11FIGURES
2MAKERS
1997EARLIEST
2024LATEST
THE LEGEND
Takeshi Hongo was a gifted college student and a motorcycle racer, which is exactly why Shocker wanted him. The secret organisation kidnapped him and rebuilt him as a cyborg modelled on a grasshopper, with strength and leaping power no human could match. Its final step was meant to wipe his mind and make him a weapon. Hongo escaped just before the brainwashing, with his conscience intact.
From then on he turned everything Shocker had given him against it. Masked, belted and riding his Cyclone motorcycle, he fought the organisation's monstrous cyborgs one by one, the first man to carry the name Kamen Rider. He did not stay alone for long. He rescued the photographer Hayato Ichimonji from Shocker's brainwashing, and Ichimonji took up the fight as Kamen Rider No. 2. Between them they saw Shocker destroyed and its successor, Gel-Shocker, defeated with its leader. Peace was restored, or so it seemed.
OFF THE PAGE
Kamen Rider was created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori and premiered on 3 April 1971, produced by Toei and Mainichi Broadcasting System. It ran for 98 episodes until February 1973, with a weekly manga alongside it. Hiroshi Fujioka starred as Takeshi Hongo.
Fujioka was injured early in filming, and for some episodes Hongo was voiced by other actors, Rokuro Naya and later Osamu Ichikawa. The Rider fought Shocker, a terrorist organisation that kidnapped people and turned them into cyborgs. The series also introduced a second hero, the photographer Hayato Ichimonji, as Kamen Rider No. 2, and the idea of more than one Rider has been part of the franchise ever since.
Every Kamen Rider since, across the Showa, Heisei and Reiwa eras, traces back to this grasshopper mask. Hideaki Anno's Shin Kamen Rider (2023), made for the franchise's fiftieth anniversary, went back to Hongo again, with Sosuke Ikematsu in the role.
IN SIXTH SCALE
Kamen Rider 1 is the founding figure of Japanese sixth scale, and Medicom Toy is the maker most closely tied to him. Medicom's Real Action Heroes line has been its flagship since 1996, and the first Rider has been part of it from the early years, revised again and again as the company's sculpting and tailoring improved. Collectors follow the versions closely. Medicom calls the look from the first episode "Old No. 1": its Version 3.0 arrived in 2008, and Version 3.5 in 2009 came in a set with a weathered Cyclone motorcycle. For Shin Kamen Rider, Medicom built the Rider on its RAH301 body with a synthetic leather suit, a fabric coat and scarf, and a belt with its windmill at the centre, with a rideable Cyclone sold separately.
ThreeZero has added its own take on the Rider as well, alongside its Shin Masked Rider figures.
Collectors judge an original Rider by the mask, the colour of the suit for the episode it represents, and how the scarf hangs. Many display him with Kamen Rider No. 2 and a line of Shocker foot soldiers.
RELEASES BY YEAR
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19972024
BY MANUFACTURER
Medicom Toy
10
ThreeZero
1
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