Kit Review

Straight build

Size comparison with a cigarette pack

D Style Raijin-Oh - Raijin-Oh combined form (1/6)

D Style Raijin-Oh - Raijin-Oh combined form (2/6)

D Style Raijin-Oh - Raijin-Oh combined form (3/6)

D Style Raijin-Oh - Raijin-Oh combined form (4/6)

Raijin-Oh combined form

There are quite a lot of clear parts used all over the body.

Raijin-Oh can be separated/transformed into 3 main parts.

Ken-Oh - size comparison with a cigarette pack
It's incredibly small...

Ken-Oh

The Ken-Oh Blade is included as a weapon,
but aside from the shoulders and head rotating, there really aren't any notable articulation points,
so you're pretty much limited to poses like this.

Hou-Oh - size comparison with a cigarette pack

D Style Raijin-Oh - Various angles (1/3)

Various angles

Raijin-Oh's arm section becomes Hou-Oh's legs.

Wing articulation

An action pose of sorts

Sui-Oh - size comparison with a cigarette pack

D Style Raijin-Oh - The adorable lion-shaped Sui-Oh. (1/4)

D Style Raijin-Oh - The adorable lion-shaped Sui-Oh. (2/4)

The adorable lion-shaped Sui-Oh.

The legs have some articulation, but it's pretty hard to get any real poses out of it.

To combine into Raijin-Oh, first lower Ken-Oh's shoulders down, then detach the head and head antenna.

Raise the shoulders up, fold the hands flush against the body, then pull out the feet.

Split Sui-Oh's body into 4 sections, then

Detach Sui-Oh's legs and reattach just the leg covers rotated back into place.

Then plug Sui-Oh's torso sections onto the lower legs of Ken-Oh on each side.

Remove Hou-Oh's tail section, then

Rotate the claw section 90 degrees backward and fold it, then attach the separately included hands.

After combining the Sui-Oh + Ken-Oh parts together, attach them to Hou-Oh..

Fold Hou-Oh's head in two stages and tuck it flush against the body, then

D Style Raijin-Oh - Plug Ken-Oh's antennae-less head onto the body, then cover it with the separately included large Raijin-O

Plug Ken-Oh's antennae-less head onto the body, then
cover it with the separately included large Raijin-Oh head.

The leftover tail and leg parts from Sui-Oh can be stored inside the lion head-shaped shield.

Swap out the white Ken-Oh Blade for the painted yellow blade, and the transformation is complete!

Raijin-Oh is complete after going through this whole complex transformation/combination process.

It does have some articulation, at least ^^;

D Style Raijin-Oh - The Arc Dama included as a bonus. In the show, it serves as an invasion weapon for the Jaku Empire. It's

The Arc Dama included as a bonus. In the show, it serves as an invasion weapon for the Jaku Empire.
It's smaller than a pea, so honestly I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with it as an accessory -_-

Raijin-Oh aerial action pose

There aren't really that many great poses you can pull off.

Leftover parts after transforming into Raijin-Oh.

Together with the D-Style GaoGaiGar.

The D-Style line lets you get your hands on all kinds of super robot-style mechs, and this time around Raijin-Oh has joined the lineup. It's from a somewhat older anime, but personally it's a nostalgic item that brings back all the romance of the 90s. It actually aired in Korea on MBC in the late 90s too ^^

Raijin-Oh is a robot formed by combining three animal-type mechs — Ken-Oh, Hou-Oh, and Sui-Oh — and true to D-Style fashion, the transformation/combination gimmick is pulled off pretty convincingly in a compact package. On top of that, the color separation is decent if not perfect, so even a straight build comes out looking pretty good ^^

Ken-Oh is so tiny that posing it is tough, but it's still well put together for its size. Sui-Oh's articulated legs don't really lend themselves to dynamic poses either, but the face came out really cute. Hou-Oh has some articulation in the claws and legs, and the poseable wings help you get a decent pose out of it. Overall, the individual mechs feel like the focus is really on the separation and combination itself rather than articulation — it's a pretty simple setup.

The combination gimmick for all three, as you can see in the photos above, is a bit involved, but once combined it looks pretty impressive. That said, the leg joint placement after combining is a bit awkward, and if you get the angle even slightly off it tends to topple backward. The real appeal is simply that the combination works at all, and once combined the forearms and knees do articulate, so there are at least a few more poses available than with the individual mechs.

Overall, just like the previous D-Style releases, the real value of this kit lies not in articulation or looks, but in how faithfully it recreates the combination/transformation gimmick in such a small package. More than anything though, since Raijin-Oh model kits are pretty rare to begin with, this would make a wonderful gift for anyone with fond memories of the "Invincible King Raijin-Oh" anime. :-)

D Style Raijin-Oh | 2013. 9 | ¥3,200

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.