Sunday, February 15, 2015

S.I.C. Kiwami Damashii Kamen Rider Blade King Form Part 2

One-sided beauty

Moving on to the introduction of S.I.C. Kiwami Damashii Kamen Rider Blade King Form's weapons and option parts after kickstarting the review series in the previous posting. ^^



All of Kamen Rider Blade King Form's weapons and option parts.





Main weapon for King Form: Blay Rouzer



While the overall quality is obviously not as delicate as that on the original S.I.C. version, the detail treatment given to Blay Rouzer is quite amazing. ^^
Then again, everything is well and good on this side, ...


... but when the sword is flipped to the other, the lack of detailing on the cross guard is immediately visible. ^^;



At least the blade and fuller sections are well painted. ^^;
Unfortunately, this "minimum" detailing benefit is not available on Blay Rouzer, which will be introduced later. ^^;


The handle is made of soft plastic, which allows it to be attached/removed from the figure's open fist with low risk of breaking that part.


A slot on the "blank" side of the cross guard allows King Rouzer to be mount behind the figure via a straight peg located on its back armor.


Kamen Rider Blade King Form with King Rouzer mounted on its back.


With the sword mounted in an angled position, the blank area of the cross guard is well hidden on the underside. ^^




Kamen Rider Blade's main wepaon: Blay Rouzer, which is still accessible by King Form.



While lacking some details on a couple of spots, the outcome of the bright silver and gold paint work on this sword is still very well done in my opinion. ^^



Then again, unlike King Rouzer (unfortunately ^^;) most of the visible part on the other side of Blay Rouzer features no paint work at all. ^^;





Two sets of option hand units are included for the figure: a pair of open fists to hold the weapons, and a pair of spread palms.


The individually painted triangles on the knuckles are well done details on the hand units.


As you can see, the peg of the weapon-type hand unit protrudes in an angled fashion on the base. This indicates that the figure would be able to pose either King Rouzer or Blay Rouzer in a thrusting pose.



The default pair of closed fists.


Typical design of round slot for the wrist to accept the ball-type joint of all the hand units.

More images of the figure after introducing its weapons and option parts:













Closeups on details:




[Head]





[Body]



[Back]









[Arms]


[Sword]









[Legs]

Small as it is, the overall sculpt work and detailing of S.I.C. Kiwami Damashii Kamen Rider Blade King Form is close to that of its larger S.I.C. counterpart, and that's quite impressive. Besides the sculpt work for the helmet, the emphasis on the 13 Undead emblems on various armor parts of the figure is clear, and the weathering effect done of the emblem does amazingly in revealing their beauty. ^^ Then again, the not-so-great part of the weathering effect is that it creates a color discrepancy between the armors with the emblems, and those without them, most notably the leg armors. The front plates that carry the emblems are darker due to the weathering effect, which is quite appealing to look at I feel, but the contrast with the bright golden calf and thigh segments of the armor makes the overall look seems rather awkward. ^^;

However, the color contrast mentioned above is a peanut-sized matter when compared to the one-sided paint work on the two swords, which is definitely a letdown to the figure's overall beauty. ^^; I'm perfectly fine with the price tag of King Form being perhaps 100 or 200 Yen higher, just to have the two weapons be given a full detail treatment. Then again, I suppose 1,200 Yen (exclusive of tax) is a ceiling price for this action figure series that Tamashii Nations was unwilling to go beyond at the time King Form was released (2010), so some of its paint detailing were compromised in favor of that limitation. ^^; One would just have to find ways to pose the figure smartly to avoid exposing said visual weakness too much I guess. XD

Of course, with the right paint marker, the missing details can be appended, but I usually don't bother applying any extra work on completed figures that I'm reviewing, unless they have serious issues that would impede my enjoyment of playing with them - fixing the broken wrist joint on Garo Kiwami Damashii Zero comes to mind. ^^ The incomplete paint work on the two swords as shown above is more of a detailing flaw and not a problem, so I don't feel the need of painting them, yet. ^^

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