Dave's Digivolving Rant: MetalGarurumon/Gabumon WarGreymon/Agumon Found these guys at K-Mart (along with an extra BA and Thrust I was getting for a friend...I regretted not taking a cart into the store at this point). They're packaged in the Mega forms, possibly to avoid confusion with the similarly-sized Talking Digimon of Agumon and Gabumon. CAPSULES MetalGarurumon: Okay Mega mode, good Rookie mode, fairly intuitive transformation, minimal kibble problems, decent colors. Mildly recommended. $7.99 at K-Mart. WarGreymon: Kinda unstable in Mega mode, good Rookie mode, nicely challenging transformation, moderate "view from the wrong direction" kibble, some color problems. Recommended. $7.99 at K-Mart. RANTS Note on packaging. These guys have the same cardback as the original four Digivolvers, same situation as Kabuterimon. The instructions are not part of the front flap with the name, instead being on separate sheets. And, if it's possible, Bandai is now writing BETTER instructions! Full instructions for both directions of transformation, with clear pictures of "once you've done that, it should look like this" several times throughout the instructions. Granted, the print and pics are kinda tiny, but they're complete. Unlike Hasbro's often vague-to-the-point-of-uselessness instructions. METALGARURUMON ID#: 91 DP: 440 Group: Android Digimon Technique: Metal Wolf Claw Size: 28.0 G Isn't quite in MetalGarurumon mode in the package, you need to deploy his wings and tail. MetalGarurumon Mode: 7" (18cm) long, 4" (10cm) tall at the shoulder, just under 7" (17cm) wingspan. This is a pretty good representation of the Mega Digimon, although with some flaws. The big one, of course, is that Gabumon's feet hang off the back of MG's front legs. The other major discrepancy is that the wings don't look right and lack their missile launchers. As they're basically split halves of Gabumon's tail, though, this is to be expected. Some other proportions are little off as a result of needing to fit inside or wrap around other parts. Poseability is fair. Legs move at the shoulders but not at the knees. Paws are hinged, which helps some poses. And the jaw can open and close. The colors are a little bland, there's a lot of places where the look can be improved vastly by taking a pen and darkening in seams in the robotic body parts. Sort of the Gundam Model Kit situation. Clear yellow plastic is used for his wingtips and tail tip, and I don't think that was a good choice. Chrome gold or even regular solid yellow would have worked better. Still, it looks pretty good. Transformation: Pretty easy to figure out even without the instructions, since despite a lack of problem kibble, it's fairly clear what on MG becomes what on Gabumon. It's a bit tricky aligning Gabumon's shoulders without popping off his arms, but that's really the only trouble spot. Reverse transformation isn't any harder, but it's good to have solid instructions for the "Worp Digivolve" anyway. Gabumon Mode: 4.5" (11cm) tall and very well-proportioned for the critter. No trouble with body parts being clearly wrong in size. Some MG cyber parts show through around Gabumon's hips, and his hands are kinda lacking, but it's a pretty good rendition of Gabumon. Poseability is minimal. The arms wiggle a bit at the shoulders, and the legs have hip, knee and ankle-swivel joints. No motion in the head or tail. Oh, unless you count the ears, which can swivel around (as can MetalGarurumon's, both as a result of needing them out of the way during transformation). Overall: A pretty clever toy, in that it's able to take two established forms and merge them into a single toy without too many compromises. But neither mode really blows me away, nor do I think that much of the MetalGarurumon design in the first place. WARGREYMON ID#: 90 DP: 460 Group: Dinosaur Digimon Technique: Nova Force Size: 20.0G WarGreymon Mode: Just a shade over 6" (15cm) tall, from the front this Mega Digimon looks almost perfect. The only flaws are that his backpack shield is too high up, and his non-armor parts are the same color as his armor, yellow. He should have orange bits, and as a result he looks kinda washed out. From the side, his codpiece is sort of prominent, as it's the result of folding up several panels. But his biggest "ruin the illusion" kibble is basically the same as Angemon's...from behind, you can see his Rookie mode head. The crest-shield on his back is replaced by the halves of Agumon's head, which is somewhat disturbing. WarGreymon is very poseable. Ball joint shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles. His head can nod a bit, and his claw units can be swiveled in. However, he's not totally stable. His shinpads tend to pop out and slide around, his Agumon head halves can get in the way or even pop off, and he has kibbleplates (which look reasonably like the armor they're supposed to be) that get in the way. Transformation: I couldn't figure this out on my own the first time, and actually had to go to the instructions. Very few toys force me to go to the instructions as quickly as this one did (I usually only need the instructions for making sure non-vital bits are in the right places). On the second and later tries, though, I was able to do it pretty easily without the instructions. There's a tendency for things to pop off during transformation, especially the Agumon head halves, and that can be a bit annoying. I did not need the instructions to transform the toy back to WarGreymon, it was pretty clear by that point. Funky part of the transformation: WarGreymon's head and entire torso end up inside Agumon's head. Agumon Mode: Stands 5" (13cm) tall, and aside from being yellow instead of orangey-yellow, it's a very good match to the character. The shoulderpad spikes on Agumon's elbows and WarGreymon-claws on his palms are the only real kibble, although his tail has a bit of armor coloration on it. Proportions are very good. Agumon has ball joint shoulders, elbows, hips and ankles, with hinge knees. His head can nod up and down a bit, but not turn side to side. Still, this puts him way ahead of Gabumon in the poseability department. Overall: Could have been a bit better with more paint and the replacement of some snap-joints with metal pins, but it's a pretty good representation of one of the better-looking Digimon (WarGreymon). Bonus points for challenging transformation. Dave Van Domelen, paid for this good Digimon karma by missing the season finale of the cartoon...VCR decided it didn't want to record this morning. Gah.