10FIGURES
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THE LEGEND
He was built to be a weapon. SHOCKER, a secret organisation that turns people into augmented animal hybrids, took a young motorcyclist and remade him as its grasshopper augment, with a mask, a belt with a windmill at its heart and power far beyond any human. Like the others, he was meant to be brainwashed into obedience. He escaped first, with help from a former SHOCKER insider named Ruriko Midorikawa, and turned that power against the people who made it.
That is the shape of the legend every time it is told: a man changed against his will into something monstrous, who chooses to use it to protect people instead. He rides alone at first, masked and scarfed, taking on augments one at a time. Then a second grasshopper augment, Hayato Ichimonji, joins him, and the name stops belonging to one man. Kamen Rider becomes a title, handed on to whoever puts on a mask and rides out to fight.
OFF THE PAGE
Kamen Rider began on Japanese television on 3 April 1971, created by Shotaro Ishinomori and produced by Toei, and grew into one of the country's longest-running hero franchises. New Riders arrived through the Showa, Heisei and Reiwa eras, each with a new mask, belt and motorcycle, but all descended from the original grasshopper hero.
For the franchise's fiftieth anniversary, Hideaki Anno wrote and directed Shin Kamen Rider. It was announced on 3 April 2021, fifty years to the day after the first episode, and released in Japan in March 2023. Sosuke Ikematsu played Takeshi Hongo, a motorcyclist turned into SHOCKER's Grasshopper Augment. The film went back to the 1971 show's look and themes with a modern edge, and became the highest-grossing Kamen Rider film.
Shin Kamen Rider also gave sixth scale makers a fresh, darker Rider to work from, with long coat, scarf and weathered suit, which is why so many twelve-inch versions of the hero date from its release.
IN SIXTH SCALE
The Rider has a long sixth scale history at Medicom Toy, whose Real Action Heroes line has covered riders from every era; the original hero has its own page as Kamen Rider 1. The release of Shin Kamen Rider brought a new wave of makers.
ThreeZero made the film's Rider in its FigZero line, with an LED-lit helmet, posable fabric coat and scarf with wire in the edges, and swappable boots. It followed with the Phase Variation Batta Augment, the masked augment form, armed with a submachine gun and pistol. Premium Toys and VTS Toys also produced their own Shin Kamen Rider figures.
Hot Toys has revealed Kamen Rider W in its CycloneJoker form, with a new helmet sculpt, LED eyes with several lighting modes and two scarves, one sculpted and one in wired fabric.
Collectors judge a Rider by the mask and the eyes first, then the scarf and coat, which need to hang naturally and hold a windswept pose. Many build the shelf around a Rider and his motorcycle, with the wider Kamen Rider range around them.
RELEASES BY YEAR
7
2
1
20232027
BY MANUFACTURER
ThreeZero
6
Premium Toys
2
Hot Toys
1
VTS Toys
1
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