Tokotoko Tachikoma from MegaHouse

This is the review of our latest pettachjikoma in Shewsbury Land, none other than the popular Tachikoma from Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, also known as "Awang Pucung Haring" in Spanish or rather in English that means "The Gorgeous Blue Spider" .....

Tachikoma (タチコマ) is a fictional artificial intelligence, walker/roller in the Ghost in the Shell universe; appearing in the manga, created by Masamune Shirow, and the Stand Alone Complex sub-universe. Nine of them are assigned to Section 9's use originally. They are spider like multi-legged combat vehicles, equipped with artificial intelligence. The spider design appears in other places in Shirow's work, like the Appleseed manga. Shirow is noted to keep numerous spiders as pets.

Tachikoma are controlled by individual AIs, are capable of speech and generally exhibit a childish, curious, joyful and active personality, although they are consummate professionals in the field. They normally operate as independent units and receive orders from human agents, but they can also be directly piloted from a cockpit in their abdomen. Its design is implicitly based on that of the jumping spider in terms of bio-mechanical modelling, and system technical design was based on the Fuchikoma.

Though they possess individual artificial intelligence, every night they are synchronized, so they start the next day with identical consciousnesses that are each the sum of their total collective experience and development. This leads to identity confusion, since each Tachikoma has the same memories.

Though the Tachikoma have identical memories, their personalities and opinions are distinct. It is explained in the last episode of the first season that it is their curiosity that lets them be different from each other.

To commemorate this wonderful sci-fi mecha creatures, MegaHouse produced this fun merchandise items targeted especially to the series fans but also to others who love cute mecha pets....


The box of this item;













I personally feel that the box/packaging is excellent and stylish....


Out of the box;

Tachikoma are as large as an average sedan, painted blue and have four "eyes" fitted on the surface of their bodies. Three are on the "head" and one is beneath the abdomen. Each eye has three pinholes, loosely resembling a bowling ball. These eyes sometimes become expressive in the typical anime style.

Tachikoma have four legs and two arms. They can move by walking, or they can drive at high speed by using the wheeled footpads on each of their four legs. Each wheel appears to be angled and omnidirectional, allowing the Tachikomas to move in any direction with their drive system, which can control all degrees of freedom in its task space. Other abilities of the Tachikoma include jumping great distances, sticking to vertical or inverted surfaces, engaging a thermoptic camouflage mechanism, and grappling/rappelling using their adhesive string launchers. Tachikoma maintain control of their legs while using wheels to drive down a road, and shift their weight around turns. They can also roll briefly on to two legs while driving to avoid an obstacle or pass through a narrow space. To make balance easier, they can move their heavy abdomens with a Ball joint.

Standard Tachikoma equipment includes a 7.62x51mm light machine gun mounted in the right arm, a secondary weapon hardpoint in the "snout" (a 50 mm grenade launcher, capable of launching both explosive and gas grenades which can be replaced by a six-barrelled 12.7x99mm Gatling gun), a universal cybernetic connector on an extensible, prehensile cable in the left arm, liquid wires that can be used for grappling, rappelling or for restraining purposes and a built-in thermoptic camouflage system.




On this toy item however, this is where the ON and OFF switch;







This "Tokotoko" required 2 units of LR44 battery stored at the back here;








This how it looks like down there;







The gimmick of this item, apart from the beautiful metallic blue paints with excellent finishing is that it can move around a little bit.... but first, you need to switch ON the "spider";







And see the video below to see the gimmick that I mentioned earlier;





And if you take out the "bottom eye" white part thingy, the movement will be something like this;





Quite fun huh?






Overall this is an extremely brilliant but gorgeous offering from MegaHouse depicting the lovable "Tachikoma" from the popular anime "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex". As a super-deformed walking toy this is surely fun and the best part is you can carry it anywhere with you. Even at its small size of 6cm in length it still has a high level of detail, and is beautifully finished in metallic coloring.

I don't know why I missed this item in the past but in a way I'm grateful that I suddenly find it recently thru the discount sales from HLJ - the good friend of Shewsbury Land. If you also interested to adopted this "Tokotoko Tachikoma" you can still grab it from HLJ now for a mere SGD 15.00 (about USD 12.00 / 896 yen before adding shipment charges). Buy 5 or 6 and then later you can use it as Christmas presents or something like that ^___^

Click the link below;


Tokotoko Tachikoma
Code: MEG81051 Series: Ghost in the Shell
http://www.hlj.com/product/MEG81051


Notes: As at the date of this review, the above link is valid and stock is still available. We do not guarantee what could happen in the future.



So our R2-D2 now have new friend to play with.... or is it something else?








In a way I like to imagine that the 3 R2-D2 are the popular 3 netizens called Aya, BD77 and Chubbybots LOL, the Tachikoma... maybe Evaritus can play that role LOL;






You can run but you can't hide.... sounds tricky huh?


Gotcha!!!! GAME OVER!!!!






In the mind's of people like Aya, BD77 and Chubbybots (click their name to see their arousing blogs LOL) the above scene can be translated into the pictures below LOL;





Look at KR Faiz down there, giving his full concentration.... I think Aya can play the role of KR Faiz, Chubby is KR Black while BD77 is the KR The First LOL....








Toy photography is so fun!!!!








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