S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Zi-O Build Armor Gallery

"Armor Time! Best Match! Build!"

Before he can eventually become the overlord of time Oma Zi-O, Sougo Tokiwa must first inherit the powers of the Heisei Riders who have come before him! Kamen Rider Build, is gone. And to defeat Another Build Sougo must grasp the power of Sento Kiryu for himself and wear the armor of Build. It's Rider Time in our latest Kamen Rider Zi-O gallery with the Build Armor! This is the first of Zi-O's power ups to join the line and we couldn't be more excited to finally have it in hand. Between this and the simultaneously released Geiz GenM Armor, we're pretty excited for the prospect of future figuarts from the series.

Related Galleries: Kamen Rider Zi-O, Kamen Rider Build Rabbit/Tank Form.

Packaging
Taking it's design cues from Kamen Rider Zi-O's packaging, Zi-O Build Armor box features that now iconic 20 rider kicks style of box. Featuring the year the Armor is from (2017) and a splash of blue & red, the Build Armor really pops in it's official photos. It's a basic and very pleasing to the eyes.

Main Figure
Zi-O Build Armor comes from the earliest parts of Zi-O, and as such is really a form that plays it safe. As the first Rider Armor it comes across as quite basic, but ultimately very charming. And the standard armor application it used for the legs torso and arms, would be a pattern used to design some in-show forms as well as numerous artwork/toy only ones that never made their proper appearances. You can see basic elements of it present in Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, & Kiva Armors. With elements peppered through out some of the others. I would hope this means we could see more of these as Figuarts down the line, but who knows. Honestly the easiest one at this point would be Zi-O Kuuga Armor as it's a very easy remold of the Build Armor. In any case this is clearly the perfect armor to kick off Zi-O's line of numerous power-ups for the S.H. Figuarts line-up.

At first glance Build Armor appears to be very mechanical and bulky, seemingly not very dynamic because of these qualities. Shocking even myself, it's astonishingly well articulated. Honestly the articulation layout is basically that of standard Zi-O, as the two are more or less the same mold with the top layers of armor and molding being the big difference, but somehow I feel like the way Build Armor can move is actually a bit nicer. Like Zi-O, the Build Armor can execute wide and stable poses thanks in no small part to the feet. In this case the feet are a bit wider and thicker, covering more ground and just making this figure solidly stable. The perfect toe bends accent this, and while the ankles have minor limitations because of the skirt around them, they just work incredibly well. The extra layer of armor on the legs doesn't considerably bulk anything up to impact articulation, in fact it's hardly noticeable. So you manage to get the same great hips, and knees that can still hit about a 45 degree angle.

As with base Zi-O & Geiz, Build Armor comes with the Ziku Driver attached. At the scale this figure is, the Ziku Driver still manages to be one of the better and more functional Drivers out there. The Driver itself can rotate a full 360 degrees like the show prop and DX toy. The read out is permanently set to the year 2017, the year Sougo traveled to in order to obtain Build's power. Each side of the Driver can however accept a Ridewatch. The left facing side of the driver comes with the Zi-O Ridewatch pre-set. As with all the ride watches attached to this figure, none of them have properly painted rider faces. Each opts for a simple base paint job, though the details of proper watches are sculpted very nicely into each face. And like base Zi-O, the only watch molded in active positions are those already attached to the Driver. The 4 wrist mounted watches are dormant blanks, which make sense given that Build Armor was Zi-O's first power-up. At that time he didn't have any other ride watches. Though one should theoretically be the Ride Striker watch. On the right facing side of the Driver however is an active Build Ridewatch. This is great because the Build watch that came with base Zi-O was dormant. If you pop this one off the Driver and give it Zi-O then you can properly simulate his transformation to Build Armor. A very nice, minor detail that I appreciate. Also of minor note, the new Build watch also seems to have a different red paint application to the face of it, allowing a bit more light to shine through from the back of the watch now. While focused on the waist I want to talk about the small pieces of hip armor on either side of Build. I was certain these would impact posing but was pleasantly surprised to see that they fully rotate!

Believe it or not, that upper body is almost entirely just normal Zi-O. The layer of armor on top is really just an aesthetic change. The ab section with the watch band is nigh identical. The upper body has merely been remolded to reflect Build's two tone nature. Though I do appreciate that these chest parts have the same lines molded into them facing out that Build himself did. Articulation will be identical to the first Zi-O here though it feels a bit more free and loose in a good way. the side to side motion of the upper body in particular just feels really good. The arms do actually have a bit more bulk to them thanks to the armor. New silver armor accents the Ridewatch holsters and biceps. While very nicely sculpted ornamental Rabbit & Tank Full Bottles adorn the shoulders! These are probably the most surprising bit about the figure, I fully expected these shoulders to kill the articulation, but they really just don't. As with so many figuarts they're on a hinge which slides down and out enough to accommodate the inward and upward motion of the actual shoulder joint. You don't really lose anything from these shoulders at all even compared to regular Zi-O. I'd like to mention that I am very much into the armored look the hands now have. The index and middle finger have an armor applicationn to them but the hands as a whole have an exo-skeletal feel to them that makes them look really really nice. Clearance for the wrists is just about the same as Zi-O as well and thanks to the included hands that means recreating either Build or Zi-O's iconic poses.

