Okay, so you read that title and asked yourself, "What the hell does that mean?" Well, I'll tell you. Kamen Rider, most of you don't know about and if you do, then you remember its horribly bastardized version Saban put out in the early 90s called Masked Rider which used only the battle scenes and costumes from Kamen Rider Black RX, and some scenes/costumes from Riders ZO and J. Now, if you remember that, then you're probably asking why I'd bring up toys about that God aweful show. Well, Kamen Rider has been around since the 60s and is still going strong. These MRS figure, which are part of a new line of 1/18 Rider figures are based on the two most recent shows, Kabuto and Den-O.
Chances are most of you guys don't frequent the various Japanese toy sites or watch the Kamen Rider shows, so you probably have no clue that these even exist. Shame on you for that because these are really cool figures based on some surprisingly good shows.
The first assortment of MRS figures
just came out and I snagged a full case of all seven figures(+1 extra) which comprises of six regular figures and, at least in the case I got, 2 of the chase figure. They all come blind boxed, so you don't know what you get, but like I said, if my case is typical, you get one of each and two of the chase. These figures are surprisingly well designed and cheap(500 yen or so retail, so under $4). They feature full articulation that is just about on par with Micromen and above that of the 25th Joes. They all feature very sturdy construction and materials and have a standard 24 points of articulation which include ball jointed ankles, double jointed knees, ball jointed hips, ball jointed waist, ball jointed neck, double ball jointed shoulders, swivel bicep, double jointed elbows, and swivel wrists. The perfect amount of articulation for defeating aliens, genetically engineered terrorists, or time traveling monsters.
So, what do you get in series 1? Well, lets start off with Den-O. Kamen Rider Den-O is the current series on the air right now and is probably the most "kiddy" series they've done in a
long while. Ever since the original Kamen Rider Black in the 80s, the shows have been very dark and very adult in a lot of their content(no, not nudity, I mean violence and various story elements). Anyway, Den-O is a time traveling rider whose mission to protect the time stream from being disrupted by time traveling parasitic monsters who leech off the emotional energies humans produce. Den-O is a multi-form rider like many who have come before him, but he is unique in the way this is done. Every form corresponds to a monster that has been "contracted" to Den-O, so each form is essentially a different character using the body of the main guy.
So, wave 1 contains three of Den-O's 8 forms. The ones included are the first three, Sword, Rod, and Axe forms with Wing and Gun forms in wave 2. So, enough text, here are some pics of the Den-O figures. It should be easy to tell which form is which.
So, those three are all of the Den-O figures included. The other four in wave 1 come from the show that came before Den-O, Kamen Rider Kabuto. Kabuto has the distinction of being the show with the most individual riders in it which was a total of 8 different Riders, one of which (Zabee) was about four different people at various points in the show. Kabuto featured a gimmick in that the Riders all wore suits of armor which all had special weapons. The suits had two modes, masked mode and rider mode. Masked mode had extra armor on them. The armor could be ejected to enter rider mode which also granted them the ability to Clock Up, which is when they are able to speed up so fast that time around them slows down. The Clock Up fights were usually pretty cool. Anyway, the Kabuto figures included in this wave are in their Rider modes, so no extra armor. Four Riders are included: Kabuto, Dark Kabuto, Punch Hopper, and Kick Hopper. We'll start with Kabuto first.
Kabuto's mold is, I would say, the best of the bunch. He's just a good figure with a nice symmetrical design. Kabuto is one of the two main character's in the show and also happens to be a cocky ass throughout half of it. He's always talking about how he walks the path of heaven and quoting his grandmother, always while pointing to the sky. So, naturally, they included and extra pointing hand so you can have hive doing his signature "walking the path of heaven" pose, as he's doing above. Also, he comes with a weapon as well, his kunai gun in kunai mode.
Next is honestly my favorite of the bunch, Dark Kabuto. Dark Kabuto is the chase figure and is pretty much the evil clone of the main character. Literally the evil clone of him. The bad guys from the show had kidnapped some kid that they performed various experiments on. Eventually they turned him into one of their own, which are these freaky looking body snatching alien insects and they use him to copy the main character. By the time he shows up, he's quite deranged. Anyway, the figure has VERY nice paint apps. He also comes with a different weapon from Kabuto. Dark gets the full kunai gun which can be used in either its gun mode or axe mode.
naturally you've got to pose them fighting.
Last up are two more riders from Kabuto, the Hoppers. The Hoppers both formerly used the Zabee suit but wound up getting their butts kicked and forced to give up being Zabee. They basically wound up becoming bums and hung out together, calling themselves the Hell Brothers. The Hoppers are actually supposed to be prototype Rider suits, but it was never explained how they got them. Still, I love how they look. Its just a shame the pics didn't come out too good.
Kick Hopper is the green one and Punch Hopper is the copper colored one on the right.
The other pic I had for Kick Hopper didn't come out at all. He's got a really nice metallic green on him. You might notice in the above pic that he's got a weird gold thing on his leg. It's actually a spring mechanism he uses to perform his final attack. Same goes for the spring on Punch Hopper's arm. Here's another pic of Punch Hopper showing off.
Finally, these guys aren't the first 1/18 Kamen Rider toys to be made. A couple years ago Bandai had made a similar series with a lot more characters in it. It used pretty much the same construction with a little variation: no double ball jointed shoulders and no double jointed elbows. The line didn't have a name either, it was just called Kamen Rider Full Action Figure. The toys are a
pain to track down. I only managed to find two out of pure luck while scrounging around Akihabara last December. The two I managed to find were Ryuhki and Blade. They're nice figures, but not as nice as the new ones. Still, they're pretty rare figures. So, just for comparison, you can see how the older ones looked.
oh, and Ryuhki is the one on the left while Blade is the one on the right. I gave Ryuhki Microman hands since his original ones sucked and custom built him a sword that's fairly close to the one he used in the show. Also, Ryuhki happens to be scheduled for an American remake as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. I'm sure it'll be nowhere near as cool as the original Ryuhki series.
Okay, lastly, how do these compare to GI Joes? See for yourself.
They fit in
perfectly! Just the kind of Rider toys I've always wanted.
So, if you can get a hold of these, I doubt you'd be disappointed. The quality of the figures is really nice, they're highly poseable, and just damn cool. I got mine off HLJ and I know some sellers on Ebay have them too.
