Probably, yeah! Though, as they themselves say... W is a 2 in 1 rider

It might just be that they came so late in the show that there wasn't a budget for Masked forms.

They got off lucky because look at the ugly assortment of parts that Sasword got for his Masked form.

I think conversely that was part of the idea of the Hoppers. That they were an unconventional twist on the formula; underlined by the Zecter’s gimmick being two riders instead of two forms.

As far as I know, their gimmick is supposed to be the Rider Jump, rather than the Cast Off.

The whole thing about the Hopper Zecter is that you can turn it around to be either Kickhopper or Punchhopper

Well that's a better answer than anything from Toei so I guess I can live with that. Not exactly an existential quandary- just me being a fan of the grasshopper motif. I like the idea of molting and ablation and like how it was implemented into a Kamen Rider series.

Huh. I never realised that Cast Off was a reference to molting. That just makes Kabuto's already great designs even better for me.

Which is why I always think say what you will about the story, but they had the gimmicks on point. :rock:
And this is just my speculation but I think it is a nice reference to Inazuman in a way.

Personal headcanon is that whoever within ZECT that built it must got rid of the masked system for easy-access and to focus more on its unique gimmick. Cause while we got the dynamic duo that is the Hell Brothers, the writers could have made it just be one person who switches back-and-forth depending on the situation kinda like Lupin X/Patren X. And this has nothing to do with what I just said, but fun fact, the reason the hoppers have a long protruding head is because it is specifically based off of the Acrida cinerea, or Chinese Grasshopper.

It is a collection of every bad 90s action figure design element.