[FreshToku]

Been wracking my brain over Xross Saber for a while. All opinions about how good it looks or how it'll be implemented in the show aside (I've come around to thinking it is pretty neat), its a money-saving measure if there ever was one, and maybe not one that's entirely unprecedented.

I always thought the reason why 'final form weapons' stopped being made was easy to infer. Releasing a big, uniquely-molded DX weapon toy at the very tailend of the timeline ultimately proved to not be ideally profitible (to be fair, a big company like Toei/Bandai would be quick to call anything thats not a big hit to be 'underperforming'. : P). After all, that late into the yearly toyline's lifespan, a significant number of casual buyers would have tapered off, and production would already be working on next year's toyline.

So as time passed, the final form toys is restricted to a new suit and a very straightforward collectible. I think the Zero-Two Driver add-on piece was the first in a while to experiment with that? Anyway, I think Xross Saber is like, the next step in that money-saving process, with its repainted everythings and collectible which gets its play value from previous toys.

As for why this is happening here and now... Well, despite the hilarity with Solomon being a kitbash from head to toe, I very much doubt the Kamen Rider budget is actually in trouble or anything. There's any number of reasons I could think of why Xross Saber is what it is. Off the top of my head, maybe the delayed sales of Zero-Two's merch last year made production want to play it extra safe with the end of Saber's toyline. Or they really want to save expenses for whatever they're planning for Revice/Rider's big 50th.