Hard C.O.R.E.

At some point, I plan on talking about the recently-released Kamen Rider High Grade Gashapon Part 37. That is, when I get a box or two of them from HLJ. In the mean time, let's get talk about the next set, because it's gonna be a big one.

I think I'd say the HG series is my favorite Kamen Rider toyline going, mainly because 1) they're small & cheap, yet still high-quality and dynamic, 2) it cover Kamen Rider characters all the way from the original series up to the newest Rider and everything in between, plus 3) Shocker! Seriously, the last time we had this many Shocker Kaijin figures being produced was like, back when the original Kamen Rider was first on. And for being much larger, they didn't look half as good as the little guys in Gashapon machines all over Japan today do.

Not even counting all the great spin-off & add-on sets (Action Pose, Rider Machine Chronicle, Ultimate Solid, etc.) the standard HG Kamen Rider line has been going strong for close to 40 sets now, and it's about to get a big shot in the arm next year. As you can imagine, it doesn't take much to get me excited whenever a new Kamen Rider HG set is announced, but the latest promotional ad from Bandai made me even more ecstatic than usual.

Behold, dear readers: H.G.C.O.R.E. Kamen Rider!

High Grade Collectionfigure Of Real Entertainment! No, the acronym doesn't make any sense to me either, but check this out. They've raised the bar more than usual with a number of novel new concepts, including the addition of clear parts for the Rider's helmets, so their eyes will now look as good as every other larger-scale Rider figure that's been using the clear-parts-for-the-heads idea (Ultimate Solid, Soul of Vinyal and many more) as well as the first ever use of interchangeable parts between two figures. Here's how it breaks down:

-Kamen Rider 1 (New) there can switch gloves with the long-awaited Gelshocker Combatant, meaning you can make the yellow glove & boot-wearing Shocker Riders! Wait a sec, isn't something missing? Fortunately, Bandai's one step ahead, and with every Gelshocker Combatant comes with two extra scarves (and there's 3 different sets, in order to get all 6 Shocker Rider scarves.) So in other words, if you get 3 Gelshocker combatants with different scarf combinations and a bunch of Rider 1's, you should essentially be able to make at least any 3 of the Shocker Riders, and if you get 6 Gelshocker Combatants, you should be able to make the whole crew. And if you don't get a ton of Gelshocker Combatants or Rider 1's (which usually seems to be the case unless you have a lot of extra 100 Yen coins in your pocket) well, you can still have Rider 1 and a Gelshocker Combatant or two.

-Mimizu-Otoko there continues the Shocker Kaijin parade, even though they've technically been skipping around a bit the last few sets (loooong story that I'll talk about some day.) But whatever, it's Mimizu-Otoko! But wait...

-Oh yes. Following up Part 37's Cobra and Rider Kickin' Kamen Rider 1 (from Kamen Rider THE FIRST) figures, we now get Snake and Rider 2. As a bonus, everybody who got those figures can remove Cobra's um, snakey-tail and give it to Snake to use as a whip, as she did in the movie, plus you can now have both of the Double Riders doing what they do best. Hopefully, a Bat figure won't be too far behind.

-KA-GAA-MI, er, I mean Kamen Rider Gatack, not content with merely an Action Pose figure, also gets in on the action, and will even sport interchangeable hands so you can have him posed with or without the Gatack Calibers, aka those things that convert into the Hedge Clippers of Doom.

-Lastly, rounding off the set is the requsite "Gallery Series" figure, which up until now has been a Rider in a neutral pose on a base. But what's this? Looks like H.G.C.O.R.E. will bring us the second HG incarnation of Doctor Shinigami. Since he's still a shadow, I'm guessing there might be something extra special about this figure. Will he be semi-clear, some sort of "Hologram Shinigami" to reproduce his appearance in Kamen Rider THE FIRST? Stay tuned!

H.G.C.O.R.E. is slated for a late January release, and I'm already preordering a couple boxes because hey- I want to actually try and amass a Gelshocker Combatant/Shocker Rider army. Ultra fans take note, the Ultraman HG series will get its own C.O.R.E. set in February. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more C.O.R.E. action all throughout 2007.