S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Zero-One Rising Hopper Gallery

"Jump!"

In a world where the life of the average human has been made easier by robotic helpers called Humagears, Hiden Intelligence is at the forefront of technological advancement. But with the passing of their founder, Korenosuke Hiden, the duties & responsibilities of president have passed on to his grandson, Aruto. Authorized to use the Progrise Keys & Zero-One Driver, this young man will fight to build a world where Humans & Humagers can coexist and smile together, as Kamen Rider Zero-One!

"A jump to the sky turns to a rider kick."

Packaging
While it's hard to say that there have been any real innovations in Kamen Rider Figuart packaging in recent years physically, Zero-One's box does do something that's cosmetically pretty awesome. Emulating a feature present on the actual figure, the packaging features some black light reactive stripes that really glow brightly. It's a small touch but it ties in brilliantly with the actual figure. The box design itself is very reminiscent of Zero-One's own Rising Impact attack. And I always welcome the annual change in rider box designs, and this is no different. I'm super into it, and the blacklight lines are just an added bonus.

Main Figure
It's time once again to kick off a new line of Kamen Rider S.H. Figuarts! The Reiwa Era and the era of Zero-One himself have begun, and I must say that both are off to a stellar start. In terms of the television series, Zero-One has been a superb watch so far. While the show has been on a bit of a hiatus because of recent world events, I have to say I've been incredibly pleased watching it up to this point. I came onto this series a bit late, letting a backlog of episodes build up so I could marathon them later. If you haven't watched Zero-One yet I sincerely recommend it for it's optimistic view of the future and earnest protagonist as well as it's more than a little quirky and endearing villains.

As for the figuart, I'm gonna start off by saying I give it my seal of approval as well. As with any new sub-line of rider figuarts, there's a certain level of expectation I have and depending on whether those expectations are met, it often frames how I'll feel about that series line of figures for years to come. Last year with Kamen Rider Zi-O I felt that while the figure was solid, it came up a bit short of what I would have liked, and the flaws of the mold carried through the rest of the line as well, dulling my impression of them subsequently. What Zero-One manages to do, is feel (from a sculpt perspective at the very least) like a Shinkocchou Seihou that's been tucked into the main series line. The entire sculpt rigorously recreates every detail of the actual suit as it appears in series. While I'm often floored by how good Kamen Rider figures can look at this scale and price point, Zero-One sets a new standard for his era.

Zero-One's body is decked out in minute details. From the ground up it's a splendid recreation of the show costume. Starting with the feet, Zero-One has shoes that look an awful lot like actual sporty sneakers and function much the same, leaving the ankles from to fully rotate and angle pretty freely back and forth. While toe bends can be easily overlooked, in Zero-One's case it's a big solid joint with plenty of surface coverage for support. For the legs we get a magnificent backward bend in the knees giving us the ability to nearly lay the legs back parallel on itself. I really want to give a shout out to the textured details on the black parts of the legs, which also carry over to the waist upper body and arms. This detail is something that say in the early days of figuarts could have easily been overlooked and just done as glossy black plastic. And I adore that the knee joints and thigh swivels carry the detail over inside the joints making them appear seamless when posing. The thighs and hips themselves are also fantastically designed. While the hips are of the drop down variety, a kind I don't always like, these really are fantastic and and leave plenty of leeway for posing particularly with that thick raised thigh armor.

Around the waist is the eponymous Hiden Zero-One Driver! About as functional as driver's of recent years, the Zero-One Driver is molded into the open position, ready to accept an open Progrise Key. On the right side of the driver is the Rise Slot where we get the Rising Hopper Progrise Key and it is removable, though it can't be folded shut. It's a bit sparsely detailed but what is present is quite nice. The middle of the driver has a small window within the reactor center that shows the Progrise Key currently inserted, another nice detail. Both the left & right hips feature Progrise Holders, which may seem a bit odd given that so far we don't actually have any closed Progrise Keys in the line to use with them. I'm almost certain we'll see some included with future releases.

