Was on half-day leave today, so I began my Operation RPM Megazord Hunt. The first stop was Compass Point @ Sengkang since it was considerably "remote and isolated". I checked out Metro first and no traces of any RPM toys left, which leaves just Kiddy Palace. Seems that the S$20.00 price-point was good enough to get parents to buy for their kids, as there were only 3 Mach Megazords and 2 PaleoMax Megazords remaining.
However, the box conditions left much to be desired. Therefore, I decided not to get the PaleoMax Megazord despite being seemingly rare at the moment. Not giving up any chances, I asked the sales assistant if there are any more stocks of the RPM Megazords and as expected, nothing more from the clearance.
Disappointed, I headed back to the Kiddy Palace @ Century Square, Tampines. Managed to dig up the Mach Megazord with the best box condition out of the pile and proceeded to the cashier. Since there was a long queue, I took the chance to approach one of the sales assistant to help me check if there were stocks of the ValveMax and PaleoMax Megazords at the other Kiddy Palace branches.
She was quite helpful because she really called out to the major branches to check for me. Unfortunately, the ValveMax Megazord seemed to have sold out at all the possible places. The PaleoMax Megazord, however, was still available at Jurong Point and Lot 1 so the sales assistant asked me if I wanted to reserve it. Being mindful of the box condition, I told her that I will check it out myself...
This concluded Part 1 of the RPM Megazord Hunt.
DX Mach Megazord: A Brief Review
First Impressions
Out of the box, the Mach Megazord was distinctively lacking in many aspects compared to the High Octane Megazord. For one, the whole Megazord felt so much lighter and hollow in the entire structure. While the plastic quality was roughly the same as the High Octane Megazord, it was less solid in both sturdiness and weight.
The paint applications were consistently neat, but sadly it was the only nice thing about the Mach Megazord.
Design and Prototyping
Aesthetically, the Mach Megazord is identical to its Japanese counterpart, Seikuu-Oh except that the size is down-scaled to fit the much lower price-point of the American market.
Looking at the various price-points should give you a good gauge of what to expect out of the Mach Megazord, while not forgetting you are exchanging the 3 Engine Souls for 1 piece of crappy plastic Engine Cell.
Individually, there's nothing much to complain about the Falcon Copter, Tiger Jet and Whale Zord except for one. There were no actual wheels; everything were molded-on details.
However, the designs didn't come off as well-engineered when it comes to megazord combinations. Both the Falcon Copter and Tiger Jet were particularly weak in the arm connectors as they were also part of the compartment covers for the Engine Cell. Also the tail fin of the Falcon Copter drops off easily because of poor design.
When it comes to Megazord combinations, the High Octane Megazord with the Falcon Copter was definitely not in the design consideration. Basically, the tail fin was obstructing the arm connector to the High Octane Megazord.
Since I do not have the ValveMax Megazord on hand, I tried out connecting the Whale Zord to the High Octane Megazord to simulate the SkyRev Megazord. Given that the G9 connectors were pretty weak, I didn't see any improvement in the Whale Zord's connectors as well. The plastic quality was horrible... At this point, I cannot gauge how the Croc Carrier is going to balance out the additional weight at the back but the whole design seems to be rather unstable. To make matter worse, the poor locking mechanism of the High Octane Megazord is back to haunt the SkyRev Megazord and subsequently, the RPM Ultrazord combinations.
Conclusion
On its own, the DX Mach Megazord is a rather decent piece of toy from Bandai America. The 3 Zords hold well together in this configuration, and even the Whale Zord got to retain its 10-sec attack burst configuration. For S$20.00, it is almost just worth as much for both parents and kids. I don't really foresee myself paying more than that for the overall quality that the Mach Megazord presented.
That being said, my main rationale for making the above sentence extends to the over-arching design as part of the RPM Ultrazord. That aspect of the Mach Megazord was quite disappointing, as opposed to the High Octane Megazord. The inability to hold all the pieces together certainly reminded me of the DriveMax Ultrazord where you couldn't even move it without pieces falling off.
Oh well, I shall still continue my hunt for the ValveMax and PaleoMax Megazords. Probably, I would be able to give a more objective review by then.
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