I'm still trying to talk myself into Kurokage and Gridon. I like their designs a little bit less than the others, and they were fairly inessential to the plot of the series, at least in their armored Rider forms. (Also, the prices haven't quite gone past the "Okay, fine, why not?" threshold.)

The Gaim Figuarts are also convincing me that I need to invest in fine-point superglue. A couple of friends were over last night and were daring enough to pick up the the core four. They were rewarded with armor and Musou Saber-holders falling off (in addition to the expected falling-off of lockseeds.) It's way past time.

I had a longer reply to this typed out but it was a waste of space honestly so I'll condense it down to: I don't think 3 times is that many, even if Takatora didn't use Zangetsu Shin in every episode he still used it far far more than the original, and just because it was one of the most publicized suits in Gaim doesn't actually reflect anything in-show. In the show, in my opinion, it becomes much easier to associate Takatora with Shin. He only used Zangetsu five times during an arc where he didn't even do much. By the time he became a more important and notable character he had already switched. It's an exaggeration, but I'd say it's like associating Shinji most with the Blank Ryuki form or something. YMMV, I guess.

Anyway, I'm not saying that they should have released the original as a web exclusive instead or anything. But for such an important suit, I do think Bandai messed up making it so hard to get--especially since they didn't even release any other New Generation Riders as retail figuarts. I do understand why they only released the main four, and except for Gaim, only the base forms...but since Zangetsu Shin was both basically the base suit of one of the main characters as well as the poster boy of the New Generation Riders....It's just a bit of an odd choice.





edit: also I own the Thrust figma and the Gai figuarts is still super worth it. No regrets.

On the subject of which form better represents Takatora: I feel like they were used about evenly by Takatora himself, though we at least saw Energy transform more than once. Still, Melon Energy was used when Takatora was more ignorant/misguided to what was happening around him, wheras Melon reflects him as a "good guy" at the end. I feel like both have equal place in a display, but I like Melon more aesthetically and liked Takatora as a hero more.

I just think there's far too many exclusives in the Gaim line. Exclusives should be a rarity themselves, hence the term exclusive. Making half the cast an exclusive doesn't give collectors incentive to buy them, it makes them less inclined to get them at all like I was. Mainf orms as exclusives is nonsense. I get why Gridon and Kurokage and Bravo and movie riders and, hell, even Duke are exclusives. But Baron's final form? Shin Zangetsu? Marika? These aren't minor characters.

There's been a lot of similar discussion about the Drive Figuarts. It's hard to say exactly how they decide what should be regular and what should be an exclusive, but I think it's pretty clear here. Like has been said, Gaim, Baron, Ryugen and the base Zangetsu were the ones hyped up during the launch of the show as the core riders. Even if other forms were eventually used more, most fans like having those base versions. Especially if they're not actually watching the current shows and are only collecting because of the legacy, which is fairly common in Japan.

If someone was following the show closely enough to want Shin as their representation of the character then it probably didn't make a difference to them if they had to order it online. That sucks for people like yourself who only get into things after the show has aired, but Bandai make no money from people buying on the aftermarket anyway, so it doesn't affect them. Even regular releases are long since sold out in retail stores.

Bandai's not been making a whole lot of sense with their exclusives lately...

Marika makes sense, given their history of making Sentai Pinks and Yellows exclusive, and bear in mind that Tamashii Web Exclusives aren't as hard to obtain in Japan, as they don't need to jump through the same hoops that us westerners do.

The Gaim line is fine. Their choices in retail and exclusive makes sense to me.


I'm mainly referring to Drive lol

Then there's the fact that Kiva-la is a retail release...

Sometimes Bandai's choices are confusing, shrug.

Yeah...I fully expected her to be Tamashi Web.

Meanwhile Kiva doesn't even have a figuart yet...