[Lbsammills51]

Opened up my latest Figuarts. Random thoughts:

- Darkraider feels (understandably, I guess?) lankier and less massive than Dragranzer, but is still impressive for a transforming bike. The most appreciated accessories are the new cape extenders so Knight Survive can still rock his cape while riding. I had a lot of trouble getting the cape pieces plugged into his back securely (look, people who say "you just need to push it in" or whatever - I fucking tried that for as long as I've had the damn thing and only one popped in; for whatever reason, I couldn't get both of them to pop in for the life of me. If you want to try because it's so fucking easy, you're more then welcome to drive to my house and do it yourself), so these are a godsend because they just pop into his back with no issues at all, and the cape pieces themselves slide right into those little extenders with no effort. Those tiny little fucking pieces, for me, are almost worth picking Darkraider up just so I can own a Knight Survive and not worry about one of the cape pieces randomly falling out if the shelf its own so much as jiggles.
- Gold Drive's "just" a redeco, but as pretty as I hoped it'd be. Yeah it could've come with more accessories (even if they wouldn't been for Drive himself instead of Gold), but at least it's still a gorgeous figure.
- Machine Decader is one of the last few bikes I've been looking for. Not much to write home about, but for what it is, it's a nice, sleek bike. I wish the front wheel could turn a bit more though.



- Renewal Gatack is interesting. On appearances, like with Kabuto Renewal, it's a huge leap forward from the original. Ditching the lanky build is a major improvement, and thankfully they didn't skimp on accessories. I also hadn't realized just how different the suit would be compared to original, with so many new or different details the second time around (the silver bits on the lower legs & forearms, the chest, additional paint aps on the palms). Functionally, it's about even, with the original's neck at least able to move freely (maybe it's just mine, but there isn't much posability in the head/neck area). I still don't think the original Gatack is a bad figure, so if you don't have the money to upgrade (especially if the price on this guy does jump up, though only a handful of recent TWEs have shot up significantly lately and Gatack's at least getting a re-release this month so additional stock will be out there), it's still a nice option to have on its own. That said, the new Gatack still looks much better on a shelf with other toku SHFs, so back in the box the original goes.