Series 4 due out in December

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I guess I made my Shocker Rider a little too soon...

I'm very glad to be seeing Black RX. He wasn't my introduction to Kamen Rider (ZO was), but since I watched the Saban version as a lad I have fond memories of the costume at least.

I wonder how many times they're gonna keep doing Kamen 1/2 repaints....

I need to get that Amazon and RX! Though I do kinda wish they'd also do the newer Amazons, but I guess they're still working their way up to that.

It's really great to have the shodo line around though. Love how it's filling in holes from the classic series to present since MRS was skipping around so much in present. Having Black RX, Black, and Shadow Moon with the already MRS sets is fantastic! Need to pick up some of the other classic ones too, but money's tight right now. Still loving these overall though!

If these keep doing well, I wonder if they'll do the same for Sentai later.

As many times as the show did.

Well, after the shin versions of Ichigo and Nigo, and the rainbow Shocker Riders, I guess they can retire the 1/2 mold.

It's sad they used 4x this mold on a single wave, but I'm very happy with the shin versions and Amazon. Now there's only 3 showa riders remaining (weeeel, there's Shin and J too...) and I too hope they move to sentai characters (but not my wife lol).

Also, I too love these Shodo going along with my old MRS and SIC Kiwami, but I expect to see some more monsters to go along with my Hydra and Cobra soldiers!

That's the other thing I love about the Shodo line! That they are doing Shocker classic mainstays and troop builders. I think they may continue past the Showa era until maybe Faiz(stopping right before Kabuto), but we'll see. At leas they are recouping duplicate costs as fast as they can early on, which is great considering if they do other Black RX forms too like they did for Stronger. And that Amazon is perfection!

A Sentai version would probably be similar in that regard of parts re-usage.

And in other news, the lawn chairs arrived today! I already have MRS Momotaros chilling in one with Deadpool. Will try to get pics of them later tonight or tomorrow. I gotta admit, they are outright awesome. I wish american hobby stores carried stuff like this. For the cost, I'd stock up on them every trip to get paint!

The robots they come with are really badass too. Already built the red one. The black and gold one is undergoing some repainting right now in metallic colors, but soon as that's done I'll build that one too. And not to state this again, but I gotta after handling these, hobby stores are really missing out on an amazing great seller by not having these. Seriously, every store trip I'd end up buying 4-5 of them. Can't even imagine how many other customizers and customers might buy that have deeper pockets.

Exactly, they can even reuse the same buck used for these riders, with different hands and heads, for most of the old super sentai.

I'd look for Changeman and Flashman, both series that introduced me to tokusatsu when aired here in the 80's and never made justice by Figuarts!

Probably not the same bucks. Though the gloves for KR1 and 2 maybe. Until they reach some of the later series, most of the suits would have sculpted in details like Amazon does with his camo. Though there might be rare cases where they can do repeats of the legs and scarves.

The repeat bucks would come later for within each series. Like Zyu essentially using the same buck 4 times with different heads. (And more if they do the Gokai variations. Which would allow them to do the Trini Yellow version as a secret fig.) The early series would mostly be reused arms and legs from each sentai series. Even that might be sporadic.

I hope we can get some versions of Shocker Shuryo. His "regular" form might be hard to get made (maybe not in Japan though) 'cause he's basically a Kleagle Klansman, but I feel like the series would miss out on having at least one version of the leader (and if they did his masked version I could custom some Klansmen baddies to fight).

That one might get skipped. Even in Japan, it was a bit over the top, and they are already getting flack for their insensitivity and lack of awareness, and other xenophobia aspects that permeate their own modern society.

Anime itself up until late 90s early 2000s had a lot of racist stereotypes as it was too they are attempting to work past, so I could see them wanting to skip that flack for Kamen Rider classic stuff and focus on one of the different organization leaders instead. Something a little more iconic with less baggage.

Even abroad marketing and selling an action figure that more or less looks like KKK member is kind of ridiculously bad. Both for the store with tourism, and the brand name in general. They want to pull customers in and maintain a wide appeal. Something like that would push away too many consumers.

Well then I at least want snakeface Leader.

That one I was thinking was possible. Either an accessory with the one eyed one, or as the secret variant.

