Folks are you getting your recommended 5 fruits or vegetables a day?
If not you might want to consider watching this TV series to show you the benefits of getting everything you can!
Kamen Rider Gaim, showing you all the great things you can do with fruit!
Did we mention the star of the show is an Orange?
Tune in next week to find out more!
So as you might have guessed, here we have another Figuart review!
Don't worry, I'll be mixing it up for the next one :)
Mixing... fruit pun... there will be many more, so buckle your safety belt!
Side note, can you believe it's nearly 6 years since this aired?
Today s feature is the base form, Orange Arms.
As usual, lets start with what you get in the box:
Gaim - Orange Arms
10x Hands (2x resting, 2x fist, 6x assorted gripping)
2x Orange Lockseeds, 1x Open, 1x Closed
1x Musou Saber
1x Daidaimaru
-sits and admires the paint job for a few minutes-
OK on to his Yoga skills!
To mix things up, we'll start at the top and work down.
The neck is fairly restricted, this is due to the head dress, specifically the neck cover, the chunk of armoured orange, you have 90 degrees left and 90 degrees right, and minimal forward and back, can muster a nod but not much else.
Shoulders are on something close to a double joint, but it's barely noticeable. There's a good 90 degrees of sticking your arm out, can do a very good impression of a tree :P However with the way the armor is done, arms to the front and back is tricky, the armor literally pushes the arm out, the armor is very bendy though, so this shouldn't be too noticeable when posing for display. As an added bonus, the shoulder pads are relatively unobtrusive, and on a hinge.
The arms are pretty well done, with a bicep swivel, double jointed elbow (still cant scratch his own shoulder though :P) and rotation at the wrist, you're open to some very dramatic action poses. Or simply picking his nose, depends how slow the crime fighting day is.
The chest is armoured, those of you expecting a lot of movement here, obviously haven't been paying attention to previous reviews :P
The chest plate itself moves a little, a smidge of up/down movement, this is likely to allow a looking down pose while there is a Lock on the Driver. A simple touch, but one that adds just that little extra range to the movement. There is a fair amount of left/right leaning available, but very little twisting possible. Not sure why this is in this case, as the armor itself doesn't interfere with the waist section.
The hips aren't bad, though you do have restricted range because of the Lock holder and the Musou Saber holder. You've got full range forwards, not quite straight out in front, but not far off it, thinking sitting in a sports car instead of on the floor. And slightly limited movement to the back, nothing outside the range of actual Human movement though.
There is a swivel just below the hip joint, allowing for a full 360 degree twist. Further down your customary double jointed knee giving you more range than I've personally ever been capable of (How sad is it when you're jealous of the knees on a figure?), and just below that you have a full 360 spin on the ankles, with generous tilting along with bending toes.
On to the looks!
Now I'm not one to focus on looks too much...
Who am I kidding...
It's gorgeous, just gorgeous...
The gold on the shins, hands, wrists, webbing and flare around the shoulders is all wonderfully consistent. I've known a fair few figures that have shade differences between different parts of the body and armor, but this is brilliant.
And ever so slightly metallic too!
On the armor itself, you have muted metallic silver, it's just enough to make it look like metal, but it's still plastic, always a nice touch. Same with the chest plate and shoulder pads, except in orange :D
The molded detail is pretty great too, along with the webbing on the arms and legs, you've got a LOT of rivets on the armor plates, along with the "interior" detailing from when the orange was closed up, these include hinges on the shoulders where they double over (non functioning) and the support that keeps the helmet in place. I call that pretty great detailing, they could just have easily glossed over it and left them smooth, or blanked them out for ease of casting.
For the helmet, you've got a great little translucent orange lens showing off the segments underneath it, again with the rivets on the back of the orange section, and the crest... for such a simple piece, I can't help but be impressed by it, all the panel lines are there.
You even have the little green stalk on the top of the helmet, I call it the on/off switch :P
And now... the Driver...
I'd say I'd saved the best till last, but I still have the weapons to do :P
This thing is spot on to the DX and screen versions. With a movable (and removable, so watch out) cutting blade, you can make it look like a lock is being cut, again for dramatic poses. The Lock itself is also removable, but word of warning, it is tiny! But still so well detailed! With the Orange innards on the top, and the Daidaimaru on the bottom, they may be stickers, but still such very nice touches.
Especially when you consider that gimmicks of later Riders (Ex-Aid, Zi-O etc) are just painted a solid colour, no detailing unless you go aftermarket for printed stickers for them... Way to drop the ball there Bandai...
The open Lock also fits onto the Musou Saber for those classic final attacks :)
As an added bonus, the Rider Indicator is also detailed, again a sticker, but with its size I really wouldn't have blamed them for leaving it blank.
There is a closed lock supplied too, but it doesn't fit on either the Driver or the Sword, it fits nicely on to the Lock holder on the hip, and while none of the hands (that i've been able to work out) are specifically for holding the lock, the relaxed one can hold it nicely in it's palm, so long as the hand is flat :P
Lastly we have the Musou Saber and the Daidaimaru!
Both look great, and even connect together at the base of the hilt! Wasn't really expecting that.
For the Musou Saber, you have one solid piece, there is almost no flex in this, so it's perfect for scratching that awkward spot between your shoulder blades :P
All the detail on here is very well defined, from the notches on the grip, the pistol barrel, right up to the blade edge. Again you have sticker detailing, it's hard to make it out, but it's nice to know the detail is there :)
The holder for the open Lock is snug as hell, there's actually less chance of the Lock falling out of the Saber than the Driver, seems a little backwards, but whatever works!
The Daidaimaru has quite a bit more work in it, metallic orange paint work on the blade with metallic emerald green on the hilt. Over the blade is a section of clear plastic, you can clearly see the sections underneath.
Now for the final thoughts...
This guy is insane, really, the paintwork alone makes it a must have the collection. Throw in the dynamic poses and you have yourself a first class Figuart!
But as to be expected, there are some downsides...
The reduced range in the arms from the flare at the shoulder niggles a little, you can work around it, but still...
Also, the Lock holder, the Locks are push fit on there, so I'd imagine after a while the Lock would start to wear down, and possibly snap, making it unusable and likely to get lost...
And why weren't other locks included? I get they need to sell the rest of the range, but still, if you include a holder, and the same Lock the Rider in question uses, it just looks daft if he's standing there with the Lock on the Driver, and then the very same lock hanging from his belt... even just throwing in a Pine or Ichigo Lock would have been a bonus.
And then there is the fact that the small parts are so easily misplaced... during the photo session, the lock and blade fell off more than a few times.
Still, this gets a solid 8/10 :)
I wonder what Obachan would say about all this...
Tune in next time for more Rider greatness!
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