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					Description; super-robot with a flair.  Approximately 7" figure predominately white and translucent-orange.  Classic large shoulder-pads, knee pads, feet, et al, of a super-robot.  Also two large rocket-boosters on the back.  Comes with lots of hands, a beam-rifle with removable barrel, and a VERY large, two-handed laser cannon.
3-20-01 Oratorio Tangram- Cybertrooper; Virtual On, Kaiyodo/Xebec. Meat and Potatoes; 5.0 Perks; 5.0 Homer Factor; 5.0
The first time I played Virtual-On while on my honeymoon.(Yes, my wife and I went to an ARCADE during our honeymoon.  Hey, were geeks.)  My wife and I strolled through a mall after hitting the beach, and being Gen-Xers, HAD to stop into the local arcade.  Lowe and behold, there sat this wonderful sit-down game with a cockpit Luke Skywalker would be proud of.  For the uninitiated, Virtual-On is by Sega and is part simulator, part fighting game, ALL super-robot.  The player controls a giant robot as you fight one-on-one with other robotic opponents with all sorts of funky weapons.  The controls were simple; just two joy-sticks, each with thumb buttons and triggers.  You knock the crap out of your opponents with  lasers, missiles, beam-swords.  Coooooooooool.  Naturally, this generated a sequal, Cyber-Trooper; Virtual-On.  And, of course, you gotta have an action-figure line.  Kaiyodo, the folks to put together the wonderful EVA-001, put this piece together and is distributed by Xebec toys.  Video games, giant robots, and toys.... oooooohhhhhhhhhh.  You won't be disappointed. The meat and potatoes of this piece are over the top.  Considering the manufacturer, you won't be disappointed by the articulaton and sculpts.  Like the EVA-001 piece, the articulation on this piece allows the figure to take on all sorts of neat poses like kneeling while firing it's rifile, flying, and striking with it's fists.  The sculpting is also first-rate.  Since this piece is based upon a super-robot, you won't find the ultra-realism you find in the Armor Core piece, like sensor clusters .  Nonetheless, there is  amazing detail in the form of  panels that could hide missiles, thruster vents, and others.  The figure itself is contructed of translucent-orange and white plastic, giving the piece a neat see-through look. The perks of this figure are also excellent.  You have the obligatory multiple hands, so the figure can do fists, hold the gun like a rifle, or simply point.(Why you would want it to point is beyond me, but hey, you can make it point.)  The Tangram also comes with a beam-rifle that has a removable barrel which can be replaced with a translucent-blue rod, making the rifle into a beam sword.  Cool.  Finally, the figure comes with a monstrous cannon that would make the SDF-1 from Macross proud.  The cannon is held in both hands with the arms held forward, as if it were firing two pistols ala John Woo.  The cannon itself is almost as large as the figure and is basically two rods, each shapped like the beam-rifle, which are parallel, held together at one end by a cross-piece with a very large green 'crystal.'  The figure holds the cannon on the end closest to the 'crystal', and I imagine fires a giant beam of destruction from the open end.  Believe it or not, the figure actually stands while holding this thing.  This the figure has so many joints and is designed to go into aciton poses, you can shift the weight of the figure and the joints so it looks rather realistic while holding this giant cannon.  Another nice touch is the figure comes with a stand.  The stand is specially designed so it connects to the back of the fiugre and holds it a few inches off the shelf the stand is one, giving the impression of the figure flying. Considering the immense amount of fanning I just did, this Homer Factor on this one is about a 10.0 on the Richter scale.  Kaiyodo has created an awesome run of figures; Fists of the Northstar, Neon Genesis Evangelion, et al.  Expectations were waaaaaay high on this one. They didn't disappoint.  Kaiyodo has struck again with a butt-kicking piece of work based on an equally awesome video game.  And just think, there is more then one robot in the game.  Ah, to dream.....