Friday, March 18, 2016
Review: S.H.Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider Decade
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Bandai |
| Origin Series: | Kamen Rider Decade |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 14.5cm tall |
| Original Price: | 6,480 Yen |
| Packaging: |
As I've reviewed 2 Shinkocchou Figuarts already at this point, there's nothing new in Decade's packaging style as it's been the same style/presentation from Kabuto which features a close up shot of the figure's head in front while looking all premium with how small and clean the overall design is like that of a gadget's. The back still features your gimmicks and product shots to try and entice you to buy the product if you haven't yet. Anyway, not much to say anymore, so let's proceed with the main dish!
| Details: |
Starting off with Decade's head, I love it! The shape and detailing, the eyes, everything looks so accurate now, something that the old Decade certainly did good but not perfect. The green in the eyes look really great and does make it totally pop out while surrounded in Decade's color scheme. I do think the yellow gem on his forehead could've used a more brighter clear yellow plastic.
If there was anything I'd actually nitpick at least on my piece is that when on the sides of he head, the silver streak is definitely not arranged pretty well when viewed from his right side.
What's totally lovely about Shinkocchou Decade is definitely how they finally got his proportions correctly as he's not thin anymore and that the body does look great along with the suit. The Magenta they used is also pretty accurate this time though my detail shots might look totally bright below but anyway, the magenta definitely works with the glossy black paint on Decade's body along with the clean white shade.
My favorite part on this that Decade finally have proportioned HANDS! Like seriously, the old Violent Emotion Decade was good in its time but its hand size have always had bothered me since, well, he does have them man hands.
One really amazing attention to detail on Shinkocchou Decade is him having his joints actually colored to have symmetry with his arms' paint.
The Decadriver and the buckle is truly a wonderful sight to behold since each part has been painted correctly and the driver itself have each of the 9 heisei rider logos carefully printed in it. The color is glaring red as heck though I wished it would've been a much more clearer plastic so you can actually leave a Ride card in there and see the logo; additionally, speaking of ride cards, you can actually insert one of the ride cards included in the set inside the driver which definitely ups the playability of the figure.
The belt itself is covered in rich silver paint and the right side is actually capable of holding the Ride Booker which I'll discuss more in the accessories section.
| Size Comparison: |
Tamashii nations actually did put up a decent size approximation of 14.5cm as Decade's real height is just slightly taller standing near 15cm. And comparing him with newer non-shinkocchou riders like Gaim Orange Arms, Decade is actually pretty darn tall since he does stand a bit taller.
The same case applies when he stands next to a fellow Shinkocchou release, Kabuto.
The figure really is tall as he does fair well when standing next to one of, if not, the tallest Riders ever released as of this writing which is Kuuga Ultimate Form.
And lastly, thankfully, my sister has the Violent Emotion release so I can actually show you guys both a size and actual comparison of the two Decades since Violent Emotion was pretty much sort of a "renewal" already back in his time. You'll easily see how much taller Shinkocchou Decade is as well as being more proportioned overall especially the hand size and doing a way better job at presenting detail symmetry.
| Accessories: |
Decade comes with a neat set of accessories such as a Ride Card sheet, 3 versions of the Ride Booker, an alternate opened buckle for the Decadriver, the Gekijoutai or Violent Emotion head and 4 alternate pairs of hands which comes in a pair of card holding hands, open hands and two variants of weapon holdings for each of the Ride Booker's Weapon Modes.
The Violent Emotion head doesn't really follow its movie colors as intended such as having darker green eyes and darker magenta color but that's actually pretty good since this keeps symmetry across Decade's body. Color aside though, they got the Gekijoutai head perfectly with the fierce looking eyes and the violet core on his forehead.
The Ride Cards Sheet is actually pretty neat as you can easily pop out the cards from there. Cards include all 10 Heisei Kamen Ride Cards, a Final Attack Ride for Decade and 4 Attack Rides featuring Illusion, Slash, Blast and Invisible cards.
Each Ride card are fully detailed in front and at the back, as the back side features the logo as intended.
I've mentioned the details section that I'll be discussing the Ride Booker here, and it actually is a pretty good representation of the actual Ride Booker as the Decade logo is imprinted in it quite nicely while being covered in silver for the most part and the attention to detail in both molding and paint is superb. Additionally, you can open up the Ride Booker although you can't really put any of the cards there and it's just flat out black plastic inside.
