TK-05 Kamen Rider Drive Type Technic Gallery
 

Drive! Type Technic!

TokuNation is in gear with more Kamen Rider Drive! Continuing our series of Drive galleries we're looking today at the 5th Tire Koukan release, TK-05 Kamen Rider Drive Type Technic!

Don't forget to check out the video review of this excellent figure by my man Baltmatrix as well!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REWyXH8iHbw

Packaging
Much like Drive Type Speed and Drive Type Wild, Type Technic comes in a nice slim box with one diagonally rounded off side. Collectors of the line have nothing new to see here other than the obviously new stock images for Drive and some of his newer tires. Much like Type Wild, Technic is packed as one solid figure rather than two halves like Type Speed. This is of course due to how the Tire Koukan gimmick has changed for this Type.

Main Figure
Kamen Rider Drive Type Technic has been pretty divisive actually. A good number of people either love or hate the suits design, I'm firmly in the camp of loving it. But let's explore how this figure lives up to it. For the lower half of the body this is much of the same figure you already got with Types Speed & Wild before. But let me tell you that torso and head are entirely different beasts.

Type Technic moves the TK gimmick once again, this time to the rather odd chest area. In order to utilize it you need to hinge back the upper most part of Technic's torso on the arm connected to the back. The shoulders, upper chest, and head are all connected. Then insert a tire, most likely the standard Type Technic Tire and here you have the figure's completed look. Let's start with positives.

Despite having a pretty funky version of the line's gimmick the Techinc doesn't suffer that greatly from it. You'd think there'd be no shoulder movement, but there's a ton of it. The shoulders are set on ball joints just bellow where the edge of a tire rests and they have some pretty decent motion. Some false cables are molded on to the upper arms simulate the connection to the shoulder pads as well, the pads themselves can hinge freely for a full range of movement thanks to the upper body's transformation. The sculpt is also spot on for this guy. As always right down to the intricate undercarriage detailing on the back and the exquisite head sculpt.

The drawbacks of the design are that, sadly, you can't do "Drive stacking" with this figure. Type Wild offered the hilarious possibility of attaching Type speed to his shoulder because they share the same universal connector. For some reason Type Technic has an entirely different connector on that chest peg meaning you can't do that. It's an incredibly odd change. What this also means is that for tires like Dream Vegas, which require the version 1 connector to be able to stack parts, are incompatible with Type Technic. Now the chest is designed gloriously to allow any of the Tires with moving or protruding bits to still work seamlessly with Technic. The shoulders really are aimed at allowing you to use any tire. However because of how the upper chest swings backs on a single joint hinge, anything thicker than one tire will essentially not work on this guy.

That being said it isn't necessarily the point of this figure to be able to accommodate things such as stacking. We've all had our fun with Type Wild but we have no indication that stacking the 3 pieces of Dream Vegas on there or putting Type Speeds torso there, will ever happen in show. So expecting that same kind of compatibility with Technic doesn't necessarily make sense. But it would have been fun. The head also has some pretty limited up/down movement because of the lip around the neck.

Accessories
Included with Drive Type Technic are several key accessories:

1 - Type Technic Tire. This is of course the main tire necessary to complete Technic's look.

1 - Door Gun. The second standard weapon of Kamen Rider Drive, the Door Gun made it's debut before Type Technic in the show but as with Type Wild and the Handle Sword this was included to sort of sweeten the deal. It's actually not too shabby. Much like the Handle Sword it's fully functional! Though it required only a single hinge to be able to do it the Door Gun opens and closes just as it should. A nice touch in all honesty.

1 - Fire Braver Tire. This new tire made it's debut in episode 9 of Kamen Rider Drive and as the name implies it's based on a fire rescue vehicle. Fire Brave is a fairly creative new tire with a folding "fire ladder" styled arm that can collapse along the inner indentation of the tire. Allowing it to not only fit perfectly inside of Technic's chest, but also to allow for variation of length of the arm for display. The arm itself is physically a bit weak and can pop apart from time to time, but it's inclusion here is a nice bonus.

Final Thoughts
As before with Types Speed & Wild, TK-05 Kamen Rider Drive Type Technic really does sell me on this lines gimmick. I think this figure is so far the best proof yet that the design detail of Tire Koukan continues to exceed that of Arms Change with a far less obstructive gimmick. Tire Koukan may seem simple but it's intelligently implemented in these figures and is actually a lot of fun. Negatives aside Type Technic is still a really interesting design and a pretty great figure.

Nice Drive!

Part Two!

Tire Koukans and more!

The craziness that can be done with this figure. :lol

Type Tecnic is my favorite type so far because of the fact that he shot behind himself accurately without looking in episode 09.

Wow... These guys are all over the place... Looks fun!

The figure looks good and seems to fit with the rest of the line. I don't like the tire whiplash collar. It looks like if you squeezed his legs he would shoot little discs out. The look just does not seem to fit the other 2 forms. I am behind on the show so if this form has shown up yet I have not seen it. Perhaps on the show it looks better but so far this is the weakest of the suit designs. Still digging the toy line and the gimmick this year.

