S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider W Fang Joker Gallery

"Fang! Joker!"

Begins Night. The incident that set the events of the Kamen Rider W series into motion. This incident also heralded the birth of Kamen Rider W's first and most ferocious form. One so powerful that, for a time, Phillip & Shotaro purposefully avoided using it or they'd risk losing control entirely. Eventually mastered, this form was a force to be reckoned with until the introduction of Xtreme. On occasion used to fight some of W's fiercest opponents, even Kamen Rider Eternal. Now, after languishing for nearly a decade with the original figuarts release, Bandai has recreated this powerhouse form in S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider W Fang/Joker!

Packaging
The familiar Shinkocchou Seihou slip cover box makes another appearance! Nothing can be said about it this time that hasn't been said before. It's gotten a bit stale over time but it's still a pleasing type of collector's packaging.

Main Figure
As with the previous line of Kamen Rider W figuarts, the Seihou releases rely heavily on repaints. Fang/Joker is just the latest such, soon to be followed up by Heat/Metal & Luna/Trigger. The nice thing about that is, that we know what to expect when it comes to this release and others from the line. As with base Cyclone/Joker W, that's excellence. Feel free to peruse my review below, but it will be very similar in wording to my Cyclone/Joker review.

This figure accurately recreates the suit you've seen in numerous episodes and movies down to it's finest details. I've said this many times with Shinkoccouh Seihou releases, but I truly think the W body is the peak of engineering in the line so far. In every conceivable way these are magnificent figuarts. For a frame of reference, the original W Figuarts were largely a product of their time. The contrast between the old line, and what we have now, is stark.

For starters the S.S. release nails the details and coloring. A nice flat black for the left half, and a fantastic glossy white finish on the right. The best bit being the gorgeous deep purple used for the Joker half's details. The body itself is mostly unchanged, but what you will obviously notice are the extra spikey protrusions that have been added to the contours of the body. The natural lines of the suit all come up and out to a point and I just absolutely love it. The couple of comparison shots I included really illustrate the subtle differences between this one and base W.

Now, the Double Driver! This belt is still the crowning achievement of W Seihou line. A functional belt at this scale still just blows me away. This figuart includes both the Fang & Joker Memories, one of which fit's into it's slot rather snugly. However as with most any of the normal memories in this line, the Joker one falls out extremely easily. I do find that the way the Fang Memory folds down and over the driver isn't perfect, it always seems to come out a bit crooked to me.

The form is 100% there, and because this figure is a repaint of the magnificent Seihou W mold, it has the functionality too. Seihou W has the articulation to pull off everything, and the proper sculpting for the joints needed for it to look perfect while doing so. The extending knee joints that look like a natural expansion of the costume the near seamless thigh swivels, the way the upper arms & shoulder come together and separate just as you need, and the miraculous way the upper torso is designed. This figure just looks stunning in hand. Seihou W releases just have a way of doing that. The other most recent release, Eternal, is just the same. I absolutely hate that character and that figure still massively won me over. This figure can pull off most any pose you recall the character making, and looks absolutely perfect while doing so.

Accessories
Fang Joker includes a wealth of accessories, frankly it's perfect.

6 - sets of hands. That's pretty any and everything you could need, feral hands, hands for holding memories, hands for holding the included blade, pointing fingers. It's really just the perfect selection.

1 - Fang Memory. Now, don't get me wrong, this thing is great for it's scale. But I'm very disappointed that it's not the full memory. It's sort of a half transformed state, you can still rotate the memory and full body to conform to the W Driver. But it's individual dino mode is lost. I'm really shocked that a regular dino form of the memory wasn't also included. It's one of the few faults I've been able to find in the W line of Seihou Figuarts.

1 - Joker Memory. Just a repack of the one from Cyclone/Joker. Just be careful, like basically all of the Seihou W stuff, this memory will fall out at the drop of a hat.

1 - Arm Saber. This part is actually attached to a replacement forearm. You can pull W's arm off at the elbow and this plugs back on quite snugly. It can be a bit awkward to pose with sometimes but I dig it.

1 - Shoulder Saber. A replacement shoulder pad is attached so you can just pop off the normal one and plug this one on. I find this a little more difficult than it needs to be, but it works.

1 - Shoulder Saber Dagger/Boomerang. I wish the blade on the shoulder part has just removeable, but you can have W hold this individual Dagger part while he's posed with the normal shoulder pad. It fits just a bit too tightly in his weapon hand for me. I feel like it's going to get scraped each time I do it.

1 - Maximum Saber. Attached to a replacement ankle cuff, W's foot comes right out on a peg, be careful reattaching it, don't jab yourself like I did.

Aside from the lack of a dino mode Fang Memory, I'm very satsified with these accessories.

Final Thoughts
As far as repaints (with slight remolds) go, this is an excellent one. It's just another example of how a good figure design can really sell you on something, even if you don't like it. That's just my relationship with Kamen Rider W. I've never loved the show, but the designs were pretty slick, and these Seihou Figuarts have just been nailing it. Fang/Joker is another lovely addition to any Kamen Rider W display.

Part 2
- Arm Saber
- Shoulder Saber
- Maximum Saber

Looks really cool, shame I cancelled mine

just plain gorgeous rendition of an awesome suit

Sad to hear they haven't fixed the W driver's fit with the Gaia memories, since IIRC, the Lost Driver doesn't have this problem. I doubt I'll ever see my Cyclone memory again. I like the accessories on this one, but just haven't found it tempting at all. Great gallery, though!

Still my favorite design for W.

Easily one of the best suits in toku period

Double is my favorite heisei rider and FangJoker is my favorite form for him. Just so clean.

Its such a perfect execution of the suit, I really have to pick one up.