Kamen Rider Gai

I admit I know next to nothing about the Kamen Rider series. I’ve never watched them, and can barely tell one rider from the other. What I do know about is Chogokin, and as these toys are labeled as such, it was my obligation to check them out.

The Souchaku Henshin Kamen Rider Gai (装着変身 仮面ライダーガイ) comes from the series Kamen Rider Ryuki, which aired from 2002-2003. The toy is part of both the Chogokin line and the Souchaku Henshin line. It is also known as Masked Rider Gai . Gai means "Rhinoceros" in Japanese.

Shouchaku Henshin literally means “Armor Transform”, and applies to most of the recent Kamen Rider and Metal Hero figures. The figure consists of an articulated basic body with snap on metal armor.

Without the armor, the figure is very plain. Most notable is the “pinhead” appearance of the head. The head has to be small to fit the helmet around it, but it just looks terrible like this.

Once the armor is on, the figure looks great. The armor is solid and holds tight. You can still pose it pretty well, but a small amount of articulation is lost.

Kamen Rider Gai comes with 1 weapon – Metal Horn. The right hand turns into a gauntlet with a horn on it.

Metal Horn

The packaging has some great Engrish on it: “You can attach various figures like weapons, armor and options!”

These toys came out in Japan, but were actually distributed in the United States by Diamond Comics Distributors.