Go Goldran!

Thanks to a random fake image, I've had Goldran on my mind lately. I'm not going to pretend to know everything about Brave (there's plenty of others online who'll be glad to do that), my knowledge is pretty basic. Goldran, somehow is the one Brave series I've gotten the most toys from though. A Korean Death Garry Gun, and a few bootlegs (I'm telling you, they're everywhere). One take away I've had since buying my bootleg Goldran is how much I marveled at just how much it fits into late G1 TF.

Sure, Brave is extremely Late G1 TF in design (it's basically late G1 as is) and of course Death Garry Gun (yes, that's his name.. it's one of those words don't always translate well) is a late G1 TF mold reused, like others in Brave. But Goldran, man...

That dragon mode draws mental comparisons to Trypticon for me. It's not exact, but it's there. I suppose it's the similar stature and proportions. That's fair, that'd be a pretty reasonable explanation as to why I do so. I've always felt the dragon head was similar too, though that's probably just me. Vacuum metalizing is always a point of contention among TF fans. While it looks great, it can flake away easily. So of course Goldran is almost completely coated in gold vacuum metal. Honestly, I think it's gorgeous. It's such a pretty toy, specially in that samurai super mode. It almost looks like a trophy as opposed to a toy, or in my case, a bootleg robot toy I bought at Tuesday Morning.

Authentics Grimlock (large version)

As far as the larger Authentics figures go, Grimlock is king. So far there isn't a smaller version, which I don't rule the possibility of out, so this was a completely fresh experience going in. Though like Optimus there is some slight assembly required and due to his transformation, his legs are quite hollow. Fortunately that's where the lower budget stops affecting the figure and what's left is a completely satisfying toy.

He turns into a dinosaur, we all know this.

I won't lie, I was completely shocked by just how pleasant a toy Grimlock is. While individual experiences may vary, my Grimlock had pretty tight joints and really was exactly what I expected going in. Which was a generally traditional Grimlock. I do draw a few comparisons to his dinosaur mode to Goldran, but that can only be helped so much with similar alt modes and the general throwback nature these simpler toys have to older designs. Though it would make for a fun custom.

As I noted before that Grimlock's legs are hollow, they form his tail in robot mode. It actually makes for a pretty thick tail. Overall his dinosaur body is much more chunky than one would expect. Nothing wrong with that, it's just a fact. He's a sturdy big and chunky toy for a kid to stomp all over the carpet and 'RAWR' just often enough to border on cute and annoying. Like the other Authentics, Grimlock is all toy, so those going in for display pieces will probably balk at the idea of allowing such a simple to thing grace their shelves. Though if you like toys or outright have an affinity for the more random items (like I do), you'll probably be happy with this big silly thing (I am).

Steel Divine aka Brave Advenger bootleg

I've never pretended to be the biggest scholar when it comes to Brave. I like it, but I'm not a walking encyclopedia or anything. One thing that has always been part of it's charm is it's odd relation to Transformers. It's Takara's post G1 series that started it's life intended to be a Transformers series and even uses some Transformers molds in it's toy line. The cartoon is very similar to the Takara Transformers cartoons and the toys are from the designers. So basically, it's a continuation of G1 in a  semi sorta way. I have a good number of the toys, but aside from a Death Garry Gun (yes, that's his name, he's also recolor of Sky Garry... yes that's also his name) they're all bootlegs. Bootlegs of Brave toys are pretty rampant in the robot world and can usually be purchased at discount stores.

well...crap

Unfortunately when it comes to bootleg toys the plastic can vary from pretty ok to a pile of garbage. My Advenger (yes, that's his name) from Tuesday Morning here has kinda oki-ish plastic with a pretty low quality build. So he fell apart instantly as I was removing him from his j-card prison. Fortunately, he went right back together. I'm sure I could fix him easily, but for a 5$ bootleg, I don't know if I'll take the effort. Attempts to transform him became basically putting him back together after twisting a few parts resulted in him falling apart, and I had to put him together with ample cussing.

Advenger is still a nice looking robot, even with the cludginess (that's my word for it) that comes with a discount store bootleg robot toy. He has most of his accessories, though his firing rockets are molded in. His shield is a leftover from from an additional train car that the real toy came with that pretty much has nowhere to go when he's transformed into train mode now. Though the hitch to attach the car is there, and his storage for car bots in train mode still works.

I was actually impressed with some of the bits that actually functioned correctly, his flip out panels for launching gimmicks fold out, though the launching gimmicks are molded in. For a discount store bootleg of a 20 year old toy I'd expect those to be molded over, so it's nice that the small amount of original toy remains even though it's in a neutered state.

His train mode suffers a bit as it doesn't properly go together. It might, but I'd never know as I had to snap him back together several times to force him into what gets close as possible to a train engine. Though his thighs still flip over to the coal bin in train mode. Which, like the flip out panels in robot mode, I'd figured would have been left out. Advenger can store his accessories in this mode, but Steel Divine just kinda has to leave them behind. I have no clue if the storage works as I could hardly get him to hold together in this mode.

Over all it's still a nice looking robot, and if you can pick up one that holds together correctly (or you take the time to fix it) you'd have a nice enough version of a old toy. Visually they got most of it right, and it has that great late G1 looks. It does make me want a real version of the toy as man it's sharp. So I guess it wasn't a total bummer that it falls apart and I suppose I could spend a little time to fix it up. Maybe.