There isn't very much of a window on that box.

That looks amazing. =)

No, that's Rising Mighty.

Just saw Gigabeetle post this over on Twitter, looks like Rider SHFs are getting KO's now so ebay buyers beware.

http://tieba.baidu.com/p/4511294093

Both good to know and that sucks.

"Server not found".

Not really sure how to help there sorry, the link works fine for me :S

I'm not surprised. My connection's been giving me crap all day.

Well, Ghost & Kabuto Extender paid at AmiAmi. Now let's see if they get it out the door before they close for Golden Week.

Anyone else get ghost yet? Just popped him open and I gotta say, hes one of the worst SHFs in a pretty long time. Looks good, articulation is crap. Old swingbar hips, ankles and head articulation severely restricted, sleeves restrict shoulder movement, jacket restricts waist. Its like if you made a black series slightly better articulated while not looking like shit.

Mine is still being shipped. I'm surprise they went back to the old hips. I guess the new hips didn't work for him when they where working on the figuart. I doubt he will be bad as Wizard Flame Style. There is no English reviews for him on Youtube yet.

I for one have never really had a problem with the old hips. But yeah, mine's still in customs, so I'll let you know what I think once it arrives.

This. So much this. I mean just based on his design, it's understandable that there would be some limitations. ShiShiOh gave him a four though, so he couldn't be THAT bad.

HS Rigufarts Kaman Riper?! Awesome! I hope they have implanted a sound chip so it can make the awful stock footage martial arts fighting grunts that every bootleg Rider belt has.

I was actually thinking KO's already existed out there but thanks for the warning.

Sorry man, that sounds awful. Kinda glad I skipped him and the entire lineup for that matter since they will all share the same body. I don’t understand why they go with the old hips again.

His ratings are not very helpful. Maybe I would understand what goes in there if I could read Japanese but the star ratings are almost always either three or four so why even bother.

maybe i wordied this badly but he's not bad because of anything to do with qc, the figure just has really terrible design choices. Some people don't mind the old swing out hips, they aren't terrible but if you ever try to get the most of them for posing, the hips tend to dig into the the thighs and i have marks left on a few figures because of that. I can understand the choice on slimmer figure, but ghost is not a slim design, and his hips are even designed to LOOK like the 2.0 hips without actually being them. I'm not even sure why the figure even has the ankle pivot, as it literally gets like 10 degrees forward and back. The gaim, drive, and SS figuarts have all been huge steps forward in articulation, decade even has the incredible fo stormtrooper ab crunch but you can might as well not even bother. Its like they took two steps forward over the past few years and then took a train backwards to 2008 with ghost.

I'm more critical of things than most people, but i really don't consider this up to par with any shf thats come out in the last few years. I didn't even like type technic and i think that was a much better figure. I don't know about shishiohs scoring system, but you can tell that even he had a hard time trying to get any seriously dynamic poses. When you are pretty much one of the two gods of posing and you are struggling, then you know you have a problem.

Alright. Not sure if you meant this literally, but if so, 2008 has to be an extreme exaggeration on your part. I might believe something more in the reasonable the ballpark of 2011 given his hip situation and jacket limitations.

I mean, I have difficulties posing Type Speed in a lot of ways because of his shoulders and big 'ol chest tire, and that came out only last year. Hell, at least Ghost comes with the Gangun Saber.

ShiShiOh gives practically everything a four :lol
Not that I'm much better, but still.

I posted pics in the Rider Pic Thread of him...

He's definitely not as good as Drive Type Speed or Gaim Orange Arms were, but he's not terrible. I can see why they gave him the older hip style since even though the flaps of his jacket are flexible, they still drop low enough over his hips to risk restriction if they stuck with the current style. Any other restrictions are due to working with the design really. The torso joint has very little movement and the cuffs around the wrists and ankles do hinder their articulation for instance.

The only real design flaw I can find is his upper arm and shoulder rotation. You kinda feel like you're stressing the joint, since it does move below the sleeve, but is very tight. I'm guessing they struggled with trying to preserve the sculpt while also articulating the arm since they don't want to break the jacket up too much or make it look too vest-like. I feel they could have simplified the joint a bit and have gotten all the movement they needed.

