Full disclosure: it's been a couple of years since I wrote a good chunk of this article, and even longer since I binge-watched Xros Wars (pronounced "Cross Wars", and called Digimon Fusion in the dub), so I might get some details wrong.Xros Wars, in contrast, was a series that I watched relatively close to its original release date. It was an anime series that ran in 2011, and I watched it around... 2013? Thereabouts, anyway. And I actually found it very, very decent! It is perhaps one of the more solid Digimon anime series in my opinion, at least the first season. What made Xros Wars feels so different is perhaps its premise. Instead of a group of children partnered with a group of Digimon, Xros Wars instead has a single character attempting to be 'king', and amassing an army of Digimon to do battle across different 'zones' to ultimately fight the big bad. The whole "huge war" concept was never something that was really explored in any other Digimon series, which definitely tickled my fancy.
There is something divisive about Xros Wars, which is the complete abolition of Digimon levels. Evolution just doesn't exist, and they only evolve via 'DigiXros' or 'DigiFuse', a power that only the main characters have. It's not exactly the 'Jogress/DNA evolution' of past seasons, but Digimon just can fuse randomly with each other, something that was mostly done for one-off gags outside of the main super forms.
I was very meticulous about writing down every single form here, which was uninformative and a lot of the picture links have been broken, so unless they get a profile in the Reference Book I'll remove all of the additional forms... we do have enough Shoutmon variants to explain the Xros concept before going to Xros Heart/Fusion Fighters' main evolutions.
(Xros Wars was also very blatantly 'sell new toys', although the designs aren't quite as toyetic as some of the worst Frontier and 02 transforming toy designs as the anime models didn't try to adapt everything from the transforming/combining toys)
Originally, this had all the anime forms on top and the manga evolutions below. It was messy! I've decided to revamp this article, going with each 'base form', their natural evolutions both in the anime and manga, and then all the DigiXros forms including the two dozen Shoutmon X-number forms at the end! Due to length (and the lack of length in the Blue Flare/Twilight articles, I've moved Baalmon, Beelzebumon, Spadamon and KingWhamon to those articles!)
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Our first Digimon this time around is Shoutmon, who I actually fondly remember as one of the very few partner Digimon to actually have a fully-fledged personality and goals. Even the best Digimon characters in Adventure or Tamers never really amounted much to being a support system for their human partners. Here, it's interestingly Kudou Taiki (Mikey Kudo in the dub) that feels like the accessory to Shoutmon. See, Shoutmon's goal is to be the goddamn King of the Digital World, and to realize this he has to unite all the various 'zones' while fighting back the video-game-esque big bad monsters of the Bagra Army. Kudou Taiki, meanwhile, is a human whose biggest strength -- and fault -- is his desire to help every single person in need, no matter how self-harming or impractical it might be. The two are a surprisingly fun pair to watch, and I can honestly say that Shoutmon's one of my favourite actual Digimon partner characters. He's just so fucking hammy, I think, which is the biggest drawing point for me.
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Shoutmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Small Dragon
- Attribute: Data
Our first Digimon this time around is Shoutmon, who I actually fondly remember as one of the very few partner Digimon to actually have a fully-fledged personality and goals. Even the best Digimon characters in Adventure or Tamers never really amounted much to being a support system for their human partners. Here, it's interestingly Kudou Taiki (Mikey Kudo in the dub) that feels like the accessory to Shoutmon. See, Shoutmon's goal is to be the goddamn King of the Digital World, and to realize this he has to unite all the various 'zones' while fighting back the video-game-esque big bad monsters of the Bagra Army. Kudou Taiki, meanwhile, is a human whose biggest strength -- and fault -- is his desire to help every single person in need, no matter how self-harming or impractical it might be. The two are a surprisingly fun pair to watch, and I can honestly say that Shoutmon's one of my favourite actual Digimon partner characters. He's just so fucking hammy, I think, which is the biggest drawing point for me.
