It's the same approach they took for Decade and Gokaiger. If possible, have the original writer who wrote the respective season to pen the tribute episode.

There's been quite a few, actually. Cake, five or so Lost bottles, the Raw Rabbit bottle, Empty bottle...Ghost also had Legend Rider Eyecons around wave 5 or 6. Some of those were shared with or came first in the SG line, but they remain separate from the mainline DX series.

And, looking beyond Rider, the Kyutama series from Kyuranger was full of heaps and heaps of Gashapon and/or SG-exclusive toys from day one. In that case as with RideWatches, my guess is that the reason is simply that they have a lot of stuff to go through and starting early helps them get through all that faster.

True, Cake was unique, but primarily because it didn't have any other place, and they wanted easy access to the bottle so as to be easily paired with the Santa

And yes, I understand that GP does indeed offer unique items from time to time, but not this early. Wave 6 (or in rare cases, 5), is usually when unique items start to get released, but not usually by wave 3. Also, usually there can be one to two unique items at most in a wave (and usually it's only two further down the wave). Whereas in this case, there are already two unique items featured by wave 03, which is quite unusual.

Furthermore, while non-electronic items do tend to get more unique items in GP or SG than electronic-based items, here we have items with electronics in them (1500 yen no less), and there are already unique items. That's pretty unusual by modern Bandai standards.

ZI-O scans:

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...0&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...1&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...2&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...3&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...4&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...5&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...6&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...7&d=1531640454

http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...8&d=1531640454

Well, I guess that illustration more or less confirmation that Zi-O is male. I really kinda hate toku rumor mongers who make stuff up.

Anyone have translation for the text? Some of these are interesting looking but I haven't a clue what it is.

I mean that's why they're rumors. The same rumor said the original idea was a female lead so that could mean the idea changed in development. And never bet on rumors being entirely true, even if accurate thus far.

The DX line is being marketed as a boys toyline, so it only makes sense to showcase the transformation using a male for promotional purposes. That would assure vendors that the toyline is still being designed for the primary audience in mind. That being said, between the illustration, the fact that Gates has separate DX releases from Zi-O and the physique of the in-suit pictures, it's extremely likely that Zi-O is not female. Weirder things have happened before so I'm not going to deny it until there is confirmation on casting and story details.

I want to say I like this toyline but we're seeing the return of the big clunky CGI "titan" we managed to avoid with Build so can't say I am too pleased with that. It looks butt-ugly but it comes with the OOO RideWatch so I assume it's a reference to TrideVendor. Then again, Den-O's bundled toy is a RideWatch holder so it might not be entirely related (I guess Den-O is a time traveler too, so I guess anything could be a reference to him). And as expected from the listings, Suika Arms, Taka Candroid, and Faiz's Phone will be used as items/weapons as well.


Alas, Zi-O has a bike. Thank the lord. I like that the Rider Kick's Figure Armor's can be used with both Zi-O and Gate. It seems that Gate is really getting the short end of the stick here - he's only slated to get Kiva, Wizard and Faiz going forward, while Zi-O gets everyone else.

I think what is interesting to note here is that every Rider Armor is based on the base form except Drive and OOO, which are based on Type Tridoron and Super TaToBa respectively. And I can't really tell here but it looks like Kuuga is in Growing Form. I wonder what that is all about?

And last but not least, the upgrade form seems to be Decade! That's actually pretty awesome. Zi-O will get completely new armor, a new weapon (Heiseiber) and a unique RideWatch that can mix and match with other Heisei RideWatch's (Build-Decade is showcased on the scans). It looks to summon a stronger form as the Build depicted being mixed with Decade is RabbitTank Sparkling. Looks like Decade is gonna have a strong presence this season!

Also lmao the last four RideWatch's seem to be for Rider's that have the hardest actors to get back. *EDIT: I read that wrong. Regardless, Masaki Suda and Odagiri Jo will be a challenge lol.

Decade's actor is a huge fanboy of the franchise so I'm imagining he's either already aware or he's seeing the scans on leaks and going "HOLY SHIT THAT'S MEEEEEE"

OOO being based on Super TaToBa is intriguing because the basis of that form was time travel. Michal Minato/Kamen Rider Aqua brought those medals from 40 years in the future. Since the DX OOO RideWatch comes with the Time Machine, maybe they are planning on exploring that plotline? Too bad there is no KR Aqua RideWatch lol.

Mmmh, looking at these DX toys more and more. I'm hella tempted to try and get atleast all the base and upgrade RideWatches. I TRIED with Ex-Aid but kinda dropped off after Level 5 was introduced and it started getting too expensive. Still need Jet Combat, Giri Giri Chambara and Muteki.

These seem like they'd be easier though.