Go! Hishoumaru

Robot Mode: Hishoumaru is, to me, the best of the Shinobi team robots when it comes to proportions. Yes, like all of them he lacks a real torso, consisting mostly of legs, but he is better than the others at hiding it. His torso plate gives the impression of him actually having a torso, only from the back do you see that it’s just a smokescreen. The only slight disadvantage here is that there is a small gap in his torso plate where the hawk’s head sits, allowing you to see right through him, but apart from that he does manage to look like pretty good.

Proportions aside Hishoumaru looks pretty good overall, too. The orange, black and yellow paint job suits him well, he is almost kibble-free (just those big pods on the legs), and I have a thing for winged robots anyway. He has a solid stance, no balance problems, and can pose with the best of them. For a weapon he carries a pretty broad sword (a fan sword according to his profile) and, like all of the Swordbot robots, he can use the combiner helmet as a very strangely-shaped gun as well. Alternatively he can also store the combiner helmet on his back. So overall, a really nice robot mode. The best of the Shinobi team and a tough contender for Ganoh when it comes to best Swordbot robot mode overall.

Alternate Mode: Hishoumaru transforms into a robotic hawk (or similar bird of prey). Now bird Transformers are a very mixed lot, usually, as the robots seldom know where to put the robot legs (Energon Divebomb did it best, in my opinion). Hishoumaru folds them up to serve as the bird’s chest, making for a rather unrealistically proportioned hawk, given that its chest and torso are pretty wide, while the wings are relatively small. Still, the overall image is okay. Not brilliant, but okay. Given that Hishoumaru has to incorporate three different combiner modes into its design, too, the hawk mode is doing a pretty good job.

Combiner Mode: Hishoumaru can combine with fellow Shinobi team members Sensuimaru and Gekisoumaru in three different variants. In this review we shall look at the GoHishou variant, where Hishoumaru forms the upper body of the combiner. The other two variants are in the reviews of Sensuimaru and Gekisoumaru.

GoHishou uses Gekisoumaru as the lower body and Sensuimaru as the hip and back. This works out very well, giving him a solid and well-balanced pair of legs and Sensuimaru’s cool missile launchers as shoulder-mounted weapons (I’m a sucker for shoulder-mounted weapons). Hishoumaru makes for a good chest and pair of arms and the entire combiner looks very nicely proportioned . That he has Hishoumaru’s wings on his shoulders doesn’t hurt, either, of course. GoHishou can use the combined weapons of the entire team, just like the others, and is well articulated and pretty nicely balanced. So no complaints here. Definitely a well-done combiner.

Remarks: I could copy and paste what I’ve written about the other Swordbot Transformers from Go! here, but instead I’ll just relay you to the other reviews. Hishoumaru is the final member of the Shinobi Team and, to me, the best of the lot. A very good robot mode, a decent beast mode, and looking pretty good as the top of a combiner, too. Still quite a number of compromises in the design, naturally, but overall he handles it best among his team. Naturally, just like the other Swordbots, you either get him as part of the set or you don’t bother getting him, so rating him individually is somewhat superfluous, but still: a good Transformer.

Rating: B+