Vault Review:
S.H. Figuarts’ Kamen Rider 2

Vault

Even with all this detail on the head, I can’t ignore his cyclone belt.  You can see the segmented inside through a small piece of clear plastic on front, while the various buttons, rivets, and brackets are adorned all around.  They even sculpted in the clasp on the back.

They also sculpted the treads onto the bottom of his feet, which is always a nice touch.

But Rider 2’s sculpting is only half of the package, the other half is his flashy paint job.  His mostly black body is highlighted with white racing stripes and highlighted by brilliant patches of red.  This is probably one of the deepest and most vibrant reds I’ve seen on an action figure, and it really makes the figure feel like he jumped right out of a vibrant 1970’s TV show.

Like all Figuarts, Rider 2 has a fantastic range of motion.  His head, upper torso, waist, and ankles are all on ball joints.  His hips are on ball joints connected to a hinge.  His elbows and knees are double hinges.  His wrists are swivel/hinge joints, while his toes have a regular hinge.  But the joint I find most interesting is his shoulders.  The torso has a large ball joint inserted into it; meanwhile a smaller ball joint is connected to the arm.  The small joint fits inside the larger, giving him double ball jointed shoulders.

Rider 2 comes with five sets of hands for over-the-top gesturing: fists, holding, grasping, flat with the thumb in, and flat with the thumb out.  These alternate flat hands allow you to pose him in his henshin transformation poses.  He also comes with two alternate scarves.  One is more for the windblown look, while the other is more for hanging around.  Lastly, Rider 2 comes with a kick effect burst of energy that can fit around his foot.

One thing I was disappointed in was the lack of a stand or display base.  It’s pretty much impossible to pose him using his kick effect without some sort of support, so I’m not really sure why Bandai skimped on this part of the whole toy package.  Looks like I’ll just have to make do with my Figma stands for now.

If you couldn’t tell already, I like this figure.  It’s great to see such care and detail given to such an old property, and I can only hope Bandai does the same when it comes time for the Showa Sentai figures.  I may not know much about Kamen Rider history, but I can definitely appreciate a figure with such a fun style.

-Vault

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19 thoughts on “Vault Review:
S.H. Figuarts’ Kamen Rider 2”

  1. I guess the orange motorbike is a Transformer as the pink one… It really fits him really well.

    1. by the way I just checked and Kamen 1 is the same figure but with some minor deco changes like the silver gloves and boots…

    2. Yup, it’s Wreck-Gar. I was surprised at how good he looks on him.

      The other one is the new Prime Arcee.

  2. It warms the heart to see Kamen Rider getting so much love this side of the pond lately! Being a Rider fan myself for a long, long time it always makes me smile to see others taking a liking to the characters…

  3. Actually there’s a lot of subtle differences between Rider 1 and Rider 2.

    If you actually look at them closely, you’ll see that 1 has two stripes going down each limb, while 2 has one large stripe.

    1. I know that’s way I said some “minor deco changes”, the silver paint is the more noticiable though… I guess they didn’t have much time to do another Kamen design to replace the original actor after it’s accident and just added some little changes.

  4. Rider Kick!

    He doesn’t come with a stand because Bandai hates you. Hates all of us actually. You are meant to run down to your local Bandai retailer and pony up a few hundred Yen for an Official Bandai figure stand, available in all manner of colors. Being a big-nose, blonde-haired, stinking of butterfat gaijin across the big water, you are not allowed this. 🙂

    Vault, I’m with you 100% on the love for the Showa Era. If you’ve never seen the opening for Kamen Rider, look it up. yes, there’s stuff that is silly to our modern eyes (such as seeming to use a Bandai Popinica KR cycle for a stunt jump across buildings!) but the sheer energy of KR going out and kicking the snot out of the baddies is pure crack to a kid (and we’re all still 8 years old deep inside, aren’t we?). You watch that opening credit and you KNOW you want to watch the whole show! 🙂

    Honestly, what I’ve seen of many of the recent KR shows, I’m not that impressed. They lack the manic violence of the past. And, ya know, they REALLY look like they should have been ‘Metal Hero’ shows, only they had to have the KR styling imposed on them. Does that make any sense?

    1. Yeah, well tough luck for Bandai because I just ordered a couple of D-Stage sets. 😛

      How did I know you loved the Showa era. 😉

      That opening is pretty great. There’s just something about those retro shows that I really love.

      1. Okay, here’s the gist of it. The one I linked is Shin Ichigo 1 which is the slightly upgraded original suit ver, it’s the same as the one in this review except sliver gloves instead of red and a few other changes, and at this point it’s considered the “showa” Rider 1.

        The one you linked to is the first figuart ever released of Rider 1 which was based on then then coming out movie Kamen Rider: The First while the figure is fine, the movie is pretty terrible and that suit has a lot of differences from Shin Ichigo.

        Basically, get Shin Ichigo, it’s better in every way to The First!Ichigo

        1. I concur! That’s the twisty naming thing I figured out as well, you can tell the The First! Rider by the shoulder pads.

          Now just need the classic Cyclone!

  6. Sad I didn’t preorder this or amazon or rider 1. Better hope on the V3 train so my life will feel less empty.

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