To be honest, I bought this figure because it was an S.H. Figuarts and not much more. I had this idea at one time about having Rider 1, Rider 2, and Rider 3 on my shelves honoring the amount of times I saw these figures in Hobby Japan growing up. I bought Kamen Rider Fourze since I thought figure looked great, fun, almost Micronaut-ish, and the same holds for Kamen Rider v3.
That, and he’s the closest thing to looking like Marvel’s Bug from the Microverse and would look cool standing with the ThreeA Micronauts or an eventual Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy.
Before I get too deep into the review, let me be direct, this is The Scream Man’s territory; I am not a huge fan of Tokosatsu the way he is, and if you listen to the Fwooshcast, then you know that most of the episodes are dedicated to Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, or Power Rangers, and, yes, I know.
But in brief, Kamen Rider is this really long-running Japanese superhero TV show. There have been so many different Kamen Riders through the decades that it is nearly impossible to keep track without the help of some kind of encyclopedia. What I do know is that this was the 3rd Kamen Rider in the second TV series and is, like ,from, the early ’70s — ’74? And, yes, I eagerly await for the Fwooshcast listeners to belittle me for not knowing this fact. Well, your mother wears army boots! Nya!
This is another fun-filled S. H. Figuarts figure, almost. It has your standard articulation: toes, swivel feet, jointed ankles, swivel calves, double knees, swivel thighs, ball hips, jointed crotch, ball waist, ball abs, double ball shoulders, bicep swivels, double elbows, swivel forearm, jointed wrist, swivel hands, ball neck, and ball head. The hands are removable and can be switched with other hands.
I love the sculpt, or, better, the costume: the red boots, green outfit, white standup collar, and the scarves hanging off his back. Simply fantastic. The white gloves are great too, they just scream to bad guys, “Hey, I have white gloves and there is no way I am soiling them on your dirty bad-guy mug!” Or something like. And the head sculpt? Fantastic. Really well done.
As with most of the S. H. Figuarts figures, the paints are really simple with no complicated shading or drybrushing. I wish this figure had more as it would really pop from a solid paint job with layers, drybrushing, and washes.
As mentioned previously, there are a number of accessories: hands, a control rod (Fwooshcast will comment on what it does), and some special effects that can be used for cool action poses. The hands can be switched, but there is always that fear that they will snap off. Be careful.
This is another fun figure to play with and pose. Even if you don’t know the series, you cannot go wrong with a big bug-eyed superhero. v3 is still available on Fwoosh sponsor BigBadToyStore, or head over to Amazon.com and pick him today.
As always, you can discuss this further on the fwoosh forums. https://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=85351
