Taking a short break from painting my 00 Gundam, I finally got my long overdue SHF Masked Rider Gatack yesterday. The shop also had the Kabuto movie riders Hercus, Ketaros and Caucasus but I wasn’t keen on spending cash on three similar-looking riders that only appeared in a movie and not the series. I also didn’t really like the design of Caucasus’ head and the SHF yellow reminded me of yellow post-its and not gold.
After taking these photos and uploading them onto WordPress, I suddenly realised I forgot to crop them. But as promised, I will write about the SHF Masked Rider Kabuto. Mysteriously the figure wasn’t inundated with light compared to yesterday even though I placed the lamp in the same position.
The red parts of the armour are done in gloss. Unlike Kick and Punch Hopper, Kabuto does not have any chrome parts despite official product photos showing him to have chrome silver knee pads and details on the thighs. Instead, it is done in a drab silver which makes the colour consistent across the whole figure. Strangely, this figure seems to be suffering from bow-legged syndrome. Perhaps I had a bad one.
The head horn is hard plastic along with the rest of the head while the Kabuto Zecter on the belt is made up of soft plastic.
Obligatory rear view.
These are the weapons and extra hand parts provided. Sadly, the Kunai Gun comes in 2 forms instead of being two-in-one like the SH version, giving it less playability. Also, its size is reduced. The hand parts provided include a pair of open palms, Tendou’s signature sky-pointing hand as well as a pair of weapon-gripping hands.
Mysteriously, the colour balance of the photos was changed starting from the above one. I turned the camera off when preparing for the next group of shots and I guess the low battery power resulted in the inconsistency of photos. Blame it on my old rechargeable batteries that seemingly run out of power less than two weeks after charging them.
This is Kabuto with his Kunai Gun in Gun mode. The hand grips the weapon tight enough for it not to fall out by itself. Holding the weapon is achieved by forcing it into the grip. The hands are not made from hard plastic, allowing for some flex in them.
Pardon the blur shot, it’s Kabuto with his Kunai Gun in Ax mode. Strangely, I could not get the camera to focus when I took this shot, no matter how long the camera was pointing at him.
Lastly, it’s the Kunai mode, a separate part entirely, unlike the SH version where it is pulled out of the gun.
Kabuto in his signature sky-pointing pose.
“Walking the path of Heaven, the man who will rule over everything.”
Kabuto in preparation for his Rider Kick. In the show, he does it by pressing the Kabuto Zecter’s leg buttons in sequence…
<< ONE, TWO, THREE >>
Pushes the horn lever right and announcing,
“Rider Kick…”
Before pulling the horn back to the left, with the Zecter announcing,
<< RIDER KICK >>
The articulation of the SHF body is good enough for it to achieve the always well-timed finishing move.
Like all the other SHF figures, Kabuto uses the standard base body which consists of the following:
This gives the figure a whopping amount of articulation range. While the knee joints are now tighter compared to the SHF Rider 1, 2 and V3 which were extremely loose and had lots of play perpendicular to the joint (ie. left and right), my gripe with this figure is the bow legs it has. I would say that the figures with do not have any of these problems would be the Kick and Punch Hoppers. Also, some people may complain that the waist and head are too narrow, giving it a skinny silhouette instead of the bulkier form the SH version has.
Here are my gets for today. I have tried to improve lighting using my clip-on lamp from above. However I am still using a really cheap background made up of two pieces of A4 paper. The photo would have looked better if I were using a larger size of paper instead, like an A2 sheet. This would eliminate the seam at the back as well as the distracting objects lying close by that were not intended to be captured.
I have finally obtained my long-overdue SHF Masked Rider 1 to accompany my SHF V3. Additionally I also have obtained the SHF Masked Rider Kabuto. I shall try to post a review of it as soon as possible. Unfortunately the shop that I bought it from didn’t have Masked Rider 2. Well maybe not unfortunately, or I would have walked away with 3 boxes and a larger hole in my wallet. To think I’ve already spent almost 20% of my allowancepittance for November…
It’s rather obvious that the SHF Kabuto is using a different font on its box art. Being the obsessive-compulsive bugger that I am, I’m pretty annoyed that the font has changed to the uncool Arial Narrow-style font which is different from my Kick and Punch Hoppers. Enough of that nonsense. Other things I’ve noticed include a Bandai Asia sticker on my Rider 1 with a Hong Kong address. However both of them have a hologram sticker with my country along with the words “Authorized distribution by Bandai Asia Co., Ltd”. A quick check on my older SHF figures reveals no such sticker anywhere on their boxes. Oh no!!
