That's how it's been for me for a while now. I just come to expect it with what's going on right now.

Try HLJ, Hobbysearch, and Amiami again. The orders go up again sometimes. If nothin else, really should try that FB page/group thing I mentioned again.

Hate swapping out the handguards on your Saber figure? Well SHF Upgrade has you covered.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Y_...s5Rjjo=s1000-c

Really cool of them to do so. Weird you can have the option to buy either only one pair or the full set. You'd think one would want plates for each hand.

I'm expecting them next to do the the Swordriver Riders' cloth parts in, well, cloth, stickers, "show accurate" Seiken (you kno, the one where the crests are solid instead of clear), finishers, Dragon Arthur and/or Crimson Dragon if they really want to, and if they want to be cheeky, prop versions of Kurayami, Gekido, and Hayate.

Actually, I lowkey wanna do a funny and make myself a custom flat Kurayami.

When a third party starts selling handguards you know something's off.

Wild, I was thinking about them doing that when I got Saber in.

Like the handguard-swapping isn't a pain or anything, they snap onto the hands securely and don't take much force to pry off when you wanna swap, but the risk of losing them is still there if you fumble one on-accident.

Will probably end up investing in this just to make things easier...

I believe that the prop emblems are actually translucent, just that the inside/ back side is painted metallic.

Is the separate handguards another cost saving method? There are plenty of other rider figures were the guards and hands are two separate pieces but they're permanently attached on all the pairs of hands.

I assume so, with Saber having a weapon and a cloak for his price.

It probably came with the attempt to keep his price entry level like most new primary riders.

On-top of the more complex design of the suit, the sword was also essential to the character this time so they couldn't pull a Zero-One and pack his weapon in with the secondary rider.

It's one of those things where you can see how raising material costs effect how they gotta release retail stuff. That said, I'll take the method of the secondary rider picking up the accessory slack over being locked behind TWE bikes or releases.

Tried getting SS Tiga from AmiAmi and CDJapan but they sold out before I could get my order in. I got very lucky with HLJ though, refreshed my search for Tiga at the right time and managed to get an order in before the slow-down. First time in a while there was a regular release that I stayed up to try and get an order for. Haha.

Nice! What time did the page go up?

Id say when it’s ready to ship, choose a fast method if you can to avoid it being stuck in shipping hell

I believe it went up around 4:20PM Japan time. I've been using Air Small Packet for some of most recent orders and one packaged arrived in about 4 weeks. I'll find out if that is the new average for the time being when the others arrive too. Haha.

Some more logos -- this time both from Ultraman Tiga for probably obvious reasons! The first is a standard series logo for Tiga, the second is for GUTS; the military team from the show. Both are May releases at 1320 Yen

Also I just bought the Tiga one through Zenmarket and it took, uh, minutes for them to process and ask for payment? Usually it takes a day or two!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...99/unknown.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...90/unknown.png

Wait are they using the Ultra Action Figure instead of the SHF Seihou in the shot? That's kind of hilarious not gonna lie.

Nope, both pictures are using the CHODO!

For anyone who might have missed out on Saber, he's getting a reissue apparently? I think?

NinNin has a listing for Figuarts Dark Kiva. not available for order yet though.

Just checked Amiami and, yeah, SHF Saber is up for pre-orders again. Releasing in April 2021.

Really surprised Saber already got a reissue run. Didn't expect him to be that popular on-release.

Hopefully the sword is painted silver this time! But I guess not to keep the price low...

Oh! And I forgot to say about logos -- BBTS has put up pre-orders for the recently revealed Kamen Rider ones; Saber and the three OOO 10th anniversary ones. Still no Ultraman logos or re-issues like the 01 ones unfortunately, but still nice to see

https://i.imgur.com/ij8o4yN.png

Ooh, that Saber one is tempting.

Did they already make ones for Metsuboujinrai and ZAIA?

Yup, the 01 line's been very popular so they put out a lot of them! Because of the aforementioned popularity they seem to constantly get re-issued so you may be able to get 'em on zenmarket at some point

https://bandai-a.akamaihd.net/bc/img...00154498_5.jpg

https://bandai-a.akamaihd.net/bc/img...00154501_4.jpg

Ooh la la! Those are sleek.

SHFUpgrade does what Bandon't

https://twitter.com/Tokullector/stat...13938313707531

That's just sad. Not the actual third party seiken here, that's awesome. It's just so sad they had to do it

I hope SHF Upgrade or Fullcarttoys make duplicate sheathed drivers too once Blades releases this month since his figuarts's comes with them...

Meh, how hard could these be to repaint on your own though? The sword isn't even glued together.

The blank WRB is the more egregious decision

I'm a little iffy on Fullcart. I ordered their Zi-O weapon set that was originally set for December release and it still hasn't been fulfilled. They haven't answered any of my follow ups asking for any updates on a new release date

SHF Upgrade though I've had no issues. They resolved a shipping issue I had on my order hassle free and at no extra charge

On the plus side now you can display Saber dual wielding! I mean, yeah one of the swords will be missing an emblem but lemons into lemonade guys.