The hood itself even in being red is too over the top since Shocker itself is more or less an Axis influenced fictional terrorist organization, and even though Japan can get away with that in their media and we can't because of the different cultural views, some things are still universally verboten.

But without the hood, they should be able to probably still do the characters or the other generals. Though really, I'm hoping more for Turtle Bazooka, and some of the other more outlandish general designs from Shocker and Destron. Get some real over the top 70's campiness in there.

*Edit*
Still waiting on paint to dry, but this time when it's dry should be assembly and final touches! Then pics with the robots and Deadpool using the lawn chairs!

I think the red and black one is now Deadpool's permanent robot butler/training dummy too. He's really got kind of a Robot Deadpool vibe.

*Edit2*
Still waiting for it to dry, but I wanted to get a pic up of the one I didn't paint, and Deadpool with Momotaros in the chairs.

http://www.toyark.com/attachments/39...random-044.jpg

*Edit3*

And the painted up version because I really didn't like how the black and gold looked. Though if I get another, I definitely want to do a black armor and silver innards one now.

http://www.toyark.com/attachment.php...1&d=1472740648

Nice paint job. I love the blue and silver.


Looks like Bandai Japan will be doing another Kamen Rider gashapon line called SAGA.

Looks good so far. I don't know Japanese so I don't know the details.

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Man, this Rider Ex-Aid is terrible, looks like some mascot from a bubblegum advertising. But this SAGA line, aww, my wallet!

@Snowflakian, dude, where's that Diend from? Don't remember him from MRS...

This is incorrect.

Those pictures are of Ex-Aid's SO-DO line. It is a candy toy line that has a scaled down version of the gimmick. It uses a mix of paint and stickers and is limited to Ex-Aid. This line is like the Gangan Action Damashii or Arms Action Gaim lines.

SAGA is a gashapon line that does not have the gimmick, but has nice paint. Also, reports say SAGA is not limited to Ex-Aid and will include Kuuga. This is closer to MRS or ShodoVS, though those lines have never been gashapons before. Also, we aren't 100% sure what scale this line is, though it does appear to be 4".

http://www.toyark.com/attachment.php...1&d=1472752954

Thanks for the clarification. Its sometimes hard for me to tell what's going on with these lines sometimes.

I do like the SO-DO figures but the SAGA ones do look a lot better. You would think after 2 years of Japanese in college I would be able to read it better...

You're half right. It's game sprite turned into a rider. So mascot is actually kind of the intended direction. It's kind of like if Kabutack or Robotack were made into Kamen Riders for Scrubs.

The first trailer looks hilariously awesome too, mixed with some decent drama. The "Sprite" forms really play up some interesting comedy angles to help balance out the heaviness of the medical drama side.

Ex-Aid is quickly growing on me as a rider show that's going to be all kinds of fun. Like Scott Pilgrim, Scrubs, and Kabutack/Robotack all thrown into a blender with 90s neon color dyes.

As for Diend, he and Decade complete are from the Decade candy toy line.

The SO-DO line is about 11cm, which is roughly 4.3 inches, and if that's to the top of the head, they are about Marvel 4'' sized if a shade bigger. A little big for MRS/SHODO but maybe not too much because of the hair designs. They are under W's 5'' sized ones though. So they may still fit the scale for Shodo/MRS like the Decade ones did. Decade's was only a tiny bit bigger. That's why I keep them with my MRS/Shodo figures, whereas my Fang Joker one I keep with my candy kit sentai mechas along with candy kit Zeronos.

No clue on the Saga line though, haven't seen a CM size release on those yet.

Yeah I saw a poorly subbed version of the trailer, it seems interesting, I'll check it on. But the colors and general designs remember those crazy gum ads of "Fit's" from Japan, hence my comparison lol.

It's like Gaim series to me - awful designs made me not watch it soon, but I loved the series and character developments.

However, I must confess, I miss old school lone wolfs/bikers/darkers Riders with less "neon" designs...

Also, thanks for the Diend/Decade info, man, I'll look for these. And great pics, it's sad MRS didn't delivery the other imagins :)

At least we got Deneb still!

