S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider W Cyclone/Joker Gallery

Are you ready to ride with the devil?

With the rumor of a renewal figure later this year, I figured it was time for the Two-in-One Detective to get a gallery, and so I present SH Figuarts Kamen Rider W, Cyclone Joker. The primary form used by Kamen Rider W, Cyclone Joker combines the power of the wind (appropriate for the Rider of Fuuto City) and the wildcard nature of Shotaro Hidari. Kamen Rider W was the first Rider series I watched, and to this day remains one of my favorite TV shows, so this figure and all based on it will always hold a special place in my collection.

Packaging
The boxes for the Kamen Rider W line are very plain and utilitarian. Not like the beautiful, show-themed boxes we get now for things like Gaim and Blade. But the window shows off the figure, and the boxes are colored to match the forms of the character within.


Main Figure
Cyclone Joker looks great, with a semi-gloss black half, and a nice, metallic emerald green half. The dividing line between the two halves is cleanly painted silver, black, silver, and the gold and purple highlights are nicely done with no mistakes that I can see. The W Driver is done up nicely in red and silver, and reasonably detailed for its size, with the included detail of the gold and silver bands where the memories go, and the light up portion picked out in the correct colors. Unfortunately, the tops of the memories themselves are left black, but I think that's a negligible loss. And as is a staple with Kamen Rider Figuarts, the eyes are clear plastic over segmented silver to give the compound eye effect.

Also as with all Figuarts, W is very pose-able, and able to take most stances you could want. He's got die-cast feet for extra stability, great range in all of the joints, except for the torso and waist joints - he can't do much to bend forward or backward, nor turn too much to the sides. The lack of forward motion in the torso joint, compounds with the W Driver to hinder his ability to sit on his bike well, though the W Driver is removable, which does help. The shoulder pads are attached to the tops of his shoulders, so they rotate with the arms and don't impede their motion.


Accessories
Cyclone Joker is a little bit limited, coming with but 4 pairs of hands, two scarves, and nothing more. He was originally released in 2010, and in this day and age of effects parts and lots of tiny accessories, I feel that Cyclone Joker was stiffed, just a little. Sure, OOO didn't come with little medals (thought the RideVendor set did), Fourze came with lots of tiny, easily lost switches. The Ryuki and Blade figures come with tiny, easily lost cards. I would have liked it if the W figures came with tiny, easily lost Gaia Memories. The Gaia Memory gimmick is what got me to watch W, after all, since the design is kinda hokey, if taken out of the 2-in-1 context.

For hands Cyclone Joker has: one pair for punching, one for slapping, a pair of slightly pointing hands, and finally, a pair for his henshin pose. Though that's pretty much all that's needed, he doesn't have any holding-things hands and they would have been nice (they come in the Cyclone 2 pack). The hands are famously difficult to reattach, as the ball is just bigger enough than the socket that it's hard to put enough pressure on the hand to attach it without moving the wrist joint. Adding to the complication is that when you grip on the forearm to push it against the hand, your fingers push up against his cuffs, which will probably pop off. The two scarves are nice, one hanging straight down, one blowing away from the body, and due to the ball socket it plugs into, it can be posed in pretty much any direction.

Of the accessories they could have included with Cyclone Joker, Bandai instead included in the Cyclone Metal/Cyclone Trigger 2 pack. It would have been nice to include one of the Memory Gadgets with Cyclone Joker for those that weren't going to buy the 2 pack, but I guess it worked out in the end, if you're crazy like me and bought them all. Speaking of being crazy, I also have the SIC Kamen Rider W sets, and while they're too big for Figuarts, I do like posing the Gaia Memories from those sets with the Figuarts (or other similar sized figures).


Drawbacks
That's not to say that SH Figuarts W is perfect by any means. Much like the Decade body, the W body is really showing its age, especially when compared with the newer bodies of Gaim and Blade. That inner shoulder joint is far too floppy for what little it adds to the poseability of the figure. The fore and back motion is somewhat useful, the the upward and downward motion is the bane of my existence, as far as the W Figuarts are concerned. They often slide down while posing the figure, resulting in strange distorted anatomy. It was something I had to consciously think to check between each photo. And the drop-down hips, while intending to afford more range for the legs, don't really accomplish that much for W, due to how high the thighs are sculpted. Other bodies with the drop down hips do it better, but looking at Blade, Gaim, and even Ryuki, it's not really a needed joint, they can do plenty without it.

Additionally, the head sculpt is somewhat inaccurate. I didn't notice for many years, until somebody showed me side by side photos of the toy and the suit. I still don't always notice it, but sometimes the eyes look too small, or the wrong shape, or the crest looks too big. Also, the pointing hands aren't really quite right for how W usually points when he tells a Dopant to count up their sins.

Finally, something that honestly hasn't ever bothered me much, but I know the black joints on the knees and elbows irritate a lot of people. It's understandable, for sure, but it's never meant much to me. That said, I do hope if/when there is a renewal figure it will remedy these problems, and give us the best W that is physically possible. And then, because I have a sickness, I hope they issue a renewal of all his forms.


Final Thoughts
For me, this (and every other single version) was a necessary figure for me to own. I love the show, I love the characters, I love the Gaia Memory gimmick and the combining of two different types of powers and switching between those to deal with various opponents and their weaknesses, and I love the idea of two people having to work together in a single body. How could I not get this figure? It's not perfect, but it is still a great figure, and I'm glad to have it (and all the others), and I think most people would be fine owning it. If you want Kamen Rider W in your collection (and why wouldn't you?) you should get at least one form of him, and Cyclone Joker is the most iconic look, though it isn't quite my favorite of his forms. But we'll leave that for another day.

That said, as I giant KR W fanboy, I really hope the rumor of Renewal Cyclone Joker is true, because I will be first in line to get one, and hopefully, do a gallery of it on this site.

Note: Effects parts and extra accessories from: SHF CycloneMetal / CycloneTrigger, SHF Skull, SHF Sieg Imagin, SIC W Effect Set, SIC Skull / FangJoker, and DCUC Zatanna.

Neat photos. As a big W fan, I'm happy to own the S.H Figuarts of all five main forms of W (Cylcone Joker, Heat Metal, LunaTrigger, Fanger Joker and Cyclone Joker Xtreme) in my collection. I do agree he is not a bad figure but I would like to see a renewal of him as well.

I love that shot with the cup and fedora . But wasn't there a gallery for this guy a while back? Or is this one of those 2.0 galleries like the KyoryuRed one?

It's a 2.0 gallery, because I didn't realize there was one.

In the coming weeks I'll be doing the rest of W's forms too.

Great gallery! W is one of my favorite Riders as well, and this was actually my first Figuart. It definitely has its issues, but it's always held a special place in my collection as both my first Figuart and one of my favorite Riders.

W was my third figuart since I had Shin Ichigo and Stronger. I remember getting W in the mail from Image Anime two years ago and I remember liking the figure but somewhat left down by it. I guess I was expecting it to be as awesome as my other two figuarts at the time. I'm still happy to own mine in my collection.

I'm gonna guess the side-by-side pic you saw was this one?:



I still have it, right next to the comparrison pic of Gaim's helmet and the reflection from the intro that totally did not show his final form. Yeah this figure is outdated, and I really, really hope the rumours of a redo are true.

Yes, it probably was that one, and it was probably you that showed it to me before.

I wish figuarts still felt as hefty and shoild as this guy. I don't mean just the die cast either, the plastic used is dense and feels great in your hand