His design is... it's pretty neat, I guess. You can totally see how this new dinosaur-dragon-buddy partner draws design cues from the three previous big mascots -- Agumon, Veemon and Guilmon -- while also remaining pretty dang unique. He's got a bunch of futuristic technology-inspired 'armour' around his legs and arms, and hes got a pleasantly angular face. I really do like the fact that Shoutmon is actually patterned after a rock star of all things, so he goes around carrying a goddamn mic stand as he unleashes his "Soul CRUSHAAAAAAH" attack, with the mic apparently literally amplifying his emotions into tangible energy that can blow up his opponents. For a more mundane solution, Shoutmon can also do the standard protagonist ability of lobbing fireballs.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon (King Ver.)
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Small Dragon
- Attribute: Data
Interestingly, while this in the anime is just Shoutmon with a yellow scarf to represent his kinghood, Reference Book classifies this as 'Shoutmon (King Ver.)', and classifies it as his Adult form. I suppose he did mature over the course of the series,
The Xros Wars anime ran for two seasons (with the second season having a slightly different theme although it basically served as a sequel), and a third in-continuity-with-a-different-cast sequel. In that final spin-off season, Shoutmon got a brief redesign, where his head-horns are longer, his chest armour's a bit more pronounced, and he's got a pretty badass Kamen Rider scarf deal going on. I'm not going to actually cover any of Shoutmon's evolutions until the end of this article, and I'm going to cover the rest of Team Xros Heart (a.k.a. Fusion Fighters in the dub) first, because of the... pretty strange rules of evolution in what is essentially a soft reboot of the Digimon franchise.
9/10, huge boost because of character.
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OmegaShoutmon
- Alternate Names: OmniShoutmon (EN dub)
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Dragon Man
- Attribute: Data
Shoutmon's 'super modes' are all of the Gundam-like Shoutmon X forms that we'll cover below since it involves him combining with the rest of the cast (and some characters we'll cover later on, but during the final battle of the first season, turns out that normal, 'super evolution' exists in this world, and it's just a bit rare.
Shoutmon, being the main character, gets to naturally evolve into OmegaShoutmon. It turns Shoutmon into... a golden knight with long V-shaped horns. This is Shoutmon channeling the legendary Omegamon, and it's bright gold because it's special... but I've always found this form underwhelming.
The moment when Shoutmon evolves is admittedly cool, and it kicks ass, but as a visual piece OmegaShoutmon just earns a shrug from me. I do find it hilarious that one of his attacks is called "OMEGA THE FUSION". I don't know. I like what it represents in the story, but the megazords below are more fun.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Ballistamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Machine
- Attribute: Vaccine
A good portion of the earlier episodes of Xros Heart involves Taiki and Shoutmon recruiting allies into their small 'army'. While this army would feature a bunch of old classics like Jijimon and Beelzebumon, a vast majority are new toys on sale in toy stores new Digimon. A lot of these are, of course, toys you can buy and combine to make your Shoutmon X4 and X7 and whatnot.
Also, it's not immediately obvious, but Ballistamon, being Shoutmon's best buddy, actually is also inspired by a musical equipment, in this case a speaker. Sure, he can do the generic bug stuff of ramming them with horns, or do the robot stuff of punching them with a rocket punch, but Ballistamon's actual super attack is "Heavy Speaker", which just unleashes gigantic sonic-boom waves of doom. I like that the rockstar's best friend is a portable sentient speaker!
Anyway, is it a surprise that Ballistamon is my favourite out of the Xros Heart members? The robot bug?
9/10._________________________________________________________
AtlurBallistamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Machine
- Attribute: Vaccine
Only Shoutmon and MetalGreymon achieved 'normal' evolution in the anime... but not in the manga, which is an alternate continuity! Everyone got an evolved form in the manga, and since it was a headache the first time around, I'll stick these manga-exclusive forms right after their original forms.
