MAGNAANGEMON/SERAPHIMON
DIGIVOLVING FIGURE

 

MagnaAngemonMagnaAngemon is the Ultimate form of Patamon, the Digimon partner of T.K. His Mega form, Seraphimon, appears but once, in "Digimon: The Movie," for all of thirty seconds. This toy was a little late in coming, released as it was among the season three line of toys, rather than the season two line, where it would have been more at home.

MAGNAANGEMON
The toy comes packaged in MagnaAngemon mode, so we shall begin there. While the figure is quite recognisable as MagnaAngemon, it is somewhat... busy. He has a lot of parts hanging off him that aren't secure, particularly his large helmet, which juts out from his face to some degree. The ribbons across his chest also protrude, rather than being tight against his body. And perhaps strangely of all, his torso, right arms and legs are rendered in a pale blue colour, rather than the correct white. The blue is a carry-over from the Seraphimon mode, but none of these parts, except his feet, are actually PART of the Seraphimon mode, so there's really no excuse for it. Missing paint, however, is actually remarkably minimal - it's just down to small things like some of the straps on his right arm, his belt, and his boot kneecaps. MagnaAngemon has articulation in his shoulders, knees, hips, and neck - there are actually two swivelling sections to the neck - one that lets the head and helmet move, and one that lets the head move independently if the helmet is swing down (it's for the Seraphimon mode). Each of his six wings is moveable (the seventh and eighth are moulded across his thighs). An extra nice touch is the inclusion of MagnaAngemon's entire head and face under his mask - unlike the Sakuyamon Digivolver, for example. This mode is a little bit unstable at times (much like the original Angemon Digivolver, fittingly).

To transform MagnaAngemon into Seraphimon, you are first instructed to rotate MagnaAngemon "Excalibur" blade up, but I personally prefer to just remove it. It's designed to be removed from his wrist, so there's no problem. Then, you swing up his arms, and Seraphimon's arms, which are folded up on his back under his wings. SeraphimonYou rotate up his two topmost wings, then swing the whole wing assembly down. You spin the centre section, with his four middle wings, around 180 degrees, exposing the golden side, then rotate the whole thing around do that it's on his front. You fold his arms back down, and fold the wings back up so they're against what is now Seraphimon's back, and then fold Seraphimon's arms out to the side, and flip back MagnaAngemon's helmet. Then, you fold up Seraphimon's torso plate and lock it into place, and bring down MagnaAngemon's ribbons so they form Seraphimon's "loincloth." Finally, you pull down on MagnaAngemon's feet, rotate them 180 degrees and push them back up to form Seraphimon's feet, and separate his four middle wings into eight, making ten in total.

SERAPHIMON
With his bright, attractive gold-and-blue colour scheme and delightful arced wingspan, the Seraphimon mode cuts an impressive figure. Again, missing paint is minimal - here, it's a little blue on his collar, two tiny yellow flecks on his shoulder pads, the yellow outline of the Crest of Hope, and the red Digi-Code on his loincloth - and on the topic of that, I must say, I'm very happy and impressed that the designers went to the trouble of etching the Digi-Code into Seraphimon's loincloth and MagnaAngemon's ribbons. It's great attention to detail. Seraphimon has articulation in his shoulders, hips, knees, neck, and all ten of his wings. Downsides include the fact that the two halves of the loincloth never fold together perfectly (as you can see here), and it's hard to get his arms folded out all the way, because MagnaAngemon's arms (particularly his left arm, with the shield) don't fit behind his wings too well.

OVERALL
Another "turn me around" Digivolver, this one is still better than most, as a result of the wings, which hide the majority of the other mode. This can get in the way of the arms folding up, though - and speaking of the arms, I really don't think it would have killed them to add an extra couple of joints to each elbow and wrist. It wouldn't affect the transformation at all and would give the toy more play value. Seraphimon is definitely the superior mode to MagnaAngemon - indeed, MagnaAngemon is what drags this toy down in general - but this toy again showcases how far Bandai of America has been able to come since the days of the Armour Digivolvers.
Rating: 3 out of 5