Well... we sure do have SO-DO news tonight. SO-DO mainline is releasing a new Premium Bandai set for the first time since I believe Build -- principally this is a set of the three new forms featured in Revice Forward, but it also packs in every single Demons, Jeanne, Aguilera and Destream weapon not yet released in the line (plus Evil's damaged head and improved Evilblades). A whopping 8690 Yen, releases in August with pre-orders starting tonight

https://bandai-a.akamaihd.net/bc/img...00188433_1.jpg

https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...0209155140.png

I guess it's good these are getting released in some form - I'd hazard it's the weapons that are probably relegating this to PB? Or maybe older post-show forms just didn't sell great.

I can definitely tell you it's very easy to get Lone Wolf or Justice Serval for like 400 yen on Manda; only stuff that goes cheaper than that is like the 3 evil book guy monsters from Saber. I guess not directly indicative of sales but it wouldn't be surprising at all -- especially since, uh, these V-Cins are aimed at adult fans that aren't necessarily the target audience of SO-DO. Kids don't know what a Grease Perfect Kingdom is! ... in theory, probably!

I'll admit I'm kinda mad about this. I've gone on before about how it goes against the point of candy toy lines for me when they're expensive premium bandai sets rather than cheap stuff you can pick up for pocket money; but I would kinda understand if it was just the 3 V-Cin forms... rather than wrapping all the remaining weapons into it. Even if it was the weapons as their own Preban package for like 3000 yen, sure; but now I've gotta pay close to 9000 yen if I want Jeanne to have her scythe??? I'm maybe just slightly bitter

Yeah, that does suck. It also feels like this is unusually expensive, even for SO-DO? Like, I remember picking up the Grease/Rogue PB set off Manda pretty soon after it released for about 4000 Yen, which felt a little much, but both of them had real nice stickers, and then big wings for both Rogue and Mad Rogue and a plethora of extra Build Drivers with hazard triggers and magma knuckles and whatnot. This is, like, double that for one extra figure and more weapons, which I guess are nice but don't seem to add up. It's a shame, and I think it's alright to vent a little that you either pay it or always have that completionist itch of "She'd look real good with the scythe". Best bet is finding someone who's really into Live/Evil/Demons and doesn't care about the weapons, but those sound like slim odds.

EDIT - I went looking for SO-DO Prices because that's appaently better than sleeping, and my favourite is the entire King of Arthur robo, all four boxes, for 500 yen: https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/...0Rider&lang=en. He's so popular! There's also either of the two Saikou arm/leg forms for a whopping 200 Yen! (https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/...0Rider&lang=en / https://order.mandarake.co.jp/order/...0Rider&lang=en)

Wow. The last So-Do Geats article was in December, and we're nearly halfway through February. I know the next wave is getting delayed, but that seems like a pretty significant gap. I'm not sure what, if anything, to make of it.

I think it's just down to the delays. Pretty much the entirety of the lack of SO-DO news has occurred either during ID5 being delayed or just before that, where they probably had some idea it was going to be delayed. Also add to that that they probably had news for all three of SHODO, SHODO-O and SO-DO CHRONICLE which have probably come across the same production issues, and suddenly there's a complete drought of things to talk about in what would otherwise be a pretty packed slate

I have many thought on this. I'm disappointed because mainline SO-DO, the one that's ages 3+, has not had a PB set since Zi-O and that was great. That said, I don't want these figures and I'm a little glad they won't be taking up space in Geats. However, the accessories are mostly things I've been waiting well over a year for them to make and that sucks. My Demons will never be complete now. I do hope someone that buys this set scans the stickers so that others can print their own stickers for the four weapon molds that are more readily available. It suck all around, regardless.

Then there's the price, let's see how much it increased vs other PB sets. Note that I'll be using the before tax prices because that's what I can find on the blog and the important part is the price difference. I think there's enough accessories here to equate this set to the SO-DO Chronicle 4 packs. I'm going to use the 4 pack with Birth X in it because that's the newest and highest priced 4 pack I could find. It's original price (before tax) was 6200 yen, which was 500 yen more than the Gaim 4 packs. This Revice set is 7900 yen (again, before tax). The difference in price is 1700 yen. While not the worst increase, it is a bit of a jump. The last jump before this was 500 yen. This is over 3 times the increase in price than last time. I'm sure this is rooted in the recent weakness of the yen, but I think there might be a little more to it.

