Dave's Toy Rant: Digivolving Patamon/Angemon Interestingly enough, the store I got my Garurumon from last week had NO Garurumon left, but piles of Greymon. Guess they should rename it Pegwarmon. A Wal-Mart I stopped at today had Patamon and Birdramon, but Birdramon had so much Garudamon kibble all over it that I wasn't tempted to buy it. CAPSULE Patamon/Angemon: Very show-accurate Patamon mode, interesting if simplistic transformation, good Angemon mode (although it doesn't look so good from behind). Recommended. $7.76 at Wal-Mart RANT ID #43: Angemon Damage Points: 380 Group: Angel Digimon Technique: Hand of Fate Size: 20.0 G I guess Patamon goes straight to Angemon without an intermediary mode like Garurumon, Greymon and Birdramon have. That, or Angemon isn't the ultimate form. Patamon Mode: Basically a guinea pig with big eyes and batlike wings ("patagium" is the term for a membrane on a batwing or other mammalian glide wing, and I'm guessing that's where the critter's name comes from). 4" (10cm) long, 2.5" (6cm) high and wide, with a maximum wingspan of 8.5" (21cm). Its little stubby legs are movable, and the wings are on ball joints, which is about as much poseability as you'd expect from a plastic guinea pig. Colors are good, although the mouth is only molded, not painted (which I just fixed using an art pen). Angemon kibble is kept to a minimum. Because the shell pieces have to fit around the Patamon wings, a bit of Angemon's blond hair is visible between the wings. The underside is open (like the original Rattrap), exposing some Angemon bits, but they don't protrude. Also, the staff Angemon carries has no place specific to go in Patamon mode, but you can sort of cram it into this underside hole and it only sticks out a little bit. Patamon is pretty stable, but the outer shell tends to crack open a little no matter what you do (the toy is packaged with a plastic sleeve around it). Transformation: The entire outer body of the Patamon is a shell that hids the body of the Angemon. But it's not that simple, or that Shellmaster- ish. First, the four shell pieces become four of Angemon's six wings, with nice feather patterns on their interiors. Granted, they're curved oddly for wings, and the Patamon hide is on the back, but they are integral parts of the transformed figure. The Patamon wings unfold to reveal the top pair of angelic white wings, again being Patamon-brown on the back. All four Patamon legs conceal within the calves and feet of Angemon. All in all, a rather impressive blossoming transformation. As usual, the instructions give hints on bits that are tricky when transforming back to Patamon, although they miss one hint. To get Patamon's forelegs out of Angemon's boots, you need to "roll" the ball joint a bit, since there's nothing sticking out to pull on. Angemon Mode: Angemon is a 6-winged angel 5.5" (14cm) tall with a wingspan of 7" (18cm). His folding staff is as tall as he is, and his hand is notched so that the staff's joint hides within the fist. Lots of articulation on this guy. His head is on a ball joint, but thanks to his long blond hair, all this really does is let him nod a bit, or let his head pop off. Shoulders are also on ball joints, but these are restricted enough that they really only work like swivel shoulders. Hips are proper ball joints with a good range of motion. Elbows and knees are all double-hinge joints so that they can fold double when concealing Angemon in his Patamon shell. Ankles have a hinge, plus a swivel right above the hinge (part of transformation), so they pose very well. Finally, his right wrist has a swivel so he can hold his staff at an angle. While the wings look a little weird, the figure is (as far as I can tell) very show-accurate. His loincloth is of soft plastic so it doesn't interfere with motion, and his large feet give him good stability in poses, despite the top-heaviness his wings give him. The wings do get in the way of posing his arms, accentuating the problem presented by the restricted nature of his shoulder joints. There's a lot of white on him that could use a light blue wash to bring out the shadows and details, but otherwise the color's good. Overall: The star of the four Digivolving Digimon, I'd say, edging out Garurumon. It even manages to make the Shellmaster transformation work in its favor. While somewhat hampered by soft plastic, poppable joints and some other minor problems, it is well worth the money. Dave Van Domelen, notes Birdramon obviously looked like they started with Garudamon and then tried to hide as much as they could, failing for the most part....