[Den-O]

Blood Orange Arms!
Ja no Michi, On Stage!

After a long year of photos TokuNation has finally finished up it's work on the retail Arms Change line for Kamen Rider Gaim! But not to fear, Premium Bandai will continue to give us our fix for new fruity goodness with Premium Arms Change releases! Today we take a look at the first of several! ACPB01 Kamen Rider Bujin Gaim (Blood Orange Arms) is the first AC release from Premium Bandai and it's time we take a look at what Premium really means when applied to a mass retail toyline like Arms Change!

Bujin literally means "Warrior God". Riders bearing that name exist in a Sengoku Era type world parallel to Gaims and possibly the other Heise rider worlds. In it this these Bujin Riders face off against one another in a Sengoku-esque war for territory and power. The 14 previous Heisei riders and some of their secondary riders all have counterparts in this world with identical suits, powers, and weapons. However one of these riders, Bujin Gaim, possesses special powers the other don't and his human form has never been seen. He shares similar traits to the Gaim we know but bears a blood red armor....

Remember that Post #2 contains images of the additional Arms Changes between Bujin Gaim and ALL other AC figures released thus far!

Packaging
Bujin Gaim is the first release in Premium Bandai's online exclusive series of Arms Change figures. As such it shares a similar style of packaging to the normal retail figures, but comes in a windowless box. This style of box has become the norm for most Tamashii Web Exclusive S.H. Figuarts as well so it looks like it's been carried over to Arms Change too. Outside of the window though the box is nigh identical to a standard AC box, just decked out in Bujin Gaim related material.

Main Figure
The first thing you'll notice here is that Bujin Gaim is basically just Gaim. (LOL evil repaints) Breaking tradition with a lot of evil repaints however Bujin Gaim is not primarily black. At a base body level Bujin Gaim is almost identical to Gaim. Basically from the neck down it's 100% the same. Unlike some of the other accessories in this set the base body didn't get much of a premium paint treatment.

The heads are where the only differences exist. Compared to classic Gaim, Bujin Gaim has a blacked out mouth plate (later used on Jinba Gaim) and his head crest has been painted mostly in a metallic red. When compared to the other 5 types of Gaim bodies released thus far, you can see a pretty cool progression of new paint apps and remolds:

Gaim
Gaim (Suika dummy body)
Bujin Gaim
Jinba Gaim
Kachidoki Gaim
Kiwami Gaim

Arms/Accessories
In the accessories department, Bujin Gaim includes exactly the same ones that AC01 Gaim Orange Arms did. The only difference here is the paint job. And being that Bujn Gaim is the first of the Premium AC releases he indeed has a premium paint job. The Arms are correctly molded in the proper red to create an accurate Blood Orange Arms fitting for an evil counter to Gaim. A nice vibrant red marked with the evil black lines befitting of this dark rider. This paint scheme is of course carried over to the visor/helmet with the black lines creeping up the visor on a backdrop of nice metallic red.

The Daidaimaru was Gaim's weapon and there's no creative evil name for it for Bujin Gaim, it's still the Daidaimaru. Just painted red. However this Daidaimaru benefits from the premium treatment because it receives the proper silver paint paint apps to give the blade an accurate "sliced" look! This is something that was missing on the standard Gaim release when compared to the TV footage. While the S.H. Figuart of Gaim included the silver paint apps for the Daidaimaru, Bujin Gaim is the first instance of it being applied to an Arms Change. The Musou Saber is entirely unchanged from those released with Gaim & Zangetsu however. Same mold, same paint apps.

When fully equipped Bujin Gaim is appropriately evil and badass. With a few minor changes in paint scheme the generally heroic looking Gaim figure can be turned into the wonderfully devilish looking Bujin Gaim. As you can see it still retains all the same abilities and poseability of the original and will look great with your other AC's.

Final Thoughts
For their first outing with this new series of premium releases ACPB01 Bujin Gaim is a true winner. Though admittedly it would have been difficult to ruin the excellent fun of the AC01 Gaim mold, Bujin Gaim just feels like a more polished product than his retail counterparts. This figure is a perfect example of the quality we can continue to expect from the Premium Bandai Arms Change releases.

Check back next Wednesday 8/13 for a particularly dangerrrrrousssssss Arms Change gallery & video review!