Okay, theory time. I stress that this is a theory based on the information of the last few months. I think this Revice PB set was suppose to be half of a Geats wave. I think that the major delay of ID5 has made them push any future Revice figures that were planned for retail into PB so that Geats can lose a wave. The price of this PB set might be in part because they budgeted these figures for retail and transferring them to PB where they will sell less increased the price more than normal (or it's all form the weak yen catching up). If these were planned for retail, then they probably aren't done with the PB Revice sets yet. SO-DO still has not made Igarashi (the sibling fusion Rider), Chimera, or Get Over Demons. I could see them being a second set.

There's also Revi and Vice's DGP forms, though I definitely assume those will be just helmet parts (and belt stickers) rather than full figures of their own now. The major thing to me is Revice Shin from the Final Stage -- they'd been pretty consistent up till now of doing Final Stage stuff, and it'd be a shame if they stopped now.

(Vade, also, but if we're talking about things that are likely to be scrapped...)

Finally got around to picking up a bunch of SO-DO Geats releases. Only going to do the main 5 riders I think (Geats, Tycoon, Buffa, Na-Go, JackPunk).

For the non-Geats riders, I will probably just stick to their powered up form. The fever suits are a little too busy for me.

Also found a Dark Aguilera for cheap and hoping to repaint it to her base form. Would like to get a hold of Seeker.

For now I'm just waiting on Geats' bike.

I just got both waves of So-Do Chronicle Faiz in today. Haven't had a chance to crack any open besides Delta but I'm really loving this line. I'm glad I never dipped too far into Figuarts because the Shodo and So-Do lines are much more satisfyingly comprehensive and relatively cheap even with the late tax and P-Bandai exclusives

They really really are! You can just have a full collection of every Faiz suit for the price of two modern figuarts, it's pretty great

More importantly, I can have a better Jetsliger for half the cost

I like the Shodo guys ok too, but they're a little softly sculpted in comparison so as someone who prefers Heisei Phase 1, I really hope we get a Chronicle Agito and Blade set in the next couple years

I would be all over an Agito line... the more time goes on the more I realise they're some of my favourite Rider designs

I'm watching the Faiz assembly review, and there's so many more stickers than I expected for what is really a simple color scheme on each suit. And I thought Kabuto was rough. I think I'll skip Faiz and try to get Kabuto later. I don't love every Kabuto suit enough to get/wait the SS, so getting the lineup in So-Do works for me. I did the same for Ryuki

I'm also hoping to pick up Faiz and Kabuto alone sometime later. They do indeed have too many stickers for me to want the full team of each.

I am fine with SHODO being a different scale and style of figure, but I really wish Yu-Do was in scale with SODO!

Shodo-XX 4 revealed!
https://bandaicandy.hateblo.jp/entry/20230219_rider

A new Rider 1
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676766900
(Because, you know, movie)

Kuuga Dragon
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676766900

Kuuga Raising Dragon
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676766900

OOO Latorartar Combo
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676766900

Vulcan
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676766900

Skull!
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676766900

And lastly Joker
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676766900

What a nice variety this wave has. As usual in XX, there's an accessory box for a total of 8 boxes. Comes out in June. The OOO figure can of course form change using the figures from XX3. Looks like Vulcan's Shotriser doesn't need replacement parts to come off the belt, which is nice. They fixed W's hips for Skull so that he's not stuck in an A stance like W figures from XX2. He also comes with a hand for holding his hat.

The following are mentioned to be in the accessory box: Both of Kuuga's staffs, Vulcan's shotgun, Skull's gun, battle damaged hat, and crystal head. There might be more, but that's what's named in the blog.

Next blog will be on 3/12 and the overview of ID5 for its release (Yeah, that's 3 weeks from now). So guess that means the release date of ID5 is 3/13.

I was just thinking about how my SHODO Ichigo could use an update! Also Skull looks very good. His missing paint apps aren't as obvious as the others.

BTW it still blows my mind that the SODO Auto Vajin is going for what an SHF version of the bike would go for.

https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...0215200017.jpg

If anyone buys up the case and does not want Ichigo, I'll be more than happy to take it off your hands

Extremely unconventional wave, even after XX2! The only new series covered here is 71 with a single figure; with the rest all being “catch up”. Have to assume they’re now committed to Kuuga’s other forms and Valkyrie in future waves. Personally I’m just looking forward to what that beautiful new Ichigo mold gets re-used for; please please do original colours…

From Premium Bandai's site, everything included in the Shodo-XX 4 accessory pack. The shorter Dragon Rod and another copy of Medajaribur were not mentioned in the blog.

https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1676848625

Pretty neat! A little surprised the other form of the Skull Magnum isn't there, since I'm pretty sure they did both forms of the Trigger Magnum

I keep forgetting he ever used it in that mode. Honestly rather have that than the OOO sword again, but it's not a big loss or anything.

