[ryan]

As a big fan of Kamen Rider Kuuga, the SH Figuarts Renewal/Shinkochu Seiho Kuuga was a highly anticipated release. And let me tell you, it does NOT disappoint.

Packaging
The boxes for these Shinkochu Seiho Figuarts are both very simple, and very attractive. The back is pretty much the same as a standard figure with text on the back and a couple of action shots of the figure. The front, however, features a close-up of the Kuuga's head, which is grainy in a stylized way, with heavy shadowing which just looks absolutely gorgeous. Inside are two trays, one for the figure and one for the hands.


Main Figure
Renewal Kuuga is absolutely gorgeous. The finish on the black is a very nice matte, the red is a nice, glossy candy red, while the gold and silver bits have a metallic finish. The different finishes provide a great contrast between the different parts of the costume, and combine to look fantastic. It's a significant improvement over the original version of Kuuga, which lacks the matte black (it's more of a semi-gloss to gloss finish). I do rather like the deeper, metallic red of the original Kuuga, but the Renewal is more show accurate. Original Kuuga also has a much more yellow color to the gold, which honestly looks rather bad, next to the Renewal.

The detail on Renewal Kuuga is similarly amazing. The belt buttons are more cleanly separated, than on the original figure, and the black paint between all the buttons really helps them pop out. The detail of the arcle on the belt is also improved. The Gurongi text on the armor is sculpted with very fine lines and the paint is clean and thin such that no detail is lost. This text on the original figure looks just a bit sloppy. I think it's sculpted with thicker lines, that the paint then filled in in uneven ways to make it look clumpy or gloppy. It just looks far superior on the Renewal. The sculpting on the soles of Kuuga's boots is also much improved on the Renewal, such that you can actually see the symbol on the ball of his foot. Finally, the gemstones in Kuuga's wrist and ankle cuffs are separate, translucent plastic pieces, which really improves the look of them (on original Kuuga they are simply a dot of paint that wasn't always cleanly applied to the small sculpted blip).

Bandai has also improved the proportions of the figure. Where the original figure is lanky, with thin, almost stretched out looking limbs, Renewal Kuuga looks like a person, from the length and width of the legs, to the subtle sculpting of the musculature on the legs, so it looks like someone wearing spandex. Couple this improved look of the body with the fantastic articulation, and it's difficult to put Kuuga into a not-realistic looking pose. Every pose just looks so natural, it's amazing. And sadly, it makes the old figure look that much worse for how gangly it is. Even just standing at rest Kuuga looks like a tiny person in a costume.

One of the ways the articulation is improved over the original figure is the torso is now five separate parts. The chest armor has separate under-piece with the Gurongi writing, which is separate from the lower torso piece, which is separate from the belt, which is separate from the crotch. All of these different pieces give Renewal Kuuga great range of movement, from deeper forward crunches, to excellent side crunches, as well as being able to twist from side to side. Original Kuuga had great motion in the head, tilting sideways and forward/backward, and the Renewal is just as good, and looks more natural doing so, because of better proportions (Original Kuuga is a pencil-neck).

The shoulder pad articulation is distinct from the original figure in being attached to a ball joint, that is attached to a hinge joint in the upper part of the shoulder. It has great range, and I never had a problem positioning it where I wanted it, again, in very natural looking ways. It's a really well-designed pair of joints, and I much prefer it to the older style of the shoulder pad being attached on a single hinge on the top of the shoulder, like original Kuuga and many many others. (Side note, this is the same attachment that SHF Darth Vader and Stormtrooper use on their shoulder pads.)

The only place in which there's a bit of restriction is in the ability of the arms to cross in front of the chest, and this is the only place in which original Kuuga has even the slightest advantage. Original Kuuga's arms are very thin, so they're able to move inward over the chest slightly more than Renewal Kuuga, as his bigger biceps encounter the chest armor earlier. It's a bit of a slight disappointment, but so heavily outweighed by all the other improvements this figure features that it's almost a non-issue.


Accessories
Kuuga comes with a bunch of hands, and nothing else. But then, Kuuga Mighty Form needs no other accessories, as he was purely a melee fighter in this form. He's got his punching hands, open fighting pose hands, and two pairs of variations on fully opened hands. And of course, Godai's trademark thumbs up hand. This figure has all the hands he needs to replicate pretty much anything Kuuga did in the show. And while I always appreciate more accessories, I can't think of anything else this figure needed. Okay, maybe some flame effects parts, but seeing as how Bandai has already released a Flame Effect set I can understand them not including a couple of those flames here. But it would have been nice (and Kamen Rider Drive's first release bonus includes a couple...).


Final Thoughts
Without trying to over-hype this figure, I can say it's easily one of the best Figuarts ever made. Renewal Kuuga is in nearly every way imaginable a big improvement over the original release of the character, and the more I play with it the more I love it. Everything about it is fantastically design and executed. It may help that Kuuga is one of my favorite designs, but even with my rather high expectations, this figure wow-ed me like few others. When it was announced, months ago, I said something to the effect of, I would buy the Renewal of Mighty Form, but didn't feel like I'd need to replace all the other forms he has (of which I have ALL the Figuarts). But very quickly this figure changed my mind.

I would welcome a Renewal figure of any and every single form that Kuuga has. It is an amazing figure, and I strongly recommend everybody get a hold of it if they can.