S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Cronus Chronicle Gamer Gallery

"The time for judgement has come."

Masamune Dan was once imprisoned for his crimes. But thanks to his own scheming he was freed, and took the reigns of his company back. Seeking to control the world with Kamen Rider Chronicle, Masamune would first need to dispose of those pesky Kamen Riders, including his son. Resilient to all strains of the Bugster virus, Masamune was uniquely worthy to obtain the power of the legendary hero Cronus, the one meant to defeat Gamedeus. With the power to Pause & Restart, Masamune would become Kamen Rider Cronus!

"The fact that I'm here is proof enough."

Taiga Hanaya was the first rider chosen to fight the Bugsters, the first pawn of Kuroto Dan. As Kamen Rider Snipe and an unlicensed doctor, Taiga went on to save countless lives. But in order to stop Masamune, now empowered with the Gamedeus virus, Taiga exposed himself to Kamen Rider Chronicle. Using his Gamer Driver and two Chronicle Gashats, he'll take on Cronus as, Kamen Rider Cronus!?

It's Cronus VS Cronus as two riders inherit the power of the legendary hero in this doubled up gallery of S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Cronus! A figure uniquely capable of being displayed as both the hero and the villain!

** There's one shot in this gallery that uses the Cronus Clock for the background. Since Bandai did not produce the clock to go with Cronus I sought out one online and printed it off for that shot. Credit to HigRoyDraN on Turbosquid for the 3D model of the clock they created. It's wonderful work and were my printer capable of printing it at high enough resolution, I would have taken some more up close shots using it.

Packaging
Given the the fairly basic silver/green/black color scheme of Cronus, his packaging looks pretty basic as well. I love the semi-neon green and the way it pops on the black backdrop. I really dig the stock photos of this one, they just look much sharper and more lifelike than many of the others in the line have.

Main Figure
The familiar Mighty Action X body type has been around the block *quite* a few times at this point with various degrees of new paint apps and newly molded parts. This go around we get a good chunk of that original mold once again, as well as some new additions. Some good, some detrimental.

Cronus is a really striking design, one that worked extremely well as a villain. The bright but uniform color scheme, combined with the robes, horns and extreme shoulder pads, made for quite an ominous look. But the basics of this mold now are the same as always. The ankles are still just a little limited and imperfect. But that's of the least concern given what else you have to contend with when posing him. The knees have a great bend that helps add to the general dynamic action of characters like Cronus. I really dig the neon green used to detail the legs and it goes oh so well with the robes. However, those are the biggest issue this figure has.

The coattails/robe whatever you want to call it, are incredibly limited in use, and they've limited the figure's legs in disastrous ways. The robes are hinged to move outward from the waist, but they only move up/out with very little backward motion. This really should have been on a ball joint to allow for it to twist more as well. As is they move up and almost immediately impact the belt of the waist. Worse still, you run into the fact the hips can move way further out than the robes allow them to. Because the coats can't move much at all, the legs also can't freely move forward and back. Had the robes been segmented into 4 parts and on ball joints it could have alleviated the issue. Honestly they should have been wired cloth. As some figuarts releases have begun to embrace this, I feel like it should be applied in every case possible. This is a prime example where cloth goods would have been perfect. Even if you just want to dynamically pose the coattails a bit, it's kind of impossible without feeling like you're going to break these incredibly rigid parts. And they're physically built into the lower body as well so that makes things even more troublesome.

Above this is something new for the line, the Buggle Driver Zwei. The only other figure with something other than a Gamer Driver, was Dangerous Zombie which had the original Buggle Driver. The Zwei is just a basic repaint of that original Driver, in this case it also features a new Rider Readout with Cronus on it. A new (removable) dummy Gashat is also attached in the form of the Kamen Rider Chronicle Master Gashat. This Driver and belt can be swapped out for an included Gamer Driver as well. But I'll detail that in the accessories section below. The Zwei can also be removed from it's buckle, but there are no parts included to use it as the Bugvisor Zwei hand weapon. On a related note, the waist of this figure is practically non-existent thanks to the way the robes are built into the legs, and the way the belt and driver are designed. Since the figure can be pulled apart to use the included Gamer Driver accessory, it's designed a bit differently from other figuarts. Unfortunately all of this adds up to some really ugly gaps with around the belt line.

The upper body is a bit less detailed than the typical Ex-Aid rider. As a legendary hero beyond other heroes, Cronus doesn't have a Rider Gauge or life bar in his chest. The buttons on the right side of the chest are muted to standard silver as well. So you lose a lot of the color and detail that the other riders had, but it provides for a far more uniform color scheme and design than any of the others as well. Not to be forgotten are the arms, which function just about the same as any of the other Ex-Aid riders. The wrists are solid, the elbows fully functional and the bicep swivels uninhibited & welcome as always. The new shoulder pads present an issue occasionally, but they can angle out enough and sit out far enough to not be an issue most of the time.

