S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Hunter Action Gamer Level 5 Gallery

"Drago Knight Hunter, Z!!"

At one time the greatest power available to Ex-Aid & his allies was the dangerous Level 5 Gasshat, Drago Knight Hunter Z. It ultimately took Ex-Aid, Brave, Snipe & Lazer to tame this power together, but Emu (and later Hiiro) would be able to master the Level 5 configuration on his own as well. While Ex-Aid would of course attain an even greater threshold of power, exceeding Level 100 & beyond, Action Gamer was a force to be reckoned with. Let's take a look at how Ex-Aid adapts this transformation for toy form with S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Hunter Action Gamer Level 5!

Packaging
Continuing the trend of excellently fun and bright boxes, Level 5 Ex-aid really pops. I just love how fantastically colorful & stylish these boxes are. This one is of course about double the depth of a regular figuarts box. Gotta accommodate the dragon tail and wings! As always we get the prerequisite stock photos to sell us on the toy we already bought, but honestly I just love the colors so much.

Main Figure
At it's core, literally, this figure is Ex-Aid level 2 with extra bits tacked on. And basically I just want to delve into the new parts. If you want a more in depth review of the basic Level 2 body, then please feel free to skim my review of Ex-Aid Action Gamer Level 2.

Now, to start things off I want to start from the ground up. The first new addition to this mold is the ankle parts. Each shin & calve have been replaced by a much bulkier component looking similar to dragon scale, with a pair of dragon claws on the back. Despite the bulk of these parts, the ankles are not impacted terribly. You get a lot of the same basic movement from them as with Level 2 Ex-aid. The additional upper body parts however can make things a balancing act.

Next what we have are the additions the Gamer Driver and Gashat holster. The details on the driver readout have been altered for the Drago Knight transformation. These belt read outs are always impressive at this scale. A new Drago Knight Hunter Z Gashat has also been added to the second slot on the belt. As with the first 3 figuarts, it's a dummy Gashat that pegs into an empty slot, there's no clear bottom half. The other new addition is what is clearly meant to be a Level 3 Gekitotsu Robots Gashat on the hip holster. It does have the clear half attached but the Gasshat itself is permanently fixed. It's part of the holster, so that's a bit of a disappointment.

The arms also feature some significant additions. They've been bulked up by the addition of silver armor bands around the wrists and biceps. They do limit the elbows to a pretty solid 90 degree angle sadly, but they help to make the figure more imposing. The biggest additions are the Dragon Blade & Dragon Gun on the right and left forearms respectively. These large weapons are cumbersome but well detailed. The things that really hurt the arms are the big giant shoulder pads. They aren't attached the arms themselves as common sense would dictate. They're on ball joints attached to the chest armor independent of the shoulders. So when you rotate the the shoulders they're limited by how little these pads can move, which is a shame.

And the most significant addition is of course the the new torso and back harness. On the backside we get the Whip Drago Tail, which looks a bit stumpy but nice. As well as pair of tiny wings on the upper back. This whole contraption frames the Level 1 Ex-Aid face attached to the back of the Level 2 body. And there's also some nice bulky pectoral armor added to the front of the figure. Finally there's the head, where the Search Drago Eye mask has been fixed to the level 2 head. I'm not completely pleased the paint details on mine, and because of the mask it made it really hard to get a good focus on Ex-Aids face down in the mouth in these photos.

By far the biggest disappointment of this release, for me, is that the arms and legs aren't removable. There's currently at least no way to re-create the 4-player co-op mode used by the heroes in episode 10. This figure represents Ex-Aids Full Dragon version of Level 5, rather than the Dragon Fang form seen in that episode. I wish they'd engineered the figure to have removable parts or limbs or something. I know I'm probably in the minority by caring, but considering the other 3 riders have their appropriate Level 5 versions to form that Co-Op, I really want the proper Dragon Fang for Ex-Aid too. I doubt an official release would happen. So for anyone interested in trying it shouldn't be terribly difficult to swap out the arms and legs from a normal Ex-Aid Level 2. Rant end.


Accessories
Hands. Just some hands. Possibly the most pointless accessory this release could have come with. 3 sets of hands. 3 varieties of open type hands. None of which are particularly useful, nor easy to attach thanks to the dragon claws on the wrists. I know that Ex-Aid didn't really use any weapons with this form or anything like that, but they could have least tossed in some weapon holding hands and a Gashacon Breaker. It just seems like a missed opportunity to include something of at least remote value.

Final Thoughts
As a retail release I fully expected Ex-Aid Level 5 to plummet in price. And I was right. I waited to pick mine up once it hit deep discount at Amiami. You can pick it up there for 4370 yen, which is actually a bit more than I paid for it. If you loved Ex-Aid, which I did, then you should probably pick this figure up. Especially if you're looking to complete a full display. But if you're on the fence about this form I'd suggest waiting for a slightly better discount, it'll come with time. As is S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Hunter Action Gamer Level 5, is a pretty decent release that warrants a spot in your collection at some point down the road.

Part 2
- Dragon power up forms
- Group Shots

The absence of head articulation is... I'm not sure what to think of it. I never picked up the SO-DO version, so I don't know if they solved it, since the carapace for this form makes it a stretch. It might not be practical.

I'm disappointed that the Gekitotsu Robots gashat isn't removable, since that'd be a major plus for this figure. Does this figure come with any Ex-Aid hands that the previous release didn't?

In the end, I just don't like this form. It's bulky and silly-looking, but not in a way that's as much fun as DoReMiFa Beat or Sharakiri Sports. That we're getting four different Figuarts releases for it is... unfortunate for people who didn't love this form.

Pretty great for those who do, I suppose. I wouldn't be surprised if Dragon Fang form were released as a convention exclusive or something, since they've already got all the parts they need to do it.

The form is a nice tribute to Monster Hunter but the visuals remind me of Digimon. Ex-aid looks like an ultimate form of a Digimon which I think works well with the overall aesthetic.

The hunter gamer for all riders is by far my least liked forms, and I'd dare say the only suits in the show that I didn't much care for. And Ex-Aid isn't even the one who made most use of Full-Dragon!

It does at least succeed at looking like a bulky powerhouse of a form, even if I'd vastly prefer Robot Gamer for that.

One of my favorit Suits from exaid, Great shots

An absolute clusterfuck of a design, so that's already a con in my book. Though I DO wonder if Ex-Aid will get S.I.C figures, this might get benefits

I'm actually not a fan of this form. I thought it could have been done alot better. It's a cool figure, but some of the later forms were much more interactive and dynamic looking, IMO.

Think I'm one of very few people that likes this form