Finally Build Armor's head is a really brilliant amalgamation of both the Zi-O & Build designs. While it definitely has the clock hand antennae I love about Zi-O, each of them also has a translucent color accent matching Build and a little hint of both of his rabbit and tank bottles to them. And while Zi-O's base form compound eyes spell out "Rider" in Katakana, this new Armor form reads out "Build" instead. A really nice touch of the design that's translated very well to figure form. Perhaps my only critique here is that the head could use just a tiny bit more clearance within the collar. Sometimes when you want to turn it to the side, hitting this part can cause him to look at a slightly odd angle.

Accessories:
As luck would have it, Zi-O Build Armor has everything you need to take on Another Riders! Or in the case of this gallery, Blood Stalk!

4 - sets of hands. That's a pair of open hands, a couple pairs of semi-pointing hands to replicate lots of Zi-O & Build poses, and a pair for holding weapons (or bike handlebars!).

1 - Drill Crusher Crusher. Yes you read that right, two times the crusher! Zi-O's Crusher is of course based on Build's multipurpose weapon of similar name, the Drill Crusher. Like Build's it's a yellow drill shaped weapon, but unlike his it only has one mode (no gun form here) and it's no really handheld per se. While the figure holds a small grip in the middle of it, because of the way it's positioned it's really more like a wrist mounted striking weapon. I find the grip a bit difficult to get a good hold on using any of the included hands, and the bulked up forearm armor can get in your way occasionally, but otherwise it's a good armament.

That may not seem like much, but it's really all this form needs. This is an appropriately basic, but solid release.

Final Thoughts
As the first of Zi-O's various Armor Times to make the transition to S.H. Figuarts, I'm quite pleased. The Zi-O Build Armor is easily one of the most basic, but also most visually pleasing armors in the series. It's not crazy over the top like Geiz Wizard, Zi-O Gaim, Trinity, or something like that. It really feels like this armor embodies the original spririt of what the series was going for with it's armored upgrades. It's a very solid and stable figure with lot's of personality that totally embodies the spirits of the two riders who's lineage it shares. While for now it seems like it may be the only one of the Heisei Rider Armors other than Decade that's coming to the line, if this is the only one, it was an excellent choice. Piggybacking on the popularity of Build and commercial success of Zi-O with this form was incredibly smart. Bring on more Tamashii! I'll buy just about any Rider Armor they make in the line, but what I'd really like are some Another Riders to menace them. Here's hoping!

Part 2

I really love Zi-O Build Armor design. The silver color is really worked with red and blue color schemes.....

The funny fact from Zi-O Build Armor finisher is Zi-O Build Armor finisher are didn't have scientific formula because Sougo are really bad at science and it seems Geiz is really smart at science because his Geiz Build Armor finisher are have scientific formula ......

Hard to believe, but this might actually be the best of Zi-O's figuarts, at least to me. It's surprisingly detailed and articulated, and it comes with all the accessories you'd want.

On a side note, I still don't like that they made a figure of Geiz's Gemn Riderarmour. I would have much preferred to pose Zi-O Build alongsidd Geiz's Ghost armour, or Ex-Aid, or heck even Geiz's own version of the Build Armour.

I'm still frustrated by the Ridewatch situation - if the much cheaper model kit can at least do stickers, come on - but otherwise this looks just astonishing. I like the simple but armoured look to most of these Ride Armours and Build was a great start.

It also in retrospect makes me even more grateful to how Build decided to change things up by making his main first weapon a drill instead of a sword; it let the anniversary rider's first power-up be more unique

I'm kind of baffled by this figure. RideWatches aside, it looks great for what it is, but it's among the least interesting Ride Armor designs. What these armors (Build, Ex-Aid, Ghost) had in common was that they were in the first wave of retail figures, the gimmick for which was that they were double-sided and usable by both Zi-O and Geiz. As a result, the designs are pretty heavily limited The next ones released - OOO, Fourze - were when the designs dropped the shareability in favor of more interesting gimmicks. Ironically, this basically meant the more recent Heisei-second-phase Riders got plainer, less interesting designs than Decade-Gaim.

It looks (except for the you-know-what) gorgeous for what it is, and makes what looked a clunky on the retail figures seem genuinely pretty slick. This gives us a pretty good idea of what we could expect if they were to produce the armors Ex-Aid, Ghost, etc., since they're so standardized. I'd love to this this treatment applied to, say, Fourze Armor or Wizard Armor, but since those designs would use a ton of new parts, it's just not that likely.

No stickers is obviously a bummer but I never noticed how good the silver legs work for this design before, goddamn