[Den-O]

Cho Henshin!

Following up on our special retro gallery of the original S.H. Figuarts Kuuga Ultimate Form, we now take a look at the premium successor to that release with S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider Kuuga Ultimate Form! The so far 3rd release from Kamen Rider Kuuga in the Shinkocchou Seihou line, Kuuga Ultimate is possibly the best. Read below to see how it compares to the original.

Packaging
Shinkocchou Seihou Kuuga Ultimate comes in the same kind of gorgeous slip cover box we've become accustomed to with this premium line. From Kabuto to now this packaging is always a delight. I love the grainy almost instagram filter look for the box art. The solid white stacked parts trays just work for me as well. I know it's a fairly simplistic packaging design, and it changes even less release to release than other normal lines, but I really like it.

Main Figure
The most important thing to note about Shinkocchou Seihou Kuuga Ultimate is that in every conceivable way, it outclasses the original release. There is no contest. The pictures really speak for themselves, but here are a few really important things to note.

S.S. Kuuga Ultimate is designed with the same mentality that began way back with S.S. Kabuto. Building a realistic human form from the ground up. This releases' sculpt is dynamic and appears to be very powerful, even when in the most static of poses. You can easily imagine that's really Godai, brimming with power. Just as this form should appear. The proportions help convey this too, they're just so much more bulky and solid than the originals lanky legs, skinny knees/elbows, and all around emaciated look. Yes S.S. Kuuga Ultimate is a tab bit shorter than the original, but that height is appropriate. The original release was too tall in the first place. It should be mentioned that the hips are also massively improved with this release. Gone are those pathetic drop down hips on the original. No more worrying about scraping paint off when it impacts the waist.

The second major improvement here are the paint applications. The original release was plagued by inconsistent paint apps that were often over-sprayed or under-applied. They easily flaked and frankly they weren't the correct color either. The gold on the S.S. release may appear toned down to you at first, but the truth is the original release had some garish color to it that's just not accurate to the show footage. The original figuart almost has a green tinge to it's gold, the S.S. release manages to capture the ornate gold plating look this form deserves. Likewise the "veins" on the armor are more appropriately close to grey, rather what seemed like blue on the original.

Finally the poseability that S.S. Kuuga Ultimate embodies is unmatched by the original. I've taken the time to recreate a number of the shots from my original Ultimate Kuuga gallery in this one in sequence, specifically to demonstrate just how improved this figure is over that one. The Shinkocchou Seihou line began with the intention of creating realistic expressive human motion, in figure form. As was clearly evidenced by the lengths to which the design team first implemented this pseudo-skeletal design structure in Shinkocchou Seihou Kabuto. This figure manages to come alive simply, where the original just couldn't.

Accessories
This is a pretty basic breakdown, but one that's entirely appropriate for Kuuga Ultimate Form:

1 - Ultimate Dark Eyes head. Unlike the original Kuuga Ultimate, which only included a swap out visor, this version opts to include a full helmet. The Dark Eyes represent the inherent evil/drunk with power nature of this form, though Godai was rarely seen using it. Rather than becoming like Daguva he would revert to the red eyed form more often. However the Decade version of Kuuga is well known for succumbing to the Dark Eyes form for both Ultimate & Rising Ultimate forms. This head looks MUCH better than the visor included with the original release. It's lenses were basically dark tinted plastic. Whereas here we have basically solid black glossy lenses. Much darker, much better, much more accurate.

5 - sets of additional hands. Standard stuff here, a bit different from the original release in that there are 5 full sets rather than 4.5. I miss the open set of, wild/angry hands from that release. But this one includes both thumbs up hands so I'm cool with that. Otherwise pretty normal. He also includes Bike riding hands which is a plus.

Final Thoughts
As with any of these premium releases, S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider Kuuga Ultimate Form simply outclasses the original in every possible way. And I love it! I was never a huge fan of Kamen Rider Kuuga the show, it just didn't grab me. But the designs did. And after nearly 10 years the S.H. Figuarts line has finally reached a point where it can accurately and properly recreate these incredible suits in figure form. I said once before that, on a budget, the original Kuuga Ultimate is a worthy stand in. I need to say now, don't do that. Buy this beauty. If you have the means and opportunity, buy Shinkocchou Seihou Kuuga Ultimate Form. You won't be disappointed.