{"id":4511,"date":"2017-04-16T08:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T08:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=4511"},"modified":"2017-04-16T18:04:05","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T18:04:05","slug":"takatoku-15700-block-system-sdf-1-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=4511","title":{"rendered":"Takatoku 1\/5700 “Block System” SDF-1 (TV)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Takatoku<\/a><\/p>\n

Review:\u00a0 Plastic that looks like metal on a toy that kinda transforms<\/p>\n

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\"Takatoku<\/a><\/p>\n

Packaging\u00a0 & Extras<\/strong>: (3\/5)
\nTakatoku did a great job of decorating their boxes.\u00a0 This SDF-1 toy comes in the classic textured cardboard box with cutaways that reveal the toy within through plastic windows.\u00a0 The shiny, metal-looking plastic inside must have been one of this toy’s strong selling points. \u00a0 Inside the box you get the following in addition to the toy itself, housed securely in a Styrofoam tray:
\n1) Instructions
\n2) Stickers
\n3) Takatoku advertisement pamphlet.
\nThe toy has been broken into some of its core components revealing its “block system” nature.<\/p>\n

\"Takatoku<\/a><\/p>\n

Charm & Collectability<\/strong>: (3\/5)
\nThis toy is bizarre so it has a bit of\u00a0charm (although I might be doing my part here to lower it by pointing out the toy’s faults).\u00a0\u00a0 In my experience this isn’t a toy many people own or know much about but it’s something that piques the curiosity.\u00a0 Typically this toy sales for more on the secondary market than it probably should considering it has imperfect transformation and lacks any metal (beyond the screws holding some parts together).<\/p>\n

\"Takatoku<\/a> \"Takatoku<\/a><\/p>\n

Sculpt, Detail, & Paint<\/strong>: (5\/10)
\nFirst and foremost, this toy is old.\u00a0 Obviously manufacture processes have come a long way since then and, with few exceptions, yesterday’s toys just can’t compete in the ‘looks’ department with today’s toys.\u00a0 Takatoku did their part by having a large number of stickers applied to their toys at the factory.\u00a0 If you own some old Takatoku VF-1 toys you may have noticed that sometimes these stickers weren’t applied very carefully but my Block System toy seems to have been treated well in the sticker process.\u00a0 I can imagine this toy would be painfully dull without those stickers as there are very few panel lines and a dearth of minor detail work.\u00a0 Some of the transformation mechanism parts, such as the shoulders the big guns attach to, stand out as line art failures. There are also a multitude of gaps and the bridge does not split apart like a TV SDF-1 bridge should.<\/p>\n

\"Takatoku<\/a><\/p>\n

Design<\/strong>: (4\/10)
\nI’m giving this toy credit for having the ability to transform which, at the time, wasn’t very common among SDF-1 toys. The block system nature allows various pieces to move around but there’s not much in the way of true articulation. You can rotate the chest down which brings the guns forward to simulate firing the cannons but obviously the chest won’t look right. You can’t move the rail guns\u00a0on the shoulders or any other guns. If that wasn’t a big enough bummer, the fact everything comes together via large rounded pegs (one per piece) and not much else means that the toy falls apart and\/or becomes jostled extremely easily.\u00a0 My toy feels fairly new in the hand and I still had lots of issues keeping it together. In cruiser mode the Prometheus is so wide that it presses against the body of the SDF-1 which unseats the arm’s peg which causes the arm to pop out far too easily. It seems like Takatoku was trying to strike a balance between piecing things together securely but also allowing things to rotate as much as possible to create a sense of articulation resulting in a toy that\u00a0doesn’t come together as securely as it should nor does it have the articulation you would hope for. In summary, this toy gets points for being able to transform but is essentially a failure in both modes.<\/p>\n

\"Takatoku<\/a>\"Takatoku<\/a><\/p>\n

Durability & Build<\/strong>: (4\/10)
\nAs I mentioned before, the long rail guns on the shoulder offer no articulation. Since they are thin and are made of a hard plastic you should be very careful with them. Other areas that look like they might be fragile, like the bridge, will likely prove pretty resilient due to the limited size.\u00a0 I would have scored this toy higher if the only issue were the shoulder guns but there’s one other big issue.\u00a0 If this toy were to truly work as intended each piece would have to be built perfectly uniform.\u00a0 It doesn’t seem like the manufacture methods of the time were up to this.\u00a0 Pieces that should be 100% flat and even have slight warbles to them meaning one part won’t tuck against another as tight as designed.<\/p>\n