S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Brave Legacy Gamer Level 100 Gallery

"Proceeding with Level 100."

Hiiro Kagami is the man who can cut anything. This prodigy surgeon has been both foil & ally to Ex-Aid through his series' run. This came to a head when Hiro was conscripted by Masamune Dan, using the bait of reviving Hiro's lost love Saki. Forced to fight his allies for the chance to revive the woman he loves, Hiro will take on the greatest power he's ever known. Created from the data of True Brave, Hiro will have the legendary Taddle Legacy Gashat bestowed upon him, catapulting him to Level 100! Masamune would of course come to regret this, as Hiro earned his rider name and bravely fought beside his friends once again using his new found power. Though Saki may be gone, Hiro will never give up hope that one day he can restore her and all those lost to the Bugster Virus. This is S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Brave Legacy Gamer Level 100!

Packaging
If you haven't read through or looked at any of my 13 Ex-Aid galleries, I can save you time here. The packaging for Brave Level 100 is pretty much ust what we've come to expect from this line. The only change each time are the colors used. Every release is designed the same way aside from the oddballs like Lazer Level 2 & Para-DX Level 99.

Main Figure
We've seen a version of this mold twice over before with Brave Level 2 & Brave Level 5, and while a lot's unchanged, there are a significant number of new parts and paint applications to examine as well.

For the lower half of the body, there are no physical alterations whatsoever. Not even paint apps. The lower torso down to the feet is identical to the Level 2 release and most of Level 5. So you should know what you're getting into in terms of articulation and design here. These legs are essentially the same as what 90% of the line uses. The first new addition to the mold come with the Gamer Driver. Still my favorite fully functional rider belt on a figuart. Changes to this release include a new read out on the driver that pairs with this form. There's also the new "dummy" Taddle Legacy Gashat, which is removable and compatible with all Gamer Drivers. It's a bit sparsely detailed, but then again basically all SHF Gashats are. It can also be plugged into and open slot on a Gashat holster, such as the one to the right of the driver.

The upper body is where all the new alternations to the design come into play. Brave's entire chest and back have now been covered in a regal knight's armor. The only vestigial component of the old chest armor & rider gauge that remains is the silver chunk of armor in the bottom corners of the chest. The new components make up the bulk of the Legacy Gamer support robot this form comes from. My favorite thing about this armor is the way in which both in show and here, the armor is marbled. The subtle gray in the white parts would seem to be the product of plastic mixture rather than paint apps, which I really appreciate. It gives the armor an authentic look like it was carved straight out of a hunk of marble.

The back side of this new assembly works it's way around the old deactivated Level 1 head, which came through essentially unchanged from the previous two releases. One big new addition is a hinge assembly directly under the chin with the lower portion of the cape, officially known as the Sanctuary Mantle. This chunk of it is just one large piece that can hinge up and down. Sadly it's a bit limiting. But not nearly as much as the shoulder additions.

The shoulders and by extension the cape are sadly the biggest let downs of the entire release. Essentially the shoulder pads limit most of the outward movement of the arms because of how thick they are. They constantly make contact with the protrusions of armors coming off the chest. This is cumbersome, but the real issue lies in the parts of the mantle/cape that extend from the back of the shoulders. You see those tiny claw like protrusions that come out of the shoulder armor? Those are on swivel joints, they can spin around. Sounds good, but the arm they're attached to is molded at an angle. Meaning that in the neutral facing down position, which also means they greatly inhibit the portion of the cape attached to them. If you try to rotate the shoulder forward so that Brave is holding his sword out, then that whole chunk of cape comes with him. It looks ridiculously awkward and bad. The ONLY work around to this is that each cape chunk is on a ball joint. If you rotate them completely around so that the cape is facing the wrong direction then you can angle them outward. The claw bit that rests over them also has to be angled upward to make this work. It's still incredibly awkward looking, but it works.

The entire cape assembly is cumbersome and inadequate though. None of it comes together well and it looks ridiculous from certain angles. After the utter brilliance of the wired cape with Seihou Eternal, it baffles me why Tamashii Nations would go backwards with this kind of set up. It just doesn't work at all. A couple of tweaks could have fixed the issues even. But this is a really imperfect release. The weight issues this whole set up presents are also really bothersome. If you lean Brave far enough forward he can balance with the cape out. But most of the time the cape touches the ground before him and that's where his balance comes from. Before we hit the accessories, I want to briefly touch on the head. Which feels a bit off as well. That's mostly due to how narrow the visor is. It's actually quite difficult to get a good look at Brave's eyes in there as a result. In my attempt to get a good focus on his eyes, I'm afraid a number of my photos look a bit fuzzy as well so I really do apologize for that.

