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Thread
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Level-Up! A Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Toy Thread
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10-17-2016, 04:43 PM
#
120
Tokumonkey
Veteran Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 1,473
I got the LVUR Ex-Aid and Brave in the mail today, as well as the Taddle Quest Gashat.
I noticed that the LVUR figures have round ports on their lower legs, forearms, upper arms, and heads. For Brave, this allows his shield to be plugged in differently, but I assume their primary purpose is to connect to the Level 3 Gamers. The instructions also point out that the Gamer Driver and Kimewaza Slot Holder are removable, so it's conceivable that this will be relevant to later forms.
These figures are a strange mix of high-quality and low-end. The Level 2 forms are well-molded and well-articulated*. The thigh swivels used for the Level 1 gimmick extend the leg articulation even further. A lot of care and attention went into getting the heads and chest details to look right. The left side of the chestplate isn't perfect due to the plastic cover being a little too thick, but the right side looks great, as does Ex-Aid's visor. There are many respects in which you could mistake these for Figuarts.
The attention to detail stops at the paint. Ex-Aid includes the Gashacon Breaker in both modes, and neither is painted. There's no paint on the Kimewaza Slot Holder (rendered in black), and the paint on the Gamer Driver is neon green with only the pink of the handle. It's not nothing, but it looks cheap and partially undercuts the positive qualities of these figures. The Breaker is supposed to look like a cheap toy, but not *that* cheap.
Molding
detail on the Driver is there, though, so you can clearly make out the tiny "Gamer Driver" text. Brave's Gashacon Sword gets a little paint around the blade element area: orange for fire and silver (as opposed to the blue I'd've expected) for the ice side. This causes the strange effect of the weapons looking awful from a foot away, but showing great molded detail up-close.
I'm biased against the Level 1 forms - I just don't like how they look - but I'd hoped that these figures would cause me to warm to them. Nope. The Level 1 form only looks semi-okay from the front, and unless you want to buy a second Ex-Aid (or wait until Double Action), only one Rider can be in Level 1 form at a time. Level 1 is mostly a brick. The only articulation points are ball joints at the shoulders and swivels at the wrists. You can't quite get Level 1's arm into a dai henshin position. This version of Level 1 won't be Mario-jumping, and the angle of the arms makes the poses you *can* manage awkward. You can clearly see Ex-Aid's level 1 hair behind the Level 1 faceplate. Brave as level 1 looks a little better, since the top-crest on Brave's head can be reversed.
You know what looks better than Brave at Level 1? Brave at Level 2. The same goes for Ex-Aid. Fortunately, it seems as though the LVUR line will at least partially abandon the Level 1 portion of the gimmick after this initial wave, and I assume it will focus on later level-ups like Level 3 going forward. I think the base figures are great given the price point. People who like the Level 1 forms are probably better off waiting for the web exclusive Level 1 and the inevitable Figuarts edition of Level 2.
I've made some fairly critical comments here, so I suppose I should clarify that I'm glad I bought these, and so far, I think I want to pursue this toy line. The LVUR Ex-Aid makes a
much
better stand-in for the Figuarts versionthan the GC Ghost Ore Damashii figure did. The Level 1 gimmick strikes me as a waste, but the Level 2 forms are good enough to make me overlook it.
(And right when I hit "post" on this, I realized that Brave and Ex-Aid are definitely missing some black paint for helmet details.)
* - The articulation does not extend to their heads. Ex-Aid's head is on a ball joint, but the green collar piece limits its range significantly. For whatever reason (the narrow jaw?), Brave has greater range.
Last edited by Tokumonkey; 10-17-2016 at
04:50 PM
.. Reason: overlooked something
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