Other than that I think he's fine even with his limitations. Sculpt is great, other joints work wonderfully (Head's not restricted much at all and is very fluid), the hood gimmick is easy to do and works fantastically, as is swapping the Gan Gan Saber's sword and gun modes, hands are a breeze to swap. Just wish he came with some eyecons and some sealing ritual hands really.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChP28RKU0AEu_R0.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChP7U3_W4AEEbSp.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChP7VPbWwAALI30.jpg

Got my Ghost today. Can't put him on display as I'm moving very soon, but I did tinker with him for a bit. He's not a bad figure. The joints on mine are tight, but fluid. He overall feels solid and not fragile like some other figures I own. Yea, he's a bit restricted in the torso and waist area, but that had to be a given. I'll gladly let that slide since he doesn't feel like he's gonna crumble in my hands.

https://65.media.tumblr.com/fe8a37a5...dw9zo1_540.jpg

I totally don't understand your distaste, Goggle. This is a pretty damn solid figure in my opinion. And as far as articulation goes, I personally didn't run into many problems with his the neck or ankles. In fact, I was actually thoroughly surprised at the range of motion in his shoulders once I knew what I was doing. I like him way more than I did Type Speed last year at least. He could use a couple more pairs of hands and maybe an Eyecon or two, though.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psqcmhq5v4.jpg
http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psx7shib9b.jpg
http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psojdalfzn.jpg

OOMEDAMA!

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psmw2apl4s.jpg

Also, did you guys know that his face-plate and the orange lines on his armor are florescent? I don't have a proper Blacklight to show it off myself, but I used a 10th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver (the one with the UV tip) on it, and the light-up parts of the suit actually glow! So that alone adds a few points in my book.

I got my SHF Ghost in the mail today and I found the figure to be a disappointment. I feel like it could be much better. Detail wise, he looks great. He feels and looks like the suit from the show. However I really don't like the articulation on the figure. It's hard to get any movement around the ab area and his legs feel really stiff. The right leg on my figure even pop off when I try to do a pose with him. I would recommend picking up SHF Ghost at a discount price.

You don't really need to be able to read Japanese. Most of the subtext just explains how the articulation works. There's an overall blurb at the end with the rating, but that's not too important in understanding it.

I will agree with you on a lot of your points. But at the same time, the suit design is really what gets in the way more than anything. You and others are saying "why bother" but they're not doing anything different. Removing articulation would be extra work as they're using wrist and ankle joints that are pretty much the same across the line.

This is true, as several of you have brought this up, but just how critical are you expecting him or other reviewers to be? I look at a ton of his reviews as well as other reviewers and opinion is generally the same. I feel like this shows consistency of the production and quality of the SHF line in general.

I feel like they've done the best they could using such a clunky suit design without compromising accuracy. It takes a bit of effort, but you can still get some great poses out of him.

I will say this though, the waist and ab joints on mine were REALLY tight. I have fixed that problem and he feels like a much better figure. The restrictions are in the design of the figure here and have nothing to do with the parka. In that respect, I must agree that they've gone a bit backwards here, but I also attribute this to the design of the character/suit.

Everything that should be there is there. And they nailed the look.
Outside of the way they designed the waist and ab joints, which I haven't seen before and was a pain to take apart, I don't have too many complaints on Ghost.

Worst SHF award still goes to Wizard Flame. There is no excuse for that waist/belt issue. Objectively the worst Rider mold is still OOO. I love those, but those are the prime example of sacrificing articulation for aesthetic.

Assuming they ever happen, Shinkocchou Seihou OOO will be glorious, as will Wizard Flame Style. I don't expect we'll even see the latter teased for years, but I'm looking forward to that day. (I'm really enjoying imagining an SS OOO.)

If they ever do SS Wizard, I'll be very curious as to whether they'll attempt to maintain any degree of compatibility with any of Wizard's existing accessories, principally the effects set. I'm guessing a solid no on the robe parts. I don't believe I'll be all that disappointed.

I have a question, though. Does Yurusen's head actually move? I've been trying to see if there's a swivel there, but I don't want to break it. I'm guessing circle on top is a peg that runs through and the whole thing is sort of stuck in place by the paintwork, but I do wonder if anyone has gotten that freed up without twisting her noggin right off.

I don't think so. I see your logic though. But I'd also rather not break it.

Been messing around with Ghost this evening, and while he's not terrible or anything, he is a disappointment. His articulation is just so hindered by the jacket, but I don't really know what they could have done to fix it. It's just that the nature of this suit design is inevitably going to lead to a more restricted figure. I think part of the problem too is that he's coming after such fantastic figures as the Gaim, Drive, and SS lines. When compared to how great many of those are, Ghost's flaws are exacerbated in comparison.

Despite all of that though the sculpt is absolutely amazing. The jacket detailing is great and the paint job is essentially perfect, the Eyecon is so small but flawlessly painted, at least on mine. The head is the real standout though, that translucent orange for the face and all the detailing underneath that just looks so great.

