FRS FangJoker is honestly kind of bad. The W body is really outdated, with pretty much useless ankles, limited hips, and Bandai really went cheap not including more aggressive rage hands. The regular open hands are too docile. They really just made this kit to fill a quota rather than be a good model kit of the suit.

https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1660087552

https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1660087552

https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1660087552

This was also my first time airbrushing. Not the greatest job but eh I'll improve. I really didn't do a good job on the nubs but honestly this kit wasn't really making me feel too particular about build quality.

Haha well you may say its not a good kit, but your work and these pictures make it look really good to be honest. Great job!

I'm inclined to agree. Far from my favourite kit.

My biggest issue (as someone who can't/won't paint) is the pearlescent white base plastic of the Fang halfbody. It doesn't look good.

Thank you!

Yeah the pearlescent white is ugly and I have no idea why they chose it. Fang is just white in the show. Bandai's white plastic also looks great, at least on their Gundam models.

This should've been an easy win but it really just feel like Bandai didn't care at all.

they mentions the white is accurate to the show, for some reason ..
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...93/unknown.png

So not screen accurate in colour or appearance, but in texture? Weird choice.

Bandai -still- hasn't said anything about the Blade Effects Set, but even BBTS have put up a listing for it with all the images and contents now, so maybe soon they'll actually make some announcement for the thing we know everything about?

https://i.imgur.com/CNLEMYw.png

Are Hibiki, OOO and Ghost good kits?

Can 100% vouch for Hibiki and Ghost. Ghost requires a lot of stickers but it's mostly for the pattern on his body, and the finished product is SO worth it. I actually think he's one of the best-looking FRSes I have. Hibiki has a few forearm stickers that don't work particularly well but aside from that he's pretty sweet.

Generally speaking I feel like everything other than Build and Zi-O passes a bar of being at least like 7/10. I have little trouble recommending any of them

Yeah Hibiki forearm stickers are a real bummer. It's an easy enough paint fix, but that's really the only solution. The out of box plastic color & effect looks really good and the figure ends up with very tight joints.

OOOs is a lot like previous FRS kits. Nothing stands out, but the pre-painted parts are excellent. Like Kurona said, since Zi-O they've all been pretty great. I cover the kit in a bit more detail here https://www.tokunation.com/forums/sh...&postcount=165

Still waiting on my Ghost kit!

Thanks you two. My Birthday's coming up so I'm thinking of getting those three for myself, good to hear that they're good figures.
...
Aside from those, I've still got to track down W's alt forms (preferably while hyped up on Fuuto PI), Decade, Den-O, Faiz and Kabuto.

Den-O and Kuuga's alt forms are also tempting, but between limited shelf space and other factors (like a lack of attachment to Den-O and the reportedly not so great quality of Dragon and Pegasus Kuuga) I'll probably pass.

I do also wonder if we might at some point get remakes of some of the earlier Riders, based on the fact that the FRS Dragon Ball line got a brand new Goku. Personally I'd be all over a new Build with better joints, parts separation and a bottle change gimmick, but it's probably not on their priority list.

I think that's mostly because there's only so many guys you can make in Dragon Ball before circling around to the main character! Kamen Rider and Ultraman as franchises are significantly different where each year has a NEW main character; and arguably each year is its own new franchise altogether.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Build 2.0 at some point mind with all the improvements and innovations that have happened since then. Especially considering a potential Cross-Z retool that would benefit so much more from an improved mold

To play it safe, I would just wait on the earlier FRS kits until later, in case they possibly get remade, though I doubt we'll see any remakes until they are at least done with the rest of main Heisei riders.

I really liked the Den-O kit. Very good right out of the box. Kuuga's red I didn't like that much, and the body proportions look ever so slightly off to me (chest feels too broad and flat). Still the gold looks great and Kuuga is such a simple and clean suit.

Bandai Japan have finally FINALLY put up pre-orders for the Blade Effects Set. This doesn't technically show us anything new... but the photos are real life rather than CGI renders, giving us our first look at how Blade will actually look in-person!

https://hobby.dengeki.com/ss/hobby/u...OkfPvX13qs.jpg

https://hobby.dengeki.com/ss/hobby/u...xS88eGk61n.jpg

https://hobby.dengeki.com/ss/hobby/u...RTpM6xmClV.jpg

Blade looks really great so far! Still hard to tell what will be stickers and what has been painted. The knees look a little weird the way the kneepads are kind of above where the knee should be. The elbow and knee joints are the same ones found on Ghost.

