Pacific Rim Uprising: Robot Spirits Guardian Bravo & Saber Athena Gallery

Following up from our three previous galleries for Pacific Rim Uprising we cap things off this time with another two-for-one special, with Guardian Bravo & Saber Athena! Two of the most advanced Jaegers in the PPDC fleet, Bravo embodies the bulk and power of it's predecessors and improves on the chain sword melee weapon with it's own electrified Arc Whips. Saber Athena meanwhile is the newest and fastest Jaeger to date. Built for speed and finesse, Athena is a remarkable close range fighter. Can these two next gen fighters turn the tide of the war? Are they at least nice additions to the Robot Spirits line? Read on!

Packaging
As I mentioned in my previous reviews, 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: Guardian Bravo
In a similar fashion to Titan Redeemer & Bracer Phoenix, Guardian Bravo is a very traditional design. A standard bulky humanoid robot, with pretty squat proportions. Though Bravo looks a bit more heroic, that's largely thanks to it's bright color scheme. Of all 6 Jaegers released thus far, this one is by far the most colorful and that really helps it stand out from the pack. Luckily much of the articulation we've seen throughout the line is also on full display as well.

Bravo's feet are a bit unique, with huge flat bases for stability, they also feature double ball joints. The double joints in the knees are also quite good, allowing the back of the leg to rest up against the thigh parts. We get the exact same type of double ball joint hips and waist-swing joint. Making dynamic posing a breeze with this guy. The lack of a waist joint is still disappointing, but the upper body does have some decent range from side to side, though it can't spin all the way around.

I will say that the arms look really awkward to me. The design is extremely similar to Obsidian, Redeemer, & Bracer, but the joint is completely exposed. The shoulder pads are largely pointless unfortunately. They're on ball joints with a fair bit of range to swing forward, but without any usable reason to do so. They do not however rotate upward, so when you attempt to move the arm up, they often pop right off. The shoulder joint design seems to be almost universal however. A double balljoint with a swivel just above the actual bicep. This go around we get some really great elbows on par with Gipsy Avengers as well and thanks to the position of the wrist socket, he has fists that are very functional. The combination of the various arm joints in Bravo 's arms allows him to make some great dynamic attacks.

Finally that brings us to the head, which definitely puts me in mind of something akin to a GM or Vifam like design. It's a good grunt type head. It sells the Guardian Bravo design as something that would look good as a mass production unit.

Accessories
Like most of the line, Guardian Bravo comes with just the essentials:

2 - open palm hands. Like the other Jaeger's before it, for some bizarre reason the wrist socket 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 - Elec-16 Arc Whips. These interesting weapons in universe are said to be "proto-metallic successors to the chain sword." As accessories go, I quite like them. Made of a nice translucent purple/blue, these things definitely look electrified. They're also made of a nice flexible soft plastic that allows you give while posing them. The grips fit right down into Bravo's standard hands quite well. My wife saw me writing up my review for these figures, she dubbed the Arc Whips "laser ropes:.

I do wish they could have included something to replicate Bravo's wrist blasters from the final battle. But once again I recognize the need to keep accessories & therefore cost down on these.

Part 2: Saber Athena
Aside from Gipsy Avenger, this was the one figure I was most excited for in the line. Saber Athena, is an elegant and sleek design that stands with the best of classic & modern giant robot designs. Having the figure in hand now it really does not disappoint at all.

Saber Athena in universe was designed for speed and agility and the Robot Spirit is itself quite poseable to suit this. From the ground up, Athena is just supremely poseable in every conceivable way. I could honestly pose this figure for hours. Starting with the feet, Athena has incredibly free moving ankles. The ankles are on the usual double ball joint, though with a forward angle molded in. The ankles can amazingly fold up and forward nearly parallel to the shin which blows my mind. Because of how slim the upper & lower legs are, you can literally fold the leg up and back on to itself. I LOVE this kind of poseability. It's just a wonderful by-product of a good design.

Following the example of the other 5 Jaegers, Athena has the same hip/waist design. Double ball joint, swing hips and all. No waist joint, no surprise there. The upper body can spin a complete 360, though it's up and back movement is sadly a bit limited. Like her legs, Athena's arms extremely well thought out. While she features a similar shoulder system to the other Jaegers, there's no body bulk to limit them as much. The shoulder pads are a bit limited in how they can angle out of the way but it's not detrimental. Thanks to the room around the double shoulder joint, you can get quite a lot out of these arms, including full use of the elbow joint.

The head is a bit different than the other Jaegers, being a bit more streamlined and narrow. It reminds me very much of an Ingram from Patlabor. Unlike most of the others it's on a raised neck joint instead of down in the chest/shoulders. So you lose none of the double jointed aspects of the neck and the head is entirely free to move around. Of special note are the "wings" on the back, for lack of more accurate terminology. These are meant to be the area where the swords are stored for this Jaeger, though no such storage was built into the figure. They're on ball joints which all them to fold completely down and rest on the exterior of the back, they can also angle in or out depending on you're liking.

Accessories
Saber Athena comes with a set of accessories true to her name.

2 - sword holding fists. Oddly, Saber Athena is packed with open palmed attached and the weapon holding hands are in the parts tray.

2 - Ionic Twinblades. These short swords, as I mentioned above, are stored inside the back-mounted wings. In the film at least. No such storage option was built into the figure itself. They look jsut a bit small in the figure's hands but they get the job done.

1 - Ionic Sword. This larger version of the Twinblades is meant to be a combined form of the two. I don't think it would have been terribly difficult to just make them combine, but I appreciate the inclusion of an extra weapon. Especially one that seems to scale a little better with Saber Athena.

Final Thoughts: Guardian Bravo & Saber Athena
6 figures in I wasn't sure what more this line was going to be able to offer to spice things up. Honestly though I think I enjoy these two quite a lot. They're a really nice change from the big bulk of Titan Redeemer & Bracer Phoenix, though neither really has the same spark that Gipsy Avenger or Obsidian Fury did. All in all, Robot Spirits Guardian Bravo & Saber Athena are more than welcome additions to this line. Once again I recommend picking these up, especially if you can score them at a discount at your local Toys R Us as I did.

P.S. We're going to be having a special bonus gallery from Uprising in the next week or so as well. A certain 7-11 Japan exclusive is currently making it's way to me so we'll be sure to get that gallery up for your viewing as soon as possible!

Part 3
- Final Battle
- Jaegers united AKA Robo Sentai Jaegeranger

Always nice to see designs in a line that stand out

Honestly, I'd rather have Bandai model kids than full on figures.

These two and obsidian fury are the last three I need to complete the set, really looking forward to getting them now. (Though I may have a word with our local customizer about a possible commission set)

We'll see. I'm not sure how well the initial wave of kits have sold. But it's entirely possible we'll at least get some movie 1 Jaegers if nothing else.
Yeah these two really are great. Out side Gipsy and Obsidian, Bravo & Athena are the best. I still really like Redeemer & Bracer too, but these last two are fantatsic.

And don't forget to complete the set you need the Blueprint Gipsy

Id watch the shit out of Robo Sentai Jaegeranger

These designs were definitely the standouts for uprising, their simple but they do the job well.

So this is where all the red went