AlturBallistamon (borrowing the same prefix as AlturKabuterimon!) here does admittedly lose a lot of the "cute boxy toy robot" charm that oriignal Ballistamon has, but I really do love how clunky he looks as opposed to his predecessor in the robot-bug game, Blitzmon. The chunky lower arms, the spring-like upper arms, the backwards-bent legs, the chunky chest piece, the huge Hercules-beetle-like horn and random beetle legs on his shoulders... and I really love that they still allowed Ballistamon to keep his goofy face. Ultimately, I still think I like original Ballistamon a lot more, but this is a pretty neat-looking robot bug too.
6/10.
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6/10._________________________________________________________
Dorulumon
- Alternate Names: Dorurumon
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Beast
- Attribute: Virus
We have Dorulumon, which is the cast's obligatory badass, cool feline/canine-inspired beast. Dorulumon is a pretty neat design, all things considered, but it's also obvious that he's sort of based on a transforming toy. The general concept of his design is prety neat -- a saber-toothed beast with an orange and white colour scheme, and a drill on both his tail and head... but we also have random gray spikes that really don't add anything to the design but clutter it up. Not a big fan of the weird forehead metal bandanna thing either. It's not as bad as Frontier's cast, but I really did wish they had cut down on the amount of random kibble on the otherwise pretty organic-looking body.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon + Dorulu Cannon
- Stage: Child
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Data
This is, of course, because Dorulumon is a transforming toy, and his toy basically morphs into a gigantic cannon emplacement.... even if those weird black spikes still don't make a lot of sense before we enter the X-whatever forms. Again... those lion legs are there and it's obvious that this is a transforming toy gimmick, but I appreciate the anime for drawing regular Dorulumon like a regular lion instead of a plastic transforming toy like the Loweemons. I will, by the way, be peppering Shoutmon's alternate forms here and there where it's appropriate.
Dorulumon in Xros Wars is basically the badass that initially refuses to join the group and is somewhat antagonistic, but ends up befriending our heroes and being pretty nice. It's a neat design, if not a particularly spectacular one. I did quite like how he's portrayed in the show, but that might just be because I do like Xros Wars a fair bit.
6/10.
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YeagerDorulumon
- Alternate Names: JaegerDorurumon
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Beast Man
- Attribute: Virus
In the manga, Dorulumon ends up transforming into a humanoid lion-knight. And while I've been an outspoken critic about humanoid Digimon, JagerDorulumon is actually a reasonably cool robot-lion-knight, and, best of all, it's a humanoid evolution that incorporates a lot of elements of its previous stage. A gigantic lance made out of a drill? It combines Dorulumon's drill theme with knights holding lances. And I really do like how Dorulumon's knight armour looks somewhat robotic, and the resulting figure honestly looks far more pleasaing compared to the kibble-laden oriiginal Dorulumon. Pretty badass giant robot arm too. Also, considering how much Dorulumon is often portrayed as the protector of the team, it's fitting that he actually ends up becoming a knight.
3/10._________________________________________________________
Cutemon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Fairy
- Attribute: Vaccine
Apparently, according to Cutemon's official Bandai profile, those bunny ears aren't actually ears, but a far more sensitive sensory organ that allows it to detect the approach of other Digimon, making Cutemon sightings particularly rare. I guess that explains why the headphones are attached to where human ears would be, instead of the actual rabbit ears. Neat!
It's cute. Cutemon would appear in Adventure 2020, where it hangs out with a Rebellimon as its tough, tsundere buddy.
5/10.
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5/10._________________________________________________________
Dondokomon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Child
- Type: Musical Instrument
- Attribute: Vaccine
Hey, Dodonkomon! Dondokomon is actually a character that hangs out with the main cast from day one, but is mostly just treated as comic relief and just another member of the Xros Heart army. It's... it's basically a traditional drum with a face with drumsticks for hands. It's got a neat little bandana, I suppose, and a fun little face that seems lifted straight from Shoutmon, as well as legs wrapped with bandages. Dondokomon appears for a lot of episodes, but he's really just there. I do like how its bio notes how Dondokomon apparently incites violence with its drumming, and even friendly competitions will erupt into gigantic battle royales if Dondokomon shows up.
