S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Den-O Sword Form Gallery

"Ore, sanjou!"

As excitement builds about a heavily rumored Shinkocchou Seihou Den-O release being revealed at the end of this month, I thought it was time to take a look back at my namesake with his first proper figuart. S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Den-O Sword Form! I did a "gallery" of this figure over 5 years ago for TokuNation. One of my earliest works. And it was pathetic. So this also serves as a 2.0 update that original effort. Taking a look back at that original gallery, it's kind of incredible to me how far my work has come in that amount of time.

Packaging
At the time Sword Form was released, the line was just transitioning fully from the old gray scale type boxes into series themed boxes. Den-O's box and later releases in the sub-line were all heavily based on the Rider/Den-Liner pass and really worked very well. They looked great and I still really like them now. It's a thick package as well thanks to the two parts trays in the box.

Main Figure
Released over 5 years ago, this figuart is what really kicked off the renaissance of Den-O releases. Up to this point we'd only had some older releases of New Den-O, Gaoh, Yuuki, New Den-O Vega Form, and the various Imagin. These figures came out when the line itself was still rather young and they didn't do a great job of representing any of the characters well. New Den-O was later replaced with the "Trilogy Version", a much needed renewal based on the success of the Chou Den-O Trilogy. Without that renewal body though, we wouldn't have gotten the first Den-O Sword Form for probably a much longer time. This figure owes it's engineering to that one.

Sword Form kicked it all off. From there we got Rod, Axe, Gun, Wing, everything. Even Zeronos and all of his forms, Nega Den-O & Negataros, BOTH Climax Forms. The works. Almost. At this point the line is missing only 2 things to be complete. Den-O Plat Form & the Imagin Teddy. Making the prospect of Shinkocchou Seihou taking on Den-O bitter sweet. While I'm excited, it will mean re-buying an awful lot of figures over again. But it could also mean the illusive final two releases actually happening.

Now as for the original Sword Form, for it's time it was a wonderful release. It really captured the characters' likeness quite well. It served to update the out of date Den-O body type we'd previously seen from SHF as well as to replace the now ancient Souchaku Henshin figure. But 5 years on, having what we have now, does it hold up? Not entirely. Starting with the lower body, the legs bug me just a bit. They're designed in such a way that always makes them look pretty fluid in static poses, but they look hyper extended as well. Like chicken legs sort of. Sword Form is a bit more of a brawler form so I feel like this figure should be right at home in wide stances. But the legs seem to belong to a more elegant form like Wing Form. Sadly this figure also hails from a time when pull down hips were the standard. I really dislike this design choice as it tends to break up paint and sculpt. In this case it just makes the legs look ugly and unnatural. The thigh swivel is a nice way to help counter this but the hips really just kill it for me.

Moving up the Den-O Belt is quite nicely detailed, even if much of that detail is just paint on a flat surface. It still looks quite nice. Though I can imaging if this figure were made today, just how much nicer it would like. The Dengasher holsters are a bit boring. As I mention below in the accessories portion, there is an alternate set included with Dengasher parts attached. The old Souchaku Henshin line actually just had one set of the holsters with removable gasher parts. But that's not terribly important either. Moving up I love the detailing that went into the chest armor and head, but I can't get over how neutered the upper body movement is. It feels like the chest should be able to move around on the torso, but it just doesn't. Maybe that's age and maybe it's just poor design but it hinders Den-O's dynamism. The head, as has been pointed out over the years, isn't entirely accurate. The proportions are bit off, but it gets the general look quite well. And I just adore the effect of the compound eyes.

The arms are where we get more of a 50/50 split on good & bad. The shoulders are very free to move, I mean they really blow a lot of modern releases out of the water. But then there's those weird shoulder pads. I know they were trying to recreate the suits' movement in a logical physical way, but these flat flaps on hinges were not the best way to do it. Sometimes depending on how the shoulder is positioned, it might be touching one of the pads just enough to pop it up and it's usually enough to make the upper body look very unnatural. These pads just do a really poor job of making the articulation accessible and keeping the silhouette of the body. The elbow move quite well and can even hyper extend a bit, even if they are a little loose. The wrists and hands are of an older variety. The wrist ball joints are quite large and stick a bit further out from the wrist than I'd like. The hands themselves are a bit short and stunted, they also aren't super flexible so you may have trouble getting them on the ball joint as I did. The weapon holding pairs are notorious for having weak grips as well. So watch out for that.

