Pacific Rim Uprising: Robot Spirits Titan Redeemer & Bracer Phoenix Gallery

Today we have a special double (well 2 & 1/2) sized gallery for you. In the years between Pacific Rim & Uprising, the PPDC continued to develop Jaegers for combat & security purposes. And while these two aren't quite the latest models, they pack more than enough brute force to fight some Kaiju. Leading into Uprising's finale the mighty Titan Redeemer & Bracer Phoenix took their fair share of damage though. If you've seen the movie, you know exactly what we're talking about in one of their cases.... And of course we can't forget the real hero of the war, Scrapper!

** Beware, there be spoilers ahead! In both my review text and in photos, there will be spoilers regarding the fates of Titan & Bracer. If you don't want to be spoiled on any of the film's details, you may want to avert your gaze! Now then.


- Post 1 is all about Titan Redeemer (and Scrapper!)

- Post 2 is all about Bracer Phoenix with a little bonus

Packaging
As I mentioned with Gipsy & Obsidian, the Pacific Rim Robot Spirits have gone in a new direction this toyline hasn't really before in terms of packaging. Each figure comes in a box with a punched tag to hang it on a retail store hook. It's definitely a new thing for Robot Spirits/Damashii to so openly market these figure at mass market retail. But perhaps their appeal and simultaneous release in both Western & Asian markets contributed to this decision? In either case these boxes are very unique and totally their own thing within the line. Even in regards to how slim and tall they are.

Part 1: Titan Redeemer
Of all the new Jaegers created for Uprising Titan Redeemer (and Bracer Phoenix for that matter) are some of the most orthodox big robot designs in the film. In many ways, they don't take any risks, and in many ways that's what makes them strong designs. Titan Redeemer would feel very much at home as a frontline grunt in your favorite 80's mecha anime of choice. He definitely feels like he could run around with a Destroid or two. While many find the design generic, I find it to be classic.

Ultimately, Redeemer has pretty standard proportions and articulation, so I'll just zero in on the important bits. The figure's feet are wide flat cross shapes. Somehow the balljoints they're attached to are even more free than Gipsy or Obsidian, and because of the wide form of the feet, you can get really damn nice grounded footing for this guy. The knees bend back completely letting the calf reset against the back of the thigh. And the hips can actually angle out so much further than you'd think by looking at them. It's those spectacular double jointed thighs & hips like Gipsy & Obsidian have. They just work for everything. This figure also has the same amazing swing joint inside the waist piece. This also means that like his relatives, Redeemer has no waist joint. Only a floating upper body that isn't nearly as free moving as Gipsy.

The upper body is seriously all one piece, even right down to the shoulder. The only moveable parts there are the thrusters that point outwardly and up to accommodate the arms, and the flexible soft plastic panels on the front and back that give you just a little bit more to work with for the arms. The shoulders are very much the same as Obsidian Fury's. Basically the massive shoulders hide the balljoint assembly that sticks out from the main body. Though because there are no moving shoulder pads here you lose a decent amount of play in these shoulders.

The arms themselves are fairly standard. The elbows can only make about a 90 degree angle. The right arm features a standard fist. Whereas the left arm features the massive M19 Morningstar mace. This massive weapon is removable actually. It slides right off of a plastic rod that's plugged into the wrist joint hole. You CAN actually remove this post and if you're feeling savvy, recreate a scene straight from the final battle. You see, the forearms on this guy can be removed, albeit it with more force than Gipsy's. That's because this isn't necessarily an intended feature. But they can be removed and swapped over to Bracer Phoenix! So remove the post and mace from Redeemer's left arm, take the right forearm off entirely, remove it's wrist joint. Then attach the mace assembly back to this arm, throw it on Bracer and boom, you're done! It may not be an "intended" feature of these toys, but by virtue of their designs it's entirely possible. And I LOVE that.

Finally that brings us to Titan Redeemer's head, which reminds me a bit of a Prime Master from Hasbro's current Power of the Primes toyline. The way the visor is laid out just reminds me of them so much. Despite the large chest and shoulders the neck angles up and out brilliantly, giving you just enough clearance to even turn the head a full 360 degrees. I know plenty of folks didn't care for the more generic/standard design of some of the uprising Jaegers. But honestly, Titan Redeemer is a charming traditional robot design.

Accessories
Redeemer comes with next to nothing, but here's what we get:

1 - open right hand. Just one for posing. Which is pretty pathetic. But given how little this Jaeger did in the film, I suppose anything more is largely unnecessary.

1 - Scrapper Jaeger. By far the best accessory that comes with any of the Jaegers. This little to scale replica of Scrapper is sadly unpainted and non-poseable. It's a static little accessory to pair up with your other Jaegers if you so wish. I would love to see a proper Scrapper Robot Spirit at some point. even though it would have to be out of scale with the rest of the line to have any meaningful poseability or paint applications. But it would still be great to have it.

That's pretty pathetic for Titan Redeemer, but I know they're trying to keep the accessory count down so they can keep these guys affordable. Extra hands would have been nice, but they aren't entirely missed either.

Part 2: Bracer Phoenix

In much the same way as Titan Redeemer, or perhaps even more so, Bracer Phoenix hearkens back to a more traditional type of giant robot. This Battletech or Mechwarrior-esque machine feels like a really logical design for a big bi-pedal robot. And I kind of love that about it. Much like Redeemer, this really feels like a classic design.

