I wonder what the dialogue must have been like with Toei and Sony.

Sony: Hello Toei. How may I help you?
Toei: We are bringing back Kamen Rider. A new legend, a new hero. Our Takatera needs the finest tools in the shed that you can offer.
Sony: Take this prototype. Take it. TAKE IT I SAY! WHAT PART OF TAKE IT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND! TAKE IT DAMMIT! :lolol

But for real though, it's not like prototypes are common and considering HD was still probably in its infancy commercially around the late 90s, I am genuinely curious how that went down.

It makes me curious about the camerawork and directing too. Kuuga is a show that’s very deliberate about every little detail, and the camerawork is excellent; but this is a camera no-one had experience on operating. I mean, I’m sure it was very comparable to other cameras; but that’s still impressive!

I might've mentioned this a bit in either my thread on Kuuga or Die's, but apparently the crew genuinely had enough trouble with the new camera that it was putting filming behind schedule at first.

I’d also like to point out that the first half of Hibiki also went through delays (to the point Toei refused to allow the crew to do the movie because they wanted to release it on time). Hmm .

Not surprising, the show had a ton of location filming in it. That was a big part of why it went over budget.

And Takatera is an auteur, so there was that. Remember folks, episode 2 of Kuuga.

I need to actually watch Kuuga lol. I'm just worried that I'll get bored - I tend not to do well with repetitive motw-formula shows.

so why are the Den-O crew cops in Climax Deka?

Because they needed a reason to give Ryotaro his liner pass after the finale.

I always figured they got bored and decided to play cop.

Cause Den-O printed toku money at the time and they wanted to pinch every penny. :lolol
But really, it was considered a huge success at the time so I don't blame them.

Hey so what kamen rider series do you feel are the most "auteur"/have had the most clear style and ideas?

Probably the Taketara series - Kuuga and Hibiki. They both have a really unmistakable style and tone that's very unique.

Yes, those two for sure. And Kamen Rider Shin Prologue as well.

I gotta throw Shin into the ring as well. Part of me wishes it went a little further into the body horror realm to have a more unique feel, but as it is, I still think it's a different take on the superhero genre.

Oh yeah, and it feels like Ishinomori's pet project pretty much. Thing about Shin is that it was the second rider Ishinomori proclaimed to be Kamen Rider no.0 when he first said it to BLACK. The way I translate this is BLACK was a back-to-basics within the established franchise while Shin is no.0 in terms of the foundation of Kamen Rider. In Transformers terms, BLACK I say is IDW Transformers or Transformers Prime while Shin is be a Diaclone reboot for a lack of better comparison. That said, I kinda wonder what would have happened had they went with the Kamen Rider Gaia plan. We got it eventually through the Kamen Rider Eve novel but I wonder how different the Heisei Rider series would have been. Heck, Kamen Rider Gaia could have been the Ultraman Zero of the franchise.

I'mma answer my own question today, because why not. I think Den-o has a very unique (for the time) sense of story telling and direction. It feels all at once very calm, yet manic and energetic. The stories themselves are very focused on a sort of slice of life, and what each individual wants. I feel it uses the simple effects and story structure in a way that wasn't really seen before or after.

If I'm being kind of honest, it feels like Kamen Rider the Coffee Shop AU.

It was a breath of fresh air at the time considering the previous shows were overall serious or heavy in tone whether people take them serious or not. Den-O was straight-up comedic and had a bright tone, and the fact that you pretty much have a ditzy and naturally unlucky young man as the protagonist paired with four monsters who are all radical and different in their own way was just very new. The riding a train wasn't that shocking personally cause at the end of the day he still rode a bike and used said bike to control the train so technically he was still on a bike. But back to my point, in retrospect it was what Shazam was to the DCEU for a lack of comparison.

IMO (while arguably needed to some extent) Den-O is more infamous for taking the franchise in a ''less good'' direction(at least for a while) than anything great, it's not like I'm one of those people that absolutely hate it and sometimes I did genuinely laugh but I can't praise it too much when Wataru deserves more credit for being a better protagonist to me, whereas it struck me that people only really like Ryotaro because of Takeru Sato because I hated him when he was just being normal!

What's funny about this is the timing!

Not long ago, a friend of mine on Facebook shared a video from "Deep Cuts Podcast" (which asks a dozen questions about pop-culture; some of their stuff can relate to whether Spider-Man was truly the brainchild of Lee and Kirby, and how "Message from Space" is a wild and unique Star Wars ripoff).

