Angemon is the
Champion form of Patamon, the Digimon partner of T.K. While
Patamon makes his first appearance in the first season premiere
episode, “And So It Begins...” he does not Digivolve
into Angemon until the final battle with Devimon in “Legend
of the DigiDestined,” 12 episodes later. This particular toy
is cast from the same mould as it’s Japanese counterpart, as
were all of the first-series US toys, meaning that it is largely
of a higher quality than the second season figures.
Patamon
The toy comes packaged in Patamon form, which is normal for the
first-series toys, which come packaged in their “lower”
form. Included in the package is Angemon’s staff, folded in
two. Patamon is largely show accurate, aside from the openings in
his top and bottom, where you can see the Angemon pieces inside
of him. At first I was puzzled as to why the staff folds in half,
but with a little effort, you can fit the folded staff inside
Patamon in this mode, so it doesn't have to be set aside. Patamon
rests on four spindly legs, but the front two are held in with
ball joints, which grow loose over time, making it more difficult
to stand him up straight as time goes over.
To transform Patamon into Angemon, you split Patamon’s body
in half vertically, and spread it out, splitting the halves into
quarters horizontally, forming four of Angemon’s wings. You
then unfold the Angemon body inside, twisting Patamon’s legs
around and fitting them inside Angemon’s legs and feet, and
fold out Patamon’s ears to form Angemon’s other two
wings. Finally, you unfold the staff and insert it into
Angemon’s right hand, from the bottom up.
Angemon
The detailing on Angemon is show-accurate, which is always a good
thing when targeting little kids who like to recognise their
favourite characters in toy form. Angemon has articulation in his
neck, shoulders, two joints at his elbows, his right wrist (where
he fires his Hand of Fate attack from in the cartoon), his hips,
two joints at his knees, and a hinge and swivel-joint at each of
his ankles. The base of each of his wing is held on with a tight
ball joint, making each wing individually poseable. Angemon looks
great from the front, but when you turn him around, you can see
all the Patamon parts on the backs of his wings. But perhaps this
figure’s greatest problem is that some sort of bizarre
design defect has left his right leg just a little shorter than
his left one. This makes getting the figure to stand quite a
chore, because he can easily be over-balanced by his wings, so
you have to get him good and level, by bending his knee joint to
shorten his left leg. Kids might have a little trouble getting
the wings lined up right, and I know that I’ve had
difficulties getting them arranged so they snap back into
position when transforming back into Patamon.
Overall
Patamon is what would be termed a “revealer” or a
“shell-former” - which is to say, one form which opens
to reveal another, rather than one form which actually becomes
another. However, he’s still a very good toy, and was the
first Digimon Digivolver I actually bought, based on my
impressions of the complexity of his transformation compared to
the other figures in the line. I prefer to display him in his
impressive Angemon mode, but his leg and wing-weight problems
always manage to irritate me when I return him to my shelf after
taking him down.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5