Nifty toy finds: Crystal Warrior DX Fighter Water from Bandai (part 2)

Recently, I got to feature this cool toy find that I've purchased dirt cheap at the SM Toy Express a couple of months ago which was the Crystal Warrior DX Fighter Magical spacecraft from Bandai, and for those who are not familiar with Crystal Warrior, China took the initiative to come up with their own original Super Sentai heroes to compete against their more popular Japanese and U.S. counterparts.. though honestly it took me a little bit of effort to find out more about them over the internet since there wasn't that much talk about them and I couldn't get to find any website (official or fan-based) to support my blog article.. only from a handful of forums did I manage to get the information I wanted about Crystal Warrior, though it wasn't that much but it was a lot of help. Bandai somehow stepped in to support the creators of Crystal Warrior by handling their merchandising and they came up with a fair number of toys comprising of figures and spacecrafts.. and that's the gist of it.

What caught my attention from the Crystal Warrior toy line being sold on sale at Toy Express were the spacecrafts since at that time the store sold only the bigger versions of the main Sentai characters and getting just a few of them can be a huge nightmare for my already cramped bedroom, the spacecrafts were more manageable and looking for a spot to place them in was easy. Out of the 5 spacecrafts selling, I only got two from the collection... and now I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, the Crystal Warrior DX Fighter Water spacecraft.

The price for this baby is the same as the DX Fighter Magical (around Php 60 or roughly around $1.00++) and even though they were both manufactured by Bandai, I really wasn't that impressed with some of the toy's physical attributes, in terms of the colorways and the detailing but you can see and feel that it's sturdy (which is synonymous to Bandai's excellence in toy quality) and not some knock-off toy that can break easily after some time. For some strange reason I got the urge to take out my camera and take snapshots of the DX Fighter Water yesterday afternoon and here are some of them that you can check after the article. Hope you like it guys and 'til next time, stay safe always!


(*Click on the images for larger view and more photos inside)

Nifty toy finds: Crystal Warrior DX Fighter Magical from Bandai

It was quite unfortunate for me to have not attended the recently concluded ToyCon 2012 held at the SM Megamall due to unforeseen circumstances last Saturday (the second day of the event) and I couldn't even attend the last day yesterday since I had to stay home for a simple celebration with the family. I guess I'll have to wait for the next ToyCon to be able to do my annual pilgrimage in the land of toys and cosplay... Anyways, it has been quite a while since my last update and I have here now with me another good toy find that I have purchased recently and though at first the item wasn't quite that familiar with yours truly and the toy was literally "shrouded in mystery" from the moment I took it off from the shelves and as I carefully checked the packaging, the only defining factor from its anonymity is the Bandai logo which means that this is legit and in no way can it be some bootleg toy manufactured in some far-flung corner of the world. And I'm talking about the Crystal Warrior DX Fighter Magical spacecraft...

I was at the SM Toy Express (a toy discount store chain here in the Philippines) about a month ago when I saw this plus three other spacecraft variables being sold for only Php 60 (roughly around $1.00++) from its original price of Php 120 per variable. Since these toys were not that familiar with me, I decided to get for myself 2 out of the 4 available spacecrafts and check them out first before I can decide to acquire all of them. As soon as I got home, I did some little research on Crystal Warrior and found out that they are somewhat China's answer to the more popular Sentai heroes of Japan and the U.S. but as of to date, these Chinese Sentai heroes are still quite unfamiliar to most people... or I could be wrong. There were a few personal blogs and forums discussing about Crystal Warrior and since Bandai took them in to handle their toy merchandising, it has somehow, in some other way, helped boost their franchising though it wasn't enough to get them flourishing in today's mainstream Sentai market.

Going back, I decided to unbox the DX Fighter Magical and I must say that the toy item isn't that bad at all, in fact the spacecraft has the resemblance of a crossover between a F-117 Stealth Fighter and an F-2 Stealth Bomber when its wings are clipped. Paint job on the toy is quite average having just the cockpit/canopy glass painted partly in blue while some parts were painted in black and the rest are in white. The item is purely made of plastic though it doesn't give you that cheap feel of plastic toys that you get off the sidestreets from some toy vendor selling bootleg toys or something like that. Overall, it's not that bad nor is it at par with very good quality toys synonymous to the Bandai brand and their products. It is somewhere in the middle where quality is up a notch from average with a price tag that is reasonable to those who are just random toy collectors looking for good bargain finds.

It was only yesterday afternoon that I took some snapshots of the item since I was preoccupied in recent times with other stuff (including some bouts of laziness attacks) and I have managed to come up with a photo set that you can see in its entirety over at our Facebook page. Here are some photo samples of the toy and hope you guys like it. 'Til next time guys, stay safe always!

(*Click on the images for larger view and more photos inside)