DragonBall Evolve Series 5 review Target Exclusive Gohan
Oct 27, 2023 11:19:27 GMT -6
ssj2dakota, 1mot, and 1 more like this
Post by Branjita on Oct 27, 2023 11:19:27 GMT -6
Backstory
The Target exclusive Evolve Ultimate Gohan was the last to be released of the three figures from series 5. I was certainly not the first person to find one; in fact, people started finding them at their local Targets as early as October 1st, however they still have not made it to Targets in Texas at the time I am writing this. I was, however, among the first people to receive two of them from Target.com. I checked every day, and Target finally added him as available for shipping on October 21, and I bought the last two they had in stock. I don't know how Target's inventory for online purchases works, but it's possible there are multiple shipping warehouses, and I only got the last 2 available for the Texas region. Regardless, I received these yesterday on October 26. And I see they show he is "in stock" for shipping again today.
Series 5 is a very unusual series. It contains only exclusive figures. Piccolo was an Amazon exclusive (read my Piccolo review here), SS Gohan was a Walmart exclusive (read my SS Gohan review here), and Ultimate Gohan was a Target exclusive. All three figures are based on the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Series 5 is a very unusual series. It contains only exclusive figures. Piccolo was an Amazon exclusive (read my Piccolo review here), SS Gohan was a Walmart exclusive (read my SS Gohan review here), and Ultimate Gohan was a Target exclusive. All three figures are based on the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Let's start the review!
Packaging
The packaging is awesome yet again. Just like the Walmart exclusive SS Gohan, the packaging is purple and yellow with a little bit of orange and another shade of purple. And just like it, the "Only at Target" logo is directly printed onto the cardboard packaging, so all shipments of these SS Gohans will likely have the Target logo on them. Like all previous waves of Evolve figures, the plastic bubble on the front of the card is exactly the same size as all of the previous waves.
Here are all three Series 5 figures together in the package.
Something unusual about this series is that Piccolo's cardboard does not match the two Gohans. The Gohans have yellow and purple packaging while Piccolo has white, yellow, blue, and pink packaging. We have not been told why this is, and I find it to be very peculiar. I speculate (and hope) that it implies that there will be one more yellow and purple packaging figure (hopefully Beast Gohan), and two more white, yellow, blue, and pink packaging figures (hopefully Gamma 1 and Gamma 2). Let's hope that this wishful thinking becomes reality soon.
Here are all three Series 5 figures together in the package.
Something unusual about this series is that Piccolo's cardboard does not match the two Gohans. The Gohans have yellow and purple packaging while Piccolo has white, yellow, blue, and pink packaging. We have not been told why this is, and I find it to be very peculiar. I speculate (and hope) that it implies that there will be one more yellow and purple packaging figure (hopefully Beast Gohan), and two more white, yellow, blue, and pink packaging figures (hopefully Gamma 1 and Gamma 2). Let's hope that this wishful thinking becomes reality soon.
Ultimate Gohan
Just like SS Gohan, I recommend that you inspect the figure (if there are multiple at the store) to find a good one. One of the ones I received has very nicely painted skin on the chest, while the other one is bad enough that I am going to return it to the store.
Also, the well-painted one has a unique quality that I am shocked about. The pants aren't flared unusually at the hips like all of the SS Gohans I have seen in person (more than 20). And... the Ultimate Gohan with the poorly painted chest also has flared pants at the hips! I don't understand how or why this is happening, or how I got so lucky to receive one without this flaw. Considering I received the last two Target's website had at the time, I would assume they came from the exact same shipping box, so why would one have perfect hips, and the other have flawed ones?? Surely if Bandai had corrected the problem, there wouldn't be an error figure in the same case as a perfect one.
Overall, the body looks exactly the same as the SS Gohan figure. Part of me likes this, but the other part is disappointed. On the positive side, this means that if you can manage to find an extra Target exclusive Gohan with perfect hips, you can just put the SS Gohan head on it and it will look exactly as it should and nobody will be able to ever tell you swapped heads. However, on the negative side, one of the very few things I applaud almost all of of Bandai's Dragon Stars figures for, is the fact that they generally change plastic colors and paint colors based on transformations. Long story short, I would have liked to have seen paler/brighter clothing on the SS Gohan than the Ultimate Gohan. But fortunately/unfortunately they are exactly the same colors.
What is different, is the hair sculpt. I don't believe the face sculpts are different whatsoever, but the hair sculpt for Ultimate Gohan is absolutely different from SS Gohan. Every spike is different.
And while it is unfortunately very obvious that not every Ultimate Gohan has perfect looking hips, I have to show you all how the hips on my Ultimate Gohan compare to the SS Gohan I have. It's amazing looking, and I am surprised to see one that looks perfect like this. Maybe all of the later releases will be fixed like this...? I hope so. I'll buy a new SS Gohan if some corrected ones are released at Walmart!
Ultimate Gohan on left, SS Gohan on right
My perfect Ultimate Gohan
My SS Gohan
The Ultimate Gohan I did not open
I pulled both figures' left legs off to see if they were exactly the same, and they are not. The SS Gohan's leg is on the left, and the Ultimate Gohan's leg is on the right. The direction of the "L" is different. Will this be true on all of them? I have no idea. Also, I question if the "bell" is different in size. I don't think it is very different. I think the location of the hole is a millimeter or 2 mm different possibly, and it is just putting the belled outward area between Gohan's legs where it doesn't look awkward at all.
Comparisons
Since this Gohan is almost identical to the SS Gohan, I'm not taking posed pictures of him or photos with other characters other than Piccolo and SS Gohan.
Final Conclusions
I have mixed feelings on this one. Since he's nearly exactly the same figure as the Walmart exclusive SS Gohan, he isn't too exciting. However, he does look great, and since mine (for some reason) has perfect hips, I am thrilled with that, and I hope to be able to find a perfect body for my SS Gohan's head to go onto in the near future.
He is still shorter than the Evolve Goku figures (other than the too-small Namek Saga SS Goku... I still don't understand why Bandai made him), so that's a bit of a flaw. But he is overall a much higher quality figure with better engineering and sculpt than some of the older Evolve figures.
I'd rate my particular Ultimate Gohan as a 9/10, with only 1 point deducted for being shorter than the Goku figures.
He is still shorter than the Evolve Goku figures (other than the too-small Namek Saga SS Goku... I still don't understand why Bandai made him), so that's a bit of a flaw. But he is overall a much higher quality figure with better engineering and sculpt than some of the older Evolve figures.
I'd rate my particular Ultimate Gohan as a 9/10, with only 1 point deducted for being shorter than the Goku figures.
