Submarimon is the second
Armour Digivolved form of Armadillomon, using the Digi-Egg of
Reliability. Armadillomon and his derivations are less popular
than Veemon, but more so than Hawkmon. Submarimon, who first
appeared in "20,000 Digi-Leagues Under the Sea," (a
decent episode which raised it's head in the middle of a very bad
run of stories) was somewhat underused in the series, only
appearing a handful of times. Instead of importing the Submarimon
toy from Japan, which featured the Digi-Egg of Reliability, which
could be converted into armour to be attached to the Armadillomon
figure (sold separately with the Digi-Egg of Knowledge), Bandai
of America instead created their own Submarimon figure, which
transformed from Digimon to Digi-Egg.SUBMARIMON
Perhaps the best of the Digimon modes from the Armour Digivolving toy line, Submarimon is a strong, solid, chunky toy, with excellent show accuracy. He has no articulation, unless you count the hinges on his flippers and feet, but they are to facilitate transformation, rather than to add play value. However, this lack of articulation takes nothing away from the toy, as Submarimon doesn't have legs or arms with which to punch or kick, so, for kids, he's just as he is in the show.
One thing about Submarimon is that he's a bit hard to stand. He stands on all fours, but his feet put him off balance, meaning he's perpetually looking at the ground. You can, of course, fold the feet up to stop this (c'mon, I can really find anything negative about this mode…).
To transform Submarimon to the Digi-Egg of Reliability, you first remove his head, and push in his nose. While I have a big
problem about removing the
head on the Raidramon toy, oddly, I don't have as much of a one
with this toy. Perhaps it's because you yourself must pull the
head out, while on Raidramon, it simply falls off when you open
his body. Anyway - with the head removed, you open Submarimon's
back, and fold his tail fin and rotor inside, close it again,
fold up his rear flippers, and rotate his feet up. Then, you move
on to the four panels at his front. With the panels on the
extreme right, first you twist them 90 degrees, then fold in his
front flippers before turning them the rest of the way so that
the blue side faces you. You then turn the other two panels, and
fold his ears up inside his body. Finally, you reinsert his head,
with his face pointing inside his body, and lock it into place.DIGI-EGG OF RELIABILITY
Pictures you may see of the Digi-Egg of Reliability tend to be misleading - it's not as perfect as it looks. However, it's still one of the better Digi-Egg modes from the Armour Digivolving line. Its major problem is lots of small bits of kibble - you can see his rear flippers poking out, you can see his feet quite clearly, etc. It's not perfect, but it's not the worst Bandai has had to offer.
OVERALL
Submarimon is one of the better toys from the Armour Digivolving toy series, second only to Magnamon and equal with Shurimon. He has a sense of fun about him, which I always find important in a toy, which few of the other Digivolving toys have. He's an enjoyable toy, who I recommend. Grading on the Armour Digivolving curve:
Rating: 3 out of 5