In all honesty, maybe an unpopular opinion here; but because of all this I think they should really cut down the suits they cover. I'm sure this is gonna get some flack but like... did we really need the Assault upgrades? Metal Cluster? Dragonic Knight? How many of you really want Daisenki that badly, and how many just want it to be done to get it out of the way for the stuff you actually want? Especially the way Rider is going, eventually it's gonna hit a point where things won't come out for like 5 years

I really think they should just cut it down to the base form and the final form for each character; with special exceptions for things like Ark-One, Live/Evil and Orthoros. They could probably just not bother with some movie-exclusive stuff too? New riders like Falchion and Eden sure, but Emotional Dragon and 001 don't need to happen that badly unless they're like easy repaints. If some forms or the series itself becomes really popular, then they can do stuff like Shining later. As-is doing all these forms is becoming as much a waste of time as they are in the show, and I'd rather they prioritised putting out the actual characters we want

They simply started to understand that the popularity of show suits lasts longer and that they need to make movie and V-Cinema stuff while the content is still somewhat relevant.

That's why they're pushing Zero-One V-Cinema stuff now while people still remember they exist. You can sell Ark-Zero in like 3 years, people will still want it. Justice Serval? Maybe not so much.

The Assault Upgrades, and I guess Dragonic I agree with. They were super early, and overshadowed quickly. But Metal Cluster was used a ton, it absolutely deserved a figure.

Honestly I'd rather the show itself just cut down on forms and Riders, but I know that isn't happening.

Your right the rider line has been going on for 5 years just look at the build line it nuts. They should stop making stuff like some v-cinema forms example zero one valkiy and purple rider are just clogging up the line one time used the suit we don?t need them. Stuff like the rider 2 power up like Dragonic Knight for Saber has to happen because he the main rider of the show so that won?t change it be foolish if it did.

...Did you just ask if we needed a release of one of Zero-One's most popular and most used forms?

I genuinely never see anyone talk about Metal Cluster, if that's the one you mean. I think most people who get it would either have all 01 forms displayed, or promptly replace it with 02 the moment that comes out

Even if people didn't talk about it... it's like his second most-used form.

It's me. I'm the guy who loves Metal Cluster Hopper despite not even having seen the show yet.

I usually see it called his best, or one of his best suits. I own it as my sole Zero One figure. Only complaint I really see is that it was a bit overused, ala Kiva Emperor.

Zero Two, while technically more important, made much less of an impact. And is also technically it's own Rider now I suppose.

But again I just don't see anyone care about it.

If people do, then sweet; but also that's why I said "if the form itself is popular they can do it later". Prioritise the base and final forms, and do anything else later if people really want them

They made it, and it sold extremely well. People obviously cared.

I don't disagree about prioritizing base and final forms, but I do get them wanting to save the final form for last, sucky for us as it may be.

I always thought it was either his most popular, or second most popular behind Rising, or 02.

Did it sell extremely well? Do we have sales numbers or something? I definitely don't recall anything about pre-orders selling out, or a second run. I assume it did as well as most figuarts

It hovers around the 11,000 Yen mark on AmiAmi. I assume that means it did decently.

Fair enough then. I honestly was surprised people weren't taking more issue with Dragonic Knight lol

I adore the Dragonic Knight suit, and figure, but it was overshadowed rather quickly, so I get your point with it.

I also wish they could release faster. Like release the Assault upgrades in the same month, Do Jin and Horobi in the same month. Just pair up figures people may logically want together. Naki and Orthoros in the same month.

Yeah, that too. The thing is the quality of the figures went up and hence they got more expensive to make, so this is what we get

You know...as amazing as modern Figuarts are, I wouldn't be opposed to going back to Drive quality figures. I think of the older ones (which i think is anything pre-Ex-Aid) they hold up the best.

Yeah, I agree. Going back to Fourze, they got all 7 in-show suits plus a bunch of movie suits, villains and extra sets done all within the year. That's basically what I'm getting at; that you're guaranteed to get what you want in a reasonable time rather than waiting for some random upgrade to get out of the way so you can get 02 within 4 years.

Personally I prefer quality over quantity. I have zero issue waiting for years on end to get characters or a suit that I really like if it means the figure itself ends up coming out great. The later we wait, the higher chance of said suit being done justice in action figure form due to advancements in sculpting, engineering, what have you.

(Unless Tamashii decides to use rubber parts or flocking but let's ignore that)

That said, there not being any sort of alternative to SHF doesn't exactly help anything. Like, for Rangers, it's not an issue because LC exists for people who solely just want physical representation of the suits/characters on their shelves and don't care for too much else. Meanwhile those who want their figures to be as nice as possible have Super7 and Mezco.

Kamen Rider meanwhile? Your only real choices are either SHF or Figure-Rise, and many people don't have the patience for model kits. Would be nice if there were a budget option for Kamen Rider and Ultra.

