In late Fall 2019 or so, Big Firebird Toys released their first figure, the lovely T&A heavy Arcee clone, Nicee, You either loved it or you hated it, and those who hated it seemed more hung up on it's curves rather than the actual toy it self. Naturally, the curves are what gave me cause to buy the thing, but overall, it was a pretty solid first release toy, and gave me reason to keep my eyes peeled for their releases.
While their second release was definitely more standard Sci-Fi Anime mecha based stuff, their third release would be a return to form - the Magic Henshin Girls, four Chibi female robots (or Gynoids) that combine together to form a larger robot, with a fifth one coming in as an accessory mecha of sorts. I've not seen the actual media behind this, but the Magic Henshin part comes from the fact these robots are actual flesh and blood girls that use the power of magic and change into these robot forms.
After months of delays, the sets are finally shipping out to purchasers, and I believe I've already seen promos for various additional mecha, such as a Beetle and a Jeep. The sets were apparently either really popular, or they didn't make that many, but overall, they're apparently impossible to find at MSRP now. You can still buy them individually, but that ends up costing more than as a set.
Having spent some time getting used to my camera and getting back into the swing of things, I decided it was time to crack these open and give them a once through.
The giftset isn't so much a traditional one so much as they decided to pack the first five retail releases into a larger shipping box and send them out that way. While I understand the logistics, its too bad as they could have not only saved some space, but also, done up something special packaging wise.
The five components are as follow:
Scarlet Sonic
Thunder Light
Gemini Wings (the two twins)
Scarlet Dragon
Rather than put everything up on one blog, I figure I might as well break these up into easier to digest pieces and hyperlink them appropriately.
Overall, here's some thoughts:
1. There are some questionable design choices. Overall, I'm going to say if you end up buying this, have patience and maybe get a bit drunk before you play with this set.
2. If you hate Partformers, stay far, far, FAR away from here.
3. Material choices on this range from what I would call Hasbro Transformer mainline plastic to Dollar Store toy plastic. Handle with care.
4. The overall QC is mediocre at best. Again, more specifics as we go along but this set definitely isn't as well made as Nicee. Part of that has to do with the overall complexity, but another part says this was because QC was drunk. Issues range from poor finishes to really poorly assembled parts.
5. Paint applications aren't bad, but as you can imagine, most of the heavy lifting is done by the actual plastic itself. Once you stare at each figure, it'll be apparently obviously what is painted and what isn't. 6. The instructions for these figure are possibly some of the most frustrating things I've ever read. I don't read a lick of Japanese and I can handle those one fine based on photos alone. It also doesn't help when they're incomplete, and you'll probably need to reference some official instruction videos and maybe a review or two to get things done.
Now that you're prepared, lets get started.
Scarlet Sonic
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