DX Sukeru Kun by Bounty Hunter and Secret Base

There have been a few toys released, particularly lately, that pay homage to the old Waldar toys by Takara from the 1970s. The DX Sukeru Kun is a toy that pays homage to one character from the Henshin toyline.

Before there was Microman and the precursor to Transformers, there were the clear Henshin Cyborgs.

In the early 1970s, Takara of Japan obtained the rights to produce the GI Joe bodies that were so popular in the United States. Using this basic form, Takara created the Henshin ("transforming") Cyborg toy line basically by making the GI Joe body clear and adding robotic guts.

The villain of this series was Waldar, a clear figure that had organic innards as opposed to the robotic guts of his rival Henshin Cyborg. (photo shown to the right here was lifted from tikitoys.com) Also, unlike the cyborgs that had accessories and armor to attach, the Waldar villain had various sub-forms thanks to vinyl "costumes" that went on different bodies...

There was the Plant Phantom (not sure of the exact name here), a green based suit on a clear green body, Satan King, a red horned suit on a yellow body, and what seems to be the most popular to this day... the Dokuro King suit; an armored skeleton-themed suit on the classic purple body seen here.

The DX Sukeru Kun uses the already existing skeleton theme of the Bounty Hunter Kun figure and adds some nice elements to represent the unique appearance of Dokuro King. 

Header //N/A//:
The same Bounty Hunter clear plastic bag.

Sculpt //4.75 out of 5//: This sculpt is the same as the plain clear Skull Kun. It is made from clear blue vinyl that is not tacky like the plain clear. 

The big difference obviously is the included spiked helmet. There are a few versions of this figure, but the blue is my favorite because of this helmet. It has similar shaped spikes and the added pointy elfy ears like Dokuro King does, but what sets this one apart from the other DX Skull Kuns is the metallic finish on the helmet. It is so reflective that it is hard not to take a photo of yourself when trying to snap a pic! The others as far as I have seen have plain black helmets... not nearly as cool as this. The sculpt fits perfectly and makes it obvious what this toy is paying homage to.

Also different are the sculpted guts inside the DX Kun. As it is a collaboration with Secret Base, the Skull Bee makes an appearance here... you can see a Skull Bee face in the guts. (Check the next to last photo below for a close up shot of that.) The guts are 3-dimensional and not just a paper insert, and stylistically pays its respects to the internal organs of Waldars of old. 

To be nit-picky, it just suffers from the same lack of poseability as most other BxH Kuns do... this one even moreso because the helmet definitely gets in the way of the rising arms.

Paint //5 out of 5//:
Not sure if it is actually paint, but the silver reflective whatever it is on the helmet and the Skull Bee face on the guts makes this figure stand out from all the DX Kuns for me. It is well applied, with some black showing through, and there are no damaged areas as you see with some metallic finish toys like this. 

Coolness //5 out of 5//:
Frankenberry's Skeleton meets classic evil skeleton toy. Very cool especially knowing some background on Henshin figures. These old toys were obviously loved by the DX creators.

Value //2 out of 5//:
You can still get the blue ones for a somewhat reasonable price, but significantly more expensive than many of the Bounty Hunter toys. Some other colors of the DX Kun are even pricier.

Overall //5 out of 5//:
Positives: Great piece showing respect for toy history while being a part of it at the same time, awesome reflective surfaces

Negatives: Lack of poses

An awesome piece if you can pick one up. It looks great with actual Dokuro King figures, and gets all fellow fanboys oohing and ahhing.