HLJ has the wave up for preorder now:
https://www.hlj.com/shodo-xx-kamen-r...0pcs-bann95772

It's been quite a while since So-Do was so far behind on the currently-running Rider series, hasn't it? Given that we've got at least eight more characters to go, never mind the slew of apparent incoming stuff... If there's another wave of DGP contestants.... yikes. I really hope they're finally done watering down the Geats releases with Revice leftovers.

We've still got a lot of waves to go. Every previous SO-DO line has handled extras from the other series; Saber especially had an obscenely large amount of 01 stuff to do. It'll be fine

It helps that lots of the Riders can just be done as Entry Forms if they really need to, and the Glare/Gazer/Glare2 are all nice repaints that won't require extra toolings. It'll work out, even if it shunts into the next series or Premium Bandai (I'd hazard that'll be more for Revice post-show stuff)

In terms of Revice, I'm expecting Chimera and Igarashi to be in the retail waves since their fellow movie star Daimon was. Get Over Demons I could also see due to being from a movie with just as much billing (AND is much more recent and in a Geats movie), and then Revi and Vice's DGP forms... I think were always going to be helmet accessories to begin with

Images dropped for ID-5 on the usual toy sites, I'm not sure if we knew the wave before but it looks to have:

https://1999.co.jp/itbig92/10929359a2.jpg
https://www.1999.co.jp/itbig92/10929359a3.jpg
https://1999.co.jp/itbig92/10929359a7.jpg
https://1999.co.jp/itbig92/10929359a4.jpg
https://1999.co.jp/itbig92/10929359a5.jpg
https://1999.co.jp/itbig92/10929359a6.jpg

1: Geats Powered and Boost, coming with the ToQ-oh Sword
2. Seeker
3. Geats/Tycoon Commander (No pics for Tycoon, afaik)
4. Glare
5. Invinceable Jeanne
6. Daimon

It's actually not bad at all, even if Glare and the comboing of all the Commander forms together make the delay feel a little more obvious than usual.

Yup! We knew all that since it was initially scheduled for January release. Command also comes with enough pieces not just to be either Tycoon or Geats, but to be either form -- Jet and Cannon are the exact same torso/legs just with different attachments and colours, so they've bundled in those different attachments and stickers so it's all four versions of Command in one figure.

I know considering the delay that this won't come up for a while, but I wonder how the Supporter Riders will get handled? Ziin is obviously fine, and Geats seems to be selling well enough that I can imagine they'll be made *somehow*... My gut says a PB set in a few months, but maybe they'll make retail? Probably depends on how far the CG budget stretches and how much they show up.

I can see them being in the waves fine enough. If you think about it, the required volume for Kyuun and Kekera is about as much as the Gatriker; which took up 3 boxes. There's also King of Arthur taking up 4 boxes, which is very comparable to Beroba (admittedly, scale could be a little off; but I doubt she'll ever get made in her full size).

I could definitely see them being put on the backburner and taking a while, though; especially since they would require much more boxes than other characters and they're arguably a bit more 'secondary' to Ziin. I think we'll see Ziin quickly enough, but the rest could take a bit.

Random thought, I kinda wanna see a regular release of sentai SHODO done in the sporadic style of the PR Lightning Collection.

I would like if Sentai Shodo was regular retail releases too...

Yep. They could still do the team set as web exclusives but I wouldn't mind them releasing a wave of sentai SHODO mixed-bag style or in a theme if they want i.e. lion motifs only or gorilla motifs only.

ID5 is now out... but unless there's multiple wave layouts like recent SHODO waves, the dupe is surprisingly Geats Builder/Boost rather than Command

https://i.imgur.com/b74EHyB.png

The amount of stickers on the Auto Vajin is truly rough :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqZBBBiOmXw

Also I wonder if it scales with the other SODO Rider Machines? It looks a little bigger than the others.

Judging purely from the shots of the Riders on them it seems to be in scale

https://i.imgur.com/JdhbtT1.png

Holy socks, so they released ID5 without a single candy blog article promoting it? Okay, something is UP with that part of the Bandai Candy team. Their last article promoting So-Do Geats was in December!

I wonder if it's significant that I haven't seen any preorders for ID6.

They're having a wave review tomorrow, when this wave is technically supposed to release. Stores always seem to get it a couple days early though.

No actual news tonight, just the promised ID5 review; but they've said that next week's update will have news for both SHODO and SO-DO CHRONICLE!! I have to imagine this is the next SHODO-O wave and the next SO-DO CHRONICLE line; if so it's a big one

The SODO Chronicles that remain are:

Agito
Blade
Hibiki
Kiva
Decade*
Fourze
Wizard
Drive
Ghost
Ex-Aid*
Build*
Zi-O*

*These have already been done in the regular SODO line.