I find it cute. It fits with Shoutmon's little band vibe, and Dondokomon would show up here and there as cameos in mangas and even in Adventure 2020!
6/10._________________________________________________________
Starmons
- Alternate Names: Starmon (2010 Anime Ver)
- Stage: Child
- Type: Major
- Attribute: Data
These guys basically sort of exist as an entire swarm of Digimon that hang around Shoutmon's little party; this universe's reinvention of classic Starmon. Since the 'main' Digimon is Starmon, we'll go in reverse order of how big they are!
Technically parsed as 'Starmons', it's a bit confusing whether the plural refers to the central yellow Starmon unit or as the whole swarm, since its little silver friends have been given names and levels. The "Starmons" is comprised of a single Starmon surrounded by a bunch of Pickmons. And they're all sentient, but basically behave like a single entity at times. Starmon II is a pretty fun design, being a single golden star with a funky crooked grin and badass punk sunglasses. They basically sort of serve as a loudmouthed comic relief gang, or as a power up. It's fun.
Interestingly, Reference Book has decided that 'Starmons' is a Child-level, which means that Starmons can theoretically evolve into Starmon in other Digimon continuities!
7/10._________________________________________________________
Pickmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby II
- Type: Minor
- Attribute: None
The Pickmons (now retconned to the Baby II stage) are pretty simple silver guitar picks with adorable stumpy limbs and the same cool punk sunglasses that their Starmon boss has. There's a bit of a 'friendly local gang' vibe to Starmon and its Pickmon and Chibickmon minions, and they all look up to Shoutmon as their 'big brother'.
Of course, all of this also plays into the whole rock-star theme that Shoutmon's army has, with the Pickmons and Chibickmons being obviously based on guitar picks.
7/10._________________________________________________________
Chibickmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Baby I
- Type: Slime
- Attribute: Free
And we get to see a bunch of 'lesser' Pickmons, called Chibickmon, that are basically the same design as Pickmon, but seemingly made out of organic material instead of metal. And they're lacking the badass sunglasses. I absolutely love the charming profile of the Chibickmons which describe these lovable babies as just really wanting to help and they'll cry and be adorably sad if you tell them to buzz off.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon + Star Sword
- Stage: Child
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Data
The whole idea is that Starmon will combine with the Pickmons and creating a sword for Shoutmon (or the humans) to hold, and the additional Pickmons will serve to help lengthen the blade when Shoutmon transforms into his bigger forms. Not the biggest fan of the Starmons blade, honestly, which just looks kind of awkward. The Starmons gang have also formed other weapons too, like a slingshot.
7/10._________________________________________________________
ShootingStarmon
- Alternate Names: Shootingstarmon
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Super Major
- Attribute: Data
7/10._________________________________________________________
Shonitamon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Data
There are a lot more one-offs of the DigiXros fusions, but none really do much beyond 'let's attach random feature of this Digimon here', and after the first couple of episodes of DigiXros-ing, most of the Xros forms would lead to the Shoutmon X forms we see below. Two of these, however, received official artwork and I suppose they're the ones I can use to demonstrate the DigiXros forms.
Shonitamon here is a fusion of Shoutmon and Monitamon, appearing for a single gag. It sure is Shoutmon with Monitamon's monitor head.
4/10._________________________________________________________
DonShoutmon
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Enhancement
- Attribute: Data
Shonitamon here is a fusion of Shoutmon and Monitamon. Meanwhile, DonShoutmon is a fusion of Dondokomon and Shoutmon, the only time Dondokomon ever fuses with anyone. Shonitamon's kind of obvious but also somewhat cool, combining the Monitamons' sleek TV look with Shoutmon's own angular horns, while I really like how DonShoutmon incorporates Shoutmon's mics into its whole drumming theme.