As for Kamen Rider, it comes and goes. There's usually a pattern, and we'e due for a classic series influenced again after Ex-Aid. And after that will probably be something they haven't done yet. The rider after this one is 20 anyway. Literally the 10th one after Decade.

But I also think back to that transition from Hibiki to Kabuto. Hibiki went very artistic influenced and story-thematic focusing on the choice his apprentice was faced with as the underlying concept of the show for growing up. Then Kabuto went back to the emphasis on Corporations and technology but with a heavy scifi bent.

So I'd expect the next one after ex-aid to lean more towards similar original series trope inversions, probably something that'll kick off whatever the next decade (pun not intended!) of riders will be while also paying respect to its roots.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the 20th and 21st riders will look like tbh. So to me, Ex-Aid is kind of like saying "we're prepping to pay respect to our past, but also bringing it to our future, and we're not afraid to Patch Adams our way into your heart."

So who knows what they'll doctor up for us next! Until then, I can't wait so see how the mighty number 9 of riders turns out! Hopefully better than that game was reviewed. :chair

The only thing I have to say about Ex-Aid is he just doesn't look like a Rider. I don't hate the design, but I wouldn't have known he was a KR unless someone told me. In fact I *didn't* when I first saw a picture of him whilst scrolling through Facebook.

To be fair, that's what they said about Hibiki too. Many said it about Faiz as well. Even Kuuga when it first started as this era of Riders, same to Ryuki. Much of what we've come to expect from rider suits didn't come to be expected until a series did it. The only universal aspect is the lead is usually a belt henshin device and even that varies(again, with Hibiki it was a tuning fork held to his head). Even some of the alleged staples like the bug motif are common to other metal heroes like B-Fighter and Sentai too. And even an only bug motif isn't exactly true either, as classic amazon himself is gecko inspired more than an insect. Literally a classic design that eats insects.

And now this iteration, a doctor that turns into a game sprite with a whack-a-mole hammer that's out to squash "game" bugs. Okay oversimplified the concept, but I hope you see my point. The only main staple for Kamen Rider is that they are a masked armored hero that rides in to save the day. Even the bike is optional as early as Black RX had shown us.

But like I said, when a series does diverge more than normal from the usually more common aesthetics audiences are used to, expect a classic throwback to follow. Faiz was followed with Blade that had a more blatant insect design theme besides the playing cards. Hibiki was followed by Kabuto that brought more direct corporate machinations and city life.

Even over with ultraman the same is true. Nexus was very dark and adult oriented, but it was followed by the more light hearted and friendly classic campy throwbacks Max and Mebius.

The life blood of these series is growth and evolution. Change and testing. This series may not be to your taste, but then the next might. This series may become your taste simply from being that good. I used to loathe the Faiz designs when I first saw them though I loved the henshin gimmick, but the show's implementation of it, how they portrayed it and the attitude it evoked. The in suit mannerisms, and the epicness of Faiz Accel Mode, it's now one of my favorite designs.

Though blade will always hold a special place in my heart too. I goofed when I first watched it, saw episode 2 before episode 1, and because of that, the show always carried a more Tarantino like cold start beginning to me that had me hooked. That immediate "Garren is evil" and then seeing episode 1 of how it started, leading into that transition and reveals of character growth and hidden altruistic motives, that show had me hooked weekly. Literally it's how I got into Faiz even. I was wanting to skip Faiz, but the wait between weeks for blade episodes meant I needed something to watch to bide my time and I became hooked on it too. So I expect great things from Ex-Aid. The designs might be jarring now, but in the end, I'm sure they'll become as beloved as any other rider suit was for how it's conveyed in the series.

I would disagree personally with all of those except Hibiki. They all retain the Kamen Rider look in their helmets - the "grasshopper" motif.

But see, that's just it, the grasshopper aspect isn't a permanent fixture either as Amazon showed us by using a lizard, and the bubble goggles elements vary up thanks to Hibiki and Ryuki. Other riders in Ryuki didn't have the bubble eyes, Zolda for example with the squared off design, or Tiger and Knight from Ryuki with their more smooth knight faceplate designs among others. And the wider animal coverage in Ryuki also negates the insect influences too and expands on that Amazon notion of other animals as the basis. A grasshopper was the first rider yes, but retroactively, even Ladybug is now a rider. And shocker was making an animal themed army. The fact it was the grasshopper that went rogue was more a nod to other cultural cues most notably found in martial arts. So the story can evolve to have other animals as the basis. It's in the classic connotation that it's a 'hopper' model that goes rogue. (Which Kabuto trope inverted with the twin hoppers staying in corporate control.)

