[Den-O]

Tune, Chaser!

Everyone recalls the awesome abilities of our favorite Rider turned Roidmude hit man turned back to Rider right? Well sadly when S.H. Figuarts Mashin Chaser was released we of course discovered that many of his trademark weapons and accessories were not included. Or rather they simply couldn't be. Frankly it would have been too much for a standard retail release. (As clearly evidenced by this sets price) Well lucky for us Bandai finally saw fit to rectify that situation so today's gallery features the amazing S.H. Figuarts Busou Chaser accessory set!

Seeing as this is an accessory set the review will be a bit more brisk. We'll simply focus on each piece individually and how they interact together as well as with Mashin Chaser.

Packaging
Nothing unusual here! Just a larger wider version of the Kamen Rider Drive theme of box. This one of course is so much larger in to accomodate the rather large wings included in the set. Everything's packed in one gigantic tray so be very careful when you open this set. There are several incredibly tiny pieces that could quite easily be lost when you pry apart the plastic trays.

Parts Breakdown
As I said above the entire point of this set is for it to interact with your S.H. Figuarts Mashin Chaser. Everything here is designed to interchange with each other to appropriately recreate the various special techniques and weapons made available to Chase by way of his Chaser Viral Cores. So let's start there.

Viral Cores: You get one each of the Spider, Cobra, & Bat Viral Cores. Incredibly tiny these are at the exact same scale as Shift Cars & Signal Bikes. Accurately they're just painted in a dull silver but each has some incredible unique sculpting for something at this scale. Each can peg onto Chaser's Break Gunner by removing the guard on top first. Each corresponds to another mode for his Circular Dynamics back mounted weapons pack.

To begin building the Circular Dyamics in it's standard backpack formation remove the plug from Chaser back revealing a post which you can plug the small notched gray part included with the set on. Then as pictured take the small tube and combine it with the main body of the Circular. Plug this onto Chaser's back to form the base of the assembly. Next take the weapon portion, the actual E-Circular, and plug the small version of the Tail Whipper onto it. This piece is purely aesthetic, it fills out a kind of symmetry on the opposite side of the circular playing off the tube on the other. A more realistic Tail Whipper is also included which we'll get to below. Plug this assembly onto the backpack and fold it up against Chaser's body. This creates the standard look of the pack. From the side it looks rather odd but straight on it gives Mashin Chaser some much needed bulk. And it succeeds in making him look just a bit more intimidating

Now to create the first weapon, the Fang Spidey. Remove everything except the basic back plug and disassemble it. The main Circular Dynamics has a secondary groove in it that will allow you to plug it back on and let it face outward to the right arm. Now instead of the original tube used to accent the circular a larger bendable rubber one is used. This one will attach to the E-Circular itself and give it the free range of motion it needs for posing. Now wait! In order to actually use any of of these new weapons you need to use another part included in the set, the alternate forearm! Surprisingly Mashin Chasers arm can removed very easily and replaced with this one. Which is necessary because of the flat outer surface it features with a port meant to allow the E-Circular to sit flush with the arm. The look in this mode is pretty fierce. While I can't say it's perfect, the range of motion isn't hindered nearly as badly as you might think. The entire assembly can get in it's own way from time to time but all just looks badass. And the E-Circular itself is just ridiculously detailed. Just superb.

To create the full Tail Whipper you just need to remove the small plug like port (which we use below) from underneath the pincers. It slides right out and allows you to plug in the larger and more accurate Tail Whipper, NOT the piece we used used for show on the backpack. This new whip has a semi-rigid wire running through it and all the components float freely around it. Allowing you to the have a fully posable and pretty firm whip for action poses. In order to utilize the final mode for the arm you can need to unplug the Tail Whipper and put the original port back in. Now we use the included Wing Sniper Effect Part to simulate a powerful attack. It's honestly not too spectacular but it gets the point across.

Last but far from least is the most impressive and ambitious accessory in the entire Busou Chaser set, the Wing Sniper Wings! This huge and beautiful set of wings is just everything you could possibly want. The wings are each split into 2 large sections that can move independently of one another while each of half of the wing set is also independent allowing you create some great flight poses. When in use the other parts of this set are almost entirely taken out of play. You just need to get back down to the original Circular Dynamics parts without the weapons attached. Now remove the small pincer from the Circular and snap it into a similar groove on the back side of the wings. This gives the impression that the wings you have now transformed from the wings on the arm weapon. It's a brilliant way to simulate something that's impossible for this toy to replicate.

However here's my one gripe with this entire accessory set. These hefty wings are now plugged into the the small plug on the upper back piece of the circular. This would be fine if the entire backpack could withstand the weight. I don't know if it's just mine or what but even though Mashin Chaser himself can balance with the wings on, perfectly I might add, the entire thing likes to come unplugged from his back. And plugging the wings themselves in can cause other parts to pop off from the sheer force you're exerting plugging them on. It's a catch-22, some of it works but some of it doesn't In any case the finished product is just gorgeous and oozes with cool. The wing details combined with Chasers' decidedly evil look to come together to give you one amazingly awesome package. Because of the way the wings are constructed there's no way to use them with any other Drive Figuart, that includes trying to recreate the Chaser Mach finisher, but they look so good good on Mashin Chaser anyway that you'll never want to take them off (if you can get them to stay on in the first palce).

One final side note this set also includes it's own basic Tamashii Stage set! The caveat being that the actual arms and grip parts are actually lifted directly from the amazing Kinnikuman wrestling stages. Though chaser lower body tubing makes the excellent arms/hands/seat of this stage hard to use, it's still arguablly the best type of Tamashii Stage, and I welcome it!

Final Thoughts
While accessory sets don't always turn out the best the S.H. Figuarts Busou Chaser set turned out incredibly well. Minor issues aside this set is more than worth the price of admission. Everything here is made to meticulously recreate everything you possibly need for Mashin Chaser. The ONLY thing missing from this set is the unnamed Triple Tune Crossbow form for the E-Circular. Granted it's basically the same as Fang Spidey just with an extra pair of wings. But it would have been nice to get that too. As is I'd highly recommend garbing this set if you're a Mashin Chaser or Drive fan in general.