Kamen Rider Gaim – Arms Change Orange Arms Review

Here’s where it all comes together for Bandai’s Kamen Rider Arms change figures. Just like the show, you can pop a fruit on their shoulders and transform their armor. Yeah, it’s a gimmick, but it’s one that is done well here.

 

They took some effort to make the fruits fold up like they do on the show. The bottom is open and the slides over the figures head. One of the tricks to this is the helmet is already in the fruit!

From there you peel back the sides of the orange to transform the armor. The hinges are located as they are in the show, so this works just like it should.

Hand him his Daidaimaru (ie. Orange Sword) and he’s ready to Orange Squash some Inves. 

I’ve seen a number of action figure gimmicks, but this is one of the best engineered. Most appear to be added on or oversize. This one though is just fun.

What’s that? What about his “Orange Sparking” move? Yeah he can do that. Except for the spinning part.

Much like the Musou Saber, the Orange Sword could use some detail paint. There should be a a bit of green on the crossguard piece and some of the detailing on the orange should be silver. Most folks won’t even notice. Of course toy collectors aren’t most folks.

The sword goes on to combine with the Musou Saber which is cool and again well thought out. This gives Kota his super Orange Squash Finishing Weapon from the first episode.

The helmet is one of the cooler parts of the whole transformation. There is a disc with detailing on it that slides into the head. This shines through the clear portion of the visor and gives the correct appearance to it. Kudos again to engineering. The one downside to the helmet is that it limits the nice motion of the ball joint in the head.

Now, I’m sure you are asking, “What about the other fruit lockseeds?” I haven’t managed to obtain any of them yet. By the time I figured out I liked the show and got this figure, a number of place were sold out of other figures and the fruit. The Strawberry/Pineapple fruit add on pack, with just the 2 fruit pieces, is going for between $50 and $60 on Amazon right now. While I want it, I’m trying to find a more reasonable alternative.

Overall, the figure is good. It’s not going to win award for articulation, paint or perfect detail. However, it’s what all action figures should be: fun to play with. It’s a good approximation of what happens in the show. Being able to swap armor between figures? That would be unheard of in the US. Most US companies would make us buy a new figure to get new armor.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my 3-part look at Kamen Rider Gaim!

Engineernerd Score 90/100

 

 

Category: Featured, Kamen Rider, Other Television, Toy Reviews