Kamen Rider Knight
Kamen Rider Knight is one of the protagonists of Kamen Rider Ryuki. At the beginning of the show, Ren Akiyama has already made a contract with Darkwing in order to become Kamen Rider Knight. He starts off as a hard-ass that is only interested in winning the Rider War, which pits all of the Kamen Riders against each other in a “survival of the fittest” contest. Ren (Knight) even goes so far as to attack the newbie in the Kamen Rider War, Shinji (Ryuki).
Although his tactics seem ruthless, it is later revealed that his drive to win the Rider War is because he believes that winning will help his fiancé recover from a coma that was induced by one of the monsters that the Riders make a Contract with.
The Kamen Rider Knight and Darkwing combo come packaged in a plus-sized S.H. Figuarts box similar to the one used for Kamen Rider Ryuki and Dragreder.
Kamen Rider Knight’s look is part medieval knight, part bat, and part Kamen Rider.
If you look close enough, you can see Knight’s blue eyes underneath the grill of his mask.
Knight has the articulation you would expect from an S.H. Figuarts release.
Knight comes with a good amount of hands.
As with the Ryuki release, Knight comes with his Advent Cards.
Knight’s cards are: Attack Vent, Trick Vent, Final Vent, Nasty Vent, Sword Vent, and Guard Vent.
Kamen Rider Knight comes with a nicely detailed sword that doubles as his card inputting device.
His Advent Deck, which attaches to his belt during the henshin sequence, can actually be removed.
This is not exclusive to Knight, as Ryuki’s Advent Deck can also be removed. With Ryuki, however, I had assumed that it was molded with the belt. You know what they say about making assumptions, “When you assume, you… miss out on some cool details that Bandai puts into their figures”… or something like that.
Knight also comes with his sweet sword/lance.
With the amount of detail that Bandai put into Knight’s companion, it obvious that the release is truly Kamen Rider Knight AND Darkwing, not just Kamen Rider Knight… and Darkwing. Darkwing is a great toy by itself. The Darkwing bat form is really nice to fiddle with thanks to his 20 points of articulation.
As Kamen Rider Knight’s Contract Monster, Darkwing serves as the armament for Kamen Rider Knight. His tail becomes the lance/sword.
Darkwing also serves a few other functions. The bat form of Darkwing can attach to the back of Knight to serves as wings (though I don’t remember if he actually used them to fly in the show).
In the show, whenever Knight uses his Guard Vent card, Darkwing wraps his wings around him to protect him. The toy can also recreate this defensive move.
The torso of Darkwing can removed and attached to the other two bodies that are provided.
One of the bodies serves as the cape for Kamen Rider Knight.
The side pieces of the cape are attached to the main piece with ball joints, giving the cape extra mobility.
The other body is composed of four plastic pieces that snap together to form the spiral finishing move of Knight’s Final Vent.
I am really digging the whole connector system that the Ryuki line has going. It seems that all of the silver nubs can be removed to allow for items to be attached to the figure. Each figure in the line has its own set of attachments and may not use all of the connectors. Kamen Rider Knight makes use of the left side waist connector to attach a holster for his sword.
There are two silver nubs on the back of Knight that pop off and attach to the front of Darkwing with the help of a special connector.
This connector piece also has a hole so you can attach the display stand that is included.
Trust me, you are going to need the display stand because putting Darkwing on the back of Knight will cause both of them to fall backwards.
The Kamen Rider Knight and Darkwing combo is another great S.H. Figuarts release. In terms of value, I challenge you to find another S.H. Figuarts figure (other than Ryuki) that comes with essentially two toys in one package and so many great extras. Bandai really won me over with this set. I was not expecting it to be as cool as the Ryuki set, but the amount of content blew me away. That being said, it seems Bandai will not continue the trend of releasing the Kamen Rider and their Contract Monster with the future Kamen Rider Ryuki releases; the next couple of releases in the line only include the Kamen Rider and their arsenal.
You almost had me hooked into buying the whole line, Bandai! Too bad you didn’t follow the standard you set with the first two releases in what could have been a superb line. I may pick up one or two more of the Kamen Rider Ryuki S.H.Figuarts , but I doubt I will get the whole cast.