This guy's cool, but is probably my least favourite figure of the line. Not sure whether to get another couple of ACs or to move onto these guys. Maybe just Baron...

It looks like the arm articulation is hurt a little by the gimmick in this case. Still wouldn't say no to this figure though. I wonder how Type Formula will work; two small default tires on the wrist that can be replaced by any two other full size tires?

Not the biggest fan of how he changes tires, but the figure itself is quite interesting. While it's not the best toy, in the show it's quite impressive.

First impression was that that back hinge was gonna get in the way of fun, but after seeing this gallery, it looks like that it isn't a problem.

Sheesh, this thing looks like the silliest, fun version of Drive. And dat Fire Braver Tire... Looks like there hasn't been that much innuendo in a Toku toy since ToQ-Oh.

There. I've said something about the Fire Braver toy without making a Phantasy Star Portable 2 reference that nobody would get.

IMO Technic is the first bad release in the line so far. It isn't compatible with all the tires, and it just looks stupid overall.

I'd disagree. It looks great and the only thing it isn't compatible with is stacking type tires of which there is only one currently, Vegas.

If I collected Kamen Rider I'd love to add this to the shelf.

Looks like a fantastic translation from screen to plastic. Neck tire aside, I dig the look and I'm very surprised the door is functional! Fantastic gallery as usual!

Soooo close to picking these up...

Seriously, I was just kinda skimming and saw the pic of the door open and had a "hold up" moment.

Huge knock against the figure that it can't fit some of the tires, IMO. But the form does look cool and especially Fire Braver is awesome.

Hmm...still kind of on the fence about the design of Type Technic, but I have to at least be impressed with the engineering here. And also with the fact that the tiny Door Gun actually "opens"/reloads--that's pretty sweet!

this form to me is a pretty cool one, especially in the show. also nice pic with what I only know as a VR Trooper.

Something that concerns me with these Tire Koukan figures is how we're only going to get one Handle-ken and one Door-juu. If we want to put up a Drive display with multiple weapons, we'll need to buy duplicate figures.

That aside, the figure does look nice, but I'm not really digging how the arm articulation is hindered by the tire gimmick... wondering as to how the SHF will handle this. I mean, they managed to make Fourze Magnet States fairly articulated, so I guess they can handle this too.

Technic looks neat.

I'll try and hunt this down.

Can't wait to get mine. The only issue I see is the somewhat limited tire koukan compatibility given the armor surrounding the tire port. Other than that, another A+ figure from BOJ.

I'm just kind of sad that we can't have Giraffe Neck Drive. Other than that, it's a great figure. With an elf ear helmet.

To address the complaints I keep reading, I'm not entirely sure you guys are reading the review. The shoulders are NOT hindered by the tire. The joint is placed below where the tire connects, and the shoulder pad itself is hinged above the tire on the chest plate, the arms move just fine and entirely independently of the tire.

And the ONLY tire that this figure has difficulty using so far is Dream Vegas, and that's only in it's stacked form. And we've seen no indication that the tire would even function that way in the show for Techinc anyway.

As I still think it's a fantastic figure.

well, with the big holes in the chest, you could probably do some cool "getting stabbed" scenes if that's your thing.

I really like the green they used on this figure, and the gimmick looks pretty fun!

Must admit, I really do quite like this design, however whilst it looks fine in the pictures I worry that in-hand the toy would feel a bit like it had G1 Kup syndrome...

EDIT: totally forgot when posting this that not everyone on here is into TFs and so would know what I meant by this- the G1 Kup figure is notorious for having arms that basically start halfway down his torso, rather than higher up where shoulders ought to be :lol

To ask a really random question, what are shipping like on the TK line? because I would like to buy some, but the last time I tried to import the shipping was nearly as much as the price of the product.

Dang, I like the size and detail level on these things. They seem nicely articulated, too. I especially love the chair/umbrella pic.

I haven't seen the show so I don't fully understand the gimmick, but it looks like crazy fun.

What's the price on these dudes?

I really like how they designed the shoulders here to accommodate the tires with protrusions - that was a nice touch and definitely smart to keep a substantial part of the gimmick intact. Shame about the stacked tires, though. Wonder if we'll even see any more like Dream Vegas to really make it a letdown though.

Around 25 dollars before shipping.

It may not be able to use all the tires, but he does still look really fun and a great figure.

Technic? Technique? Which is it?

He can use all of them but Vegas's stacking mode, which we'll probably never see again. If any one else asks, Den-O's probably going to explode.

More Technical Rumble Dumping, pl0x.

Still a pretty odd gimmick. But that KR. Can't wait for Mach

I dig the image with Type Technic next to the Green Rider figuarts. Surprisingly the TK line looks pretty good next to the Figuarts.

I thought he was only okay, at first sight, but you've sold me on it! I think the monster tire head is what did it. This whole tire thing is way more fun than you'd think it should be!

really liking this guy's design

All of the TK line looks fun, really hoping for something "wheely" cool for hi final form :D

Considering every single image in the gallery and the title of the gallery are Technic? And the fact that you can clearly see it spelled that way on the actual toy of the Technic Tire itself? I'd say it's fairly obvious.