I have to admit I've been totally satisfied by this figure for over 5 years. But I haven't given it much pause recently either. After handling it once again for this review, I find it very lacking. Whether a Shinkocchou Seihou release is about to be announced at the end of the month or not, this figure needs that kind of update. It's size relative to other modern releases, the way it's engineered, it just doesn't hold up to the Seihou W's or even mainline Ex-Aids we have today.


Accessories
Given this figure came out at a time when Kamen Rider Ryuki and his compatriots were still being packed with their Contract Monsters, Bandai really strove for this figure to be a very complete release:

3 - sets of hands. Two open hands, two weapon holding hands, 1 Rider Pass hand, and 1 thumbs up hand. A pretty good little selection we have here. At the time I griped about there being no bike riding hands included, but the Den-Bird itself included them at a latter date. I wish he'd come with two thumbs up hands but we only got a right one.

1 - Rider/Den-Liner pass. This small accessory is a thin chunk of black plastic with some minor detailing to it. I imagine if we do see a Seihou release now, it would be hinged and possibly accept Tickets. This original one is decent enough though. A specific hand is included to hold it, it's a nice snug fit so I've got no complaints unlike with the weapons.

1 - set of Dengasher Parts. These hip mounted parts can replace the standard plates on the figure that are attached out of box. Den-O should always have them on when not using a weapon for proper accuracy. Unlike the line that predated S.H. Figuarts, Souchaku Henshin, these parts aren't removable. So that requires you to swap the holsters out. At least it's quite easy to do if nothing else.

1 - Dengasher. Sword Form's well, Sword, in this instance does not break down into it's components like the show prop would. It comes fully formed. Some hip parts are included that replicate it when it's broken down. Honestly I like it quite well, but it doesn't fit in the weapon hands well at all. It's a problem with all the Den-O releases. I find their grips to be rather weak thanks to the short almost stunted design of the hands. The grooves in the palms aren't nearly deep enough to maintain a solid hold.

1 - Dengasher (Full Charge/Special Attack Version). This version of the gasher has the blade removed to replicate any one of the number of Sword Forms' "Hissatsu".

1 - Dengasher blade. To go with the bladeless Dengasher. It's neat that it's included but I really kind of hate it. You just have to try and make it work with a tamashii stage that you have lying around in order to replicate it flying through the air. This just isn't a well executed feature. There should have been some specialized tamashii adapter to go with it.

1 - Set of Full Charge Effect Parts. These effect parts when combined together recreate the moment when the Dengasher blade shoots off from the rest of the sword. It's big, long, and heavy. The weak grip of the fists combined with this things' weight make it quite difficult to use. It is a pretty elaborate thing though, definitely not the kind of effect part we see with typically many figuarts at all these days. I really applaud the effort to even include such a thing.

It's incredible that a 5 year old retail release figure came with THAT much. Nowadays we're lucky to even get anything outside weapons and hands with mainline riders sometimes.

Final Thoughts
Overall, S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Den-O Sword Form really was an excellent releases for 5 years ago. Today, not quite so much. It's more than serviceable, but taking a second in depth look at it now, there are apparent flaws I wouldn't have noticed 5 years ago. In the world of Shinkocchou Seihou, this figure just doesn't hold up. Even compared to just recent mainline releases it feels a bit off. Either way, Kamen Rider Den-O is one of the all time greats to me. I own every single release there is. And you know what, I'd be more than happy to buy every single one of them again if we do get Shinkocchou Seihou's. In a couple weeks time we'll know for sure at Tamashii Nations 2017 whether or not this release is coming. I for one hope so. But if not, I'll be more than happy to keep my entire Den-O collection just as it is.

Part 2
- Dengasher
- Evil Riders
- Full Charge Effects

Part 3
- Full Charge Effects (Continued)
- Group Shots
- Den-Bird

Somehow I think the potential Shinkocchou Seihou will include fewer accessories. I can't see anything topping those effect pieces.

But the update is needed and I'm glad I waited for it, I love Den-O and I need a good figure of it in my collection.

Thanks for showing us the soon-to-be "old" figure as an example again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Den-O

Nowadays we're lucky to even get anything outside weapons and hands with mainline riders sometimes.

I have one of these.
It fell, and the horns broke.

The only reason I've been holding off on this one is because I /know/ that the moment I buy it the Seihou version is going to be announced

Great gallery

I really need to get a Den-O, easily one of my favourite rider designs

Den-O! ��
My first ever Kamen Rider series that I watched and fell in love with it! Was the series that got me into watching Kamen Rider!
This figure looks just like the suit from the show! Everything looks detailed and perfect.