Back to the point, the video said friend shared was the Podcast guys watching and commenting on the "transformation" into Shin from the film, and how the body horror is basically copied from "An American Werewolf in London". The bisected jaw of Shin was definitely a plus to the duo.

Every indication (based in part on the minimal information provided in said video in addition to what I know of Shin) is that Shin is a literal representation of Ishinomori's belief in that the Rider was a hero and a "monster", though over the years some have argued that Shin doesn't really count because he doesn't wear a "mask" and doesn't actually have a bike to ride! One could also argue that the limitations of filming technology and '70s sensibilities prevented Ishinomori from really showing what he may always have wanted. At least, that's my take.

Shin is one of those things that seems to be going up in appeal for how it tried to be different.

To quote the text displayed on the post with the shared video: "Tokusatsu + Body Horror = Best Thing Ever"!

Honestly, considering whether Shin should count, the devil is in the details.
Shin was meant to be the beginning of a film franchise. He could've gotten a bike, he may have even gotten a mask, but it's flop means that it just became a one off venture (I know it got a SIC sequel story, but that was written over a decade later)

I looked up about how it performed and at the time it was a direct-to-video movie and was considered a hit, meaning it sold well, and paved the road for ZO and J to be screened in theaters. They were planning to do a few more sequels like most direct-to-video movies tend to do in Japan if popular, but for unknown reasons they dropped the idea despite performing well and moved on to make ZO and J.

Curious, then. I guess despite it's success, they wanted to go towards a more audience appealing and marketable design like ZO and J?

I'm considering getting RKF for the Saber Riders as I don't have any issue with how they look (Bandai is really stepping up their game with the painted weapons and stuff).

Does anybody have any previous experience with RKF? I know they're not as articulated as Figuarts, but on a scale of 1 to 10 how articulated is RKF compared to the average Figuart (which I suppose would be on an 8.5-10)?

Also how solid are they? Any experience with loose joints or stuff falling off in an RKF?

Don't get Grease, ever. He suffers from awful gold paint syndrome.

Uh... I would put them about a 6-7, if Figuarts are an 8.5. They're decently light and solid, too, and I haven't had one with loose joints so far.

I would put their articulation at 5. Though to be fair, they mostly get better and better every year. The Saber ones in particular look pretty good.

I have one from Build, Zi-O, and Zero One and you can see the improvements over time. They are durable (with the exception of Grease) and I haven't had any problems with loose joints or coming apart.

I only get them with the intention to paint the missing details. They can look really good with just a few extra paint apps. Their prices are starting to climb though...

As someone who owns every single RKF release before Saber, they aren't bad figures, they just aren't worth their initial price points. You know something has to be off when it's impossible to actually buy these figures at full price; every single retailer I've seen sells these guys for at least 500 yen off, even if you pre-order or grab them day 1.

If you're going to invest in this line, be patient. There is no point in rushing, let alone pre-ordering them because there is absolutely plenty of stock when it comes to these guys. RKF Saber and Blades haven't even been out for a month yet, and you can already find them for 1000 yen less than their MSRP. A lot of RKF releases that initially sold for 2000 yen or more have already dropped to less than 1000.

This line is close to having the same problem as the gimmick figure lines before Zi-O. They're slowly getting more expensive, but aren't really adding anything new to the table with each release. I also wouldn't say they feel durable or good in-hand, especially when the weapons are made of soft plastic.

The articulation isn't incredible by any means. It doesn't hold a candle to SH Figuarts, which has more than double their articulation points. They all have 17 points of articulation, which is alright, but when their retail prices are even higher than Marvel Legends, you shouldn't just settle. Wait and get your money's worth.

These figures also don't scale well with anything but themselves, so tough luck displaying them next to anything that isn't an RKF. They're all shorter than 1/12 scale figures.

As for joints, the joint system they use for the elbows and knees actually is prone to cracking, if you're unlucky or you handle them poorly. No figure has had it worse than RKF Grease, but I strongly suggest just checking those joints on each figure anyways, if you decide to pick them up. I haven't seen a figure(besides Grease) that had more than 1 of these cracks at a time, but you should keep an eye out for it.

