[Snowflakian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninjinister

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.