SH Figuarts Masked Rider Faiz

5, 5, 5, [Enter]

“Standing By”

When I heard news of Masked Rider Faiz getting the Figuarts treatment, I knew I had to get him no matter what. After all, it was his fault that I became a Kamen Rider fan.

I bought a new piece of paper to use as a background. Being a total newbie at photography I never knew black backgrounds were horribly difficult to photograph. Today I was lucky to be taking photos during the late afternoon so I had sunlight as an extra light source. I think these photos look better than usual. Also I didn’t know my previous pictures were saved at maximum quality and they chewed up a lot of storage space. This time I lowered a quality a little so I won’t be losing space that quickly.

This release generated quite a bit of a stir because of his different proportions. Compared to the previous anorexic figures, this guy comes with a huge butt and thunder thighs. Some people were saying the suit actor was a woman or something.

Faiz has few extra hands but unlike a certain Agito he has many accessories to make up for it. One pair of open hands, one right hand for holding weapons, one right hand with the Faiz Shot, Faiz Edge, Faiz Driver with Mission Memory removed, Faiz Driver without the Faiz Phone inside, Faiz Phone Blaster Mode with Faiz Pointer scope, Faiz Phone Blaster Mode, Faiz Phone, and Faiz Pointer in deployed mode.

Thunder thighs, huge butt and tramp stamp. His hands don’t come with the claws painted silver.

The lightbulb head and shark fins. Never knew his motif was a shark.

The chest armor is painted beautifully but when it comes to small details, there are quite a few quality issues.

The Faiz Shot and Faiz Pointer in their stored forms are mounted on the belt.

The sculpted detail is pretty sharp and you can see intricate greebles on the Faiz Shot, as well as the empty slot where the Mission Memory slots into.

Articulation is pretty good considering how bulky he is.

The incredible head articulation range could be inherited from the Ultra-Act series or it could just be the tiny head allowing for a wide range of motion.

Besides being able to tilt sideways, the head can rotate all around.

Standard range of motion for the arms.

The waist is also pretty good. The belt is a separate piece that goes between the waist and hip and is made of soft plastic for some flexibility.

The hip joint is movable. The ankle joint is a ball joint that is hidden inside the leg but articulation is not hindered greatly. My Faiz came with the die-cast feet switched, so I simply pulled them out and replaced them.

A close-up of the Faiz Phone in its various modes. There are some paint quality issues but it’s a mass-produced toy so one will have to deal with it.

The Faiz Phone doesn’t fold. This is reasonable because it’s pretty thin and adding a joint would make it bigger and suffer from the magically-growing weapon syndrome that Ixa’s Ixa Knuckle and Decade’s Ride Booker have. The hand is made of soft plastic and doesn’t really hold weapons tightly.

1, 0, 3, [Enter] “Single Mode”

Gotta love how Takumi fires the gun in a laid-back manner.

Can’t remember when the Faiz Pointer was used as a scope.

The Faiz Edge is painted. The red blade portion isn’t clear plastic, just painted.

The Faiz Shot is molded with the right hand so there is no worry of loose weapons. It also makes the weapon more reasonably-sized and not suddenly bigger like the Ixa Knuckle/Ride Booker.

Can’t remember the name of the Rider Punch.

“Ready”

“Exceed Charge”

What’s Faiz without his trademark pose before dishing out some serious damage?

He’s so badass he deserves a second shot.

Toh~

Love the sculpted detail on the soles.

Rider Kick Crimson Smash!

Despite the less-than ideal proportions and paint quality issues, I still like this figure partly because of my bias towards him, as well as the great articulation that we have all come to love from the Figuarts line. I got him for a good price too. If you want the best Faiz figure that exists you’ll have to buy the RAH version (the RAH version is just incredibly beautiful) which costs a few kidneys/corneas; if you want a comparatively affordable Faiz figure with decent articulation and accessories you’ll have to get this.

★★★★☆

I wonder why Figuarts don’t have the perfect proportions that the RAH/Project BMs have. Even the gachapon toys based on the 12-inch beauties preserve their proportions so faithfully.

Here’s a pic from Hobby Stock’s coverage of Tamashii Nation 2010. I wish he came with the awesome effect parts.

Also, a video. Ignore the crappy subtitles.