Ehhh not really. The Build figures coming out STILL have the exact same quality and sculpting etc as Rabbit/Tank, with none of the advancements brought by 01 etc. Within the series, SHF lines just don't incorporate anything that comes later. This is only really applicable to new series started in Seihou; if Build Genius releases tomorrow it'll be no different to if it had come out in 2018

Oh I completely understand and do like that they now get the value of doing those forms and characters it's just that I remember that point in time when Bandai was completely against doing v-cinema stuff and even outright stated it if I'm not mistaken despite fan demand

That sort of thing comes with any toy line that reuses molds and parts though. If nothing else, the paint, QC, and sculpting should all be better than those older figures, and if not, man, pure laziness on their part.

I can't recall any cases where those have been better on later releases... and why would the *paint* be better?

That is certainly a take :lol especially about Metal Cluster and Dragonic. Those are some coveted forms that are out rn, both going for the triple digits in some places like Yahoo Auctions.

It's assuming people will always go "Oh wow new thing!" as opposed to something they actually like. See: Sparkling being slightly harder to come by than RR.

Cleanliness and detailing, mostly. Yeah, it's no guarantee, and hey, Genius could come out tomorrow and be a total hot mess, but as a general rule, later toys tend to have cleaner paint jobs than earlier ones, atleast in my experience.

(Or in the case of LC be incredibly choosey about who gets it best but eh)

Does anyone have recommendation for inexpensive storage options for loose SHFs? Like a plastic clamshell people use for those small Star Wars figures.

I mean, "oh wow new thing!" is specifically what I feel is the appeal of those rando in-between forms in the first place. People buy them up because oh I think they look cool and it's new, and then stop caring within a few months especially when they get the final form. I rarely see them in anyone's collection unless the person specifically is collecting every form, or as a random curiosity thing.

I can't think of any SHF from Ex-Aid onwards that was particularly underdetailed or not very clean? Not counting stuff like gimmick item details anyway; or the odd issue like Para-DX's eyes. Again, Rabbit/Tank looks just as good as the later releases to me.

Gunpla box + ziplock bags?

A form has its set of fans. I think it's generalization to think most buy up a form because it's the hottest new thing as opposed to a look they legitimately want. That's how I skipped over Jaaku for Jaou. Or buy Dragonic even though I don't normally buy super forms at pre-order. (Although I may just grab all of Saber's forms at this point lol)

I think I prefer just them sticking to a rider's main upgrades and movie form/s. Bandai already has problem as is completing other lines that aren't Kamen Rider or Dragon Ball, I wouldn't want them skipping over things in Kamen Rider because "Not many people want it". It'd effectively head into the GSC route of them just doing 2-3 release before dropping the line. Oh wait, they already do that!

Every form will have its fans, yes; but they're not exactly covering all of them to begin with -- we're not getting Flaming Tiger or Kuuga Armour anytime soon; or even Lightning Hornet, which frankly it seems a lot more people would be interested in than Shining Assault or Elemental Dragon or whatever. The people who love the look of, I dunno, Punching Kangaroo are hardly getting catered to here.

I think it's fine to skip ones that don't matter much, and just get around to ones that there's requests for later rather than having us wait forever to get to doing the rest of the Saber riders or Final Forms after half a decade. I don't think that's an unreasonable thing to say, I'm just looking at how most peoples' collections consist of base forms and final forms and how everyone's waiting on those rather than the mid-season upgrades

What time does the tamashii nations start tonight at 12 am or Friday in the morning could someone tell me so I not confuse ?

There's another aspect that's getting overlooked here though: Profit.

I can't exactly speak for any of the older Rider lines within SHF, but when it comes to Zero-One and Saber, almost every single figure has sold a ton. If SHF suddenly just went "base and final forms and very few exceptions" that's a ton of money they'd be losing out on.

Do the inbetween forms commonly only show up in completionist collections? Sure, but that's still a huge source of income for Tamashii, so passing that market up would frankly not be a wise move on their end. If the line is selling well, they only have more reason to make more of it despite how long it might take.

Oh, totally; that's why it won't happen. Mind you I imagine at some point in the future Kamen Rider series will have like 8 main forms in-series and 20 riders and one or two will have to be skipped. Either way I'm definitely asking a lot for S.H. Figuarts to be even a little customer friendly lol

If I've got it right it should be in 3 hours from now

Thing is too, I don't think Bandai knows immediately what's popular or not.
That's how we get Genm armor, Bandai thinking that the basic aspect of it being a Genm-related figure would sell well, and well, there we go.

In all fairness... there's not much from Zi-O that seems to have sold particularly well lol. The final forms seem to garner high prices on Manda but nothing else

Excited to see what goes up on show tomorrow.

I am doing my best to stick to one form for each Rider. I've chosen Metal Cluster and Dragonic for Zero-One and Saber, I went for Orthoros for Fuwa.

I may be in the minority, but I will often just pick a random form I really like to be my main version of a character.

There's a decent amount of people who just buy figures because they look cool and have never even seen the show or know anything about the character.

Gundam is the same way. One of the most common questions I get about Gunpla is whether someone needs to have watched the show in order to pick up the model. No way. People just buy whatever model kit or figure looks cool. A tattoo artist I know has a Kamen Rider Geiz statue and he doesn't know anything about Kamen Rider, just thought it looked cool.

Opening ceremonies started last night around 9-10pm japan time.

Event starts 6PM japan time today.