[barnstenchfartface]

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Originally Posted by Kiwami

Because I know you're wrong I went back and searched through the Gaim episodes to count Takatora's appearance as Melon and Melon Energy. And would you look at that, he barely makes 8 appearances as Melon Energy (the 8th time being when he's betrayed by the other Energy Riders and Micchy takes the lockseed) and 6 as classic Melon.

So much for "far far more". It is more, but not on the large scale you try to sell here. It's rather even IMO.

Well, it's actually 9 episodes, and three movies (and the Gaiden), but you're absolutely right, and I stand corrected. I think all the times Mitchy also used the suit blurred in my mind and made me think Takatora used it more than he did. I think it's also because Takatora in the first arc was a much more minor character and when we started seeing more of him in the Yggdrassil arc he had already switched. My mistake.

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Here's the thing: They didn’t make it hard to get. Web-Exclusives are meant for the Japanese market only, they explicitly state that Web-Exclusives won't be sold overseas. We can only get them because middleman services exist.

For every Japanese collector it was as easy as going to Amazon to buy one of these, and that's the only thing Bandai cares about.

That is something I didn't fully consider, and I'll concede that.

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And for why the figure is a Web-Exclusive to begin with: Gaim has an onslaught of suits. Bandai had to make the decision early on which they would sell in stores. And when not even characters like Gridon, Kurokage or Bravo can be sold in stores it's pretty obvious that they wouldn’t sell a power-up for a secondary Rider in stores.

But no matter how much you like Melon Energy, it's not the base form. And that's why it isn’t an odd choice for me.

To clarify, I've...never actually said anything about how much I like Melon Energy or anything? Not that I couldn't, but it's not like I'm complaining about it being a web exclusive just because I like it or I think it's the base form, but because the way I see it (even putting aside this stuff with Takatora) it's a very important suit and leaving it as something of a side release is odd.

The other Armored Riders were never particularly important characters and they never really became main players. I mean, Kurokage was in a handful of episodes and then he died, while Gridon and Bravo stayed in the background for much of the series before the final stretch of the show. Zangetsu Shin was an upgrade form for not one but two of the main characters in Gaim, as well as the posterboy for the New Generation Riders. That second thing is what gets to me the most--the fact that the New Generation Riders had no representation whatsoever in the mass retail releases. That's the weirdest thing to me, and why I said it was a mistake to have it as a web exclusive. Honestly not even sure how I started an argument about the stuff with Takatora, but I did and that was my bad.