4/10._________________________________________________________
With that done, now we will move to the toys, the robots, the combinations! Out of the main Xros Heart members, most of these feature the toys of Shoutmon, Ballistamon, Dorulumon and the Starmons; and many of the advanced ones will bring in Sparrowmon, Greymon and MailBirdramon from the other teams.
Many of them also appear only in video games and the manga. I'll try my best to highlight the most major forms, and some sub-forms will be quickly rattled off.
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Shoutmon X2
- Alternate Names: N/A
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
So yeah, the most common forms are the Shoutmon X forms, with a number behind to indicate how many of the 'important' cast members are merged together. They're all toys you can buy and merge! The obvious 'intended' Megazord form is the Shoutmon X3-X5, with really the main differences being the accessories they hold.
But of course, to show off the 'infinite possibilities', we're going to start off with Shoutmon X2, where you get a half-transformed Ballistamon and Shoutmon together. It's a clunky-looking form, mostly being Ballistamon with a lot of parts rearranged and some additional mass thrown in. There is a big chevron with robotic 'sunglasses' and a 'nose', which if you look down is actually Shoutmon X3-X5's chest piece. Kudos to them in actually trying to look for a 'face' among the partly-transformed toy parts.
Apparently, Shoutmon X2 can also house other Digimon within itself, presumably in a way akin to Soundwave from Transformers. Shoutmon X2 is basically treated by the cast as kind of an 'imperfect form' that they only use a couple of times, and only when the other members of the cast aren't present. And it's all right for what it is. Having played with transforming and combining toys as a kid, I can't be too mad at this one.
5/10._________________________________________________________
Shoutmon X3 through X5
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X3
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
And here we go with the Voltron/Megazord forms. The primary look of the Shoutmon X-numbered forms basically adds the mass of Dorulumon in to split up and become the super robot's legs, and then they get a new combiner head. This is the toy, without any accessories and weapons.
All things considered, it is a rather clean 'gestalt' robot. The colours mesh well enough to not look cluttered, and you can tell where the Dorulumon and Ballistamon parts are. Shoutmon X3 through X5 essentially serve as the primary 'super mode' fighter for Shoutmon throughout the anime, and the Reference Book has basically given X3 and X4 the level of Adult, and X5 as Perfect.
In addition of being a big mecha able to launch huge energy blasts, the big 'V' is a boomerang. I haven't properly looked at the combining toy yet, but is that big V created from the Shoutmon toy's head?
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X4
- Stage: Adult
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
Next up is Shoutmon X4 is basically the most common form of Team Xros Heart's combinations, and it's Shoutmon X3 holding the Starmons sword.
With the Starmons always being around Shoutmon and company since they are part of the same 'army', there rarely any in-story reason for them not to go X4 all the time, so this was one of the most common forms seen in the anime.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X5
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
Okay, now we've got the 'colours more distributed' vibe of a Super Sentai mecha. X5 throws in Sparrowmon into the mix, a Digimon we'll see later because it is the partner of a different human... and a different faction for a good chunk of the series. Shoutmon X5 swaps one of the regular arm into having a shield and a jetpack. Physics be damned, despite the size of Sparrowmon relative to Shoutmon X, this allows the combiner robot to fly.
I had reviewed all these forms individually and given them individual scores back when I first talked about the Shoutmons, and that was a bit painful... but this is why I'm starting to review these alternate forms together as a set!
6/10 as a set, for the concept._________________________________________________________
Shoutmon EX6
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon EX6
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
Shoutmon X6 never appears beyond one brief cameo in the manga, and never got proper art of it. But Shoutmon EX6 was the 'final fusion' Shoutmon in the manga, an equivalent of X7 below but with all the component parts evolved -- we've got OmegaShoutmon, ZekeGreymon, AtlurBallistamon, YaegerDorulumon and RaptorSparrowmon. It sure is golden with some nice colours. RaptorSparrowmon's wings does make the design a bit more pleasant than X7 below.
