[Den-O]

Henshin!

From the shadowy past of 1993 TokuNation is proud to present this gallery, S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider ZO! The titular hero in the second of a trio of rider films released in the mid 90's. ZO (spoken as Zet-O) like Kamen Rider Shin before him, was billed as a Kamen Rider 20th Anniversary character despite the films release actually coinciding with the 22nd anniversary. Shin, ZO, and J, as movie riders were often forgotten for some time until Kamen Rider Decade's world hopping brought these characters back into the fold once more. Though these 3 films were released in the Heisei Era, these 3 riders are still grouped into the Showa Era of riders by Toei with their Heisei era officially beginning with Kuuga.

Packaging
As you can see from the images below, S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider ZO doesn't feature particularly flashy packaging or box art. Which is actually pretty standard for Showa Riders. They tend to be packaged in singularly colored boxes with color shifted box art to contrast against the background. No real surprises here.

Main Figure
For starters the character Kamen Rider ZO featured a great suit design. It was reminiscent of the more streamlined Showa suits that came before it like Super-1, or Black. This character was designed to be like the new Ichigo of his generation and the very similar looking Kamen Rider J was meant to be like Nigo to ZO. Though this relationship was never fully reailzed in that era it's clear their design similarity is meant to imply this. ZO's figuart really does an excellent job of capturing that hybrid organic and mechanical feel that classic riders had as well. Whereas these days most riders have costumes that appear or are entirely mechanical in nature, ZO reminds us that once upon all riders were like him, cyborgs.

Along the contours of the body are crisply painted gold accents. Really nicely done for the most part, I've maybe found a couple examples of paint overspray at all. The only time they look off is when posing ZO in dynamic ways. Because of the way his articulation cuts are implemented the gold lines break away from each other and you lose the consistency of the design. But that's a very minor complaint. The shoulder pads while not perfect can also hinge up about 90 degrees out of the way giving the arms some more freedom to move. The elbows frustrate me a bit as they don't seem to have a full upward range of movement but perhaps I'm just doing something wrong. The head of course looks gorgeous and ZO has some of the best red compound eyes I've ever seen. But you must watch out for the antenna as they're easily broken. The instructions even warn you to be careful around them since they're very very thin plastic.

Accessories
Kamen Rider ZO is one of the more bare bones releases for accessories but honestly he comes with everything he ever used in his one solo film appearance:

6 - alternate hands. Nothing crazy here, just 3 complete sets of additional hands for various poses.

1 - alternate Break Toother head. The Break Toother was featured only once in ZO's theatrical film. In his final henshin at the climax of the film, once the suit forms around him these metal slits pop out from around his mouthplate and almost function as steam vents. Though they have no practical use I'm aware of they do look cool, and they remind me of a mechanical version of Shin's mouth. Be especially careful swapping this head though as I did put a pretty bad stress mark in one of the antenna on mine.

1 - Grasshoper! The creatures through which Dr. Mochizuki contacts ZO via telepathy. This grasshopper should not be confused with the similar looking Berry who assisted Kamen Rider J.

1 - set of wings for Grasshopper.

Honestly there's nothing else Kamen Rider ZO could have included. He has no weapons or particular trademark attacks to make effect parts for. I only wish he'd been released in a bike 2-pack like many Showa Rider releases have been as of late. ZO being included with his Z-Bringer would have been utter perfection.

Final Thoughts
Though this figure may not offer much at first glance, S.H. Figaurts Kamen Rider ZO is something I've wanted for some time. This figure captures the look of the actual suit near perfectly. Though the accessories are a bit spares, as I mentioned above there isn't really anything else ZO could have come with. It's actually one of the more complete rider Figuart releases thanks to this. If you find yourself nostalgic for the fantastic film he originates in, then I suggest picking this release up. Fans of ZO will not be disappointed.