[Den-O]

I am Boost! The Rumbling Ghost! Go Fight, Go Fight, Go, GO!

Is the 3rd time the charm with the Kamen Rider Ghost subline of S.H. Figuarts? Ghosts' first real upgrade was released a little while back, and now that we've finally gotten our hands on one, it's time to take a good look at S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ghost Toucon Boost Damashii!

Packaging
As with Ghost Ore & Specter the packaging is the same style of slim box that became common during Kamen Rider Drive's run. Same kind of boring design really. Ghost's line in particular has been quite boring in the packaging department if you ask me though.

Main Figure
For a third review in a row we're mostly going to be looking at the same toy. Both Kamen Rider's Ghost & Specter share the same basic body and Toucon Boost is no different. An extensive repaint with minor parts changes. Ghost & Specter engendered some negative feelings towards this mold, which is understandable given the design flaws that were present in those releases. So what new does Toucon Boost have to offer? Not Much.

Toucon Boost is painted in a combination of matte black & metallic red that manages to be applied better than any paint apps on Ghost or Specter. All the finer details are present and done well. Unlike the previous releases' helmets, I'm not really wowed by Toucon though, it doesn't "come alive" the same way. It doesn't jump out at you like Ghost & Specter. Once again the Ghost Driver is the same bland opaque blue and like it's DX counterpart the face plate can be removed to expose the face beneath. A Toucon Boost Eyecon is present but non-removable as it's sculpted in. It is however painted pretty well for something at that scale.

Now lets talk about how Toucon Boost moves. The articulation of this figure is identical to that of Ghost & Specter. Only with more limited clearance on some joints that seem to neuter a portion of the articulation. The design provides a full range of leg motion stunted only by the ankle cuffs. The hips just need to be pulled down a bit and rotated a little to clear the waste. But the biggest issue remains, the waist. 3 releases in and the waist is still a big problem. It's possible to rotate it side to side, barely, but applying excessive force is still scary. Liberal applications of shock oil to that joint seem to be the most popular fix. Toucon's Ghost Parka of course contributes to the restriction of the waist when it impacts the Driver, but more particularly it limits the upper body and shoulders. Even more so than the last two figures because the parka is remolded. The additional flame extensions restrict the shoulder's movement. They keep you from being able to rotate the shoulder up/forward to any meaningful degree.

The arms themselves are still decently thought out, but the weakest piece of their design reamins the soft rubber shoulder sections. The "tabs" on the end are made of soft rubber so you can tuck them into the shoulder recesses. But the new parka extensions make this difficult. And they get bent very very easily doing so. So watch out for those, especially since you now have to contend with the flared up parka. As before, the wrist cuffs negate about any dynamic use of the hands. When the hand is plugged on to the wrist it sits nearly flush so there isn't much room to work with. Finally back to Toucon Boosts' head, the molded folded down hoodie on his shoulders really limits how it can move from side to side. Often forcing him to look up rather than down. The included normal hoodie accessory fixes that issue somewhat. But it's still bothersome.

Kamen Rider Ghost Toucon Booster once again gives us the same average mold we saw with Ghost & Specter without offering much of any improvement to the design. Frankly after 3 outings, I'm already sick of this mold. The positive feelings I had for Ghost Ore Damashii have been eroded by the repetitiveness of this mold.

Accessories
While it's not out of this world, Toucon Boost comes with a moderate number of accessories:

4 - sets of additional hands. Just the usual suspects. Repaints of previous Ghost hands.

1 - intertwined hand set. A pair of hands molded into one of Ghosts' more iconic positions. They can be frustrating to use though because the arms have a tough time contorting around his barrel chest. But this works so much better than trying to interlock individual hands.

2 - Eyecons. Two very tiny and somewhat decently painted representations of the Ore & Musashi Eyecons.

1 - Sunglasseslasher (blaster mode). This is the first truly welcome change with this release. The Sunglasseslasher FINALLY gives us something that can interact Eyecons! You can open the twin compartments and insert either or both of the included Eyecons or one of those included in the Specter 1st run bonus. The door to open the compartment is on a pretty flimsy hinge, so be careful. It's not particularly strong either so sometimes it droops. Also I'd like to point out how comically over-sized the gun is in comparison to Ghost's hands. The scale between Ghost & the blaster is pretty dodgy. It just looks weird in his hand.

1 - Sunglasseslasher Sword mode part. Just exchange this for the barrel of the gun mode. The second set of holding things hands is included to use with this. Once you attach the sword component he needs to hold the weapon more upright to make it believably a sword. So make sure you use the other set of hands without the relaxed trigger finger.

1 - hoodie (up). Intended to replace the default folded down hoodie, this piece can be used by removing the standard one as well as a small panel on the top of Ghost's head. Then just plug this hoodie down on. Weirdly this hoodie, which totally surrounds his head, provides far better neck movement. It's free floating so it's not attached to anything but it completely covers the head. I don't particularly care for his look with it on though, especially with Toucon. He just looks silly. That and it forces his head to look up rather than down so it's hard to make him look brooding the same way that Ore & specter could.

Final Thoughts
At the end of the day S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ghost Toucon Boost Damashii isn't going to change your opinon on the Ghost line of Figuarts. At best it's the nicest version of the mold released, but not by much. The differences between it and it's predecessors are minimal, and at least one (the parka) is detrimental. If you didn't care for Ghost Ore or weren't wowed by Specter, then this release won't do much to change your opinion. So far this line has meandered around average. Ghost Grateful Damashii could be a turning point, but that's a design I don't particularly care for and I'm not looking to pick up either. As with Ghost, Specter , and now Toucon Boost, I only picked them up because of a massive discount amiami offered after their initial releases. This to me is the only way to collect Ghost figuarts, it's the only way to justify owning them given how average they are.