REVIEW: X-Transbots MX-17T Taiho (part 1)

The third-party robot scene gets a bad rep for being unimaginative at times, especially given how much of it seems to be chasing the same core cast of characters all in a similar style, but let it never be said you don’t get the occasional creative gem. For every new attempt at a cartoon accurate Springer, there are at least a few more quirky offerings in the mix, after all!

This brings us nicely to Taiho, a recent new release from X-Transbots, who, to their credit, have been steadily pumping out all kinds of unusual reveals of late. Now sure, this might be a slight retool of their Savant design (or, more specifically, its Herald re-release, but we’ll get to that in a moment!), but it’s still a sizeable step out of the typical Generation 1 sandbox in terms of character inspiration. In fact, it’s not based on a Transformers design at all!

Instead, Taiho is a reference to Taiho Shichauzo (逮捕しちゃうぞ), known as You’re Under Arrest in English, a Japanese manga which began in 1986 and was subsequently adapted into an anime series (and a live-action film) in the nineties. The story centres around two female traffic officers of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and is unsurprisingly very car-centric.

The officers themselves typically drive a Honda Today, complete with a folding Motocompo motorcycle in the boot, so it’s not hard to understand where X-Transbots took their inspiration from. Even if this release might be considered a little niche by your average Transformers collector’s standards, it appears on face value as if XTB have had some fun with it, at least!

In truth, the XTB design is not a complete dead-ringer for the show car, even though many of Honda’s designs from the time have a similar overall aesthetic to them. In this case, the Honda Today is distinctly curvier than Taiho’s design and features key differences such as more traditional wing mirrors instead of the distinctive mounted variety, a spoiler on the top of the boot section and a very different bonnet and front bumper, topped off by a right-orientated licence plate.

The reason for these differences is obvious, though. By retooling Taiho from their existing Herald release, they have substituted the model of car for the older Honda City R, in keeping with the G1 character, Crosscut, on which Herald is based. XTB already went fairly out of their way to make Herald accurate in this regard, as their Savant mould initially made sure to include Skids’ traditional Honda City Turbo stylings, so perhaps expecting yet further redesign for Taiho would have been a bit out of the question!

As soon as you look at the real-world Honda City R model (including that same Motocompo!), the differences to the Honda Today featured in the anime become more obvious. Still, without wishing to get too bogged down in specific models of Honda cars from several decades ago, I think most will agree that what XTB has settled on here is good enough!

Besides, even if it’s not 100% accurate, it’s still as cute as a button! Just look at this little lad with his two-tone panda-styled colour scheme and popping red lightbar bowtie, eh? What a swish dish.

Despite being largely monochrome, those little pops of colour help to liven things up a tad, adding a few welcome splashes of zing to what could be a plain design otherwise. The paint applications all appear crisp and nicely finished, as do the painted white and black sections of the main body.

That includes the kanji along both sides of the car, which is mirrored from the right side to the left in a surprisingly faithful representation of the anime appearance too. The writing says 警視庁, which is the name of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, in case you were wondering! Props to XTB for this level of detail and accuracy.

Then you have the rather attractive light bar up top, the most obvious newly-moulded piece for this release. The translucent red plastic looks very striking and catches the light nicely to create the sense of firing up the roof!

To cap it all off, there are elements such as rubber tyres to keep most collectors happy and, given how solid and well-tabbed together this little lad feels, everything rolls around very nicely on a flat surface too. I did find both sets of wheels don’t quite look aligned with one another somehow, but unless I choose to scrutinise it, I don’t think it’s too bad!

Despite being mostly tidy, you will find a small hint of robot mode kibble poking out from the underneath of the car form here and there but honestly, it’s all very clean overall. You’d have to really be going to town on finding stuff to grumble about for that to bother you!

I will say though, I miss the tinted blue windshield from mould-mate, Herald here, as that would have been another welcome splash of colour (not to mention a decent match to the anime, which also has a blue sheen to it!) and could have helped to slightly conceal some of the folded up robo-junk in the trunk.

I am mostly talking about the fairly clear presence of the legs to the rear, although I’m honestly not looking to nitpick here as the fact there’s any kind of realistic interior is frankly incredible to me! As well as a small pair of seats, you can even see a tiny dashboard complete with some moulded detail and a wee steering wheel for the finishing touch. Nice work.

All of that is accessed by the opening doors, another nifty feature XTB were able to incorporate. True, it is part of the transformation but still, it’s well-executed and the effort is appreciated! I did try to see if I could fit some of the Masterpiece minifigures in but alas, there isn’t the leg room for it all.

Finally, you’ll find an opening boot, which is fun to see, as is the folded up Motocompo neatly stashed inside! Never let it be said that XTB doesn’t have an eye for this kind of detail, eh?

The handlebar section unfolds to make the tiny accessory a decent mode of transport for your MP humans, and the addition of a small kickstand allows it to feel a touch more stable as well. Fantastic stuff.

All in all, you can tell XTB had a lot of fun putting this one together, and although it may not be quite the right model of car, there’s still a surprising amount of attention gone in to make it a worthy nod towards the animated origins. Part of me wonders if it could have been fun to see them attempt to provide minifigures of series protagonists, Miyuki and Natsumi, but given how wrong these things can go at times, perhaps they’re best left excluded!

Besides, I feel like this release will have broader appeal beyond just fans of the manga or the corresponding anime, especially as police car alternate modes are always a bit of fun, aren’t they? There are some classic names bearing that colour scheme from over the years, so despite being a Transformers newcomer, Taiho is in good company!

It’s also not the first police car effort from XTB themselves, nor the only example we’ve seen released in 3PMP form in recent months. Seems they’re a bit all the rage at the moment, then – not that I’m complaining!

In fact, Taiho strongly reminds me of a fun idea I had with a friend of mine in the pub some years back, where we imagined an entire fleet of transforming police cars all repainted from existing Transformers toys, flanked by a similarly-themed Ultra Magnus carrier. Maybe we’ll never get quite that far but at least this little lot feels like a step towards it!

It’s also interesting to consider Taiho versus the newly-released Masterpiece Skids, of course. In truth, the official figure does have a sleekness and polish to it that none of XTB’s releases of their design can quite claim but still, Taiho retains his charm. He’s also a little bit larger than the MP Skids mould once you line them up together.

It occurs to me that even though XTB have yet more uses for their Honda mould on the way, a lot of collectors will doubtless opt for the TakTom toy for the ‘main’ character release at least (and potentially the red Reboost repaint) but no matter how many reuses that mould gets in the coming years, Taiho will likely always be an idea unique to XTB, I think!

For that reason, if none other, I could see some collectors being tipped over the edge into giving Taiho a go, and should they do so, I doubt they’ll be disappointed by the loveable little vehicle mode. He really is quite adorable, not to mention an exceptionally niche nod to an unexpected source.

Anyway, join us for the next part when we’ll be getting him transformed up into robot mode!

TTFN