Personally, I ended up switching to SO-DO. If you want an example of an action figure line that has made incredible strides in engineering, yet staying very affordable, that's where it's at. It's also really cool that almost all of these figures use the same ports and pegs, so you can do all sorts of form-changes, on top of the ones you can do from the series. SO-DO Saber's articulation is actually very comparable to the RKF, and they intend to keep it this way for future characters. But then again, you can wait a few months and RKF Saber stuff will probably drop very close to the price of SO-DO.

Need help on some rider card stuff:-

- What does the CSM Diend Binder have all in all?
- What’s the best way to get Showa Rider cards outside of CSM? Any DX releases?

I don’t think the binder itself comes with anything, but the main Diend set comes with G3, G4, Scissors, Gai, Raia, Outa, Femme, Ryuga, Kaixa, Delta, Psyga, Orga, Riotroopers, Glaive, Ibuki, Zanki, Todoroki, Kabuki, TheBee, Drake, Sasword, PunchHopper, Hercus, Ketaros, Caucasus, Ixa, Saga, Rey, Arc and all of Diend’s standard cards

Your best bet is loose carded.

From what I found on the web from 1993 to 1995 Toei had this thing called Toei Super Hero Fair and I guess as they were planning it they decided to include Kamen Rider into the mix. It was basically a title they used to describe their grindhouse film approach where Toei would show three new toku movies every year altogether. 1993 they had the Dairanger, Janperson, and Kamen Rider ZO movie. 1994 they had the Kakuranger, Blue Swat, and Kamen Rider J movie. 1995 was Ohranger, B-Fighter, and Hakaider. I guess after J they decided to call it quits and instead gave people that 90s Hakaider movie.

Noticed something in Drive 37.

When Krim is re-analyzing his data over the restaurant food well after the whole foodgasm sequence (significant to the episode if you haven't seen it yet), he stops on a shot of Kiriko's face as she's enjoying it with everyone else. The face shot looks the same from earlier, but the onscreen text is longer. Originally, Krim's analysis of Kiriko said "DELICIOUS?!!", but the longer text when read backwards (or forwards as the analysis scene is backwards only to the audience) seems to say "N LOOKS VERY DELICIOUS", which is an awkward discrepancy to say the least.

P.S.: Sorry about the mixed quality in screencaps. This was rushed.

I believe that says “IT” instead of “N”, which would make a lot more sense — I read it as N first too though; easy mistake to make!

You're right. The "I" is basically just a line, and the "T" has a very thinned cross at the top. The bright slant in between them is still misleading.

P.S.: When they solve the restaurant plot in the following episode, it fails to address just why that guy ran with the sauce and why the audience is led to believe he's the culprit in 37, in my mind at least.

Asking for a friend what’s shipping typically like on DX belts? Especially compared to someone who’s used to ordering at largest two FRSes in one shipment?

Did Hiroshi Kamiya voice Rider #2 in the Heisei Riders VS. Showa Riders Movie? After re-watching it, Ni-Go sounded like Shou Ronpou and Jean-Bot. No idea why it took me this long to peg the voice down.

Not uncommon for an actor in one toku to jump to another, but it is unique when someone has multiple roles in the "Big Three"!

Yep. He and Kenichi Suzumura voiced most of the Riders in that movie.

Does anybody have an idea of how they were able to make the Helheim Fruit props in Gaim? I mean, it's one thing to just make the plant prop, but the actors have been shown to eat the 'fruit' inside after peeling the thing open.

My current guess is that they the outer skin is plastic or paper or something while the fruit part is like some sort of gelatin concoction or an actual fruit that was peeled and put inside the outer skin.

Any ideas or official source on how they made those things?

He voiced Super-1, BLACK, and Kabuto as well. And Suzumura was Fourze and RX in that movie.
Probably because they do that Kamen Radiranger radio show together where they interview cast and staff of Sentai and Rider shows being a Toei-produced show. And I pointed this out before probably a while back, but both are violet/purple dragon-motif toku heroes; Suzumura is Ryutaros/Den-O Gun Form in Kamen Rider Den-O and Kamiya is Commander Dumplings/Ryu Commander in Kyuranger.

Does anyone know the release dates of Kamen Rider's HBVs? In particular OOO and Ghost's. I can kind of estimate from what forms are shown and used but Riderwiki isn't giving any dates on them. Even knowing the month would be helpful.

July 2011 for OOO and probably August-September 2016 for Ghost's.