Toku Toy Box: S.H. Figuarts Crow Amazon Gallery

"Target, confirmed."

Iyu Hoshino, had not been an Amazon in life. A happy student & devoted daughter, her fate was sealed when her father encountered Jin Takayama, and was subsequently infected with Chihiro's DNA. Driven by an uncontrollable hunger for human flesh her father became the Vulture Amazon, and subsequently murdered his entire family. In the fallout from the original Nozama Pharmaceutical incidents, the emergence and subsequent attempt to massacre the Amazons, strict guidelines were put in place regulating how it's successor 4C could eradicate these creatures. Given special permission, 4C was allowed to create one last Sigma Type in order to have a weapon capable of defeating Amazons. The decision was made for the corpse of Iyu Hoshino to undergo this transformation, creating the first & last new Sigma since Jun Maehara became Kamen Rider Amazon Sigma. This process resulted in a cold, calculating, and powerful fighter capable of taking on the new breed of Amazons on the rampage. Iyu was reborn as the Crow Amazon!

Packaging
Right in line with the rest of the Amazons that preceeded her, Crow comes in a dark themed box, which is quite sparse thanks to her also dark color scheme. Crow is also the first Amazons release to feature the new blue Bandai Spirits logo as well as the Tamashii Nations holofoil brand sticker.

Main Figure
The Crow Amazon is the first completely new mold we've gotten in a while for this line. There are two releases of the Alpha mold, two versions of the Omega mold, Sigma Neo & Mole were each unique though spread quite far apart as well. Also releasing this month is Neo Alpha, a reuse of the Neo mold. So Crow is a breath of fresh air for the line right now.

I always really dig Kaijin in figure form. Undoubtedly though some don't turn out perfectly, like even the Mole Amazon which had it's faults. But I always welcome the addition of something a bit more monstrous into my collection. These types of figures compliment riders so nicely and Crow is no exception. This unique mold is absolutely covered in sculpted details. There's so much to unpack with this figure, so starting with the legs, I am super intro those Crow Talons. These are nice and pointy so be careful, but they add just little bit to the sinister nature of the design. The sort of claw/talon motif continues the length of the legs as well, as what look like barbs or maybe spines run up the sides of the legs. There's also some scale detail on the thighs that's akin to feathers that I really like a lot. All of these parts are just the same shade of black, a couple with some more metallic applications applied to them. But the details are just so sharply defined that the lack of color isn't detrimental at all. Functionally the ankles really need more clearance for wide stances, sadly the knees are limited by the thickness of the calf and the thighs and the hips are similarly a bit limited. Overall the articulation loses out a bit, but gets the job done.

The Crow theme continues for the torso, where talons wrap around the abdomen and the chest is lined by asymmetrical feathers. The back of the figure has this same asymmetry along the the neck and shoulders but the lower back has what I can only describe is a tail fanned out. I feel like this part in particular hurt how the articulation was implemented in the torso. As you can see, there's no waist joint, the figure has an upper body/chest that can rotate just slightly but can also be pushed forward and back on a sliding joint just slightly. The lower torso however is one solid chunk that's attached to the waist, providing no movement at all, and I think that's largely due to the sculpt of the figure, in particular that tail on the back. At the very least though I do appreciate that feather shoulders that sweep up to the left shoulder. They sculpt is just so on point that I tend to be able to forgive some of the other shortcomings. The arms however are harder to forgive. While the feather shoulders are gorgeous, they also limit what the arms can do in extreme ways, disallowing most any upward movement. The elbows & wrists are pretty standard though and they feature more great feather detailing and talons. Crow's left arm also features the Neo Amazons Register, which is her transformation device. It's the same model as the one featured on Amazon Neo, and it's a nice drop of color on this otherwise very dark figure.

Finally we come up to the head, which is simply beautiful. It's such an elegant design. The way the mouth plate is designed and shaped I just cannot help but see The Shredder from TMNT. But like, a bird you know? You know what I mean. The way the feathers fan out from the back of the head just makes her seem so regal. But possibly my favorite detail, is that Crow only has one eye. This detail has it's gruesome origin in the night Iyu was killed by her father. As he removed, and then consumed, her right eye. When she was turned into a Sigma Type (like Amazon Sigma before her) she was given a cybernetic eye for her human form. But her Crow Amazon form is forever scarred by the events of that fateful night. The gold paint on the left eye really pops and shines in the right light, and I love it.

Accessories
Unfortunately Crow comes with very very few accessories. A mere 2 sets of hands. Iyu didn't use any weapons, she didn't have a bike, or a driver. So there's nothing she really could have come with that's specific in that way. The hands are fine, though not particularly unique, but she very well could and should have come with some effect parts. Amazon blood parts like those that came with Mole Amazon would have been fantastic. Just something at all, would have been great frankly.

Final Thoughts
S.H. Figuarts Crow Amazon is a figure that was really excited to get. After Mole came out I was really hopeful that we'd eventually see more proper Amazons in the line and not just the riders. Season 2 Mole is another figure I'd really like to see at some point, so I hope that Crow has been well enough received to maybe make that happen down the road. While this figure undoubtedly has flaws, it's still a really and truly beautiful design that's quite different from any other Amazon figure that's been released so far. It's a great companion piece to your Amazon Neo, or in fact any Amazons in your collection.

Part 2

I didn't watch season 2 but was there anything they could have given like Mole's hamburger?

Gorgeous figure of the best character form Season 2. Is that a compliment?

Anyways, it's always fun getting monster figures from Amazons, you really start to appreciate the designs that much more once you can clearly see them without the filters and stuff.

Crow isn't such a surprise to me color-wise as mole was, but the details do pop a lot better here than they do on the screen.

Great looking figure. And so are your photos by the way, I’m seeing them on my new monitor for the first time and damn. I wish I could properly describe it, but it just looks amazing.

Good question. Maybe that one picture of her and Chihiro? Although it wasn't really in her possession and a photo would be hard to do in that scale. I mean they've done tiny prints before, but I don’t know if it could work.

But Crow isn't a character like Mole was. She's basically a braindead zombie for most of the show.

Not a big fan of this design up close, although I was neutral towards it while watching the show.

I was a big fan of Iyu, the Crow form and the fighting style, so I'm pretty happy to see it get a figure release.

Accessory wise, there's really not anything they could have done here. Everything you could have as an accessory for the Iyu character would be when she was in human form.

The amazons had such great designs, the figure looks fantastic.

Very cool design. Translated really well to figure.

It's a great design, shame it kind of got in the way of articulation.

Could have included the syringe used to 'feed' her maybe? There's nothing super obvious accessory-wise. Maybe a loose register to recreate the final scene?

*scrolls rapidly*

I've been promising myself for a couple of years that I'd get around to continuing Kamen Rider Amazons. I can even watch legal subs, now! I never finished the first season, and the Golden Age of TV has made prioritizing it difficult. People seem to love the show, and Kamen Rider City Wars keeps trying to get me to pay attention to Amazons Riders.

At least I can enjoy the gallery. The mold is impressive, although I have to wonder how good the black-on-black color scheme would look on a shelf without the terrific lighting in these shots.