Accessories
Level 100 actually comes with a bit more than I would have normally expected out of an exclusive:

1 - Exploding Gashacon Sword. Unlike Brave Level 2, this version of the character comes completed versions of the sword. The original release took the cheap way out and had one half the blade for freezing, while the back half was painted red for exploding. The standard version of the weapon this go around is a complete Exploding Sword while Freezing is included as a swap out part.

1 - Freezing Gashacon Sword blade. Just pop off the default Exploding part and attach this and you're good to go! It's a tight connection so just be careful when changing the two out.

4 - sets of hands. Surprisingly, these hands are exact repacks of those included with Brave Level 2. So you get pretty much anything you need.

And that's really all you need, Brave's primary weapon in both modes plus a ton of hands. The only other minor thing that would have been would be some Extra full Gashats rather than just the dummy one in the Gamer Driver.

Final Thoughts
I was so excited to get this figure in hand, and excited for the possibility of a Level 50 retool from this mold as well. Sadly, I have to report that this is just a massively flawed release. The choice make a hinged cape assembly rather than soft goods, combined with the poor shoulder design takes away from much of what this mold is capable of. It's severely limiting. It's detrimental. While Brave Level 100 can still look good from the right angles and in the appropriate poses, it massively misses the potential of this mold. I wouldn't pay the inflated prices this figure currently fetches in light of that. If you're looking to pick Brave up, hold out for a price drop.

Part 2
- Exploding/Freezing Gashacon Sword
- Taddle's Legacy

Unfortunately, I have to agree with everything said here. This is by and far one of, if not outright, my favorite forms in all of Kamen Rider and it sucks that it came out so half-assed. I could forgive the shoulders just due to the design of the armor, but the cape? I cannot and will not defend it.

Add in the fact that my copy shipped with a misshapen Driver handle that flops constantly and this is easily the most disappointing release I've added to the collection since Kiwami Arms.

Question: Can Brave dual wield these? As disappointing as this figure seems to be (if Tali's harsh, everyone else will be too) it'd be cool if it used a concept I felt the show could try using

i have this and agree as well. The shoulder/design needed way more thought

Otherwise. Cool design and mold

So long as you've got an extra Gashacon Sword there's nothing to stop you from using both blades at once. Though I went the extra mile and stuck the Taddle Quest Gashat from Level 2 in the Kimewaza Slot on mine.

Yeah, I'll agree with you, Den-O. This is probably the most disappointing Figuarts I've ever purchased. I still quite like it, the figure is visually stunning, but the whole shoulder/cape setup is absolutely atrocious. It's a pain trying to pose this guy's arms. I feel like Bandai simply didn't want to front the money for a cloth cape (similar to S.S. Eternal) but surely they could have come up with a better design. Maybe they could have just attached the two "side capes" to the griffin claws instead of directly to the shoulder pads? Might not have been entirely accurate, but it would certainly be more functional.

Plus my particular figure came with some scuffs on the pants (which are mild and I can live with) and some weird blue paint on the visor that in trying to remove it, left a slight scratch in the corner of his left eye.

This is the kind of figure you just stick behind the rest of your Ex-Aid collection and he'll look awesome, but you won't really pick him up as hand candy.

This was something I was fully prepared for but nonetheless upsets me.

I'm so desperate to save this release I've been scouring JP Twitter for ideas on how to do a soft goods cape for him. Been meaning to learn how to sew anyway.

The "discuss on the TokuNation forums" link on the news article doesn't actually point to this thread; it just loops back to the news post.

Disappointing to hear the release is such a missed opportunity. Some of the Ex-Aid releases have made me question Bandai's interest in appealing to their toku customer base. When I first got into Figuarts, it was in part due to the fantastic accessories for figures like the Gokaigers, Shinkengers, and Kamen Rider W. (Flame Style was a mess, but the accessories were terrific.) That this figure is the only way to get screen-accurate versions of the blade is just... insulting, really.

D_amazing off of Youtube managed to find somebody who did a posable soft goods cape for Brave, but AFAIK it's not being sold....yet.


A soft goods cape would improve the figure immensely.