And now for something different: a figure post.
My birthday present from bitprophet this year was the Soul of Chogokin Gundam Tryon 3, which had (and still has) a nice discount at AmiAmi, but remained so pricey that I was reluctant to pick him up on my own. He arrived via Surface Mail in mid-August, before the de minimis repeal went into effect, thankfully. I was in the middle of working on a model kit at the time, so I got back on that and finished her up in early September. Next on the agenda was a fresh round of eBay and my first-ever Mercari sales to clear up some space, followed by a partial figure case reorganization. Finally, today, I was ready to unbox Tryon 3.
First off, a bit about the character and the figure. Gundam Tryon 3 is the brainchild of Minato Sakai, a somewhat eccentric Gunpla builder in Gundam Build Fighters Try. Based on the ZZ Gundam and heavily inspired by 70s-style super robots, Tryon 3’s individual components—Riku Tryon, Sora Tryon, and Umi Tryon—combine to form the second-most ridiculous Gunpla in the show (the first is another Sakai creation, naturally). As for Soul of Chogokin, it is the most famous spinoff of the long-running Chogokin figure series. Both are action figure lines known for high quality and mostly being made of die-cast metal. Given those aspects, Chogokin tend to be expensive, with Soul of Chogokin being especially pricey. Anyway, Tryon 3 is my favorite Gundam, Soul of Chogokin is a figure series I’ve always admired (but own very few of), and this particular figure is, on top of all that, the very first Gundam Soul of Chogokin, which made him extra special.
Before unboxing Tryon 3, I had to take care of an outstanding issue with a different figure: the Tamashii SPEC EVA-01. I didn’t realize this until today, when I took a close look at EVA-01’s box, but Tamashii SPEC was a Soul of Chogokin sub-line. Given how this figure was made, and the smattering of die-cast parts included, it makes sense. Anyway, this EVA-01 was a grail of mine for awhile, one of those figures which I had foolishly missed the chance to pick up when it was new. I snagged one on Yahoo! Japan Auctions back in 2020, but when I received it, found that one of the crucial waist parts was broken (today, I also learned that another part, a small Progressive Knife, is missing). Incidentally, I had also ordered a replacement VCD Two-Gun Mickey from Y!JA around the same time, and that too was unexpectedly damaged. Needless to say, that was the first and last time I proxy ordered anything from Y!JA.
This summer, I finally sucked it up and paid roughly twice as much for another Tamashii SPEC EVA-01 from Suruga-ya, and not only did that one’s box arrive in much better shape, but as I opened it, I found that the tape holding the blisters in place was untouched. Yep, this was a brand-new figure! As the older one is in (mostly) good shape, I just swapped out the broken part for the new one, made some other tweaks and corrections (the forearm blades were on backwards this entire time. Oops), and my ideal EVA-01 figure was finally complete! Plus now, I have a ton of spare parts in case there’s an accident in the future!
Now, with that out of the way, it was time to try on!!
As I’d expected, Tryon 3 came already broken up into his three animal components. What I didn’t expect was for them to be packaged in styrofoam, as opposed to a plastic blister. There was such a blister in the box, though, which housed the base as well as some effect parts and the beam sword blades. As I wanted to display the three Tryons assembled together, I opened up the lavish 24-page, full color instruction booklet and got to work.
Sora Tryon (Sky Tryon), the blue bird, wasn’t too difficult to transform, nor was Umi Tryon (Sea Tryon). Riku Tryon (Land Tryon) gave me the most trouble. Tucking in the legs wasn’t too bad, but flipping Tryon 3’s head into position was somewhat tricky, and involved working with a piece that even the manual warned was especially delicate. Eventually, I got it into place and starting assembling the three together into the absolute unit himself, Tryon 3!
After assembly and setting him on his base, the next tricky part was swapping the hands around. Those that are tucked into Umi Tryon’s body are actually small versions of the full-scale Tryon 3’s hands, and swapping them is theoretically as simple as doing so on any other action figure. However, these hands were a tight fit, and I had to score the inside of the hands’ peg holes a few times with a hobby knife in order to get them on without damage. It was nothing I hadn’t done before, though I certainly never expect to have to do this for a Soul of Chogokin. The beam sword blade was also a tight fit, but working carefully, I’ve managed to get it on and off its hilt a couple of times, as needed.
Now that he’s fully assembled and posed, Tryon 3 is ready for display. This is certainly a high-quality figure. However, the plastic parts are unpainted, and nub marks in particular are prominent in a few places, which is something I’ve also noticed with the Tamashii SPEC EVA-01. The die-cast parts are heavy and look great, and the transformation process matches that in the anime, which is oddly satisfying.
I’m very happy with this birthday present, and looking forward to displaying this awesome pile of Gundam absurdity for years to come. Thank you again, bitprophet!
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