4/10._________________________________________________________
Shoutmon X7
Because we're not counting properly, we jump straight to Shoutmon X7. There is a Shoutmon X6 (which is everyone minus Sparrowmon), but that only appears once in the manga and there's no real proper, hi-def scans of it.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X7
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
Because we're not counting properly, we jump straight to Shoutmon X7. There is a Shoutmon X6 (which is everyone minus Sparrowmon), but that only appears once in the manga and there's no real proper, hi-def scans of it.
Anyway, Shoutmon X7 here is what happens when you do a Xros fusion between the components of Shoutmon X5, but with the two evolved golden boys of OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon, forming Shoutmon X7. It's basically the super-duper-final-ultimate form and it's... it's basically a more cluttered X5, really, although I appreciate that this final form gets to re-obtain a gigantic version of the original Shoutmon's mic stand.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X7: Superior Mode
- Stage: Ultimate
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
At the final conflict of Xros Wars' second season and the climactic final battle against the main villain, Bagramon, Shoutmon X7 fuses himself/themselves with everyone. And I do mean everyone -- basically every single person in the Digital World shows up and 'lends their power' to Shoutmon X7, Spirit Bomb style. Shoutmon X7 sure gets angel wings and a halo. It's there. The fully golden paint scheme does make it a nicer robot to look at than regular X7.
2/10.
2/10._________________________________________________________
Shoutmon X Alternate Forms
We get a lot of additional forms to X3 through X5, some of which only appear in video games. We'll rapid-fire them:
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X3GM
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Pterosaur
- Attribute: Data
Shoutmon X3GM has it fused with MetalGreymon, and has glowing wings. It only appears in a video game. Somehow, it's classified as a pterosaur now. Sure.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X3SD
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Warrior
- Attribute: Data
Shoutmon X3SD here is another Shoutmon form from a video game, where Shoutmon X3 (Shoutmon, Ballistamon and Dorulumon) fuses with DarkKnightmon. It sure has a cape and DarkKnightmon's boots. No idea why they're fusing with DarkKnightmon, but this one only appears in a video game.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X4K
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
An anime one-off, X4K throws in a Knightmon into the mix. It's actually quite cool, replacing the awkward Star Sword with Knightmon's sword, shield and cape.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X4B
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
But Shoutmon X4B has to be my favourite as far as ridiculous forms go, though, combining Shoutmon X4 with a Beelzebumon... and this, somehow, ends up forming a goddamn centaur! Dorulumon/X4's legs end up being the back half of the 'horse', while Beelzebumon's punk demon-ghost-rider legs become the front half of the legs, the demon wings end up being some sort of pegasus wings, and Beelzebumon's fucking cannon ends up being a crotch-gun for this centaur. Weird.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X4S
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
X4S throws in Spadamon into the X4 design, who turns into a big bayonet. Legend Arms! It's a thing.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X5B
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
On the right is Shoutmon X5B, which basically is the same thing with X5B, but with Sparrowmon tacked on as an arm shield.
- Alternate Names: Shoutmon X5S
- Stage: Perfect
- Type: Composite
- Attribute: Data
Again, X5S is just X4S with Sparrowmon attached. Ol' Sparrow being part of an other team does make some of these X4 and X5 forms depend on its presence in the episode.
I am very neutral about all of these additions. The nature of Xros Wars being what it is, they do need to show off a lot of alternate forms, but even the various forms really do blur together after a while. The 'B' forms with Beelzebumon is the funniest as it changes Shoutmon X into a centaur, while 'S' just holds an extra weapon (which I assume is a toy you can buy). The limitations of how complex you can go with an already somewhat cluttered design like Shoutmon X4 does make my appreciation of these more messy forms a bit less, for sure... but as accessories to the whole Shoutmon concept, they are okay.
4/10 as a set._________________________________________________________
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