The funny thing about that is while Chaser, Necrom and Tridoron should definitely have been retail... there was still a surprising amount that was retail. Ghost had Toucon Boost and its bike, while Drive had Mashin Chaser, both bikes, Mach, Type: Wild and Drive Dead Heat. The last two in particular are seriously stuff I would have expected to be Premium Bandai easily!

I feel like Bandai is slowly trying to make all of their SHFs, Rider and otherwise, into P-Bandai or Webshop only. Which I mean, if they're gonna do that, then they need to start doing reissues more often. Which, granted, they kinda have been. Seihou OOO Tatoba got reissued twice in relatively quick succession, afterall(even though he was retail).

I feel like TaToBa is an exception since it's kinda necessary for him to be widely available what with the interchangeability of the line. But I'm probably talking out of my ass.

Rising Hopper has been kinda reissued twice now too. He was reissued fairly quickly after the first release and now Realizing Hopper.

Saber has an entryway drug pricing they do every year with the new main Rider and Ultra since Build I think, that's nothing new.

So Saber is artificially sold at a lower price, Blades has a regular one.

Rising Hopper has never been reissued.

That's weird. What's with the "Revival Version" listing that HLJ had.

A HLJ-thing I guess, maybe a separate listing for additional stock so they could raise the price.

I can’t find this "Revival Version" on AmiAmi, and most importantly Tamashii doesn't list Rising Hopper as a re-release on their website. Every item they reissue gets a special stamp on the item page and every release date, reissues included, is listed.

While Gaim was and still is absolutely the best bang for your buck, it is far from the pinnacle of SHF.

I don't collect SHF anymore, but I'm glad such high quality figures are now available at the 1/12 scale. Honestly, the thought of modern SHF Kamen Rider figures being at the quality of the older stuff makes me shudder. I'm genuinely glad we now have figures that actually look like there are suit actors underneath them.

These figures become so fucking cheap on the aftermarket, that I can't blame them for transitioning towards making almost everything a web exclusive. It hurts the wallet quite a bit as a collector, but it just makes more sense.

Premium Bandai isn't inherently bad; it's the rate of reissues, which they've been working on.

I suppose something else I miss from old Figuarts were fun accessories. I understand that we're never gonna go back to the time when frequent releases included fun little extras (like Fourze's Foordroids or the old Beast's mayonnaise bottle or Bravo's little wine glass) but I suppose I'm happy that at least some recent releases still include those little extras (like Cronus' extra Gamer Driver of Genm Lvl 0's level bar).

I don't know, I'm just ranting at this point. Makes me feel like a miserly old man yelling at the clouds even though I jumped on the toku bandwagon when Ex-Aid was airing; long after the extra accessories were cut out.

You do have a point, though. There is absolutely no reason we should have blank drivers/trinkets nowadays. It's bizarre that SO-DO, the candy toy line, are the only action figures that detail them; albeit with stickers. Nowadays, it does feel more like you're paying for the mold, rather than the accessories.

I actually loved the Lockseeds in the Gaim line. It almost felt like I was collecting the DX merch, albeit at a 1/12 scale.

Tamashii Nations put out teaser images for SHFs of Alpha Edge, Sevenger, Juggler with the Dark Z-Riser, Geed Galaxy Rising, and cloaked Zero. And I think the other one is Ultroid Zero or base Z?

Color me interested on Juggler tho.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Elngr9HV...pg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElngbGBU...pg&name=medium