Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

Head

Wings with paint and decals already printed on

The mouth of the beast head on the chest is articulated.

For its looks, the articulation holds up pretty well.

Action pose

For weapons, two types of hands and a Dividing Driver are included.

Protect Shade action

D Style GaoGaiGar - Hell and Heaven action with both hands brought together (1/3)

Hell and Heaven action with both hands brought together

D Style GaoGaiGar - Dividing Driver action (1/3)

Dividing Driver action

You can remove the armor to turn it into Gai-Ga.

D Style GaoGaiGar - Move the arm parts that were tucked into the back to the sides of the body, rotate the feet 180 degrees f

Move the arm parts that were tucked into the back to the sides of the body,
rotate the feet 180 degrees forward, and attach the claws.

Gai-Ga with the armor removed

Gai-Ga's face with the mask off.

This is how you can separate it into Gai-Ga, which serves as the core unit, and the GaoGaiGar armor parts.

Gai-Ga's articulation.

D Style GaoGaiGar - Gai-Ga in action~ (1/3)

Gai-Ga in action~

With the wings attached to the back and the drill — which was the foot section — mounted on

Drill Gao in action~

You can also separate and reassemble Gai-Ga's body to form Galeon.

Galeon.

GaoGaiGar's arm section can be split into three parts and reassembled…

D Style GaoGaiGar - First, attach the lion mane that was on the chest to the forearm section, then combine it with the wings

First, attach the lion mane that was on the chest to the forearm section, then combine it with the wings
to form Stealth Gao.

Join the shoulder sections together and you get Liner Gao.

Attach the two legs and you get Drill Gao.

Galeon, Stealth Gao, Liner Gao, and Drill Gao all together.

D Style GaoGaiGar - When transforming the arms and legs, you need to rotate the polycap orientation — and helpfully, an auxil

When transforming the arms and legs, you need to rotate the polycap orientation —
and helpfully, an auxiliary part for turning the polycaps is included right on the runner. Pretty handy!

Together with the D-Style Dankuga.
They're about the same size.

Together with the D-Style Ingram.
GaoGaiGar is noticeably bigger.

D-Style No. 11 is none other than the King of Braves, GaoGaiGar! It's a pretty popular mech, and true to Kotobukiya form, even a straight build comes out looking really colorful. ^^

The biggest highlight of the D-Style GaoGaiGar is that despite its small size, it faithfully recreates all sorts of transformation gimmicks. For starters, the core unit Gai-Ga can transform into Galeon, and it's really cool that all three Gao components — Liner Gao, Drill Gao, and Stealth Gao — can transform and combine as well. The fact that it pulls off so many different transformation and combination modes with mostly simple gimmicks is a testament to some genuinely clever engineering.

The connection strength for these transformation gimmicks is generally solid, so things don't fall apart easily — and on top of that, it still manages to pull off a decent level of articulation. In many ways, the quality here exceeds expectations.

That said, the ¥2500 price tag — on par with a small-scale MG — does make you think, "well, this is Kotobukiya after all…" Still, given its unique features, it feels like a kit that's worth the price. It's an absolute must-have for GaoGaiGar fans, and a great pick for anyone who has a soft spot for small, cute transforming mechs. :-)

D Style GaoGaiGar | 2011. 11 | ¥2,500

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.