I haven’t been updating in a long while. I wanted to drag my lazy butt off my chair and take some photos of some of my recent gets but realised my batteries had run out of power.
Instead, I have here a pretty long post on several things. First, the SHF Masked Rider Kabuto has been released in Japan and here’s a link to a Japanese review by Climax F.
The Kabuto Kunai Gun comes in separate parts (Gun Form and Kunai Form) instead of being removable like its Souchaku Henshin counterpart. Other differences include a slimmer silhouette and smaller-sized weapons on the SHF figure.
On another note, something has gone wrong with my laptop’s LCD panel. A one-pixel thick white line appeared on it a few days ago and it has been growing in thickness every few hours. As of now, it is 10 pixels wide, so I have a white bar blocking my view somewhere down 2/3 of the screen.
From Toysdaily, pictures of the upcoming SIC Masked Rider Den-O Liner Form (with Zeronos Zero Form not shown) as well as SIC Masked Rider Zeronos and Deneb Imagin.
Again from Toysdaily, pictures of the MG 1/100 Sinanju Ver. Ka.
Based on the pictures, it has been confirmed that there are no gold parts for the golden accents. Instead, Bandai has tried to make up for it by providing a new kind of clear sticker. It is a hybrid sticker where the gold accents are done like foil on a clear sticker medium. Unfortunately I can’t find the photo showing this.
Additionally, Taste-san has a review of the HG 1/144 Cherudim Gundam and MG 1/100 Infinite Justice Gundam uploaded on his site.
What makes this model really awesome is that it comes with much more accessories than the HG 1/144 00 Gundam. First, it has been revealed that the green armour plates are actually “Shield Bits”, removable pieces that can re-arrange themselves into different formations. The GN Drive is mounted on the backside underneath the Shield Bits, and there is a “Follow Screen” (pardon my translation, it may be inaccurate) which folds out from the backpack in front of the face when sniping in Trans-Am mode. The model also comes with a pair of GN Beam Pistol IIs, GN Sniper Rifle II and clear parts for the sensors. All in all I’d say this has more playability than the 00 Gundam.
Ripped straight from Toysdaily, SH Figuarts Dark Kabuto and SH Figuarts Urataros Imagin are scheduled for a 2009 release at 2625 yen each. Once again, this is proof of Bandai going full steam into the Kabuto series and its variants. I guess Dark Kabuto won’t be the last of the Kabuto releases.
On the other hand, SIC Volumes 45 and 46 have been announced. Vol. 45 will be Masked Rider Den-O Liner Form + Urataros Imagin while Vol. 46 will be Masked Rider 1 The First Ver. with bike. No news of a release date yet, but does this mean that there might be a release of Masked Rider Den-O Climax Form + Kintaros Imagin? Who knows.
Here’s a look at two upcoming action figures under the S.H. Figuarts (SHF) line – Masked Rider Ketaros & Heracus, and Super Imaginative Chogokin (SIC) Limited Edition Masked Rider Den-O Rod and Axe Form.
These characters are from the Kamen Rider Kabuto spin-off movie, Godspeed Love. The movie had a dark storyline which matched well with the first half of the series, something which attracted me to watch the show. However, I think I’ll pass on buying these as they are almost merely variants of Kabuto with different heads and colour schemes. I find the spin-off movies like to have new Riders that look almost identical. I have already busted quite a bit of dough on SHF Kick and Punch Hopper (which are almost identical as well), and Bandai is clearly rushing full steam into milking Kabuto fans who have not seen any major merchandise other than the Souchaku Henshin (SH) figures. Of course, I will be waiting for the release of SHF Kabuto and Gatack sometime in October and November respectively.
While the SHF line lacks the armour transformation gimmicks the SH line is famous for, I find the SHF body sculpt to be way more sleek than the SH figures, not to mention the superior articulation. The sleek silhouette suits the Kabuto line very well, but not so for old-school Riders. The SH Kabuto figures may have the awesome Cast Off gimmick (with a second dummy base body to show both Forms), but their stocky old-fashioned appearance and outdated articulation makes the SHF line a better choice for me.
Both figures are slated for a December release at 2625 yen each.
Off topic, I initially planned to write and save posts before publishing them so that I could post new content regularly. However, I was bogged down by duty and driving lessons the past three days. What a great start to a new blog eh? I guess having frequent content updates can be too ambitious, so I shall strive to post meaningful posts instead of frequent, inane ones.
[edit @ 1800] I have hotlinked pictures of the upcoming SIC Limited Edition Masked Rider Den-O Rod and Axe Forms below.
The above has been planned for a November release at 6300 yen.
