Die-Casting also increases the price point.

I love him. He might be my first Ryuki if I can't find a decently priced Zolda.

It may increase price but literally all the Ryuki releases, even Abyss, include them. Alternative may be in some weird pretend loophole. Like he's not techincally an actual rider so they decided to skimp on the feet :(

Amazon has him for $38. Plus, he has been on sale for $26 several times.

Yeah that was a(n unfortunate) surprise. Mine doesn't have any issues standing, but for consistency's sake it would've been nice if they'd kept it (especially for stability reasons, as you mentioned).

That occurred to me too after opening him, that they used that technicality to justify the switch.

I never quite got why the whole die cast feet VS no die cast feet thing is such an issue.

With Ryuki, it's a problem with consistency sure but it's not like Figuarts can't stand at all on their own power without them…

No, but every single Figuart I have with plastic feet - especially the Sentai ones, are just noticeably harder to balance. The ankles all tend to feel looser too. In fact, that's probably a bigger deal, but for some reason i associate it with having die-cast feet.

I personally think the lack of die cast feet is better. I just always feel like I'm going to snap the die-cast off the plastic whenever I move the feet. With the plastic feet, I never feel that way.

The only figuart without die-cast feet that I have issues standing up is OOO TaToBa, and it's not the plastic feet that's the issue, it's the ankles being hindered. Every other figuart I have stands perfectly fine regardless.

my ground form agito has a insanely loose ankle to the point if you pick him up it flops down instantly, at least i can manage to keep him standing

Got Blade in the post yesterday, which will probably be my last Figuart for 2013.

I think it's a pretty good one to go out on :D