DIGITIZER/ASTRO MORPHER


Version reviewed: Astro Morpher

Upon first glance, this morpher seems to be a small and ugly thing that looks like it fell out of someone's engine block. I thought it resembled a grey turd (classy description, yes). However, this toy has become one of my favorites. Most morphers have less than a handful of features, maybe two or three on average. This device should have set a standard for options.

It lights up with a tone when you turn it on, and it pings every 3 seconds while it's on. Flicking the red switch opens the keypad, revealing a chart. Press a number and the morpher will say the number. Pressing a calling code sequence and the enter key will activate different sound effects all with different synchronized LED effects. 3-3-5 is the morphing sequence, 2-5-9 is a shimmering noise to call the Cyber Slider/Galaxy Glider, 7-6-1 is an alarm sound to call the Mega Tank, 1-0-8 is an array of computer beeps, 5-4-1 is a giant robot footstep to represent the Galaxy Mega/Astro Megazord. All that plus a communication/alarm button.

9-1-2 activates a timed game. All the LEDs will light and a random number will be spoken. You must quickly press that number, and the length of time between spoken numbers will steadily decrease. If you press an incorrect number or take too long, you'll lose an LED light. Once you've lost all lights, it tells you your score out of 50. It's not much, but it is a fun distraction and pretty amazing that they put a game into the toy in the first place.

The toy is small, but very loud. All the digitized sounds and light patterns are impressive. There was definitely a significant amount of time put into this toy's features (you can see why with a morpher like this I rate others like the Turbo Morpher so low).

The Astro Morpher goes for between $15-30 on Ebay and shows up occasionally. Definitely worth picking up as it is easily one of the best morphers out there. I believe that the Digitizer and the Keitaizer/Digimorpher were definitely precursors to the excellent Driver Belts used in Kamen Rider 555.

Final Word: Excellent array of sounds and options. A

The original Digitizer.