[Tokumonkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blade Raider

Ex-Aid has been an odd year. The SO-DO line is huge, easily the biggest candy toy line Kamen Rider has had. ...
Meanwhile, LVUR kind of just seems to be doing the bare medium and missing a lot.

I suppose it's possible that they're related. I love Ex-Aid... and gave up on LVUR after Dragon Hunter and Lazer were released. The gimmick just wasn't satisfying, and it kept drifting around different gimmicks. In addition, Ex-Aid ended up with a great many Riders and unique forms; the cost was relatively prohibitive for figures that looked okay.

Meanwhile, the candy toys have never looked better. (For that matter, neither have the Sentai minipla.) The candy toy versions of the armor tend to look sleeker across-the-board than their LVUR counterparts, and at a fraction of the cost and shelf space. If I'd had the foresight (and option) to buy into them, I would've skipped LVUR entirely in favor of SO-DO, early access-be-damned.

I can imagine parents picking up the candy toys because they're a better, cheaper option (enabling their kid to go all-in on LVUR might'a been a hard sell, assuming the kid was even into Ex-Aid,) and for adult collectors, the math is really clear: the superior non-Figuarts line turned out to be SO-DO. I mean, on the strength of (what I've seen of) SO-DO, I'm planning to preorder all the Build candy toys... well, assuming I can land preorders.