Takara Transformers Legends LG 42: GODBOMBER

I’ll admit, my Takara Snobbery has been waning of late.  While the initial Headmasters released from the Titans Return line kept me intrigued because they went with the animation model, lately some of the more recent releases have been….kind of a let down (I’m looking at YOU Astrotrain).  Luckily Godbomber showed up and besides putting me on the Red Flag list for the FBI, brought back my love of the Legends line!

With the 42nd entry of the Legends series, Takara takes their ambition to the next level and not only redesigned the Power Master Optimus Prime toy from Hasbro’s Titans Return line, but also designed from the ground up, the Godbomber trailer to go with Super Ginrai!

I think in order to fully appreciate this toy, you had to have watched Super God Masterforce, the second in the three Japanese G1 continuity series.  It never showed up in the US G1 Cartoon and so some folks still really don’t know much about it.  Godbomber is essentially just a “Power Up” for Super Ginrai.  There is speculation that he’s just Roller, upgraded.

As with a lot of the Legends toys stemming from the Titans Return line, Godbomber is now a Headmaster.  The comic included with the figure explains the the headmaster, but I don’t want to get into the explanation, or the details of the Legends Universe.  It makes my hurt.

The trailer itself can hold up to three Headmasters, which is a direct call back to the intro of the cartoon where the three Headmaster Juniors, Shuta, Cab and Minerva are all inside.

I think one of the most fun aspects of the Godbomber toy is that it’s actually a bunch of different things in one.  The parts all come together in a (mostly) secture fashion to make a surprisingly well articulated Leader Class size figure:

The trailer also has a base mode very similar to the original toys design.

Obviously though the “meat” of the design is to enhance Super Ginrai into God Ginrai, by breaking down and adding “power-up” parts to the main man himself.

This ends up working very well, much like the G1 toy, the parts securely fit onto the Ginrai figure, bulking up his mass and making him a real sight to behold.  The parts all fit well and in case you’re wondering how stable he is:

He’s really stable.

All of this is really excellent, and the main reason to buy the set, but there is one additional feature that I think is just a great cherry on top of the whole package.  The feature is first seen in the comic included with the instructions:

 The legs essentially use combiner ports from the Combiner Wars line and so, are fully compatible with the toys, allowing you to mix and match, making your own Super Robot combination!

While this set is incredibly fun and the Masterforce fan in me is thrilled we have a God Ginrai in all his massive glory, I get that this can be an expensive outing for less…reckless collectors.  Unfortunately there’s not much in terms of “good news on that front”.  Hasbro is now releasing the Super Ginrai mold compatible with the Godbomber set, but you will have to buy the Seige on Cybertron box set (you should anyway, just to get Pounce!), and Takara is cheesing off collectors by releasing both Super Ginrai and Godbomber in a single set WITH exclusive headmaster figures of Minerva and Cab.  So there’s really no way around it, if you want this toy it’s going to cost you.  But Look on the bright side, at least you’re not me, who will be buying ALL THREE versions….and the inevitable Fire Guts version….SIGH….