Then we also have Faiz where the head design is more or less a headlight with a cell phone antennae dividing it up to give the illusion of eyes. Didn't really have the bubble eye design either, but evoked a subtle insect theme because cell phones and bugs both have antennae. And then you get to something like Orga too, besides Psyga, Delta, & Kaixa. Or Kiva with no bug eyes either and the initial form of Ixa that had none either until it switches modes. The various forms of Den-O played with this aspect too. While the base blank form sort of did though not really as it was more faiz headlight rounded head piece with train tracks bisecting it, each form overlay didn't except for Rod form with the turtle nodding amazons lizard basis and then Zeronos that had them as two bull emblems on each side. Diend lacked the bubble eyes entirely too and had a more BubbleGum Crisis influenced helmet with then a card deck going across it sideways. Then there's also Birth with their U shaped masks. Wizard that was a gemstone. Gaim that varies too, and even ghost that stays more rounded and elliptical but no bubble eyes either.

Kuuga caused many complaints of how it was very mystical based, in many ways the same concepts Amazon initially introduced too. That it wasn't technology based, but instead was an ancient artifact, and had no basis in any of the typical story tropes that all were derived from with "Skullman" as the inspiration of what became Kamen Rider. It took elements of amazon, but spun them to different ends of ancient artifact magic(which later OOOs drew upon to nod both too). The same is kind of true with Agito and its elements as a guardian of the light, that G3 helped counterbalance by being a technology based special task-force prototype police rider.

So the themes and implementation of have varied widely as the brand expands to add new themes as well as continue exploring old ones. Like how G3's elements inspired W, Birth, and Drive. There really isn't a single design staple to Kamen Rider besides every rider has to have a belt. It varies per series and what the theme is for that series. The only main unifying element is the belt itself in the armor design, and even that can vary sometimes, but usually the belt does provide some kind of focus for the rider in usage. Even TheBee, Drake, Sasword, and the Kabutick riders had to still use it for the clock up function. It held the final move gear for Hibiki and did for nearly all the riders from his series too.

That's usually the main identifying marker of a rider over any other armored hero. The emphasis on the belt in the design. No belt, and you can immediately tell it's not a rider. Has a belt, then you look at the other design cues to figure out what it is.

For this go round seems to take a lot of design cues from popular video game elements. There does seem to be a lot of Digimon and Megaman/Rockman EXE/battlenetwork & Starforce in the design and story elements. Which is kind of fitting tbh, Starforce in particular drew a lot of elements from Toku as its conceptual basis.

Speaking of Skullman though! Shodo should do one of him! Would love a Skull man to go with my Marvel/DC figures. A Batman team-up with Skullman would be an epic photo shoot! Same with GI Joe and Skullman. Kind of like how Cobra and Shocker blend so seamlessly well.

Gosh how do you have so much to say about this @.@

Has everyone gotten their amiami delivery for the recent Kamen Rider yet? Mine hasn't shown up D:

You see, you guys just made me download Blade and finish this one! I love tokusatsu, but it's hard to get some time do watch it these days.

I'll give Zyuohger a chance too, sending good vibrations for a Shodo Sentai line :)

Too many years of not talking about it when for years it was a daily IRC conversation thing. In fact, that entire conversation on tropes the genre uses, design cues, and origins of each was a conversation I've had before. Though that was before Wizard and Gaim or Ghost.

I ordered mine from Rakuten for Black and Shadowmoon, and yup, already arrived. Are the Black RX ones and Amazon already up? I thought they weren't until December.

Blade is awesome! Though I really wish they'd do a follow up special. It ended on such a "Vs." story note where you expect some post-apocalyptic come around centuries later.

As for Shodo Sentai, we'll get one eventually! Hopefully at least. But for now, I guess let's not distract them from covering Riders first.