The answer to your question is the FIRST TWO PEOPLE that show up from the start of the show. Build and Night Rogue were there from the beginning. Cross-Z suit show up in ep 10 of build soo... his form was not in the show right at the start.

In Gaim case all 4 riders were there in suit from the start that's why they all got retail release.

It just seems that Bandai does not want to take a lost with a secondary rider that shows up in ep 10.

Mach didn't appear until Episode 11 of Kamen Rider Drive, appeared after Mashin Chaser, Gou didn't show up until later on in the series (while Banjo has been there from the start) and he still got a retail release. Gold Drive didn't appear until Episode 41 but he got a retail release. Hell, Kivala got a retail release, and she only shows up in a single movie. In fact, more often than not, the Secondary Rider doesn't typically show up until well into the series' run in the Neo-Heisei era to begin with. It's only Gaim, Ghost and Ex-Aid where the secondary Rider appears within the first few episodes, so saying they don't want to take a lost with a Rider that shows up in Ep. 10 doesn't really make much sense when they've done retail releases for characters such as Accel, who only shows up 19 episodes into W.

The base form for the Secondary Rider of a series has always been a retail release, with the sole exception throughout the entire history of figuarts being Gatack from the Shinkocchou Seihou line. There's simply no excuse. The only thing I can think of is that Cross-Z Charge does indeed become the "main" suit going forward and that's going to get the retail treatment.

I did not watch drive so I don't have anything to say about the drive line.

Also there is an excuse because like others have said the last two rider shows secondary riders did not sell well so I kinda see why he webshop.

I made it clear about the Gaim riders suit being in the show right from the start which is why all 4 main riders got retail release. And rider release from 2012 are different from today so it don't matter.

There's very specific reasons for that though.

With Ghost, the toyline simply didn't sell well period. Virtually every Ghost figuart released can be found for dirt cheap, including Ghost himself. The Ghost line died out after only 8 releases. The line simply wasn't doing well.

Meanwhile, Brave and Snipe not selling well likely had more to do with the fact that they were already made available in the Mighty Action Beginning set a full month before their solo release. This isn't really saying anything about the popularity of secondary Riders in the line, especially when Lazer and Genm are selling for exorbitant prices on the aftermarket.

What I don't get about the "Cross-Z's suit will be replaced so they don't want to have the figure sitting at retail once the form is obsolete in the show"-argument... isn't this exactly what will happen with Night Rogue? Haven't we seen "Kamen Rider Rogue" in the toy scans? Pretty sure Night Rogue will also get a permanent suit-upgrade before his SHF is out in stores.

So... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The same thing happened with Zangetsu. The base melon suit gets completely discarded by Episode 12, and only shows up for two episodes after that.

Maybe it’s that they don’t want to repeat the Zangetsu situation, so are doing the reverse.

Rogue I have no idea about though - confidence that their villain characters will suddenly be able to sell well? Dunno, I’m still expecting that figure to flop hard to be honest :lol

It seemed like they were going that route with Genm, but Zombie Gamer was an exclusive anyway.

The time gaps between Cross-Z and Cross-Z Charge and Night Rogue and Rogue are completely different though. Base Cross-Z is gonna get replaced in January (if not late December), essentially only giving it a month and change of significant airtime. Rogue has been around in the show from the very first episode, and won't become a Kamen Rider until February. That's almost six months, versus Cross-Z's one. That's a lot more time for the viewers to see him in action and to build interest.

Just posting this in case nobody else noticed it, but in one picture the Beat Closer had the Lock Fullbottle inserted, while another didn't. Also, it seems that the Beat Closer can swap handles or something to mimic the "Hippare!" announcement.

Bandai, why are you doing this to my wallet?!?!?