Me too. Although there were a couple of AC Shin Zangetsu for a fairly reasonable 3500-4000 yen these past couple of weeks so not all hope is lost! I have AC Duke pre-ordered but I look forward to seeing a SH Figuart announcement sometime.

SHin Zangetsu does seem to be reasonably priced. It's his brother Zangetsu that is ridiculous in price.

I just don't feel like paying more than retail for it. That and stubbornness that wants to see my HLJ order get filled even though it probably never will

Kyoryu Gold looks awesome, but I was silently hoping he'd come with his "flying" wings and they just hadn't mentioned it yet. Ah well, he still looks beautiful, ca't wait.

We do?

Most people are just making that assumption for some reason. There is no indication that'll actually happen.

There are lot's of initial forms used by riders that fall to the way side though. Look at some other Heisei riders. Kuuga Growing Form, Ryuki Blank Form, Den-O Plat Form. These basic suits either come back very rarely or not at all. I think standard Zangetsu is no different. Urobutchi has no toys to push of that suit any longer so I don't think it'll be returning.

I think that's kind of a bad example. Growing Form, Blank Form and Plat Form are basically all pre-rider forms. Weak with very little ability. Normal Zangetsu isn't the same as that at all. He was strong enough to go up against all the other riders and had his own personal weapon, which those pre-rider forms didn't unless you count Blank Form's standard sword which broke as soon as he used it.

Shin Zangetsu's use over armored Zangetsu is more like Kiva's Emporer form being used much more over his base form.

Based on what we saw in the first episode. I guess it can be argued that they just didn't want to show powered up forms there, but I'll be surprised if we don't see the energy riders come to an end before long. We do know that things are going to turn into an all out rider war eventually though and that Ryouma and Takatora won't be on the same side. I don't see him continuing to use the energy driver beyond that.. But this is a discussion for another place.

Regardless, base forms are always going to be regulars over powerups, even if the powered up form becomes used more than the regular one.

But it isn't a powered up form. His name literally means True, as in True Zangetsu. That's an entirely new suit, not an upgraded form of his previous one. He doesn't even use the same driver to access it.

If you want to argue that Kouta will steal his Melon ELS to use Jinba Melon and then he'll be forced to use original Zangetsu, then I can sort of see where you're going. But as is there's literally no reason for him to revert to a lesser power set. Look at G3 VS G3X for a good example of that.

One of the only ways I can see him reverting to Melon Arms is if Ryoma built in some sort of kill switch to the Genesis Drivers and, when the rest of the energy riders break away (to side with Micchy?), he somehow kills Takatora's new driver, forcing him to go back to the old one.

Edit: Unrelated, I just realized that, for some reason, I ordered my Ride Shooter to ship via SAL. I must have been mad!