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- Joined
- Aug 9, 2009
- Messages
- 958
My first impression of this figure is…that the box is very shiny! I’ve never really cared much for S.I.C. boxart, but this thing wrapped in shiny red foil is simply gorgeous to behold. The FFR thing will not be reviewed, as I didn’t give a crap about it when I first heard about it, and still don’t. The cost for covering the plastic usage ought to have been spent on including a 2nd core body for Hyper Kabuto.
Next thing to comment on; is that the packaging has many many layers to unwrap. Once you get past all the tape, it’s all good, as having an extra covering layer on top of each tray has helped hold most of the pieces in place, and thus reduced the excessive use of wiring we’ve come to expect in our S.I.C. affairs. Riders bondage party dismissed.
Below is all the accessories included on the lower layer of the packaging.
Other accessories include 5 hands for Kabuto’s main form, an axe, dagger, gun, and Hyper Kabuto’s sword, which cannot be changed into its shooting form. The 3 regular form weapons are moulded in soft plastic.
Most of the hand accessories are right hands designed for the weapons, but none of them (other than Hyper Kabuto’s sword) can be held firmly in place. It looks a little floppy when held, and just sort of dangles in place, which is not very convincing when it comes to posing. The lack of left hands also makes it difficult for some poses to look natural in my opinion. The paint job for the 3 smaller weapons is also disappointing, especially the dagger. Kabuto’s SHF counterpart does a better job in this aspect.
My opinion of the aesthetics of the figure itself has not changed since the official photos surfaced, the final product is essentially the same thing. The eyes are too cloudy, and the colour is much too dark. It just doesn’t look sharp. Having the shoulder armour attached is to the arm instead of the chest armour is also questionable. While the shoulder articulation benefits from this decision, it also makes the shoulders look a tad too droopy when the arms are placed side by side to the body. It is done better than Bandai’s efforts on Urataros though.
The shape of the legs also lack definition. It just doesn’t have the contours that a leg is meant to have, such as thicker calves, thinner ankles. It’s just straight, and kind of looks like a tree stump, and because of this, poses also look awkward where the legs are spread apart. The figure looks best when the legs are placed close together. Die-cast parts are situated in the side panels on the upper and lower legs.
Now let’s talk about some points that deserves a little praise. The articulated horn and the extra Kabuto Zector/removable Hyper Zector is a nice little touch. The bonus DecaDriver and DX Rider Booker are cute additions, if you’d prefer your Kabuto to be displayed in Tsukasa mode.
The chest armour paint application is also nice, as it is done via a silver base coating, with a clear colour coating on top like Den-O Sword Form, which gives it a very glossy look.
The DecaDriver is not articulated like the one that comes with Vol.51 Kamen Rider Decade, and the colour of the sword is also different. (Where it’s meant to be white, it is somehow a greyish blue silver.) I thought the belt had to be replaced by removing the torso and the hips in the case of Den-O S.I.C.s and the ‘the first’ Ichigo with Cyclone, so I didn’t bother. But when I was looking at the instructions for changing into Hyper Kabuto, apparently the belt can be pulled apart into 2 pieces, which are held together by pegs. A much smarter design than the old ‘rip the torso apart’ method, which is an absolute ordeal, because the ball joint never goes with the part that you want it to.
The Kabuto Zector attached to the waist is articulated, which allows you to charge up your Kabuto for a 1, 2... 3, Rider Kick.
Neck articulated is very good both ways, so no looking up like and drooling like a dork, or being forced to look like a hunchback Decade-do.
Overall articulation is pretty similar to your any recent Ando S.I.C.s, but the chest piece still gets in the way of doing some slicker poses. For that, SHF is still the way to go.
The crotch and bum area fell apart twice when I was posing it for the shoot. The figure also suffers from loose ankles, which is something they really need to, but have yet to bother to fix on S.I.C.s.
Now onto Hyper Kabuto. This is the more impressive form of the figure in my opinion, and also one we see less products of, so there’s an element of surprise there. Like Vol.51 Decade, the parts are an ease to swap with the new peg system like the one they have used on the hands. They have also figured out a way to swap the upper arm piece, a problem that bothered fans of S.I.C. Decade Complete Form, as the colour was wrong.
The sword is a little heavy for the figure at times, and the arm may drop down in certain positions.
The wings have great articulation, and adds a lot to Hyper Form’s play factor. I can imagine Nazca being impressive as a S.I.C. with wings like these.
That's all folks.
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