Bryce's Pipe Bomb Survival Guide*

Wow, we are rapidly catching up on my SOC backlog here. Up today, we have the Tobikage and Kurojishi set. This is the first of three sets that were released in the SOC line one after another, all based on mechs from the Ninja Senshi Tobikage anime. That in itself is not unheard of, but all three sets also have interactive functions with this first set. Ninja Senshi Tobikage takes place on 23rd century Mars, which has been setup as a penal colony by Earth, and is run by a power mad dictator. Oddly, Tobikage (the smaller figure in this set) is not really the main robot, at least to begin with. Kurojishi, the "Black Lion" is piloted by the series' main character, Joe Maya. Along with his two friends, piloting similar mechs, are the protagonists for most of the series, with Tobikage initially only showing up when the three are overwhelmed or low on power. Tobikage has the ability to combined with anyone out of the three, and make a new mech with heightened abilities. Gettin

Past Soul of Chogokin releases have conditioned me to think that when I see a number at the end of a robot's name, that it means that robot is made out of that many components. See Voltes V and Zambot 3. Second guess is that's an iterative number, being number 3 means that there were two machines or robots before it, or that it's the 3rd of a set. In general I blame cartoons for that line of reasoning, but for some reason I'm having trouble coming up with any robot examples of that. (Side note: Daitarn 3 was actually designed by the same person as Zambot 3.) As a departure, the 3 in Daitarn 3 refers to it's three modes, robot, tank, and jet. So, in Transformers parlance, it's a triple changer. The plot of Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3 is that a brilliant scientist, Sozo Haran was doing research on Mars, and he created a form of cyborg life called Meganoids, being self aware, they eventually rose up against their human overlords, and Sozo's son Banjo esca