Review: S.H.Figuarts Kamen Rider Double Cylcone Joker

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行くぜ、フィリップ！

あぁ、翔太郎！

*サイクロン*
*ジョーカー*

*VV* 変身！

俺たちは/僕たちは、二人で一人の仮面ライダーさ！ さぁ、御前の罪を数えろ！

I am proud to announce that I finished the whole series (long ago) on KR Double before I did this review! Yay!

*clap clap clap*

I hate Kamen Riders with weird hair styles. But thanks to KR Decade I decided to give KR Double a chance to be shown on my screen and I actually came to like the series a lot.

KR Double is the first Kamen Rider that requires two people to transform into and I actually buy the idea (surprisingly) where Hidari Shotaro and Philip are 2 detectives in 1 Kamen Rider. Despite having an issue with Philip’s hair I eventually came to like the character as the story progresses. In fact, I feel sad when he disappeared. He and his pet, bird…

And Shotaro will always be half-boiled. He would have died eons ago if it weren’t for Philip’s intelligence on Gaia Memories.

And because I love this series as well as the characters so much that I decided to at least get the release of the primary form of KR Double.

And here is the review of S.H.Figuarts KR Double Cyclone Joker.

First Impression

KR Double’s design is originally simple and sweet. And it works out very well when Bandai Tamashii transforms the real suit into a toy. To me, the simplicity of the suit is so well portrayed and therefore figurine is good with some minor flaws.

The Head

I feel that the head is a bit small for the body. The actual eyes of this figurine are round, instead of looking like an angry pub, so round that they look small and dumb. And because the head is small, and the eyes being even smaller, the “W” fin on the forehead looks a little bit too long. I wish the head is bigger and the eyes is more sturdy looking.

But the compound details in the eyes are nicely done in red and it reflects light so well like little gems worth to be stared upon.

The Body

The body is made up of two pieces of plastic, one is the chest armour and the other is the torso. KR Double’s body looks shorter in the show but this figurine’s body looks somewhat longer. While it is not in ratio to that from the show, I actually liked the way this body is being sculpted. While the green has a glossy finishing, the black has a very-close-to-matte finishing. This actually gives the entire figurine a very sturdy and attractive colour. However, I still hope that the black is done in matte like that from the show.

The carvings on the chest armour are a little bit disappointing. The Cyclone (green) side looks weird to me, as if Bandai Tamashii is too lazy to spend any more efforts in printing square patterns. However, the Joker (black) side looks good. The Cyclone side could have been done better because it is such a waste to see only the Joker side being done nicely.

The Belt (aka Double Driver)

Putting into consideration that this is a mass production, the Double Driver is considered to be very detailed. However, I still have some very minor nitpicks about the Cyclone and Joker Memory in the Memory Slots. The Cyclone Memory (located at the right/your left) should at least be painted green since Bandai Tamashii actually bothered to paint green and purple for the lighting below. Nevertheless, the belt is considered nicely done.

The Maximum Slot (located at the right of Double Driver/your left) is also nicely done. I just don’t understand why the belt is so highly detailed yet the Cyclone Memory is left unpainted…

Hmm…

The Back

This release comes with two scarves, the other scarf will be shown in the later part of this review, where only one can be placed on the Cyclone side. Both scarves are done using soft plastics so that they are fit for posing.

Same logic as the KR Kiva (Emperor Form)’s scarf…

There is a hole that actually allows you to fit the scarf in. And by fitting the scarf into the hole, you are granted a great field of articulation. And don’t be stupid enough to actually act cute and test the system by turning the scarf in weird directions, least you break them.

And please bear in mind to be careful and patient while fixing the scarf because I almost broke mine in a fit of anger. You just can’t imagine how much I went through fixing that ****ing scarf…

The Upper Limb

The shoulder pads are very well done because they aren’t in the way no matter how you lift up/down the upper limbs.

After meddling with the toy “seriously”, I shall conclude that this is possible thanks to the wonderfully designed articulation existing at the shoulders. It brings the whole upper limb to a whole new level and fans like us have no problem in posing this release in any way we want.

Taking a look at Cyclone’s arm (the green arm), I am in love with the wristband. It is the first area that caught my attention, mainly because it is painted gold and is so shiny and partly because of the detailing. I would be even happier if the joint at the elbow is painted green. I can tell that it is a rush job done, once again, considering that it is a mass released toy blah blah blah…

But I still… Ok fine…

And yes, if you notice the unevenly craved hand, the flaw is only visible if you were to glue your eyes onto the hand. Anyone caught doing that is an incurable nitpicker…

At least I am curable…

The Joker’s arm (the black arm), in comparison, is a beauty. The wristband is nicely detailed and sculpted. And here, the purple is very outstanding! You can see the graining effect, making it looks like a tasty jewel candy. Lucky that it is inedible…

Simultaneously speaking (I don’t know why I said that), the hand has a better carving as compared to Cyclone’s hand. For whatever reason, Tamashii could have done a better job on Cylcone’s hand…

The Leg

The legs is too slim, as if they are malnutrition or something. But then again kudos to the leg bands, I seriously love the way they are being carved and handled.

The articulation at the knees is really bad. I was playing around with it and realised that had I not restrain myself, they looked as if they are feeble. It is advisable to handle the baby’s leg with upmost care simply because odd directions is accessible with just a little pull sideways especially if you are trying to pose with the legs wide open. Then again, the legs do not offer much articulation for posing in the first place…

It can be said that the legs KM Double has is one of the badly designed ones…

The Accessories

These includes:
1. A pair of relax hands (both left and right).
2. A pair of signature hands (both left and right).
3. A pair of clenching hands (both left and right).
4. One scarf (excluding the one that is already on KR Double).

Conclusion

If you are a fan of KM Double, this is probably something you may want to add to your collection despite the very badly designed legs. Rest assure that the low counting in the number of accessories for this release is not going to burn a hole in your pocket.

And since KM Double does release different other combos such as “Heat Metal”, “Luna Trigger”, “Heat Trigger”, “Luna Metal”, “Cyclone Trigger”, “Cyclone Metal”, “Heat Joker”, “Luna Joker” and “Fang Joker”, I would really recommend everyone to buy only those main combos such as “Heat Metal”, “Luna Trigger” and “Fang Joker”.

For myself, I got quite fed-up with the leg design and have already decided to give up on the rest of the releases for KM Double and picked up KR Double Cyclone Joker Extreme and KR Double Cyclone Joker Gold Extreme instead. Agreeable?

Wee, done! Thank you for reading!

~Tulcus