Growlmon is the Champion form of Guilmon,
the Digimon partner of Takato, and the standard "dino"
Digimon for season three of the series. Growlmon first appeared
in 3.08, "A Question of Trust," and Digivolves to his
Ultimate form of WarGrowlmon in 3.14, "Grow Mon Grow."
Rather than import the Japanese mould for the
Growlmon/WarGrowlmon toy, Bandai of America constructed one of
their own, which shows that their skill designing figures has
definitely improved since the first Digi-Egg toys.
GROWLMON
The toy comes packaged in Growlmon form, so we'll begin with it.
The thing which *immediately* strikes you here is the TERRIBLE,
HALF-ASSED paint-job the figure has been given. More than two
thirds of his black detailing has been left uncoloured. It's all
clearly marked out with indentations - but it hasn't been
coloured. BAD BANDAI! LAZY BANDAI!! This half-done paintjob
occurs a lot with the Tamers Digivolving figures, but it is
definitely at it's utmost worst with Growlmon, given that he is
only three main colours, and the poor job REALLY sticks out. In
fact, I was SO annoyed with it, I actually took a black permanent
marker to the toy, and coloured in all the empty areas. It
improves the look of the toy many times over, and I encourage
anyone who owns it to do the same. The pictures on this page are
of the toy after I coloured it (click HERE
to see my modified Growlmon from the back, and HERE for a list of parts that were and
weren't coloured on the toy originally).
Now, as for the actual toy - Growlmon is a nice, sturdy figure,
with bright colours, and next to no kibble, except for the
visible part of WarGrowlmon's neck. He has articulation in his
shoulders, elbows, hips and ankles. His bright colour scheme
makes him an attractive toy (and the effect of this is enhanced
by colouring in the black areas). For some reason I can't fathom,
his tail is hinged used the same hinge that opens his back, and
is held down with a lock, but this has no use.
To transform Growlmon to WarGrowlmon, first you remove the peg on
each of the arm blades from the hole in his forearm, and extend
the blade inside it. You rotate the sections of the arms with the
blades on them around, and fit the pegs on the extended blades
into the holes in the backs of his hands (though they are so
small and rubbery, it's almost impossible to make them lock, so
don't strain yourself). You remove his middle claws, rotate them,
and reinsert them to form WarGrowlmon's thumb claws.
Then, you split Growlmon's head open
revealed WarGrowlmon's head, and open out his back section. You
pull out WarGrowlmon's tail-cable-thing from inside the body, and
fold Growlmon's head halves inside. From inside the front half of
the body, you bring out WarGrowlmon's armour, which is in two
parts, attached by a series of interconnected hinges, which can
be a serious bugger to get folded just right. Unfold the
"missiles" inside the armour, bring the armour up
around his shoulders, and close his back. Fit the pegs on the
armour into the holes in his shoulders, and snap them together in
the front. The instructions fail to mention the final step, where
you lock the armour together tightly by fitting the two holes in
the joint at the base of the tail-cable over the two rear pegs on
the armour. You then fold up the two "missiles" at the
back of the armour.
WARGROWLMON
The only thing exclusively missing in terms of black paint on
WarGrowlmon are a few flecks on his nose. This is really because
his whole body is Growlmon's, with all it's missing paint - it's
a bit disappointing to see that the only major change is that
he's got a new head and shoulders, and everything else below that
is pretty much the same. WarGrowlmon has articulation in all the
same places as Growlmon, but kids would likely have difficultly
getting his armour put together properly - I know I did! Also,
transforming him back to Growlmon is quite a pain the first few
times, as the armour is *very* difficult to fold up. You have to
have all the hinges set in a certain way (look very closely at
the picture in the instructions... wish they could make it
bigger), and you have to have the "missiles" on both
parts unfolded just a certain amount to let the pieces overlap,
but not so that they affect the closing of the back. WarGrowlmon
lacks a little of Growlmon's sturdiness, due to the really loose
nature of the pegs that hold the blades to his hands (if you can
even actually manage to get them in the holes), plus the shoulder
armour, which just falls apart if you don't have the joint at the
base of the tail-cable locked in place. But he's still a nice
mode.
OVERALL
Growlmon is the first third season Digivolving figure that I've
purchased, and I hope that his construction quality is at least
slightly indicative of the rest of the series - mind you, the
same can't be said for his paint job. GOD, that annoys me. Be
careful with those permanent markers, kids, they smudge somethin'
fierce. I think I'm going to buy another Growlmon, just to have
who's unaltered...
I rather wish that you didn't have to remove his claws and
reinsert them - that just makes me think of the Armour
Digivolvers, with their removable heads and armour pieces...
Growlmon, thankfully, is a far cry from them.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
