Earlier this month, the Soul of Chogokin King Exkizer (from the anime Courageous Fighter Exkizer, aka Courageous Exkaiser) went up for pre-order, over a decade after the road’s launch of King of Braves Gaogaigar. Given the intelligent engineering that at all times goes into these figures, I assumed there could be some enjoyable dialogue about the place it falls on the “toy constancy” vs. “anime faithfulness” spectrum. However what I’ve since realized is that making an attempt to realize that steadiness is remarkably tough, and the query of what to prioritize in an Exkizer determine is definitely a degree of competition amongst followers.
As somebody who’s by no means watched Courageous Fighter Exkizer outdoors of a handful of episodes, I don’t have any actual private pores and skin within the recreation. My curiosity on this, except for a common love of mecha, is usually as a result of the struggles of translating creativeness into bodily actuality is one thing I can discover ceaselessly. With that in thoughts, I made a decision to put in writing about this for a pair causes. First, I wish to stop these conversations from merely being misplaced to fleeting social media. Second, I wish to convey all this to an viewers who won’t be acquainted with Exkizer, and thus wouldn’t simply perceive why there’s a little bit of an argument within the first place.
So let’s start!
The Myriad Inconsistencies of King Exkizer
Usually talking, exhibits about large robots take inventive freedoms when adapting designs. Limbs bend in angles unattainable for toys, elements come out of nowhere or disappear, proportions are made to look much less foolish, and there’s only a little bit of “cartoon magic” utilized total. Combattler V the toy has tank treads on its again which might be at all times seen, however Combattler V the anime robotic sees its treads pop out and in of view relying on what the present wants. Devastator from Transformers can have a unique head design relying on the episode. Deluxe variations that attempt to thread the needle of toy vs. present will do issues like “make the tank treads detachable” or “present each heads and permit the proprietor to decide on.”
Nevertheless, King Exkizer presents quite a lot of main challenges.
Within the anime, Exkizer is a big robotic who can flip right into a automobile. To struggle better threats, he summons King Roder, an even bigger automobile that transforms right into a humanoid body which Exkizer can enter to grow to be King Exkizer. It’s primarily a matryoshka-esque mixture paying homage to Gordian and Baikanfu.
Exkizer combining with King Roder (Authentic Nineteen Nineties toy)
Exkizer combining with King Roder (Anime)
Not surprisingly, there are variations between the unique toy and the animated illustration of the robotic. However throughout the present Courageous Fighter Exkizer itself, the dimensions relationship between Exkizer and King Roder can also be wildly inconsistent.
When Exkizer executes his “Type Up” to grow to be King Exkizer, King Roder is portrayed as a type of energy armor relative to Exkizer’s dimension. If the photographs on this mixture sequence are to be trusted, the automobile type of King Roder must be rather less than 1.5 occasions so long as Exkizer’s automobile type, which is the case with the unique toy. However the official information says King Roder is over 4 occasions longer than Exkizer (22.4 meters vs. 5.5 meters), and no quantity of reconfiguration or bending of elements can reconcile this incongruity. So as to add to the headache, the official lineart exhibits King Roder to be about 2.5 occasions the size of Exkizer as car, and the anime can’t preserve this constant, even inside a single shot within the opening!
Exkizer in automobile mode connected to King Roder: Authentic toy vs. Anime manufacturing lineart vs. Anime opening
Now, it’s extremely widespread for large robots to not match their official sizes in all photographs. That’s simply a part of anime. Are they taller than the buildings or are they shorter? Relies on the shot! And there are many cases of robots magically altering dimension as a part of the lore, like when Megatron in Transformers turns right into a gun, or how the automobile in Braiger grows larger for no motive when turning into the robotic. The difficult factor in King Exkizer’s case is the truth that the relative sizes of the 2 robots have an effect on how they’re supposed to affix up. Consequently, the conflicting information about dimension ratio between the element items can’t be squared away or simply ignored; it’s principally unattainable to make all of them work in a single toy. And even if you happen to hand-wave away each a type of issues, even the looks of King Exkizer modifications from one shot to the subsequent throughout his mixture, after which these don’t essentially match up with how he appears when posing for his particular assaults.
These points are so important that Bandai Spirits launched a 12-minute video recounting among the struggles the designers went by in creating it. That’s unprecedented!
Do you know the mission really began eight years in the past, and that a number of individuals in control of it tried to determine an answer however failed? A younger designer named Fujiki Yuuya (who was a fan of the Courageous sequence born in 1999, after the franchise had primarily been over) was ultimately assigned to make a model of King Exkizer for the Steel Construct line, just for him to hit a lifeless finish as properly as a result of the toy’s mechanisms turned more and more advanced. It took recommendation from the SoC Gaogaigar lead Terano Akira to maintain playability in thoughts and take a look at the SoC Tryon 3 for inspiration, in addition to recommendations from the Tryon 3 mission’s Mizuno Masahiro, to assist carry it to the end line.
