What really sells the “experimental” aspect though is what else Onell made available during the January drop. The previous releases of the Heavily Armored Rig were in different colorways than previous non-winged Rigs. That meant, that you couldn’t match up the the pieces between the H.A. versions and the regular versions without having the colors be a little funky. For January, Onell went big with vinyl and also debuted the “EMD Conversion Kit”. The Conversion Kit is a set of the regular Rig arms in the matching EMD colorway. (There was also the Rig Runner and the Block, both released in EMD colors, but I’ll cover those in future articles). For the first time, you could mix and match the six Rig parts without having to break out the paints or wondering if Pheyden Blue clashed with Volkriun Green. I was sold right there.

I should actually mention that I did steal the front end of the Rig Runner (the Glyos version of the Warp Bike) for some pics in this review. That piece is the short Rig arm (the Phase Blocker), so you’ll see it in the pics were the Rig has two short arms. I don’t have two long arms, so those pics will feature a black Phase Cannon.

Having all the pieces really opens up what you’re able to do with the Rig. While checking out new angles and twisting the four main parts around gives the toy plenty of different looks, you just can’t beat part swapping. Adding in the Phase Arms or the Wings lets you create some cool builds – and that’s before I cut the holes into the Block… that changes everything!

The Rig is made of the same sturdy vinyl I’ve come to expect from Onell and had relatively slop-free paint apps and clean tampos. The Rig plays great, the pieces swap in and out easily, and it photographs well – so that pretty much meets my needs. Having all the vinyl pieces cast in the same color was particularly awesome – I’d kill for Onell to release some more conversion kits. I didn’t really think about this until I was cutting holes into the Block, but there are spots on the Rig Arms & Wings to cut into as well and further what you can build out of these pieces. I’d love to have the money to be able to build a “Big Rig” in EMD colors and really put the Experimental in EMD.

Currently, all of the EMD colorway is sold out. If you’re looking for this colorway, you’ll either need to hit up the trades section of the October Toys Forum or hope that the EMD colorway makes its way back around on future drops. I, for one, hope it does.

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