Saturday 20 August 2011

#594 - #597 of Year 2 Ultraman Nexus Machines 1, 2 and 3

If the Dash Birds were unimagitively named the last time around, these three vehicles from the Ultraman Nexus series does take the cake.  They are simply named Ultraman Nexus Machines (or UNM) 1, UNM 2 and UNM 3.  Welcome to Ultraman week here on Toy a Day!

First off, the boxes are not uniform in size, which is rather odd, but it does mean that they do stand out individually on the shelves.


UNM1 is a blue jet thing with missile launchers on the side.  The box shows off the main vehicle front and centre and does include an image of an Ultraman that's not included in the box.  I wonder if there's Japanese text that disclaims him as the contents.


The jet comes in two parts, and the instructions show how to combine the two parts into the jet.  The instructions also include details on how to form the bigger jet.


There's also this nice printed coloured brochure included with the contents.  Japanese companies does know how to make glossy adverts to be included with their toys.


The jet is rather plain - sure there are some sculpted details, but it still looks plain.  The design of the jet is squat instead of small, which isn't helped when the black undercarriage is attached to it.  The paintwork is good, although I must say I'm a bit surprised that it's not excellent.  I guess Japanese companies do have QA issues, although the difference between good and excellent really shouldn't matter.


This jet is about the same size as Dash Bird 3 from the Ultraman Max line.  They seem to somehow fit in the same universe... and they probably should since the Ultraman series are all from the same universe.


UNM2 comes in a small box but it's thicker than the other two.  The design of the box is similar to UNM1 despite the differences in size.


This plane is even odder than the first one and it seels as if someone cut a Swiss roll into three and laid them side by side.  The jet seems to be pushing the definition of jet as well.  It does have some sculpt detail and the paintwork is nice, but I can't imaging a kid holding this in his hands and flying it through the air in play.


The instructions are all in Japanese, but it's illustrated, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem following them.  And it does have the full instructions on how to combine all three of the vihicles into a mega mode.


Placed next to UNM1, the two of them just look odd, as if some three year old made doodles and these were the result.


UNM3 comes in the longest box, and it's also the biggest.  Because of the size, there's a lot of space to display everything and it's not as cramped as the other two boxes.


It's also laid out very nicely, with lots of room to spare thanks to the huge size of the box.


The instructions are as detailed as can be expected, although everything is in Japanese.  It also has the instructions on how to make a third mega mode.


Some assembly was required to assemble the jet.. and it looks like a rather weird bomber jet because of the tank threads.  The design is clunky and bad, bu the sculpt does give it a lot of detail including the louvres on the engine and the wheels on the tank threads.  It's also rather heavy.


All three vehicles can be combined into a huge jet, or parts of them could be combined into more interesting modules.


Despite consisting of three jets, when all three are meerged together, they could form some rather nice land vehicles including an armed to the teeth tank!  I like the combined formes better than the individual jets and I guess they'll stay combined until they are put back into the box.

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