So, introduced with these design roadblocks, how does the Soul of Chogokin King Exkizer attempt to beat them and attain a strong compromise?
The Reply, In response to Bandai Spirits
First, slightly than attempt to match the animation depicting the Type Up sequence, they determined to make the dimensions and proportions comparatively correct to official stats for each the automobile varieties and the mixed King Exkizer (Exkizer in automobile mode may even be a bit too small). Nevertheless, slightly than abandoning the mix idea totally, Exkizer continues to be made to nestle into King Roder, albeit in a means that appears completely different from the anime. The result’s one thing paying homage to Arc Guren-Lagann inside Tremendous Galaxy Guren-Lagann.
Exkizer Combining with King Roder (Soul of Chogokin)
In distinction, a earlier King Exkizer determine from the corporate Toyrise didn’t even try to make this work, as a substitute choosing Exkizer to enter King Roder from the again as a strong block. A fair earlier toy, the Masterpiece King Exkizer, considerably extra faithfully captures the mix sequence proportions on the expense of the automobile dimension ratios and total physique proportions of King Exkizer, and the Exkizer inside continues to be noticeably smaller than the anime’s. The identical will be mentioned of one other upcoming model of King Exkizer, from Shokugan Modeling Challenge.
Shokugan Modeling Challenge King Exkizer
Second, King Exkizer really has a few swappable inside elements: a “form-up” body that extra faithfully lets Exkizer enter King Roder totally intact, and an “motion” body that enables for better poseability. A variety of earlier entries within the SoC line had been made to go in a single path or the opposite, however within the case of Courageous Fighter Exkizer, the mix sequence and the Obari Masami–esque poses are such iconic elements of the anime that they each seem to have been deemed essential. That is achieved by having the limbs of Exkizer cut up up and saved in numerous elements of King Exkizer’s physique when utilizing the motion body.
Type Up Body vs. Motion Body
Fan Response
The precise last type of the determine appears good and appears to typically have the polish and articulation one expects out of the SoC line. Social media exhibits loads of optimistic suggestions too. The explanation this determine is the topic of debate comes right down to the truth that followers disagree about an important facets of King Exkizer to protect.
They may contemplate the “energy armor” aesthetic (and the proportions wanted for it) extra vital than conserving the official sizes of Exkizer and King Roder. Or they could discover that the usage of completely different frames to prioritize various kinds of play over-complicates issues. Or they could even deem the Obari-faithful poseability and limbs to not be definitely worth the different sacrifices. Finally, it appears unattainable to please everybody, and the truth that it seems like a damned if you happen to, damned if you happen to don’t situation makes me surprise if that was a consider delaying the mission.
It’s tempting to level to fellow Courageous Robotic Gaogaigar and ask why they couldn’t do one thing much like its SoC. But one has to keep in mind that not solely is the King of Braves only a bulkier design on the whole with fewer shows of utmost poseability, however the extraordinarily intricate Ultimate Fusion mixture is such a defining a part of Gaogaigar that it needs to be the #1 precedence. King Exkizer’s Type Up doesn’t examine.
The Satan within the Particulars
In desirous about all of the hurdles Soul of Chogokin King Exkizer encountered, one factor that involves thoughts is that the majority basic of combiners: the unique Getter Robo. In its anime, the autos type the principle robotic in a way that’s actually unattainable to copy with bodily supplies. Physique elements simply magically seem out of nowhere, and the general form shifts like a blob to accommodate issues. The Soul of Chogokin line by no means even bothered with making combining toys of Getter Robo, and makes an attempt to create one have been awkward at finest.
Whereas King Exkizer seemingly exhibits none of these Play-Doh qualities, it’s not that far off. In isolation, every depiction of an thrilling mechanical element trick viewers into pondering that all of it is smart, however if you take the entire of it in, you understand it’s principally tossing apart total consistency in favor of Rule of Cool. That works simply fantastic in animation, nevertheless it’s clearly a conundrum for toy makers.
In essence, King Exkizer in animation is like having incomplete variations of 10 jigsaw puzzles, all of that are depicting the identical common picture whereas additionally having delicate variations in dimension, variety of items, and different finer particulars. The premium toys and figures are, in flip, makes an attempt to mix them into one cohesive picture that may fulfill everybody. It’s an unattainable job, and but the followers and designers alike preserve hoping that an actual answer is on the market. Whether or not the Soul of Chogokin rendition is the appropriate transfer actually is within the eye of the beholder.
