I don't really know how it happened, but over the last few years, I've become quite a fan of both Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider. At least, on the Super Sentai part, I can understand it. I've always been a Power Rangers fan, so viewing the footage in its original Japanese form is probably the natural progression from that. Kamen Rider... I don't really know how I got into that, apart from probably Tumblr. Tumblr tends to get you into a lot of fandoms before you realise it's happening. As such, let's have a look at today's figure.
Kamen Rider Nadeshiko! First seen in Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max, Nadeshiko is one of the rare handful of female Riders. Yeah... This franchise has been running 40 odd years, and there aren't many female Riders. That's really... not much of the good. I know Japan, and the Japanese, have different cultural standards to us here in the West, but surely there's just as much of a need for female heroes in media aimed at younger consumers over there as there is over here? Anyway, the box is very bright and cheerful, which is to be expected from Bandai products
As always, the back of the box shows us the various poses that Nadeshiko can take. Having seen the movie she appears in, I can say these images only capture a little bit of her cuteness and her badassness but pictures can only do so much, after all. I do like the recurring star motive - Fourze was a Kamen Rider series based around space - as it helps to decorate what would have otherwise been a rather plain background.
Being a female Figuart with smaller feet and heels, Nadeshiko comes with a stand. According to some sources, the actor for the character was allowed say on what the stand should look like, so we have this rather practical rectangle, with a cute design printed on to it. This shape of stand does allow for more room to pose the figure when compared with the stands provided for the Sailor Moon figuarts. I've not removed this one from it's packaging - having found Nadeshiko to be quite decent at balancing with a little careful shifting - so I can't tell you if it's a more robust stand or not. I do like it though.
As we can see, as well as a rocket - one of the add on parts that gives Nadeshiko more fighting capabilities - the figure comes with extra hands, one of which is a pair of hands together, molded into the shape of making a love-heart. All very teenage girl, which is appropriate considering the character is a teenage girl. There aren't any other accessories though and considering this figure was an exclusive to the Tamashii web-shop, I find myself thinking it was asking too much money wise, and delivering too little in return.
As we can see here, Nadeshiko's body suit is very much a solid slver, with lot of blue detailing. This is very accurate to the movie suit, and looks really well done on the figure. My figure doesn't have any problems with the paint applications - they're all very cleanly done. Her helmet is a more slim-line, stylised version of the one of Kamen Rider Fourze himself, with blue for the eyes instead of Fourze's orange. There is also pink at the collar because you can't have a girl figure without pink being on it somewhere, right? No, but seriously, the colours actually work really well together, and present an eye pleasing figure that would look nice just posted on a shelf.
The back of the figure shows us that the clean paint applications continue on even when it's at a part that - traditionally - we don't really have on show. Considering this figure is meant for the adult collector though, there's really no excuse for it not to be well done, and Bandai do keep up the idea of these figures being 'art' with how well they manage the paint applications and sculpting of each figure. Well done there.
And just for the cute factor, have Nadeshiko and Gentaro (the name of the person who becomes Fourze) happily reunited. In the movie, there was a sweetly done little romance between the two that did actually manage to pull at the heartstrings, so being able to reunite them would bring a smile to anyone's face. All in all, this is a great little figure. If you're looking for this figure now, the secondary market is the best option, as I don't actually think it's available on the web shop anymore.
'Till the next review, dear readers!
Kamen Rider Nadeshiko! First seen in Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max, Nadeshiko is one of the rare handful of female Riders. Yeah... This franchise has been running 40 odd years, and there aren't many female Riders. That's really... not much of the good. I know Japan, and the Japanese, have different cultural standards to us here in the West, but surely there's just as much of a need for female heroes in media aimed at younger consumers over there as there is over here? Anyway, the box is very bright and cheerful, which is to be expected from Bandai products
As always, the back of the box shows us the various poses that Nadeshiko can take. Having seen the movie she appears in, I can say these images only capture a little bit of her cuteness and her badassness but pictures can only do so much, after all. I do like the recurring star motive - Fourze was a Kamen Rider series based around space - as it helps to decorate what would have otherwise been a rather plain background.
Being a female Figuart with smaller feet and heels, Nadeshiko comes with a stand. According to some sources, the actor for the character was allowed say on what the stand should look like, so we have this rather practical rectangle, with a cute design printed on to it. This shape of stand does allow for more room to pose the figure when compared with the stands provided for the Sailor Moon figuarts. I've not removed this one from it's packaging - having found Nadeshiko to be quite decent at balancing with a little careful shifting - so I can't tell you if it's a more robust stand or not. I do like it though.
As we can see, as well as a rocket - one of the add on parts that gives Nadeshiko more fighting capabilities - the figure comes with extra hands, one of which is a pair of hands together, molded into the shape of making a love-heart. All very teenage girl, which is appropriate considering the character is a teenage girl. There aren't any other accessories though and considering this figure was an exclusive to the Tamashii web-shop, I find myself thinking it was asking too much money wise, and delivering too little in return.
As we can see here, Nadeshiko's body suit is very much a solid slver, with lot of blue detailing. This is very accurate to the movie suit, and looks really well done on the figure. My figure doesn't have any problems with the paint applications - they're all very cleanly done. Her helmet is a more slim-line, stylised version of the one of Kamen Rider Fourze himself, with blue for the eyes instead of Fourze's orange. There is also pink at the collar because you can't have a girl figure without pink being on it somewhere, right? No, but seriously, the colours actually work really well together, and present an eye pleasing figure that would look nice just posted on a shelf.
The back of the figure shows us that the clean paint applications continue on even when it's at a part that - traditionally - we don't really have on show. Considering this figure is meant for the adult collector though, there's really no excuse for it not to be well done, and Bandai do keep up the idea of these figures being 'art' with how well they manage the paint applications and sculpting of each figure. Well done there.
And just for the cute factor, have Nadeshiko and Gentaro (the name of the person who becomes Fourze) happily reunited. In the movie, there was a sweetly done little romance between the two that did actually manage to pull at the heartstrings, so being able to reunite them would bring a smile to anyone's face. All in all, this is a great little figure. If you're looking for this figure now, the secondary market is the best option, as I don't actually think it's available on the web shop anymore.
'Till the next review, dear readers!
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