It's really not that bad.

At least this has actual justification - to keep the price point low so that anyone can just hop into the line without feeling like they have to make a huge investment. After all, since Zi-O, main Riders have been extremely cheap, but this is the first time where they absolutely have to include the weapon. I believe it's a fair compromise. It's something Bandai has acknowledged and explained; unlike the lack of details on the annual trinkets.

Seems a bit much for just the bare Seiken. Would have liked to see it include the other emblems, though so that it also doubles as a second Seiken for Saber like dual wielding Ikazuchi.

With that money, you could buy some silver spray and do it yourself.

Nah, honestly... I'm sorry, but I really can't buy "we have to make cost-cutting measures" on figures that are supposed to be the high-end collector's range (mostly because you don't have another option) and aim to be as accurate as possible. Even if it's a minor thing like this, it's just another thing that makes me resent SHF especially when it's pulling so many other shenanigans elsewhere. I don't think there's any excuse when they have a complete monopoly on Kamen Rider collectors and get away with high prices, premium exclusivity and minimising accessories.

It's also not just the grey instead of silver -- it's the way they done the inner red detailing. It's far too opaque and SHFUpgrade's version really calls out how bad and inaccurate it is.

I suppose to each his own. Like I said, I don't its too difficult to do by yourself. At that price one could probably just buy the paint by itself anyway

and honestly though, if I enjoyed Saber more I would probably be more upset. But the main figure itself, outside of the accessories, is perfectly acceptable for me and at a good price

I agree, honestly.

Easiest comparison is this: In 2012 you could get Ryuuki, Dragredder and all of Ryuuki's accessories for like $50 to $60 bucks. Today, you can get Saber.

That's not Bandai going "We can offer less for more", that's material cost rising over time. There are things you can point fingers at them for. Why do Zi-O's Figuarts not have printing on the watches when you do other collectibles at similar price points with that level of detail? Why are you forcing me to buy a web exclusive just to get accessories for my retail releases?

But I'm not gonna point my finger at them for plastic and certain paints naturally going up in price over the years. It sucks they couldn't do what they wanted with Saber, but it's what it is and imo the figure's great even with the limitations to its production.

Can someone please explain to me why plastic prices are rising? Is there another factor besides the obvious, ie. monetary inflation?

Common answers are usually oil inflation, material, and gasoline costs. There is material that needs to be bought, and to buy these, you need services to get those materials to you, and these materials need to be manufactured in to the product. A price increase in any of these aspects can add onto the overall cost of the final product.

I don't think Saber Brave Dragon should fit the SHF standard since he sits at the entry level price point like his other main rider counterparts, the only difference is that he has, arguably, a more complex design and a required sword to boot. That's a lot more painting to be done compared to Build or 01. He's more comparable to something like the SROE Goku SHF whom is very sparce on the paint as well. He doesn't have much problem in that department considering his design, but it's a comparison.

To really gauge the quality of the Saber SHFs, we have to look at the actual standard SHF release. Blades. I have this pic of the Swordriver trio and notice anything? Saber's rekka is also in the unpainted grey. The Tamashii Nations showroom last year may be the point where they decided to switch some things with Saber. Noticed it a few months ago round here.
http://www.tokunation.com/showthread.php?p=777109

Looking at Blades here, he looks pretty fine. Though, that may be just studio lighting playing a trick on me. We'll have to see the final product to actually deduce for ourselves.

Then where is the "SHF standard" Saber?

This is my issue here -- in terms of a collector's grade figure of Saber, this is as good as it's going to get; and it's a figure with a terrible Ridebook, a joke of a sword, a static cloak, the need to swap out friggin' hand guards, and basically no accessories. This is as good as it's ever going to get, and it's just... okay, barely distinct in quality from a model kit; which is not the standard I expect from a line proclaiming itself as the collector figure line with no other option around.

I'd be fine with this if there were say, another version of Saber being sold at a higher price point with extra accessories and all those issues fixed - perhaps take a cue from Figma's 'DX' releases? - but as-is all there is is this one, and it's just a little pathetic compared to the sort of quality we know this line is capable of.

Well hey, with MAFEX getting into Ultraman, maybe they'll get into other Toku brands in the future. Or atleast, I really hope so.

That said, should they ever do Kuuga, it'd be REALLY hard the top the Seihou.

I'm sorry but that's a hell of a stretch. Literally all the qualities of an SHF are there. Is it missing some paint apps? Yes, but it's still compensated via plastic coloring. Plastic quality's still there. Articulation is still there. Sculpting is still there. The paintwork that is there is still quality. It's still a lovely-looking figure.

Like I get the disappointment on some of its fronts for sure, but let's not go as far as to say it's no better than a model kit just because the sword isn't painted silver...