Gosei Microphone (2010) YES!

Phoenix Headder not included.

You can accept that this isn’t technically a role-play toy (it’s a toy instrument and voice modulator), or you can consider me a hypocrite. Either way is cool with me 😁 I’ve always not-particularly-secretly wanted this dumb thing, even if I’ve said things to the contrary to convince myself otherwise. There’s a mystique to it, as it only appears in the show’s ED. I have no idea why these are going for utterly insane prices, if they’re boxed. I paid a pittance for this one.

This is going to run excessively long as I’ve never come across an English review of it, outside of CS Toys' demo (Mr. S <3). I’ll see you downstairs, if you’re morbidly curious, but the short of it is simply that if Goseiger makes you feel ridiculously happy when you think about it, calms you, and gives you euphoric, transcendent feelings, then sure, you could grab one from Mandarake and be satisfied. Otherwise, no, of course not. Avoid it like the plague as most of the world already does.

3 Entirely Logical Alternate Pose-Orders out of 5

I suppose we should start at the top and work our way down. There’s an actual microphone of sorts in here and it 'alters' one’s voice the same way as the Go-Busters’ Transpods. Without a Headder in place, it's similar to the first setting on those. I.e., your voice takes on a slight electronic hum. Attaching any Headder to the port will add a robotic garbling to the mix, the same as the third setting on the Transpods. I imagine this is meant to emulate the electronic shenanigans at the beginning of the Type 2 Remix of Gotcha! ☆ Goseiger. The pins are linked such that they depress together, hence why all Headders, regardless of tribal origin, yield the same result.

Additionally, attaching and detaching them elicits the mechanical sound that accompanies the act in the show. It’s so damn satisfying! There’s two release tabs and I believe those are otherwise only present on the Gosei Blaster, Leon Laser, and Tensword, because they aren’t present on the mecha. Of course, most people aren’t going to be swinging the mecha around. Plus, their hard points have incredibly strong springs to begin with.

The included King Voice Headder, like the microphone itself, is exclusive to each episode’s coda and this DX iteration has the mustache, speaker, headphones, and back-plate painted in, as compared to the gashapon version. It does not have a rattle inside like that one, thankfully. I never really understood that decision. Even though it's physically irrelevant, it's worth noting—to me—that it bears the pin layout of a Skick Headder. No one is surprised. Both because of sound traveling through the medium of air and good ol' Skick Bias. Skick über alles. Literally. Ho ho~

In the ED, they also use their Visored Headders, but for display purposes, given how few people have those iterations, you can always affix the main Headders from Gosei Great, which bears them in their normal state. Additionally, there's a backwards sort of logic to using Groundion's, as the King Voice card has a code for the Leon Cellular printed on it.

Alata’s Sky Dynamic card is included instead of that one, however. If you get one new or complete, at any rate. And, that’s a nice card to have, I’ll concede. He uses it in the final battle and during the rare appearances of the Sky Buster. Visually, it is pretty plain, though, so I wouldn’t necessarily suggest hinging your decision on it.

Back to the toy itself, when you initially turn it on, it’s in a default mode, which allows access to both tiers of vocal distortion and a standard electronic drum hit, when you press the tambourine pad on the hand guard. This'll serve you if you want to use it with a song of your own choosing. You can decide between the 5 in-built songs via a pair of arrow buttons on the back. You can move backward and forward through the list, which is presented both in text and symbols below them. You’ll hear a preview sound after pressing an arrow and you can hit the pad to play it, if the current one suits your fancy. They’re all MIDI files, but I’ll still list the two relevant artists out of respect. I’ll also denote what hitting the pad results in during each.

1. The Goseiger OP / NoB — The Gotcha! sound from the Tensouder.
2. Gotcha! ☆ Goseiger / Hideyuki Takahashi — Electronic drum hit,                                                                                                       as in the ED.
3. Chorus of the Frog — A frog noise.
4. If You’re Happy and You Know It — A clapping noise. Duh!
5. My translation came out as 'Only the Bear is in the Forest',                                  but in the US it seems to be called I Met a Bear — A roaring bear noise.

This is actually kind of perfect, if you focus on the compression and movement of air molecules during clapping. That way, the extra songs fit into the tribal categories of Landick (bear), Seaick (frog), and Skick (air).

The paint on the tambourine pad (and arrow buttons) isn’t entirely dissimilar to that of Gosei Phoenix. It’s not shimmery, but I can see the soft purplish hue in the right light. I imagine it might be a symptom of not enough white paint over red plastic, but I refuse to complain about it given my proclivities.

There’s a push-pin (instead of a screw) on the battery cover, which is HUGE. It’s most of the back of the toy. It takes 3 AAA batteries, which is honestly excessive when you consider that’s Rider Belt and Li-Oh Blaster quantities, and those do far more. Still, the Transpods required three, as well. I’m not sure I should say this is better than those from an objective standpoint, as those did screen-accurate things and were used in their show proper, across its entire run. The Headder attachment sound, here, is accurate and in the show, but there are other toys that have it and were actually used there.

At last, the speaker is on the bottom. It sounds nice and loud, and that’s the most I can say about it.

It’s goofy. You don’t need it. I didn’t need it. But, I like it and I like that I’m going to at least own it for a while. I already have a home for it lined up, if I ever feel strongly enough that it has to go.