Thursday, April 17, 2014

S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ryuki & Dragreder Set Part 3

Being awesome without the sword

More images of S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ryuki after the previous posting: ^^











Closeups on the details:





[Head]





[Body]



[Back]








[Arms]











[Legs]

Even without Drag Saber, S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ryuki looks pretty amazing on its own. ^^ The overall paint and sculpt work is sharply executed, with plenty of minor details accurately realized according to the character's image. The mask design is definitely the highlight of the figure's craftsmanship in my opinion. ^^ The "grille" on the face have very accurate paint contrast between the black and silver "segments", with the red goggles still clearly realized. ^^ It's the component on the figure I examined very closely for quite a while to figure out how the paint work was applied, and the detailing continues to amaze me. ^^ I even felt the urge to rip the mask apart just to see if the goggles are on a separate part when compared to the mask, but of course I couldn't bring myself to destroy the figure to find out the answer. ^^ Apart from the goggles, the dragon emblem on top of the helmet is very well done too. The tiny silver dot with a metallic red jewel on can most certainly be said to be a testament to the figure's attention to details. Besides the head, Drag Visor, although already shown in the previous posting, and V-Buckle are also very beautiful sculptured and painted, and are surely great details to admire on this figure. ^^

Given their similarities in costume design, comparison to Figma Kamen Rider Thrust and Kamen Rider Axe was in my head the whole time when I was playing with this S.H. Figuarts figure of Kamen Rider Ryuki. Overall, just in terms of look, Kamen Rider Ryuki feels a lot more solid and masculine than the two mentioned Figmas, with the upper arms and thighs being the standouts in that comparison. ^^ Interestingly, having different joint designs between the figures is a main contributor to that difference in look in my opinion. For the two Figmas, only Figma joints, and a couple of ball-type joints were been incorporated into the figures' design, which is just typical of the action figure series. However, this "standardization" of joint system causes certain parts to look somewhat hollow. The hips, and the back of the knees are the best (worst) examples to illustrate that point of mine. For this S.H. Figuarts figure, various joint designs that integrate with the movable components they are on are used instead. The elbows and knees for examples, are certainly very different in design even though they are supposed to perform the same swivel-type articulation. The hip joints are new parts for Kamen Rider Ryuki, and subsequent releases for its series, since they incorporate the stripes on both sides. By not following the same ball-type joint design as seen on other S.H. Figuarts figures like Kamen Rider Kiva Emperor Form, Kamen Rider Ryuki gets its own unique look for the hips, which are definitely more solid-looking than the soft plastic layer used by the Figma series to cover up the standard hip joints on their offerings. ^^

Still on the subject of solid look, the sculpt and painted details on Advent Deck (Kamen Rider Ryuki's belt buckle) is already a winner against the printed details on the same part on Figma Kamen Rider Thrust and Kamen Rider Axe in my opinion. There's nothing wrong with having printed details most definitely, but the extra mile put in by Tamashii Nations to make that small part stand out more on the figure needs to be acknowledged. ^^ Plus, there's more than just better look to that Advent Deck that is yet to be revealed in this review actually. ^^

A comparison featuring images with Figma Kamen Rider Thrust and Kamen Rider Axe is actually planned for a separate part in this review series, so I'll save some comments about that

A look at the dragon, Dragreder in the next posting. ^^

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