[Sunred]

I loved the whole masked form rider form stuff. Like I said before we have had instances where the pre-debut form was introduced with Kuuga (and Ryuki) so at the time it was fine. Also it made more sense given that he is based off an insect so even if it was a gimmick didn't really bother me. Looking back now it was also a nice reference to(though I am not certain it is the intention) a Ishinomori classic manga/tokusatsu hero called Inazuman, who at first is a cocoon-like form called Sanagiman(Sanagi is Japanese for cocoon) and later breaks from it to be his Inazuman form. As for the rider form suit, one of the most sleek and coolest designs to this day. This is the part of Kabuto as a show that I love despite some of the flaws, really nice clear gimmicks with timeless designs. It was the perfect recipe for an anniversary rider show and nice back-to-basics approach after the experiment that was Hibiki.
Man, I remember just rewinding and watching the clock-up scene multiple times when I first saw it. Could not believe they just took bullet time and made it work for them. That was just insane. And the rider kick? IT DEFINED TENDOU. That roundhouse kick was just so fresh considering all the previous rider kicks were just battlecry-heavy jumping kicks. The 1-2-3 gimmick was cool too cause it felt like him unlocking safety switches. Again, another example where the gimmick worked very well for the show, and this show had no collectibles.