The upper body is another wonderful design. We get a complete 360 degree rotating waist joint, a floating upper body that can lean about 45 degrees to either side, and lots of room to arch the back though forward bends are slightly limited. Zero-One also features some stellar arms. Despite the low rounded shoulder pads, we get plenty of play in this joint thanks to the slide mechanism underneath. You can take advantage of it to angle the armor up over the main body and stretch the arms outward. There's a full 360 rotating bicep swivel, double jointed elbows and a great set of wrist ball joints. The arms may not do anything particularly new, but what they do accomplish makes them incredibly solid.

This finally brings us to Zero-One's head. Not only is the sculpt dead on, but dare I say it, it's one of the best articulated rider SHF heads I've ever seen. The neck (itself ball jointed) is set into the chest between the silver clavicle parts. While this piece may not have full movement side to side, it can move, more importantly it can angle forward and back very well. The best part of this design is the that head itself is on another ball joint that sits a bit higher up over the neck allowing the head an almost unnatural range of movement. It's really magnificent.

Of special note beyond the fantastic sculpt if the figure and the execution of the articulation, is the special bit that it shares with packaging. And that's the black light reactive parts of the costume, the yellow/green armor components. While plastic that reacts to black lights is nothing new, it's fantastic that Tamashii went the distance with Zero-One replicating his look from the opening and episode intros. Had they been able to do this with the compound eyes as well it would have been utter perfection. But as is, I'm in love with how this figure looks under a black light. You may not get a ton of use out of this special feature, but I really do love it.

Accessories
Zero-One is a fairly barely bones release, which is not necessarily a bad thing. As has been the tradition the last few years with main rider releases, this figure is limited to including spare hands. While Zero-One's primary weapon, the Attache Calibur, is included with another release (Kamen Rider Vulcan). But that's not to say that Zero-One doesn't come with a lot, 3.5 sets of hands to be exact. This gives you a wealth of options to replicate Aruto's signature poses. I know the trend of including signature weapons with later releases has soured some collectors, but I think it's a pretty smart strategy. Especially given that I'm usually down to buy an entire line of figures anyways. I did take a few pics of Zero-One with Zi-O while using the Attache Calibur that comes with Vulcan. So don't be confused, the Calibur definitely comes with Vulcan and not Zero-One.

Final Thoughts
Setting a new standard for the Reiwa Era, Kamen Rider Zero-One really is an excellent release. With only a few minor shortcomings, this figure arrives as one of the best initial releases for a new rider's series in recent memory. I'm really excited for what this line will do with each successive release based on how phenomenal this one is. I already have Kamen Rider Vulcan in hand and I can't wait to crack him open for a review next!

Part 2

I'm just gonna claim that Vulcan stole his weapon.

Anyways, magnificent use of the Breaking Mammoth.

One of my favorite figures of 2020 so far! (Then again, the other figures haven't arrived yet...)

Tho, it's kinda a shame he can't crunch his torso farther than ZI-O could.

I live for stuff like that picture of the 3 riders that began each generation.

At least the weapon this time came with another Rider you're likely to want anyway and not a bike that he has used... twice? At most. But I've found myself not really wanting to use it much anyway. The nice little package you get with just Aruto has been plenty fun alone. And I seriously love all that black undersuit detailing.

It's a fantastic figure, both in detailed sculpt and in articulation. I love the new style of hips they're using, I hated the hips on Ghost through Zi-O. These new ones are almost Shinkocchou Seihou like

The glow in the dark paint is what surprised me the most. Can't wait until my copy arrives

What's nice is that its the plastic itself that is actually UV reactive, not a paint application. So even if it scratches, it will still shine on!

Vulcan is even better than Zero-One IMO. It's a really well done figure. This line looks amazing so far, if the Metsubojinrai Riders are on this level then these really are the best mainline figures they have ever done.