Member's Mark "Giant Walking Robot" playset robot review:
This set is a repackaging of previously released Chap Mei "Soldier Force" items in a large gift set for Sam's Club.
The only "new" piece in the set is the "robot" (actually a pilot driven mech) so that is what this review will be focusing on. This is "new" in the sense that it has only had one previous North American release and that was through Toys R Us Canada and never appeared in the United States as TRU had closed down by the time it was released.
You can see from the pictures that the robot is a big beefy hunk of plastic. It is solidly constructed aside from the clear canopy cover which feels a bit brittle so I am going to be gentle when opening and closing it. I took a picture of the robot with the recently released "Halo" Mantis from Jaswares' line so you can see how large it is. There is also a picture with a 4" "Fortnite" figure (also from Jazwares) for scale.
The robot is articulated at the shoulders (swivel 360° rotational joint with a hinge below for slightly more than 45°of lateral arm movement), elbows (hinge with close to 90° of movement) and motorized joints at the hips (very little motion forward/back, just enough to "walk" forward slowly). There are additional shallow hinges at the ankles to accommodate the walking action. The walking action also triggers a blue LED inside the cockpit.
The overall design is very reminiscent of the real world mechs being built by robotics enthusiasts across the world, albeit much larger in scale than the real ones so far. It is heavily armored and looks like it could take a pounding in combat. It is rather lightly armed with only a pair of forward facing cannons above the canopy. The size of the barrels (which are hollow underneath, a pet peeve of mine, and will be removed) are kind of large to be set so high and I kind of envision the mech toppling backwards from the recoil the first time it fires them.
The control pod is quite large, you could probably have 2 seats side by side instead of the one centrally located one. The seat is a surprise as all too often Chap Mei has completely empty cockpits as budget savers, but the seat is nicely designed but lacks any kind of control surfaces to put the operator's hands on (I plan on rectifying this in the future). I also plan on filling the remainder of the empty space surrounding the chair with some cool tech detailing. There is a secondary area on the upper back behind the cannons for another figure to stand, but would be completely exposed to enemy fire. I will cover the open space with additional armor in the future.
I eventually plan on modifying this into a utility mech since it is so bulky and barely armed to begin with. I will probably go with a construction vehicle color scheme (maybe even green and purple for a Constructicon homage) with warning stripes on certain surfaces.
For the $35 this set goes for, you certainly get a lot of plastic for your money. The remaining accessories are hit or miss. The tower and mini-fortification are one sided buy really nice and can be combined to make a bigger base. The figures are typical Chap Mei offerings (one of which has been reissued a ton of times in the last 20+ years) and the smaller vehicles are really only useful to kids and not collectors/customizers. The 2 accessory trees are a mix of new and (seriously) old. The old tree is another 20+ year veteran of the line but the accessories are solid offerings but more closely scaled to 6" figures than the included 3.75" ones. The new tree is hollow on one side as a cost saving measure but renders almost all of the accessories useless to adult collectors/customizers.
There are 2 additional sets available in this assortment: a giant cargo helicopter and another set with a fighter jet and armored APC. All of the items in the other 2 sets are reissues from many years ago.
These sets are exclusive to Sam's Club in the United States.