I wish Ghost was overall better than he is because I really do love this suit design, and the sculpt on this is an excellent representation of it. Unfortunately as a figure he just doesn't hold up to the recent standards Figuarts have been setting. Still though, even with his limited articulation, at least he looks damn good in whatever pose you do manage to get him in.

Finally, someone who gets it. But I will say again that the only bits that truly get in the way are the shoulders and hood. The ab crunch would be just as poor even without the jacket because of the way its engineered. He bends backwards fine, but has almost no forward crunch.

Even Gaim and Drive have that issue.

I seriously think Ghost has more articulation than Type Speed, though. Are people forgetting how limited that figure's shoulders, waist, and elbows were?

Yeah that right along with the tire in the middle it made it difficult to make some poses.

Like I said, I'm more critical than most people but I do stand by my opinions. I figured out that you can tuck the arms into the chest cavity to lift them up more, but everything stands. Unless I got a dud, his ankles have almost no pivot range, the rocker joint gives you the standard range but the cuffs are molded into the legs instead of free floating so you can tilt them forward maybe 10 degrees forward and 30 back. Yes, the head can rotate a bit more than 180 degrees but the effective range is maybe 45 degrees left and right, any more than that and the hood tilts the head up, and limits and doesn't look natural for posing anymore. As for the waist articulation, the jacket design is part of the problem, but its not limiting the articulation, the articulation isn't there to begin with. The stormtrooper/decade ab crunch exists, and would have worked fine with the design, yea, it wouldn't be able to lean back as much but the parka is soft enough that it could just sit over the driver when turned side to side.

Everyone rates figures differently, me, I just like taking pictures of toys and Ghost just doesn't have the articulation to for me to enjoy doing what I like with it. Conversely, I enjoy Drive significantly more than Ghost and the wheel never really got in the way of any of the poses I wanted to do. For me, I'm probably selling Ghost and still am stuck with a Specter preorder.

As for Japanese reviews, keep in mind this is a society that pretty much never really says anything bad about something. Shishioh gave wizard a 3, its not exactly a very critical rating for a figure universally panned.

By pivot you mean side-to-side rotation? If so, then yours must be stuck or something. The ankles on mine can twist all the way around if need be.

I don't mean to change any opinions with these, but here are some objective examples in comparison to Type Speed:

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psggyj0qun.jpg

On Ghost, both the shoulders swing out and the elbows bend marginally farther.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...ps35kbqydt.jpg

While Drive can look all the way to the right, sure, the tire hinders looking left almost exactly as much as Ghost's hood.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...pspm9n4v01.jpg

Ab crunch is actually about the same.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...pss7zwtxya.jpg

So is lateral flexion.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psrvevao7n.jpg

Drive has a fair bit more waist swivel, but that's entirely to be expected because the sides of the jacket run into the Ghost Driver. They'd be about on par with each other if it weren't for that.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...pschi4nyyx.jpg

The pull-out joint lets Ore's leg raise a little higher, but I think the most peculiar limitation is actually the knee bend. It doesn't go as far because of the bulk of his leg. Still pretty comparable to Drive regardless, though.

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psu3s70mnc.jpg

Side ankle tilt is the same. If not a TINY bit better than Drive's, maybe?

http://i1277.photobucket.com/albums/...psoubp59kz.jpg

And finally, the last upper hand Drive gets is a little bit more backward tilt. But that's it.

All in all, extremely similar. And Ghost has a fair few advantages that you might not expect. Although if less waist rotation, backward ankle movement, and slightly less knee bend is what kills it for you? Then hey, I guess that's how it is.

I think you and I could be friends.

Tenjuro Banno aka Gold Drive will be released in September:

http://i.imgur.com/ZSKm5MF.jpg

as a... retail release? It says pre-orders go up May 10 but never once mentions the Premium Bandai shop. In fact, running the text through the Google translator gives me this:

"reservation lifting of the ban in 2016 May 10, general retailers
( Presence or absence of reservation handling depends on the retailers )"

Doesn't sound like a Web Exclusive to me.

Anyways, looks cool, but where's Type Tridoron?

Huh. That's very interesting.

But yeah. Where IS Type Tridoron?

Got my payment in for Ghost. Can't wait to get my hands on him.

..now to catch up on the show >_<

Oooooh YEEEES!!!

I was hoping and praying that Gold Drive would see a release. A potential retail release makes me even more excited. I absolutely loved Banno in the series. One of my favorite antagonists.

Gold Drive! It's so pretty, I think I wanted this more than Type Tridoron. It being a retail release is even better.

(I would've totally taken a two-pack with Super Evolved Heart though. All that gold together...)

Bandai's release pattern has officially stopped making sense.