It’s taken a while, but The Gattai Black Wing is finally here, and it may be the best version of the design to date.

For a bit of context, the Black Wing was a fun addition to the original Dancouga anime. Piloted by Alan Igor, it would often save Dancouga’s bacon when it was in a tight spot and then peace out in suitably enigmatic fashion once it had completed its mission.

The way the anime set it up was that you were meant to think that the Black Wing would be the late series combination to make Dancouga flight-capable.

Then, in typical bait-and-switch fashion, Alan and his Black Wing sacrificed themselves against a suitably powerful foe, leaving fans wondering what would happen to Dancouga and its inability to fly.

The answer was the booster set that would be used towards the end of the anime series and featured in the OVA “last episode”, Requiem for Victims .

However, that still left fans with an itch they couldn’t scratch; what if Black Wing had combined with Dancouga? What would that even look like?

This is where Super Robot Wars came in and produced the aptly named Final Dancouga, with both the Black Wing and Dancouga combined together in a fantastic marriage of truly excessive firepower.

My first encounter with Final Dancouga was in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 on the PlayStation 2, with my mouth agape at its sheer destructive power relative to other units once fully combined.

The result of the Super Robot Wars infused excellence is that we’ve had a fair few Final Dancouga toys over the years. I’ve already reviewed a few, and I personally loved Sentinel’s various Metamorforce versions and the epic Soul of Chogokin version from Bandai Spirits .

Well, Good Smile Company has now done their own Black Wing , and it may be the best one yet.

Now, I say this as a chogokin supremacist and a lover of all things diecast, but this The Gattai Black Wing figure is insanely well done.

While there is no diecast to speak of, the articulation and playability is just so good. All the joints are nicely ratcheted and clicky. So all the poses you can think of, this can do and do them easily.

You also get some additional elements from unreleased versions of the designs, such as a new lance, chest emblem, and a new head with a mouth.

All of these are optional extras and the base figure of the Black Wing is very accurate to the original anime version.

The transformation into Black Wing’s flight mode is also extremely well thought out, and the arm transformation, especially, is maybe the best I’ve seen it done. It all fits together neatly and just looks great.

The added detail of the golden filigree on the head and “beak” in flight mode is also excellent, with the general sculpt and detailing are impressively done throughout.

Once combined with The Gattai Hagane Works Dancouga (sold separately), it all comes together quite majestically. The whole set is obviously huge and massive, but it is easily the best depiction of Final Dancouga to date, and by quite a large margin.

Even though the Black Wing lacks diecast and is quite light with it, it still weighs enough to cause Dancouga to lean backward. However, if you set up the articulation right, the whole thing can stand up on its own very nicely, which is actually impressive.

Overall, I really can’t fault what Good Smile Company has achieved here. It may have taken actual decades, but this is the best version of Final Dancouga we’ve ever had and comes strongly recommended to fans of the anime and mecha toys alike.

The Gattai Black Wing costs 30,000 yen (or around $188 at the current exchange rate) and is available from Good Smile Company or other online retailers .

The Gattai Black Wing Gallery

Manufacturer: Good Smile Company

Disclosure: Good Smile Company sent me this The Gattai Black Wing toy for the purposes of this review.

Follow me on X , Facebook and YouTube . I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently writing regular columns in Japanese about mecha games and mecha anime for both Game*Spark and Automaton .