S.H. Figuarts Hakaider Squad (Red, Blue, Silver) 3-Pack Gallery

When the evil Professor Gill was himself resurrected as the cyborg Hakaider you'd think Kikaider 01 already had his hands full. But not one to take defeat easily Gill Hakaider took it upon himself to create 3 more cybernetic soldiers that we finally have here in toy form. The S.H. Figuarts Hakaider Squad! Created using the brains from three former DARK scientists the Hakaider Squad members are:

Red Hakaider
Blue Hakaider
Silver Hakaider

Though their appearances in the Kikaider 01 live action series were brief they along with their leader menaced Ichiro to no end.

** Some of this review will be very similar to my Hakaider & Gill Hakaider reviews as the bodies of these 5 figures are all identical to one another aside from paint apps and very slight mold differences

Packaging
A unique 3-pack release the Hakaider Squad was available only as a Toei Hero Net Exclusive. 3-Packs aren't terribly common within the S.H. Figuarts line either so it's a chance to get a taste of something different. The box itself still has the same kind of gorgeous minimalist style artwork that the rest of the Kikaider releases have featured and I love it. Within the 3 figures are packed into one massive tray while their various accessories are in a secondary tray below. And DAMN do these guys come with a lot. But more on that below.

Main Figure(s)
As I said above the review of the 3-man Hakaider Squad will be incredibly similar to my review for the previous Hakaider releases. The ONLY physical differences in the base bodies of the 5 released Hakaiders are paint apps and very very minor mold alterations. Red, Blue & Silver Hakaider are differentiated by paint apps applied to their thighs/waist, fingertips, chest, & eye markings. Each also features a unique "R" "B" & "S" insignia on their chest corresponding to their colors. Otherwise the new accessories mark a pretty big difference. So if you're familiar with the Hakaider body type at all then you know exactly what you're in for with these three.

As many recent sentai & rider S.H. Figuarts releases have done so far, each of the Hakaider Squad members features gorgeously sculpted in "fabric" details. The real suits were a leathery vinyl material and while that kind of look can't be entirely replicated in plastic, this is an excellent way to do it. Unlike Hakaider or Gill Hakaider, these guys are lavishly painted in nice vibrant colors.

The real excellence of each of these figure is all in the head though. Not only are their brains sculpted beautifully, the electrical wires are painted as well, and the skull cap is removable! And the brain is too! I should mention that the skull caps for this three pack all have slight new tooling. A small tab on the center of the cap in addition to the one already present on the original mold. This helps lock it in a bit more firmly than the first two releases. The brain removal is a really fun bonus feature of the figures' basic design too. Meanwhile the other bonus of how the heads are designed is that each Hakaider has incredible light piping. Since the skull cap is open and clear their eyes capture a ton of light and almost appear to glow.

As with the first 2 releases the Hakaider Squad suffers from my one gripe with this mold, the shoulder design. Though the shoulder pads are accurate to the suit, they are molded as one gigantic chest piece that stretches the width of the figure. It can angle upward somewhat on either side to give the arms a bit more clearance, but ultimately this shoulder/chest piece hybrid interferes with the range of the arms. Meaning the arms can't quite come across the chest that well. Otherwise Red Blue & Silver Hakaider are yet again excellent examples of a pretty great mold.

Accessories
While the Hakaider Squad 3-pack does indeed come with a ton of accessories, there's going to be some marked differences to what came with Hakaider & Gill Hakaider:

Red Hakaider
- 5 additional hands & his Missile Bowgun. Sculpted nicely but it's non-functioning. Only one right hand is capable of holding this Bowgun. The other hands are expressive only. I'm a little disappointed but they had to pack a lot into this set too.

Blue Hakaider
- 6 additional hands & his Magnetic Whip. Another nice looking piece but a fragile one. Rather than doing the smart thing and using actual rope parts, the Whip is made from plastic that's only pliable because of how thin it is. I'm terrified of snapping it. One hand for Blue Hakaider has a trigger finger compatible with Reds' Bowgun, but otherwise serves no purpose as it doesn't hold the Whip very well. A Whip which is more or less a permanent lasso.

Silver Hakaider
- 6 additional hands and both the long & short versions of his Electron Staff. I find it odd that this figure is the only one in the set to get both versions of his weapon, mainly because the small Staff is rather pointless and the big one more than gets the job done. It should have jut been a single staff that could break down. It's an unremarkable accessory but it is his standard weapon.

Not a bad array of accessories overall. I wish each of them managed to come with the alternate leg parts and Hakaider Shot pistol that the other 2 releases did. They wouldn't be entirely accurate as to the best of my memory none of these guys ever had the pistols. But the ability to swap the leg is built into this mold, and those parts wouldn't need any special paint apps at all. But the cost of this set as a very limited 3-pack was high already. So I doubt they could justify including yet more accessories.

Final thoughts
This is the 3rd, 4th, & 5th time I've reviewed this mold at this point. Yet somehow I'm still completely in love with it. An S.H. Figuarts Hakaider Squad is like a dream come true. The fact that the trio was released in one set as well made it all the easier to secure them. Pricey though they may be (and yes they're just repaints) each comes with unique accessories to give them just the right dose of personality to set them apart from their mold mates. While I know it isn't likely at all I would love to see the 4 kaijin forms that Gill & the Squad could access done up as Figuarts one day. True Kaijin figures aren't made terribly often but I'd buy that set in a heartbeat. I would even like to see the combined form of the 4 squad members, Gataider. Though with the releases of the Kikaider & Hakaider Reboot figuarts still in question, we may or may not see any more of the classic Showa Kikaider designs any time soon. But if we do I will gladly buy them all! As is this mold is still ripe for repaints like the MP Hakaider or "anime/manga" colors Hakaider. Bring it on Bandai, I'll buy every last one of them!

And more including group shots!

I'mma be honest. Outside of your description, I don't know a damn thing about them.
But I do like their look. Their heads look really out there, very creative and makes me pretty interested. I also like their varied set of weapons. Though the whip disappoints me in that it's bendable plastic. Seems like it'd snap just from looking at it too hard. I do love Red Hakaider's bowgun, though. Mainly because of how silly it looks from having all the bolts just stacked like that.

The only real problem I have with them is that they look a little lanky, but that could just be from their rather large chest armor in comparison to their basically unarmored bodies. I dunno...

How can you not love Silver's shortened staff? It's practically an S.H. Figuarts magic wand given its colouring

Well he isn't a damn magician!

But I would have been fine with a large staff that could break apart. There isn't much wasted tooling or $$ in the short one but its not entirely necessary to me.