The same amount of detail can be found in both of the Ride Booker's weapon modes along with additional little details but are all still painted accordingly. What's ridiculous for me is that if you flip the booker in the other side, you'll still see the peg for the belt's side in there, not really sure if the Ride Booker really supposed to be like that but it does really look ridiculous for me to see the peg still there.
| Compatibility: |
While this gimmick isn't anything new in Figuarts history, Decade's form changes does actually have him transform into one of the nine original Heisei Riders with and thus, if you actually split his body from the waist, you can actually remove the Decadriver and its belt and then put the belt into other riders in the same way you removed Decade's belt. (Except Kiva since we don't have a Figuarts of Kiva's base form yet.)
As far as my test goes, the oldest Rider mold it can be put onto is that of Faiz's mold and it actually perfectly fits despite its old age. The belt is also compatible with pre-shinkocchou frames like that of Ryuki's, Den-O's and Blade's, though the belt will loosely fit on Ryuki and Den-O, especially on Den-O. For the remaining riders who all have their Shinkocchou releases, compatibility is definitely not an issue so you can easily turn them into Decade's Kamen Ride forms.
Below is a gallery of the Decade's Rider Forms arranged from Kuuga to Den-O.
| Articulation Points: |
Decade's neck is using ball joints on both the top and bottom portions so you can actually make him look up and down to a REALLY good amount while also allowing you awesome tilting range. The top ball joint alone also allows Decade a complete head rotation.
Decade's shoulder pads move similarly to that of Blade King Form's where in there's a hinge from the shoulders while the pad itself moves on a ball joint.
While Decade has all your typical Figuarts articulation nowadays, his arms does actually go way up when raised up sideways as it pretty much goes up to 135 degrees than your usual 90. Of course, you can still fully rotate the arms via the shoulder joints and also rotate the arms via the bicep swivel. Elbows remain double jointed and you can get a good amount of bending from it. Decade also has forearm swivels while the wrist joints are still your usual figuarts wrist joint which can swivel at the forearm connection point, has a hinge and a ball joint on the hand connection point.
As for his torso, you have another case of two ball joints working together which is on the waist and on the torso's mid section which can work wonders in giving Decade a great amount of bending ability, a good enough for stretching backwards and tilting sideways. The ball joints can also be used to rotate the body to a certain degree.
Hips joint works similarly to all other shinkocchou releases which I can't really put to words that much but yeah you can split his legs sideways up to around 45 degrees, kick forward to almost 90 degrees and little to none when going backwards. Thigh swivels also exists so you can easily rotate Decade's legs with it along with double jointed knees which does give a good enough bending ability. Ankles rotate at the connection point with the legs, have a hinge to raise or stretch Decade's feet and a swivel on the feet connection to tilt his feet using the ankles and finally, the toe joints which bends enough to a normal realistic degree.
| Gallery: |
Decade definitely has a very great frame and him being Decade definitely meant that he's going to be totally interactive with a lot of Riders. Anyway, the accessories together with his frame are definitely enough to pull off his Iconic poses and timeless scenes with other riders. The old Dimension Kick cards also still work perfectly with Shinkocchou Decade so if you have them, then your Decade's totally complete! Additionally, since this is Decade, shooting him with other characters from other series for crossover shots are definitely okay to do haha, anyway, I did exert a lot of effort for Decade's gallery so check them out below!
| Final Thoughts: |
Shinkocchou Decade is everything you would have ever expected from a renewal similar to what Kabuto, Kuuga and Agito did as well as looking like a mini Project BM/RAH in terms of appearance. I did feel that Decade is the one that totally nailed it, he's got paint consistency, the right set of hands with the right set of accessories which actually feels like you got both the old Decade and the old Violent Emotion renewed into one single package as Shinkocchou Decade has everything from both those sets and even more. I definitely love this one out of all 5 Shinkocchous we have as of this writing and I don't think he'll have paint problems easily like Hibiki did. Decade definitely got me excited to see more from the line such as DiEnd in the future as these releases are clearly a big step up from Tamashii's older releases. Before I end, this has been another figuarts that I've pre-ordered from Onegai Onii-chan!
I do give Decade a 10 5 out of 5.
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