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 The
Sound Flasher version stands just under 10" tall, and is made entirely
of plastic - presumably to keep costs down. It's actually very nicely
proportioned, possibly moreso than Tomy's other offerings. But in a
strange way, this actually counts against it - the Ideon has unusual
proportions anyway with its' long legs and huge shoulders, and this
boxy figure is perhaps a little too normal.
 The
most bizarre thing about the Tomy Ideon figures is that none of them
look particularly like each other. You can understand that the thing
wouldn't look a huge amount like the robot as seen onscreen, but the
figures produced by the same company at about the same time should surely
look very similar, right? I mean, they're all recognisable as the Ideon,
but the variance in terms of colour schemes and other details is amazing
- on the plus side, it means at least you aren't basically getting the
same figure oversized or undersized. The head cast on this one is probably
the best of the Tomy figures- aside from the colouring it's very close
to the cartoon and thus looks great. It's a shame they didn't chrome
the antennae as well, though.
 Detail
takes a bit of a hike - aside from the head, hands, feet, cuffs and
a few minor parts, this one is all-red. The distinctive yellow collar
is lost, while a pair of white stickers on the shins and a pair of (very
thin) paint apps on the chest do their best as a secondary colour. There
are a couple of stickers, though, and at least the hands and feet aren't
blue this time.
 The
Sound Flasher feature consists of three moulded plastic buttons on the
robot's back. Each one causes an LED behind transparent plastic to flash,
with a simultaneous sound effect - one in the head, one in the upper
torso, one in the lower torso. The head one is actually a passable stab
at the visor flashing when the thing combines (for my money, one of
the few faults with the Soul of Chogokin is that an LED wasn't worked
for the head) - though this one doesn't combine, sadly. The others are
a bit more random, while the sound effect is just noise... I didn't
seriously expect the anime's superb soundboard to be incorporated into
a toy of this age (okay, maybe I did, but then I'm like that), but these
are just quite irritating.
 Amazingly,
though, Tomy haven't just left this as the sole feature. Firstly, the
robot actually has passable articulation. I'm charitably guessing making
the head turn was too much for the electronics of the time, but the
arts are jointed at the shoulder and elbow, while the legs move at the
hip and knee. Due to the plastic construction and fairly small feet,
the figure can actually hold a few fairly simple poses, and the hip
design means the legs can move through a full 180°. The joints are
all ratcheted, which robs the Ideon of a few basic poses, and considering
the excellent balance and solid construction, though, they do seem a
bit needless.
 There
is also a fair range of weaponry. Tomy include the obligatory chromed
sword, of course, but there are three different types of spring-loaded
projectile. Firstly there's the usual fists - however, in a nice twist,
these are activated by the raised winglets on the wrists rather than
additional buttons. The others are bit more interesting, and to the
best of my knowledge only on this version of Ideon. The first is that
the chromed blades mounted on the feet launch thanks to a pair of paddles
on the back of the legs - that's certainly a little different. Best
of all, though, are a pair of flip-down launchers contained in the bulges
on either side of the torso. Similar weaponry was shown on the box of
the Miracle
Combination figure, but didn't make it to the figure - I wonder
if this was an early location for missile launchers in the cartoon (Tomy's
use of an early design for the Ideon Gun on the DX
figure suggests they were working from early concepts) or just Tomy
having fun. Neat feature either way, though.
[Click
here to see the instruction leaflet]
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