Daigunder V-06 Tigamaru & V-07 Rogumaru (Doublefang)

[Toolala]

In the many years that Transformers has existed in Japan its had many contemporary Takara-made replacements for when sales were low or when they just wanted to try something different with the Transforming robot-shtick.
Brave is probably the most well known, running for 8 years, we currently have Shinkelion and the Tomica transforming stuff, and the early 2000's gave us Webdiver. but there's one I never see people bring up ever, which I find rather bizarre, because out of all of them(besides GaoGaiGar) its the only one to receive any form of English dub, and even aired on TV!
So what is Daigunder? well, if you're familiar with Webdiver, its very much the same general concept, you have a main big ass toy who has a Video Game inside of them you can plug to your TV, and other toys he can scan into the game. I unfortunately cant test any of this out as none of my screens seem to support it, but the toys themselves have plenty to them.
The show is pretty interesting though, its like a mix of Medabots and Transformers. I won't go too deep into the lore, but its all on YouTube and fully subbed, its fairly short and well worth a watch.

This is Tigamaru & Rogumaru, the classic dynamic bad guy duo characters that show up every episode to get their asses kicked and make other antagonists seem more competent. naturally, they're my favorite characters in the show.

The boxes are fairly big and bulky. they were released both individually and in an elusive giftset together that I've never seen for sale.

the back shows the scanning feature with Daigunder alongside the rest of the toyline & their ingame icon

Starting off with Tigamaru, or "Great Mobile Thief: Tigermaru" hes a Sabertooth tiger, the yellow instantly makes me think of the original Sabertooth Tiger Zord, but the other color is pretty strange, its not quite Teal, not quite Turquoise, the closest I could call it is Mint. Whatever it is its very vibrant and catches your eye instantly.

He features pretty standard articulation for a quadruped beastformer, forwards and backsward front legs with front tilting paws, semi-universal thighs with a fairly deep knee, pretty good back paws, and a really good double neck joint. it doesn't give you any side to side but a very deep tilt both up and down at the base and a tilt down further down the neck. he also has an opening mouth and a tiltable tail.

Transformation is insanely simple, but it does involve some partsforming.

the tail can stay attached to his back if you wish, and you can store the fangs on his legs which is neat.

Straighten out the legs, rotate the head down to form a chest, fold the backpack up on its double hinge, and pull up the head.
in Robot mode Tigamaru is a pretty cute and decently proportioned little robot, his stubby arms that are just plainly the front beast legs are kind of endearing, he doesn't even have hands really, just grooves.

With Ryuugu

The Tail & Fangs can combine to form his notched whip/climbing pick

Articulation isn't too bad, but it is wonky. head doesn't rotate, but cant tilt down due to transformation, arms retain the exact same articulation from beast mode, except now the rotation joint where an elbow would be can come in handy, he has semi universal thighs, knees, foot rotation, and pretty good up and down foot tilt.
that semi universal thigh thing I keep coming back to, it doesn't look bad most of the time, but.....

lets just say he doesn't look good doing full spreads. as long as its behind the crotch falp though, it tends to look fine.
Just like all other standard size Daigunder toys, Tigamaru features an additional mode to combine with the main toy of the line, forming a sort of gauntlet punchy cat thing that never showed up in the show

It doesn't look great, and I actually only noticed after finishing to upload everything that I did it wrong, but the way its supposed to look is somehow worse

Yeahhhhhhhh these are pretty throwaway modes, and it actually broke one of the tabs on my Daigunder trying to take them out, not really something I'd recommend doing. but its there.

So, Rogumaru, or "Mobile Ninja Art Cover Rogumaru"-gozaru
hes essentially the same toy, but purple, a wolf, and a Ninja.
The colors are very nice, much darker and more stealthy.

Regrettably, I am missing both of his accessories. a gold & purple Katana and a sheath/tail. However with a Matrix Workshop Nightbird sword & some work I got him a functional sword-tail
Interestingly, Rogumaru has enough clearance for his front paws to rotate up all the way, allowing for some nice pouncing poses, and also revealing his golden blades inside.

Besides that hes essentially the same in beast mode, as is the transformation, although this time there's no removable fangs.

Robot mode is much of the same, the head is brand new obviously, and the crotch plate has new more ninjaiy sculpting, the shoulder blades are fairly striking as well, but that aside hes identical to Tigamaru.
The Sheath/Tail would be able to plug into his left leg and store his sword.

Believe it or not this completely unrelated sword fit in his hand perfectly with 0 work on my part, I've sanded down the bottom of the hilt and the guard to allow it to attach in beast mode and another mode, but the size of the hilt itself was like tailor made for him. amazing.
With Ryuugu

Weapon mode.

 

[Toolala]

They look pretty great together in every mode, Tigamaru's bright and clownish colors compliment Rogumaru's dark and moody ones perfectly.

in the show they're quite agile and tend to use each other to preform all sorts of stunts.

But when things get tough, and they have to face down something bigger than them, they have one more card up their sleeves.

Tiga! Roga! Joge Gattai!

 

[Toolala]

Thats right. it wouldn't be a Takara toyline without being completely obsessed with combining. this may look familiar to you if you know your Multiforce or Superlinks.

Tiga! Doublefang!

This combined mode is..... fine. something about the chest/lower body really bothers me, its too obvious that its just two of the same dude stitched together.
so its a good thing you can do this!

Much, much better.

Articulation in this mode is the same for the legs, except now the arms get an elbow bend and a wrist swivel.
the head is pretty goofy looking, the face just coming out of the beast mode's mouth really reminds me of Goldran.

in this mode they're much more of a threat!

Interestingly enough, not in the instructions or the show is this neat combined beast mode you can do straight from the combiner, just put him on all fours and transform the beast head back.

 

[Toolala]

Naturally with them being symmetrical, you can combine them the other way around.

Roga! Doublefang!

once again the stock configuration is ehhhhh

Much better.
Personally I much prefer this configuration, the face is much meaner and less derpy looking, and Tigamaru's head tucks in much better as a chest than Roga's does.

The sword is a little small for this mode, but it works.

combined beast mode.

So that be Doublefang.
a phenomenal set from an extremely underrated toyline. the articulation for what it is, is honestly pretty good, they can have some trouble standing sometimes because their heels are just fists, but the feet have a good amount of articulation to work around that.
unlike some other toys in the line, they have no real fragility issues, they're pretty durable and feel like they could take some heavy play even today.
the paint is nice & sharp, its exactly what you'd expect from Takara at the time.
if you have the opportunity to grab this duo, I highly recommend them. they're great fun on their own and a blast together, and their characters are extremely lovable and goofy.

I'm hoping this reminds people this line exists, it really doesn't get the attention it deserves.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I'm not familiar with this line but I'm fascinated. It's not Brave cool but it's still more interesting than anything new we get anymore.

 

[Toolala]

It's not Brave cool

To be fair very few things in life are.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Sadness. Brave set a new standard for super robot design and it seemingly because a lost art immediately after it ended. I don't think even Takara could recapture it today.