WarGreymon is the Mega form
Agumon, the Digimon partner of Tai, while BlackWarGreymon is his
"evil twin" of sorts, created from one hundred Control
Spires by Arukenimon during the show's second season.
BlackWarGreymon was far from your average Digimon villain,
though, with layers of angsty goodness, and quickly attained a
position as one of the fandom's favourite villain characters.I'm somewhat late in reviewing this toy - I've had BlackWarGreymon for some time, but it felt pointless to me to review it separately to the original WarGreymon toy that it is a repaint of. However, I was never able to obtain a WarGreymon until recently, when a solitary one appeared amongst a load of old surplus Kabuterimons, Birdramons and Patamons at my local toy store. Needless to say, I snapped him up at once.
WARGREYMON/BLACKWARGREYMON
The toys come packaged in their WarGreymon and BlackWarGreymon states, so we'll begin there. The toys are both articulated in their shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles, and they're all ball-and-socket joints, so there's a lot of poseability going on, although the arms and legs are rather skinny for the muscular duo. Kibble is almost non-existent - it is limited to the Agumon modes' eyes on the backs of their shields, and if you want to be nitpicky, the Agumon chests, but they are folded up perfectly against the figures' backs.
However, WarGreymon falls down for an unavoidable reason - his colour scheme. Both his armour and his skin are a rich yellow colour, but this isn't correct for WarGreymon - his skin is an orange colour. The reason behind this is, of course, so that when transformed, the Agumon mode is the correct colour. However, for some bizarre reason, this colouring problem has carried over to almost all of Bandai's WarGreymon products - both the 2.5" action feature figure and the 1.5" collectable figure have the skin and armour coloured the same (though in those instances, it's even worse, as the colour of yellow used is a pale, creamy shade). Thankfully, the Digi-Warrior avoided this. The mode IS still quite clearly recognisable as WarGreymon, of course.
But BlackWarGreymon, on the other hand, has the advantage, because his skin and armour ARE the same colour - black. Therefore, he's got the correct colour scheme, where WarGreymon doesn't.
On the whole, this mode is well-designed, with lots of detail - I particularly really like the inclusion of the fists on the insides of the claw gloves - and a lot of play value.
To transform to Agumon mode it a fairly thorough procedure. First, you extend the codpiece, then detach the shin guards and slide them up (Black)WarGreymon's legs. Bend the legs at the knees, then fold the codpiece down and snap the pegs on the hip armour into the holes in it. Rotate the feet 180 degrees, then bend the second joint - Agumon's knees - downwards, then flip down and rotate Agumon's chest from (Black)WarGreymon's back and snap it into place. This forms Agumon's torso and legs.
Next, to transform the arms, you slide back the claw gloves, and bend the claws inwards, fitting the hole in the middle claw over the peg on the arm to hold them in place. Then, you unhinge the shoulder armour, rotate it down, and snap it into position over the elbows. Then, you detach the entire shoulder bracket, and rotate it backwards. Bend the torso backwards, unlocking it, then rotate it around 180 degrees.
Push the head horns down and push the head itself
down, and then fold up the shield over the torso, snapping the
two halves together, forming Agumon's head. Push Agumon's head
down, and lock it in place by rotating the shoulder bracket down,
popping it in place over the defined grooves in the sides of
Agumon's torso.AGUMON
The transformation is nothing if not impressive. The Agumon modes are articulated in their shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles once again - all the joints are the same as the WarGreymon and BlackWarGreymon modes, except the knees, which is not a ball joint, but the extensive poseability remains. Kibble is once again minimal - it is limited to the grey portion of the codpiece being visible between the Agumon legs. Also, there is the issue of the claws - on the WarGreymon figure, the claws are a blueish-grey, and are quite visible in the Agumon mode, as they stand out against the yellow skin. However, on the BlackWarGreymon figure, they are black, and hence blend in perfectly with the rest of the mode, putting ol' BWG just that little bit further ahead once again.
The mode remains a good one - the transformation is complex, and definitely something of a challenge the first time, and leads to complete change. The plus points are really added for the fact that neither mode of the toy has been particularly sacrificed to allow the transformation.
OVERALL
Agumon is a popular character, so the toy sells on that respect, but it's a good thing it's damn good figure to boot. However, the BlackWarGreymon figure comes in just ahead of the WarGreymon figure, for no other reason than his colour scheme lends itself better to the transformation, producing two modes which are better visual representations of the characters. Of course, there IS the little issue of the fact that BlackWarGreymon never turned into an Agumon in the show, but what can ya do?
WarGreymon - damn good. The figure was recently re-released in season three packaging, with added vacuumized metallic paint effects.
WarGreymon Rating: 4 out of 5
BlackWarGreymon - damn near perfect. BWG is the best US Digivolver there is.
BlackWarGreymon Rating: 4.5 out of 5