Masked Rider 2
Masked Rider 2 appears thanks to Bluefin Tamashii Nations!
Kamen Rider is the creation of Shotaro Ishinomori. The show featured the actor Hiroshi Fujioka as the original Kamen Rider. In this action-packed program, Fujioka would even do his own stunts. That turned out to be a less than great idea because Fujioka hurt himself during the filming of a motorcycle stunt. So the producers of the show were forced to replace Kamen Rider 1 (Ichigo) with Kamen Rider 2 (Nigo). The numbering of these two Kamen Riders didn’t become official until later in the show’s run, when the two Kamen Riders joined forces to kick some Shocker butt.
If you couldn’t figure it out by the introduction or the link you probably clicked on to get to this review, today we are going to check out the SIC version of one of the original Kamen Riders: Kamen Rider 2 (who will from here on be referred to as Nigo).
The motif of both original Riders is that of a grasshopper. Rumor has it that the grasshopper theme was chosen by Ishinomori’s son. The SIC line, however, strays away from the simple designs that would appeal to children and opts to give the Kamen Rider characters a stylized look that would probably give most kids nightmares.
The SIC version takes the Nigo design and puts it on demonic steroids.
The SIC treatment of the character has a more defined physique outlined by a healthy amount of panel lining. SIC Nigo looks like he would be more at home as Another Agito’s long-lost cousin than as the 70s Kamen Rider character that many grew up with. I have always found tokustatsu suits from the 70s to be charmingly comical. However, I would not dare laugh at the SIC Nigo for fear that he would rip out my heart and make me watch the last beats of said organ.
The SIC Nigo’ body is very well sculpted and detailed from head to toe. In honor of the massive amount of pics that GhotsXIII’s lovingly puts into his SIC reviews, here is my SIC porn for you guys and gals.
The belt looks great and the paint applications really make the straps look like they are made of leather!
Since this is a Super Imaginative Chogokin figure, it has to include at least a shred of Gokin in the toy in order to earn that name. This figure does just that. Only the shin guards are made of metal. Although the rest of the toy may be made of plastic, it is still a high quality toy.
Onto more SIC porn… for those who have a foot fetish.
Articulation for Nigo is really good. He has ball joints galore! Even the scarf is on a ball swivel.
The knees and elbows are double jointed.
He can take a pretty darn good knee!
He can sit down and relax after a hard day of defeating Shocker villains.
Somebody has been doing some yoga!
The torso even twists around a full 360 degrees.
Guess he has been practicing some pretty extreme yoga.
The shoulder pads move up to free up the arms.
Furthermore, the pectorals are actually a separate panel from the rest of the torso. The pecs are on a ball joint, so they can move out of the way of the arms for the Henshin poses.
Let’s talk about the extras.
Nigo comes with a Rider Punch effect part.
As wells as a Rider Kick effect part.
He also comes with a second head with a screaming expression.
He also comes with four sets of hands. I found myself only using the fists and the flat hands (there are two sets of those). Not pictured in any of the photos are the hands for holding things. He really has nothing to hold, so I saw no reason to take them out of the package. I would have much rather had a pair of rage hands for this figure to go with the screaming head.
The reason being is that only the fists work with the screaming head. The flat hands just do not convey the right emotion with that second head. Feel free to add your on caption.
Nigo also comes with a second belt buckle to represent the belt before he goes through the henshin (transformation) sequence. It is a bit odd to have the transformed Nigo wearing something that would only appear when he is not transformed. But I guess the second belt buckle was included so that you can replicate his henshin sequence.
HENSHIN!
Quick bit of trivia, Nigo was the first Kamen Rider to have a Henshin pose for his transformation.
Another extra included is a defeated wolf monster torso and a base to display it on.
That way you can display Nigo triumphing over his defeated foe.
The base also has a hole in it, so that you can attach a Tamashii Stage arm to hold up your figure. However, Nigo stands up well enough on his own, so odds are you probably won’t need to prop him up using the display arm.
Furthermore, it is hard to get Nigo into a good pose only using only one display stand. His thick midsection makes it hard for the clips on the arm to get a good grip of the toy.
Rider Soccer Sweep!
I ended up using two stands for this one.
All in all this is a great figure. It also appears to stand up well to other figures in the SIC line. I have to assume because this is actually my first SIC toy. I would highly recommend this figure to anybody looking for a darker and highly articulated version of the second Rider in the long history of bug-men-who-love-motorcycles known as the Kamen Rider franchise.
Masked Rider 2 appears thanks to Bluefin Tamashii Nations!