Finally that brings us to the head. Like I said before, this is an excellent design, one perfectly fitting for a villain. And the head is what sells it. It's basically an Ex-Aid head dipped metallic green and decked out with a ton of horns. In my book that's a recipe for success. I particularly like the green rings in the eyes which give off a pretty effective dead & haunting look. They do however seem impeded by the visor which has lots of minor imperfections and flaws, and the green of the eyes themselves seemed to be poorly applied. My favorite thing with this design has always been the way the hair piece is shaded. The outer "exposed" portions being green while the accents are black gives them a pleasing false depth that's akin to a cel-shaded look.

Accessories
Sadly, and even though I expected it, I'm pretty let down by what Cronus comes with:

2 - sets of hands. Nothing special, just standard fare really. Which sucks because there really needed to be a dedicated "Shhhhhh" hand at least. That was one of Cronus' most chilling and fantastic moments in the show. It's iconic and they really skimped out by not including a hand to replicate that.

1 - Gamer Driver. In order to display this figure as Taiga, you just need to pull Cronus apart at the waist and take the Buggle Driver Zwei off, belt and all, and then pop this on. It's the same Gamer Driver we've seen a number of times in this line over and over. A new read out on the gauge features Cronus, while we also get doubled up on Kamen Rider Chronicle dummy Gashats. This Driver belt helps fill the gap around the waist, but because of those dumb robes, you need to be be careful with the Gashat holster on the left hip. The impacting of the two will inevitably break own or scratch the other.

By far the biggest missing pieces here are Bugvisor Zwei parts. While Cronus is most often known for using it as a Driver for Pause and Restart, he also engaged in combat with the Visor in it's chainsaw and gun modes during those pauses. The fact that GenM Level 0, whom only used the Bugvisor Zwei for a single episode, comes with one and Cronus doesn't, is kinda wacky to me. The other huge omission here is of course the Gashacon Magnum. As Cronus, Taiga still used his signature weapon from his Snipe alter ego. And actually he cycled through all of the primary Gashcaon Weapons during his fight with Masamune. So the inclusion of the literally any of them would have been great. Considering this figure went the distance to give us a Gamer Driver, specifically to display it as Taiga, it's insane it didn't come with his Magnum as well. Including Cronus we now have basically 4 Taiga/Snipe figuarts in this line and literally one of them comes with the Magnum, Level 2. The major bonus of the Gamer Driver is overshadowed by the absence of these other two huge accessories, which just compounds my generally negative opinion of this release.

Final Thoughts
As much as I love this design, and Masamune as a character, this is not a figure that I can seriously recommend to any but the most diehard of fans. I bought two of this figure, one to display as each rider, so I've got double the regrets. Kamen Rider Cronus deserves a better release than this. Between the needed accessories and the pitiful robes it can be hard to truly enjoy this figure. At a time when Rider Figuarts duds are pretty rare, this one really stands out. Even still, I have a pretty serious compulsion to complete collections. If Bandai ever does release the Gamedeus Cronus they showed off, I'd probably buy it for the sweet Sword & Shield it would include. I'd just warn anyone interested in picking this figure up to consider trying to get it for a discount. It isn't quite worth full price.

Part 2
- Cronus VS GenM
- Taiga as Cronus
- Cronus VS Cronus

Sometimes, it's actually nice to hear a figure was a dud. Chronus was a pretty major character on a show I really enjoyed, so I was initially tempted. Now, I'm glad I held out. I'm also glad that robe wasn't what I at first assumed: the same type cloth robe as the upcoming SS Wizard. If that had turned out to be a stinker... eek.

I paid full price for this guy. One of the few things I've ever pre-ordered. And despite the limiting robes and tiny accessories count...I love this guy. Like top 10 figures for me.

What I don't love? Him taking a shelf dive and having a horn snap off. I'm still sad about that.

I'd like to add on two things of note:

- The belt for the Buggle Driver is actually correct this time around, unlike the version used for Dangerous Zombie (which was a silver recolor of the one used for the Gamer Driver).

- The hands included sadly aren't really meant for use with the Gashacon Magnum, as they're repaints of the "melee" hands included with Ex-Aid, Brave, and Lazer Turbo meant to grip their weapons, as opposed to Snipe's hands which had an extended trigger finger.

Ouch, Chronus was an amazing villain to watch and this being a dud sucks, especially as the prototype we saw showed him with Gamedeus weapons that likely got cut for a Chronus Gamedeus repaint, but this release makes me lose all interest in such a repaint

Its still a very visually striking figure, but the lack of the gamedeus weapons really made me hesitate picking it up.

Looks great, love that he comes with both drivers.
, shame there isn't much else with him.

Still wish Taiga got to become Chronus herself. If I ever get this that's what I'm gonna headcanon