S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Zi-O Gallery & Review

"I think I was destined to choose this path."

Since he was a child, Sougo Tokiwa dreamed of being a great king. Little did he know his dreams were prophetic. Should they ever come to pass, they could create a desolate future, one where Sougo became the evil overlord of time Oma Zi-O! In the present, Sougo begins his journey down the path of the overlord, defeating Another Riders as Kamen Rider Zi-O! With the Day of Oma swiftly approaching, will Zi-O become the future he's determined to avoid? Will all riders fall to the lord of time and space? Or will Geiz, the Time Jackers, Kamen Rider Woz, or even the destroyer of worlds Kamen Rider Decade, manage to contain his power? Time, will tell....


Packaging
Zi-O's packaging is themed basically the same way as the new 20 Rider Kicks Heisei reissues. Those boxes all features the same hallmarks as his own, simply in a white color scheme. I actually think Zi-O's packaging is much sharper looking than the reissue line. Silver chrome on black just always work for me. The purple pink and silver color scheme is just nice, like his suit, it's all very complimentary.

Main Figure
Around this time every year I get the opportunity to check out the inaugural figure of a new Kamen Rider main line. A first impression is a really big deal to me. When the first figure is an absolute dud (Ghost) I rarely buy much of the rest of the line. When it's an excellent figure (Drive or Build for example) I buy practically everything and then some. So what kind of bar has Kamen Rider Zi-O set for this years line? A solid one.

At 3240 yen. Zi-O was a well priced release. If you missed out on the initial pre-orders, it's out now and selling for a bit of a premium. Lack of accessories surely kept a lot of people from ordering it, but that apprehension may have backfired just a bit since any sort of re-issue isn't likely to occur during the show's run. Thankfully despite it's cheap price this is a pretty solid figure, and that starts with the base. Zi-O's legs provide a well rounded base of support. Wide flat feet, really solid toe bends, and nearly perfect ankles go a long way to allowing a figure to hit all the right balanced poses. Add to this basically wide open hip joints and double jointed knees and you've really got the full package. My only complaint is that the knee joints are quite tight and squeak when moved, and I could do with a better thigh swivel. As you can see with image 34 below, Zi-O's solid base of support allows him to execute very well balanced poses like that.

This figure also features one of the best functional rider belts out there. The Ziku Driver is a really nicely detailed and functional piece that's more interactive than a lot of SHF scale belts, though you're just as likely to lose it's accessories. The Driver itself can rotate a full 360 degrees like the show prop and DX. The read out is permanently set to the year 2018 seeing as there's no armor swapping gimmick with the SHF's for Zi-O to change it. Each side of the Driver can however accept a Ridewatch. The right side of the driver comes with the Zi-O Ridewatch already attached. As with all the ride watches attached to this figure, none of them have accurately painted rider faces. Each opts for a simple base paint job, though the details of proper watches are sculpted into each face. And all aside from the Zi-O watch, are molded in a dormant position. More on that in the next section. The Bandai Figurise Standard mode kits all come with Ridewatches that have labels to make them look accurate. I'm not sure why a similar decision wasn't made here. I've seen a number of collectors make very nice labels for these tiny accessories. I just wish Bandai had done it for them in the first place.

The upper body is wonderfully articulated, much better than I would have guessed initially. The lower torso has good rotation to it, but the surprise is how well the upper body can spin around it despite the bulk and the watch band running down the center. As you can see below it's got a pretty dynamic range to it going both directions as well as up and down. The sculpt of the watch band is well defined though I've seen some factory errors in the paint that irk me. The arms are also quite well done. While not perfect (I wish they could bend back closer to the bicep) they really do manage to get the job done. The shoulder pads are thankfully not a problem as can be the case with the first figure in a new line. There is a minor issue with the forearms though. Each has a double ridewatch holder on it. The left arm contains a completely blank watch, like those used by Time Jackers before creating an Another Rider. It also has what should be a Ride Striker Watch but the absence of any paint or label details makes it look pretty generic. The right arm has the Build Ridewatch and another blank. These watches are all set in the pre-position. As in the face is in the deactivated position, so even putting it on the Ziku Driver, it'll actually be in the wrong position no matter what you do. The big issue with the arms is that there's no cut in the mid-wrist to allow the holders to move around the arm. So posing Zi-O for his signature pointing up pose is imperfect. But it's not the worst thing in the world.

Zi-O's helmet design is definitely an acquired taste for many. The pink visor spells out "Rider" in Katakana which is a pretty unique look for compound eyes. When light catches them the right though way they really sparkle. I find that some of the details around the watch face lining his head are a little spotty paint wise, but everything appears to be there. I'd honestly never noticed it before now, but the clock hands on his face are set to 10:10 which is actually a common standard setting in the watch world and works out to be a nod to his 20th Heisei Rider numbering. A neat touch! Overall the figure looks really good with the only real detractor being the way the Ridewatch's are unfinished.

