Friday, July 25, 2014
Review: S.H.Figuarts Kamen Rider Chalice
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Bandai |
| Origin Series: | Kamen Rider Blade |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 14cm tall |
| Original Price: | 4,104 Yen |
| Packaging: |
There's not much to say about Chalice's box aside from having a Heart symbol on his packaging window; everything else are exactly the same as Blade's in design with the sides containing his name and the back promoting more product shots along with the Rouze Cards that allow him to perform his Spinning Dance attack.
| Details: |
Taking on his head first, Chalice doesn't have any compound eyes but does take on a heart-shaped visor and Figuarts have done a really good job of replicating it down to the slight transparency and the black linings near the bottom of his visor. The plastic is of clear dark red but the "opaque" sections emulate a metallic red paint that looks ridiculously good!
Going to his belt, the Chalice Rouzer is carefully detailed and like the source material (the real suit), the rouzer can be detached and attached to his signature weapon. (which you will see later)
The entire belt is painted in a very shiny silver and like Blade, the sides of his belt has peg holes with the right side attached with his deck case.
As S.H.Figuarts have slowly been putting on gimmicks like S.I.C.'s and for Chalice, one of them is that you can pull down the deck case to open it.
Chalice's suit and armor are covered in matte black and a really decent silver (that was also used for his belt) respectively while supported with shades of red and gold all over certain details of his suit. Overall, his S.H.Figuarts rendition captures the real suit nicely.
Additionally, I love how all the golden markings were cleanly finished on my piece of the figure; the markings' attention is greatly brought out by the decent gold-ish paint finish and it looks really wonderful.
Last on my list is that on his gauntlets and greaves, you'll see small red orbs of detail in there and the figuarts rendition really impressed me out on this one as each orb is cleanly finished which deserves a praise, so kudos to you, Bandai.
| Accessories: |
Suit of Hearts Rouze Cards aside, Chalice comes with his signature weapon, the Chalice Arrow. As for the handsets, it's almost similar to what Blade came with which is in the form of two variants grippings hand pairs, a pair of open hands and a right hand to hold rouze cards; additionally, he comes with another unique right hand, which looks like a pointing hand but I can't really find the right description for it, haha! What's nice about Chalice's release is the fact that bandai finally saves you from the hassle of stickering up something as he doesn't come with any.
| Articulation Points: |
Chalice gets some really extreme head articulation as his ability to look up or down are waaaaay over what I wanted; rotation remains neat while the tilt is also beyond satisfying.
His shoulder pads, much like Blade's, are individually articulated as well but still on a thin joint so be careful with it still. I've provided more shots this time for his shoulder pads' articulation range alone so check them out below.
Arm articulation emulates your generic blade frame as the arms are fully rotatable as well as being able to be raised to 90 degrees while having the ability to shifted upwards/downwards/forwards/backwards via a ball joint. He also has swivels on his biceps and forearms while the elbow joints bend satisfyingly enough. The wrist are your typical wrist joints that are on a hinge and ball joint.
Going to the torso, SHF Chalice gets a satisfying inwards and outwards bend, sideways tilt and a very good rotation which also existed back on Blade's frame as well.
Much like all the new frames, Chalice retains the non-pull down hip joints which can raise to a 90 and shift backwards a bit; additionally, the tip of the joints grant you an access for his fully rotatble thigh swivels. The double jointed knees work their magic in Chalice as well by giving a, yet again, satisfying bendability. Ankle joints retain their functionality but the tilting ability of Chalice seems to be more limited when compared to Blade.
| Poseability: |
Chalice has always been my favorite rider in the series and his SHF is one gorgeous piece, you can have him swing around his Chalice Arrow with ease and his frame definitely allows a lot of leg splitting poses that will definitely compliment slashing poses a lot.
As said in the details section, you can slide the Chalice Rouzer out of his buckle and insert it to his weapon and additionally, a neat little gimmick to his Chalice Arrow can have the blades folded and turning adding the Rouzer to the Arrow does make it a neat little bow and you can finally use the "pointing" hand to go well with it.
What I absolutely like about SHF Chalice is that you can properly recreate his finisher, the Spinning Dance.
Weaponless poses aside, you can have Chalice do a kick pose that stands on one leg which is neat. Running and kneeling poses are also possible with his frame.
As bonus photos, here's Chalice beating up the usual shocker goon and him side by side with his somewhat Precure counterpart, Cure Heart, as they are both representing the Heart symbol of the cards.
And for a final stretch, here's Chalice fighting Blade in a clash of finishers!
| Final Thoughts: |
Being my favorite rider in the series aside, I find Chalice to be a strong release in the S.H.Figuarts line; his details are excellent, and his frame certainly is satisfying to the core. Adding to his praiseworthy features is that poseability-wise, I find Chalice to be greater than Blade's Ace Form. Given his price, I say he's worth his price point and definitely a good addition to a collection of S.H.Figuarts Kamen Riders. As for me, I only am waiting for a Wild Chalice release and I'm done with the Blade line of figures (unless they make an Albino Joker Undead or Glaive that is) as I have no intention of grabbing Garren and Leangle since I dislike those characters. :p
Chalice is another one of the SHFs that I got from Onegai Onii-chan, so check em' out!
Chalice is another one of the SHFs that I got from Onegai Onii-chan, so check em' out!
I give Chalice a heartful 5 out of 5.
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thx for the review.. I want to buy it soon 😂
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