LVUR PB01 Full Action Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Level 1 Gallery

"Let's Game, Super Game, Ultra Game, what's your name?!"

It's time to level up with another new gallery from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid! You may recall from when we took a look way back at LVUR01 Ex-Aid, that many people had complaints about the Level 1 shell itself and it's almost entire lack of articulation. Premium Bandai has sought to rectify this by releasing a standalone "Full Action" figure of Ex-Aid Level 1. Curious to see if that name is appropriate? Well look no further than the review and photos below!

Packaging
As a Premium Bandai release generally one expects some pretty nice packaging. Full Action Ex-Aid comes in a garishly bright pink & white box with lots call outs like "Full Action" "Game Start" or "Perfect" on it. It's a very busy box with lots of stock images, all of which are hard to look at in that pink. But I could let that slide, the figure itself is packed into a single plastic tray with it's one accessory. It's all rather simple, and while I also understand that this is a simple figure anyway, there are no instructions of any kind. I can't be the only one who finds that rather odd right?

Main Figure
I hate to start my reviews off on a negative point but well, Full Action? Not quite. Hopefully that sets the tone, I'm a bit disappointed, but not hateful towards this figure. I'm not happy about this purchase, but I'll be happy to explain why. Full Action Ex-Aid, as the name implies, was meant to be a fully posable alternative to the LVUR offering. Which was itself basically just an empty shell for a Level 2 figure, and it was sparsely detailed. It had moving arms but that was literally it. The Full Action figure can't do any sort of level 1 to 2 transformation, but at least does get the look of Level 1 pretty well down pat.

Full Action Ex-Aid obviously has much more articulation than Bandai's first outing though, so here's a breakdown. Ball jointed ankles, hinged knees for back & forth with a swivel joint for outward movement, swing hips that give both forward and outward motion to an impressive degree, a waist that can swivel about an inch either direction before it impacts the Driver, jointed finger in 2-digit pieces, swivel wrists, a 90 degree hinged elbow, a bicep swivel, and a swivel shoulder. Honestly that sounds great doesn't it? Except that this was a nearly $60 USD figure before shipping. The "Premium" part of it's name never comes into play. Premium Bandai releases over the last couple years, starting with Kamen Rider Gaim, have generally been very well received offerings. Often alternatives or place holders for S.H. Figuarts releases that either haven't happened yet or never will. This figure just doesn't quite fit into that. Not for it's price.

While Full Action Ex-Aid undoubtedly can do a lot, it just feels lacking to me. I think that mostly has to do with it's price, it just feels likely a cheaper toy than it's price tag. The poses you see in the gallery below are just about the extent of what can be done with this figure. The flat end of the shoes lets him balance quite well when need be, the strong hips and ankles let you balance him on one foot even. But the waist joint can't move nearly enough to convey any real personality with the upper body, it just impacts the driver every time. The arms work very well, but at least on my copy the shoulder pads are glued on wrong. One sits in a completely different place on the arm to where it should. And again, that's really frustrating on a $60 figure.

And I have to say that I'm more than a little put off by the lazy paint apps on the Gamer Driver, the minor chips & scuffing in the silver paint apps on the chest which were already on the figure straight from Bandai, the not even close Gashat Holder, etc. This figure really does just kind of disappoint me at every turn. It's nice to have a more poseable release of Level 1, but frankly this is the figure Bandai should have offered at retail from Day 1, rather than making it an expensive premium offering much much later.

Accessory
No that isn't a typo, Full Action Ex-Aid comes with one accessory, the Gashacon Breaker Hammer Mode. All this release has going for it is a painted Gashacon Breaker. Rather than being cast in solid pink like the LVUR release, this one is cast in white with some hastily applied green & pink applications to fill out the broad strokes. It's better than the retail release but doesn't make up for the figures' other faults.

Final Thoughts
For the price you pay for this thing I can't believe it doesn't at least have a removable head and chest plate like the LVUR figures. Then maybe they could have possibly included quick GenM repaints of those parts to make this thing worth it's price. As is, Full Action Ex-Aid Level 1 is anything but "full". This is a release that's feels like cash grab for Bandai Japan. And when you think about how much you paid for it if you picked it up at release like me, it really stings. I'd suggest waiting to get this release on the secondary market when prices calm down. I'd like to see more and better releases in this line, but for a first outing I'm left underwhelmed.

Part 2

Damn sorry to hear that this toy was not that great. I like the gallery of him on the couch lazing around he fits in right at home with that. This release was just a cash grab that all it was. To me it should of bin a 30 figure and have no faults. That shoulder part that put on wrong wow that's so sloppy of Bandai. You know in a way I feel some of their Premium release have gone down hill with some figures over the years Bandai is getting lazy and sloppy.

Wasn't the base price for this figure only around 3500 yen? Seems weird to pin so much disappointed on the figure based on the price when so much of that is just middleman fees. If it feels like it's a cheaper toy than a $60 figure should be, isn't that because...that's exactly what it is?

Doesn't change what one has to pay, I guess, but it's not really on Bandai.

In any case, the figure looks pretty good to me for what it is, and it's something I hope I can get at some point, though the selling prices it's going for currently are indeed too high. Also seems unlikely that they'll do the other Level 1's, which is kind of a shame. Lazer at least really could use one.

Yes, alot of that is middleman fees. But given the nature of the release and that it's close to $40 as is, the fees don't account for more than a 30 or 40% markup on price. I realize that it isn't necessarily fair to pin that on Bandai, but there's just no other way around having to purchase this figure in that way. But even so, I'd have been disappointed paying basically $35 and shipping for this thing. It just does not live up to expectation in my mind. And I'm really disappointed by that more than anything I really wanted a nice Level 1 Ex-Aid. I'll pick it back up down the road when secondary market prices are below retail, I'm sure they will be frankly.

I love this form alot more than I thought I would

Yeesh, sorry to hear about the price

So how long d'you think it'll take Figuarts to make this? I seriously can't decide, because I'm not sure these forms are all that popular, and although they've pulled off some impressive engineering feats, there's only so much you can do with a design this bulky and limited.

Still want to get him some time but every time he pops up somewhere its at a bad time for me

I remember the let down from this, and being glad they didn't release any more of these for Brave, Snipe, etc. Still, it's a shame that there's no way to recreate the final battle, unless Shodo did something while I wasn't paying attention.