Accessories
In what's become a more and more common trend with mainline figuarts each year, Zi-O does not include his signature weapon, the Zikan Girade. Like Build & Drive before him, this years' lead hero will have his weapons included with another release. Specifically mimicking the release pattern of Build, Zi-O's weapons will be included with his Rider Machine, the Ride Striker. So unfortunately this figure isn't armed or anything. I know it tends to be off-putting for many people when weapons aren't included, even keeping them from buying a figure at all. For me, it's just the way it is. I expect it from Bandai at this point and I generally buy the bikes anyway, so it's no big deal. But if it's a breaking point for you, then maybe this isn't the figure for you.

What it does include however is just 5 hands. Two open palms, two pointing hands that are meant to double to hold ride watches but do so poorly, and then one specifically pointing left hand for his signature pose. That's not a ton of variety for such a sparse release. But don't forget of course that there are also 5 removable Ride Watches that come attached to Zi-O as well.

Final Thoughts
Is this the best initial release in a new rider sub-line? No, far from it. But is it a more than serviceable figure that was released at a totally fair price point? You bet. This figure is really fantastic for it's value. At original retail it's more than worth what you get. S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Zi-O is a solid base to begin a new toyline with, and now I'm genuinely pretty excited for Geiz as well as Build Armo Zi-O & GenM Armor Geiz. And those Oma Zi-O teasers are getting me very very excited as well! Let's see what the future brings with this line.

Part 2
- Time Mazine!
- Destroyer of Worlds
- 20 Rider Kicks

IWAE! The birth of a new Figuarts Gallery!

Also, love the pictures of Zi-O and Decade

I just can't get over some of these design decisions. It's great that the Build RideWatch is removable and can be slotted into the Jikuu Driver. It's not great that for no discernible reason, it can't be slotted facing the proper direction. That's just... there are only two reasonable explanations. Either the designer was sloppy, or they wanted to make sure people bought the Figuarts Zi-O Build Armor in order to get a correctly-oriented RideWatch.

Where have you seen stickers for the RideWatch faces? I'd be interested in acquiring some of those.

I didn't notice any shots above that use the additional alternate hand. Is there a pose from the show that I'm just not familiar with, or is its inclusion in this release baffling despite being welcome?

Also-also: you got a shot of him holding a RideWatch? I'm impressed. (Also, I like the rest of the gallery a lot, and that final shot is neato.)

Wow, he's really purple here, strikingly so compared to the show. But yeah, good-looking figure as always and really nice gallery. A lot of little things that keep me from saying this would be a 'great' purchase though.

I can't believe how scummy and cheap Bandai's gotten with Figuarts as far as accessories go. I get they need some way to sell the otherwise kinda pointless bikes, but seriously....

The stickers are custom printed. Here's an example of a customised SHF Zi-O: http://madangler.jp/blog/archives/20190213215046.php

Pretty nice release, but simple..... Still, great photos.

I really do dig Zi-o's design, the increased saturation on the purple looks really nice on this figure, I think it overcomes most its flaws to be a good figure still.

A gallery goes live before my figure is even shipped

My own fault I guess, but it's en route now. Can’t say anything about the figure yet but these photos are gorgeous as usual.

It's sad really. Accessories are what make figures like this fun IMO.

Zi-O's weapons aren't the greatest, but at least they would’ve made me pose the figure around more. Now all I get is punch and kick dude. For Riders who exclusively were punch and kick dudes that isn’t much of an issue, but if you see these guys do crazy stuff with their weapons in the show and then aren't able to recreate any of that with your collector-oriented figure... it sucks.

What sucks even more is the fact that the weapons are there, but packed with the bikes. I don’t need bikes, especially nowadays where they appear like twice within the entire run of the show, and they take away too much display space. Plus since most of these are Web-Exclusives now, they cost a good amount too.

It’s a shitty tactic really. It makes me want the bikes even less and more importantly, skip figures I might've otherwise enjoyed. Geiz is a prime example: I like the suit, I like the character. But I’m not paying full price for a figure that only includes alternate hands. Zi-O only gets away with this because he’s cheap and the main Rider, Geiz I skipped immediately upon learning what he comes with.

I hope they abandon this stupid idea sooner than later.

That being said - it's mostly an issue with Rider figures, thankfully. Saying that Bandai has gotten "cheap" and "scummy" with their Figuarts isn’t true, they do a lot of other SHF’s and not all suffer from this. The Ultraman figures for example still include a good amount of accessories. Ultraman Zero who is out now alongside Zi-O comes with an alternate head, arm, many hands and three weapons to wield.

The fact that they didn’t do factory-applied stickers like these to begin with is baffling to me. Like, this is all they needed to do, stickers.