Bandai’s first wave of SHF figures kicked off with the riders from the movie Masked Rider The Next. They included Riders 1, 2 and V3 and all of them were riders without weapons, and their figures came accordingly with very few accessories compared to newer releases like the Deneb Imagin and the upcoming Momotaros Imagin DX Set.
The green areas are painted in shiny gloss while the feelers are made with soft plastic. There is also an attempt at weathering the helmet as in the show where Riders 1 and 2 have battered helmets and clothes after many battles. It doesn’t look too pronounced as the scuff marks are done in a dark brown instead of silver in the product photos.
The belt is one piece along with the bottom part of the jacket-like clothing. Sadly with the thin waist, it hardly gives off a jackety vibe.
These are the few accessories that come with the figure. Extra hands (apart from the fists) include 3 variations of open palms. The muffler is worn by removing the head and placing it on the neck. This opens up opportunities for people to stick heads of other characters for fun.
There. I dug these pictures from my computer.
Hongo performs some manly poses to wow his enemies.
Some more old school Rider poses, like this one which I think is normally done by Rider 2/Ichimonji.
This one should be done by Hongo himself I think.
Bandai showed off the figure’s excellent articulation with a Rider Kick pose as the main image at the back of the box. It seems like they initially started the line with emphasis placed on highly articulated figures instead of armour pieces, gimmicks or accessories, with so much mention on the articulation before they were released. However now it seems like accessories are the way to go for their newer figures. The stand I used in this picture was taken from my Revoltech Fraulein Pocco which happened to be conveniently nearby at the time.
I wanted to take more pictures of Rider 1 with V3 but all my batteries were flat. I thought I could take the time to snap pictures of my other not-so-old figures and post them here. Somehow this pose doesn’t look too impressive but I think it shows how well the figure can pose, especially its lower half. As I’ve mentioned before, my complaint for this figure are its floppy legs that have lots of play side to side, making extreme poses harder for it to balance.
