S.I.C Vol.42: Masked Rider Den-O and Momotaros Imagin

Greetings heroes/citizens, today I’m going to write a review of the latest released of S.I.C, Vol.42 Masked Rider Den-O Sword Form and his Momotaros Imagin. About Den-O , it’s not the best Masked Rider franchise, but it’s also not the worst that was ever made,I watched it for several episodes but after that I don’t know why I stop buying the DVD. If you want to know more about Den-O follow this link. All I know about Den-O are, he travel on a time traveling train (Den-Liner), in a timeless realm to defeat monsters (Imagin) and restore the histories that was altered by the Imagins. Back to these action figures,I got it couple of day ago, but it was released early this month. Retail price for this action figures is about $5+.++. It’s a 2 pieces action figures box set, Bandai like to make this kind of set nowadays.

Packaging; the design of the box is attractive, like always it’s a window box.The color scheme is red, to matched the Sword Form’s theme color. I was surprised to see that Bandai is now cramping all the accessories in a single plastic tray. Usually they used an extra tray for the accessories but in this S.I.C there is only a small rectangular plastic to support the tray (in the middle part) at the back of it. I’m not sure if this started on this or the previous S.I.C, (I skipped the last Rider-X S.I.C). Lots of twisties to hold the figures and also cellophane tapes to hold the accessories in their place.

Design/sculpt; I don’t like the way Den-O looks in the tv series. In the tv series, the black parts of the suit looks too shiny and glossy. On the other hand, I really love with what Bandai had done to the S.I.C version, Den-O rocks! Although this is a 2 figures box set, Den-O can be change to the normal powerless Masked Rider, Plat Form.I noticed lately that Bandai had reduced the uses of chogokin (die cast metal) on the S.I.C line. In this series, the only parts that have chogokin are the wrists, shins and ankle, and a little bit on the belt (buckle). I wish they had made the sword holder (on his waist) from chogokin, I broke the peg and it’s still in the swords hole Too excited to play it I guest Anyway in great grief I still played it and snapped some photos. If you noticed I only took a few pictures of Den-O in sword form, when I tried to assemble back the sword, I kind of pulled it out to hard, that the peg was left inside.

The sculpt for Den-O is awesome, if you had watched the tv series you know that when Ryotaro henshin to Den-O there will be a train like thingy appear on his head right? Yes, I knew you know that, the sculpt of the train tracks on his body to his head looks so real that I thought the face (mask) can be lifted up to the back at first.

To change the armor is easy, just snap off the Sword Form’s armor, and put the Plat Form armor. As for the thigh’s armor, you don’t have to change the whole thing, just flip it open and change the armor inside it, the first gimmicks of this action figure that I like.

Other gimmicks for Den-O is his weapon, the sword. You have to disassemble it to attach to the holder on his waist, and assemble it back to become the sword. Not my favorite things in this series, but it’s the only weapon for him in this form.

Although I like Momotaros’ design very much, he totally have no obvious chogokin on him. If Den-O looks very different from the tv series, Momotaros doesn’t look much different from the tv series.Wait, he does, he looks more cool

Articulations; Perfect. No flimsy parts that tend to fall out when I played it. Den-O can be pose almost any poses I wanted to, but please forgive me as I’m still in grief, I only took a few pictures of him in action. But trust me this is one of the best S.I.C that have a great articulations. The same goes to Momotaros , he’s awesome! I did tell you that before rite? They used mostly swivel joints for this S.I.C. The neck and waist are still using ball joints.

Colors; Supa!!! I like it very much. Please leave a comment down here if you don’t like the color and tell me why. Colors applications are very clean and neat, moderate on the wash and the linings are perfect. The base color for the body are flat black for Den-O and flat maroon for Momotaros. I love the color scheme of Den-O in Plat Form.

Accessories; not much for Den-O. For him there are; his sword, the Plat Form armor, belt buckle, thigh’s armor, Plat Form’s mask and some extra changeable fists.There is also the Rider Train Pass, use to henshin.

For Momotaros, there are; a cup of coffee, a sword, 3 masks (opened eyes,half opened eyes and closed eyes), extra changeable fists and because I bought this direct from a Japan, I got a Momotaros sword made entirely of chogokin.

Collectors values; buy it, don’t hear what bad things other peoples are telling you. I’m not a hardcore fan of Den-O but still I bought it.

BaseGuardian Heroes Meter;

Packaging : 4/5

Design/Sculpt:4 .5/5

Articulations: 5/5

Colors:4/5

Accessories: 4.5/5

Click thumbnails to see a larger pictures;

-BaseGuardian.