't be afraid of breakage any time soon. Though some do have problems. Dragon's helmet compartment is just a tad bit to small so Its really scary to storage the thing. I just don't want to scrape that chrome!. The monkey is a bit hard to transform back. Probably due to the chrome being to thick. Or me being incredibly careful not to scrape gold chrome lol. And lastly is that the head of the lion is a bit smaller but yet bigger. Smaller in the way that its a bitch to take it out and bigger as in its a bitch to pop back. The hole that it is placed in, is so annoying that I actually screw the toy open a bit to loosen up the head in order to get it in/out.

Combining it is just perfect! Provided one actually places the limbs in the correct places :P Its good as long as one actually knows the faults of the mech. Like the folding thing of the Dragon being a little bit annoying to work with, never press on the lion's head... Other then that I cannot fault this thing for much. Though I never really liked how it kinda slouched forward. But this is a fault of the original toy. It being a copy means it has to follow the same designs. At least for this toy.

It also comes its normal accessories. Well aside from the ranger key, but I did get it from the same haul lol. Its got the disk that acts as a shield, the katana and a fake Dice-oh card. Proving it was made in 2010. But its from very thick cardboard so keep it away from those morphers.The sword is just awesome. Unlike the original its chromed and much like that one they decided to keep them kanji on there. They could have cheapened out on it like they did with so many other KO Megazords I know. But no, we got this awesome thing. Thanks dudes!

The sword and shield slide comfortably in place like they should and it can wield them. so this is 100% awesome!

I like this thing. Its not as good as the original but better and cheaper then the Samurai version. I am glad that I found this middle ground. And I do hope to one day own a Samurai Ha-oh, So I might just get the rest of the Origami's be it bootlegs or Chinese versions or used ones from Mandarake. And to end the bootleg topic. this second time of buying from Bhiner was a financial disaster and everyone of them will be, All I can hope is that I plan the next ones good enough to get the stuff I really, really, really want with minimal damage to my years budget. One of these things is more of these KO robots. I saw a Gosei Great from the same company on there and I would like to give it a try. If only 2013 wasn't the tidal wave year of awesome shit! :D

Video by TheIchipai ©Toei LTD

Man lots of shit happened this year too, Both horrible and good. any way this is my last toy blog of the year. (and the world didn't end!) Now all I want to do is lay back and enjoy the HOLIDAY CLUSTERFUCK! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year folks!