Ah, that sounds frustrating then. I remember being quite surprised when the So-Do blog first showed the figure coming with stickers. I believe the guy running the blog at the time commented on it, but I don't remember what he said.

Got Ride Plus 2 stickered yesterday! They all came out pretty well, outside of Ginga's eyes being a bit asymmetrical. While I miss the extra eye detail we've lost out on ever since eyes started being painted, I don't miss the struggle to put them on symmetrically. Hattari and Diend are my favorites of the wave, so they get the two stands.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/a2f95dcf...f675983521.jpg

Ignore the melatonin bottle, Ginga's cape makes it impossibility for him to stand on his own

Iirc, the choice for stickers in the Hazard box was to give *some* variety of texture for the figure, as well as to have a little less bare plastic on display.

In other news, I've been putting together a Build box, so it's time for me to ramble about... Ex-Aid?

https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net...58&oe=5F411BFF

Bet you all forgot about these guys, huh? A pair of V-Cinema forms for two of Ex-Aid's most popular side-characters. Well, they got a release in BUILD 8, which is a pretty essential box for any Build collector (I'll leave it up to you to guess why), so I'd suppose that lots of people just have these anyway. And they're solidly alright!

Lazer-X is a design I never really liked. It's effectively Lazer Level 3, but covered in a weird shade of blue. In hand, though, he's not so bad. The blue is nice in person, and the stickered flame decals add some nice detail. His downside, however, is down to his basic build. His core body is still the same bike Lazer released all the way at the start of Ex-Aid, and while it does help me imagine just how Lazer goes from a bike to a human, it also massively hinders his articulation. Also, his arm construction means his right shoulder just pegs out all the time, and the angle of how it's constructed means you have to disassemble his shoulder to peg it back together. Static, he looks great, but it's hard to find a decent pose.

We also have Wide Genm, using the form that everyone and their aunt made a mock-up of back when Maximum Mighty X debuted, and then it became real and kept getting released before the protagonist's version because Kuroto moves merch. It's weird. But anyway, he's pretty good! The design is striking, with Maximum Mighty X's bulk done up in purple and black looking much nicer than Lazer's blue. He doesn't come with a stand, the plastic going into bulking him up enough that he is a presence compared with your typical SO-DO. Not much taller, but thiccer. His big problem is his feet. I was expecting the footbads to have balljoints in them, to connect to the leg. Instead, he just has normal sized feet which "peg" into footbads. The peg does not like to stay in. Posing this guy below the waist is a pain, which is a shame, because his articulation isn't bad for being such a lorge boy.

https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net...58&oe=5F3FEE62

Overall, they're good figures at core, let down by a combo of things. Genm's is just the footpads tbf, but Lazer is hurt more fundamentally. Between his design choices being hard to realise, along with what I can guess is the team not having found their footing yet - this comes from SO-DO's 2nd or 3rd wave *ever*, and it shows. I'm glad to have them, though. God Maximum is my only Kuroto figure, and I quite like the Lazer Vs Genm film, so I'll take what I can get.

I really enjoyed reading this review of these two figures (I haven't done Build 8 yet), but this throw-away line feels like a personal attack. Kuroto?! KIRIYA?! SIDE-CHARACTERS?!?!

Kuroto, I'll give you, but Kiriya is busy being trapped in a video game cartridge for half the plot!

That's just a testament to his greatness, that he can be inactive for that long and still be the best character on the show.

Also, he's only gone from the middle. They need him in the beginning to get kids excited about the show, and they need him in the end for the heroic finale. The middle, you can give that to secondary Riders like Taiga and Emu.

Maybe the true secondary Riders were the friends we made along the way.

Oh, and also because I forgot I took this until just now:

https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net...b4&oe=5F41179D
You may not like it, but this is peak physical performance.

Gemn's true final form.

Those hips don't lie, but every other part of him does.

Thanks, I hate it.

Yes! Got Ikazuchi and the standard Humagear courtesy of Akibasilver.