The MMPR Furai model kits are starting to show up for pre-order.

https://bbts1.azureedge.net/site-ima...f7111f41a2.jpg

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Searc...eaturedIn=4902

Each kit is $40. They come in at 5.12 inches (13cm) so noticeably smaller than FRS Kamen Rider kits.

Interesting to note that the weapons and gear are branded as Zyuranger (also misprinted as Zyuranmer!) despite yellow being the female version.

They look short, too -- like, proportionally

They have no necks. Except Pink, who seems to have all of the neck.

$40 each, weird proportions, inaccurate helmets, and pretty ugly joints in the hips. And they're not even 6 inch scale?

I'm not seeing much of a draw towards these. Maybe FRS has spoiled me, but those kits are cheaper, look better, and are a sensible scale. These MMPR Rangers just don't look right IMO.

It's a bit ironic with how much I criticise them, but every time new MMPR figures come out my immediate question is "okay, why should I buy these over the LCs?"

These don't look terrible but, as said, not seeing much of a draw

Furai models are typically high quality, but few if not no one, has been able to compete with Bandai on price and performance on model kits.

They definitely look oddly proportioned, but to their credit, these kits have zero stickers and pre-painted parts. It's also worth noting that Furai model kits tend to be more stylized and I don't think they were going for "show accurate" design.

Looking into them a bit more, it seems it's more the posing and angle of the photo that makes it look like most of them don't have necks.

https://bbts1.azureedge.net/images/p...4a29e3a5c3.jpg

But yeah, it seems like they're going for an overall more stylized design. That said, I'm more than happy using LC for my Rangers for now. We'll see if I feel different once those Mezco figures drop in a few more years.

I actually think the SHODO version of the Zyurangers are the best looking MMPR/Zyuranger figures currently in existence.

I might get one to see how I like it, if I do, I?ll get the rest.

https://bandai-hobby.net/images/193_...jk8o1oj23q.jpg
https://bandai-hobby.net/images/159_...vv01ljc31.jpeg
https://bandai-hobby.net/images/192_...1ik9jbv3l.jpeg

Skull's looking rather cool, though I wonder if any of his silver will be pre-painted.

I assume no but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Also I really don't get the point of the briefcase since the FRS memories are incomplete. I especially don't understand why the hell they included just Joker. (because it's black and could go on the Skull runner I guess?) It's a very ill-conceived accessory.

Question, as I’ve only begun looking at this line: has there been any word on more Showa models after Black? I assume a Shin Rider 1 and 2 would be a fairly easy sell, especially with how much a lot of Showa SHFs, even the non-SS ones, are going for nowadays.

Currently, no.

But there will be a model & hobby show event held next month, i think they will show Blade there, and possibly some prototypes of the next FRSs

and in November there's Hobby Next Phase Winter, Bandai usually announce their next FRS there.

We haven't heard anything official, no. Though BLACK did seem to do well and I feel at least #1 and #2 at some point are inevitable; I think they might even be next after Blade to go alongside Shin KR

The focus is probably on the main Heisei riders right now and once those are complete, we'll start seeing more Showa, Reiwa, and maybe Secondaries

I would love if they started doing Showa (which IMO is inevitable) as it'd be a much cheaper/easier alternative to the SHFs.

Well I’ll just focus on getting the W forms and Black for now. On the W side I’m betting we at least get base Accel and CJ Extreme sooner than later, given the anime.

They did actually release more W kits to commemorate the anime recently! Those were FangJoker and Skull

Skull preview is out -- the head looks fantastic, but I'm pretty unimpressed with the chest stickers. The way they did it is have the silver lines be a new part and the chest is remolded for that new part (great!) but the black in-between them is done with a sticker, a bit similar to KR Black's power lines. Bit of a shame about that, as otherwise the kit looks fantastic

https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...0913144308.jpg

https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...0909171034.jpg

https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...0916222954.jpg

Bandai's cheapness with this line is killing me. No reason those ribs couldn't be separated with the black as part of the rest of the chest. Wouldn't even require that many parts, just make the black pectoral go over the silver. I mean, they were already making new tooling for the chest anyway.

Yeah, those stickers kind of suck, but on the bright side he's painted silver!

Bandai Hobby Next Phase Autumn announced for 29-30 Setpember, with more Kamen Rider!
https://bandai-hobby.net/site/hobbyshow2022/

The only new sprues that are included with Figure-rise Standard Kamen Rider Skull are G and H. Everything else is taken from the first three FRS KRW kits.

Which makes sense, seeing as the only new bits on the suit are the head, chestplate(s), armbands and ankle braces (plus the belt which is shared with Joker and the case) so that makes sense.