I’m still working my way through Onell Design’s January drop and vinyl was a really big component of that sale, so let’s wander in that direction today. I’m going to take a look at the Heavy Armored Rig (Experimental Mechanics Division) along with some extra parts via the EMD Conversion Kit.

I’ve previously reviewed the Rig a couple times so this review will be more about what makes this Rig “Heavily Armored” rather than being a straight up review. For the specifics on the previous Rigs, there’s plenty of photo goodness in the previous reviews (Henshin Rig & Volkriun Rig).

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I want to get some of the names right. When these wings first debuted in the blue/pink Relgost colorway back in August, everyone kept saying “Rig Wing”. This unfortunately imprinted itself on my brain and for awhile I thought this build was called “Rig Wing”. Since then, I’ve learned that the Rig Wing is just the new piece and a Rig equipped with these wings is called a “Heavy Armored” Rig. Really, this makes much more sense and it sounds a ton better. I don’t really know why it took me so long to catch on, but I’m telling you now because “Rig Wing’ might slip out a time or two before this review is over and I wanted you to know why.

One of the coolest things about the Rig wings isn’t part of the toy itself, but how they came about.

I don’t get to spend as much time surfing the toy blogs these days, but when I do one of my favorite sites to check in on is Battlegrip.Com. It’s run by Philip Reed, a collector/blogger that does a much better job of featuring cool indy content than I do. I love to check his site for the variety of “7th Market” toy news that IAT sometimes fails to offer.

So what does Battlegrip have to do with the Rig Wing? Well, if you ask Phil, he’ll tell you that the Wing was born out of a few minutes of random ramblings while he was visiting Onell HQ back in 2010 and that Matt Doughty of Onell deserves all the credit as he designed the final look of the wing. If you ask Matt, he not only credits Phil heavily for the idea behind the wing, but also notes that Phil stepped up to help fund its production and get it out to us. Dude!

If you follow both those links, you’re going to read two accounts of generosity and mutual admiration. Matt & Phil are both great guys and having a Heavy Armored Rig in hand only gives us concrete evidence of that. I doubt I’m spoiling the review by telling anyone that I love this version of the Rig, so I don’t mind taking a moment to thank the creators right here in the middle. It’s an awesome piece and both Phil & Matt rock.

The Heavy Armored Rig is created simply by swapping out the long and short Rig arms (the phase cannon and phase blocker, respectively) for the wings, but the simplicity goes out the window after that. In our Page 2 Gallery, the first six pictures feature no part swapping. I simply either took photos of the Rig from different angles or reoriented a piece in a different direction… and yet it’s capable of looking like a completely different vehicle from those turns and angles. It’s an amazing propety that stems from the Rig’s original design and the wings only add to that complexity.

I should also note that, just because this baby’s carting a pair of wings doesn’t mean he’s relegated to “ship” or “vehicle” status. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I snagged a pic of it in the gallery, but one major function of the wings is that they can play the role of huge missile batteries while the Rig is standing. (I just checked and I didn’t get that pic… doh! If you didn’t check out the link to Battlegrip already, the first pic in that has the Rig in the pose I’m talking about).

This particular Rig features an Experimental Mechanics Division colorway. We don’t know too much about this particular aspect of Glyos, but the name definitely implies a crash test dummy feel. I know, saying R&D would be nicer, but I like the bright orange as part of that testing/warning aspect and it’s fun to slam the EMD Rig into things. Y’know, “testing”. Continue to the Page 2 Gallery…