[BagJo]

Definitely would have been better for my wallet, there's no doubt about that. However, I wouldn't miss all the fun I've had with this series for anything. Between all the sweet figures, video games, wearing Rider belts to anime conventions and bumping into other fans, having seasons and seasons of shows to share with my friends, Kamen Rider is something I'm extremely glad I got into.

With Guyver, there were only unarticulated, glue-together vinyl models as far as merch, and once I was in my 20's and Max Factory finally made figures, they were super expensive and hard to get (P-Bandai stuff is more affordable and easier to get a hold of). I still love Guyver, but I find it very limited compared to Kamen Rider which has told so many different stories from 1971 to now.

Plus Rider is always on. Even if there's a season I'm not crazy about, there's always SOMETHING interesting about it, and it's a year tops before a whole new cast of characters gets introduced. There are few IP that can boast the same, and none that I can think of that brings such a consistent level of quality.

But do I wish I knew that Figuarts was going to be a thing when I was still busy hunting down all those Souchaku Henshin figures? Yes! Sooo many figures in storage due to updates. I've got Souchku Henshin Agito and Kabuto, as well as the first version of of their Figuarts in storage because....Shinkocchou Seihou. I'm not getting a 4th version in that scale unless the little fuckers actually henshin.