Though it does feel very traditional to me, I do have some issues with the figure beginning with the legs. The feet feature the same really nice and un-restricted ball joint ankles that Redeemer had. Unfortunately though, this figure could have really benefited from the same wide flat feet. While Bracer has feet of similar design, they don't cover enough ground to make him stable all the time. The thing that bugs me about these legs and makes them so frustrating to pose, is the double joint in the knees. While normally I'd welcome such a thing, these are very poorly designed and aren't totally functional as a result. The joint under the knee cap barely has any movement to it at all, but it gives just enough to create instability when posing because it bends forward. The upper knee joint bends back, thus creating a really odd chicken leg design that doesn't work very well. The upper joint only moves about a quarter turn, so the combination of the two joints together is still kind of functionally useless.

The hips features the same great double ball joints we've seen so far in the rest of the line, so that's really helpful, but the issues with the knees really hinder movement. Making this guy look like it's doing anything other than just standing is difficult. Again the hips are welcome though. The left one features a non-firing missile launcher for detail which I appreciate. As with all of the other figures, we get the same "swing crotch" design as well so you get a little extra push out of the hip interior. This also means there's no waist joint. For Bracer though there's very little upper body movement too. Because of how deep the lower half is, the upper half of the body can only make a slight turn left or right. The chest & back have removable panels to swap out some guns for extra firepower as well, but that's detailed in the accessories section below.

The arms seem to be a bit of a progression from what Bandai was trying to do with Obsidian Fury & Titan Redeemer. Instead of static shoulder pads (Redeemer) or ones with barely functional movement (Obsidian), Bracer Phoenix is equipped with a combination shoulder joint. The pad is attached to the swiveling post that comes out of the main body. So when you rotate the arm up & forward, the shoulder pad rotates down and back behind the shoulder. It's also on it's own ball joint so it can be moved just a little bit. Thanks to it's design the upper arm also weirdly has a bicep swivel, albeit it just above the bicep, as well as a secondary ball joint just above that. The elbows have slightly more range that Redeemer, and as for the wrists, they fall off with the slightest touch occasionally. I find the inconsistency with the wrist joint tolerances are the most common problem across the line.

Finally, Bracer Phoenix's head is by far the least usable so far. Even though Titan Redeemer shares a similar set up for it's neck & head, there's little to no clearance on the sides for Bracer to move. So you do lose some expressiveness because of this, but it's not altogether terrible.

Final Battle Bracer Phoenix. As I detailed above in the Titan Redeemer section, yes, you CAN attach Redeemer's M19 Morningstar to Bracer Phoenix to replicate the final battle of the film. The elbow joints for these figures are identical so while it's not an intended feature, it's one you can recreate. Take the mace of Redeemer's left hand (wrist post and all). Then remove Redeemer's right forearm but also take the wrist joint with fist out of the writs itself. Attach the mace post in the wrist socket. It's the same size as the ball joint you just removed, though it won't go down in there as deeply. It's still a nice snug fit. Once you've assembled the new right arm, go to your Bracer Phoenix and remove it's right forearm. As I said the elbow joint is the same size so the new arm you've built will plug right on with *just* enough clearance to work on Bracer Phoenix. There you have it, ready for the final battle!

Accessories
Coming with little more than Titan Redeemer, Bracer Phoenix has just a couple essentials.

2 - additional hands. These are just open palmed versions of it's normal fists. Like the other Jaeger's before it, for some bizarre reason the joint on these is molded so that the hand would be bent backwards. I don't know why they did this with all of them, I would have preferred being able to rest the hands down by the sides a bit more.

2 - Gunner Pod Vortex Cannons. One set is meant for the chest, while another is meant for the back. You just have to remove a small panel on either side to attach them. I appreciate that both front and back were included. They could have easily skimped out and only included the front guns. They could have also gone the distance and put the cannons on tracks so they could spin around from front to back properly. But I guess two separate pieces are better than none.

As with Redeemer, that feels pretty lite. They should have included Final Battle parts as regular accessories with this one.

Final Thoughts: Titan Redeemer & Bracer Phoenix
While neither of these figures lives up to the standard set by Gipsy Avenger or comes close to the poseability of Obsidian Fury, they are both serviceable grunts to add to your collection. The undocumented way in which you can recreate their final battle combination though makes them well worth it to me. We live in strange times with Toys R Us going out of business, but discouns are always something to take advantage of if you can. With many stores beginning to hit the 20% discounts now, and these figures still regularly popping up in stores, I'd suggest getting Robot Spirits Titan Redeemer & Bracer Phoenix while you can.

I really do like these figures, and learning about the part swap possibilties have made them more fun (also since the ships elbow, and shoulder ball joints all seem around the same for each figure, I'd love to see someone attempt to make some custom jaegers especially if we see more from this line)

I saw someone make a Samus Aran custom of this on twitter today lol

Bracer Phoenix Looks like A Mk.1 hulk buster to me, no idea why

Having the full set and some of the kaiju would look great, these two really need to displayed with more Jaegers to really stand out.

Lotta Bulkhead Vibes here

yeah, but slightly more generic. While I really like the Gypsy design, the other mechs look far less interesting.

I really debated getting Bracer Pheonix after this gallery, because I do like the older school mecha aesthetic and its plot relevance. But in the end, only got just 2 of the Jaegars. Nonetheless, both of these looked really good every time I picked them up and contemplated it in stores and you did a great job showing them off.