Sabaki gets no love

It's Friday, I'm tired after a long week, and planning an update to the main site tomorrow, so not much to say tonight, other than an addendum to a recent post: Apparently, the Sôchaku-Henshin Kamen Rider BLACK RX & the Battle Hopper/Acrobatter Set are both just starting to come out in Japan. Check out some pics, courtesy of the often NSFW cow-spot.net! I have to say, the coloring on RX is a little...um, not what I was expecting, but he looks okay. The bikes though, man- I can't wait to set up BLACK on the Battle Hopper!

That's it for now. Enjoy this pic of Kamen Rider Sabaki (from Hibiki) after doing what he does best: getting his butt completely kicked.

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.

Kingstone Flash!

Of the many "What happened to this actor?" or "What's this actress been doing recently?"-type questions I get, one of the most common seems to be "What's Kurata Tetsuo been up to?" In fact, it was even asked in one of the original comments on this very blog, prior to getting eaten up by Mirror Monsters/accidentally getting junked along with the original first entry- down kids, I'm still getting used to this thing!

So what exactly did happen to our man Minami Kôtarô? As far as I know, Kurata doesn't have an official web site yet, unlike, say, Fujioka Hiroshi, but he does have, at the least, the following:

His Official Fanclub (Japanese)

His Wiki Entry (English, also see the Japanese one which is a little more up-to-date)

His page on the Kamen Rider Actor/Actress Directory (a fantastic site, albeit, also in Japanese)

That's great and all you say, but what has he actually been up to? And more importantly, what has he been up to Kamen Rider-wise, and will he ever be coming back to say, guest star or some such?

Like many former Rider alumni, Kurata has gone on to have a reasonably successful career in television, film, and the like, and in more recent years has returned to his Rider roots, including voicing Minami Kôtarô/Kamen Rider BLACK in the Kamen Rider: Genealogy of Justice PS2 game (something you will see me bring up and rave about A LOT in the future, so brace yourselves), giving magazine interviews, and making public appearances, such as at the World Character Convention in Tokyo back on 12/4/2005, to sign autographs.

Some of his more recent activities, archived on Youtube:

A 2006 interview (in three parts):

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

5-part Cook-off battle with Tsubaki Takayuki, aka Kamen Rider Blade!:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

So what's next? More interviews? A guest spot on the new Kamen Rider series? Another video game voiceover? Will Kurata challenge other former Riders to culinary battles (Tsugami, Tendô- watch your backs), or something even greater? With Kamen Rider BLACK hitting the big 20 next year, hopefully we'll be finding out soon!

Merchandise Update #1

Still reeling from no new Kamen Rider Kabuto episode this past weekend? Can't really help you there, I'm afraid. I can however, talk about a lot of the recent and upcoming Rider stuff to keep you up to speed.

DVD News: (All dates tentative)

-Kamen Rider Kabuto GOD SPEED LOVE is slated to come out on official DVD on 1/21/2007. There will be two versions, the standard 1-disc edition, as well as a 2-disc "Collector's pack" version for quite a bit more. Of course, you're gonna get more. Expect to see the movie out there for download and getting bootlegged soon after.

-Kamen Rider Kabuto Volume #4 comes out 11/21 (Episodes #13~16)

-Kamen Rider Kabuto Volume #5 comes out 12/8 (Episodes #17~20)

-Kamen Rider Kabuto Volume #6 comes out 1/21 (Episodes #21~24)

-Kamen Rider Kabuto Volume #7 comes out 2/21 (Episodes #25~28)

-Kamen Rider Kabuto Volume #8 comes out 3/21 (Episodes #29~32)

Music News:

-The LORD OF THE SPEED single just came out a few days back, chances are you probably have it in one form or another.

Toy News:

-For reasons I'm still trying to figure out, all the Sôchaku-Henshin Kamen Rider BLACK & BLACK RX-related toys got pushed back a month, which means RX & the Battle Hopper/Acrobatter combo (two bike coverings with an interchangeable frame) are slated for later this month, and the big S to the H to the...okay, Shadow Moon, is coming out in December. Our main man Kamen Rider BLACK just came out at the end of last month, along with Kamen Rider Kabuto Hyper Form. The latter sports a number of neat accessories, including an extra hand for a little pointing towards the sky (or at anything you wish) action. The last set of Mirror Monsters from Kamen Rider Ryuki is also on the way in December, and will see the first ever plastic incarnation of Kamen Rider Femme's lucky ducky (or swan, rather) Blanwing!

-If you collect the C.O.R. (Cast-Off Rider) series, a bigger version of Hyper Kabuto is out now, along with the Kick Hopper & Punch Hopper 2-pack, who don't Cast-Off (ironically), but they do have some pretty neat features. Check out the pics on Hobby Links Japan for more.

-Standard Vinyl versions of all the above are out as well.

-"Soul of Vinyl" keeps them coming with Kamen Rider 1 (Sakurajima Version) and Kamen Rider Knight, both due out this month, and Kamen Rider Stronger as well as his buddy Tackle, both scheduled for a late February 2007 release. Check out this prototype pic of the latter:

-In SIC news, Kamen Rider Blade's on the way next month, followed by a Garren/Chalice 2-pack in February and a Leangle/Blade Jack Form 2-pack in March. For those of you wondering, regular Blade is supposed to include the parts to be able to upgrade to King Form.

-If you like Rider Kaijin, chances are you've been loving the Art Works Monsters series. There's a whole bunch of them on the way soon, which I'll go into further detail about soon, but right now, you just need to know this:

Following this month's releases of Snake Orphenoch & Crocodile Orphenoch (look who comes with him!), December will see the first ever Grongi added to the line (N Daguba Zeba and Go Badaa Ba), followed by another helping of the Undead in January (Tarantula Undead and- it's about @#$%in' time- Caucasus Beetle Undead) and finally, February will bring us two more of those loveable Orphenochs, Wolf Orphenoch and the king himself, Arc Orphenoch! Obviously, I'm most excited about finally seeing the Undead get some much deserved merchandise, but really, all of them look great. Plus Mr. J is finally getting his due.

That's it for now, and I haven't even gotten into Gashapon, books, or any of the stuff that I've actually gotten ahold of yet! Well, that'll be for later. (^_~)

A New Hero, A New Legend ~Take 2~

Edit: Ummm...oops. It seems I accidentally deleted the first post, and the accompanying comments. (>_<) Well, here's what it basically entailed: Welcome to "Igadevil's Kamen Rider Blog", an add-on to the main site (http://www.igadevil.com/) that serves as a way to compact some of the existing pages (such as News, Review Corner, Rider Break, and basically all the other ones that never get updated) into one easy-to-manage format! Well, easy for me anyway. Hopefully easy for you too.

I'd like to keep comments open on this blog so I can hear your thoughts and ideas, but I ask that you please keep comments on the subject of what's posted (i.e, random questions "when-are-you-gonna-do-a-page-on-this" pleas, pic requests, and secret Destron plans should be e-mailed to me at webmaster@igadevil.com instead.) Comments may take some time to appear after you send them, but don't fret, they'll show up...unless I desire them not to. [shocker]Hahaha![/shocker] Thanks!

(To the people who had already commented, thanks, and sorry that your posts just went bye-bye. In the future, please follow the above request to keep things simple around here. In regards to the question about a possible fanart section...stay tuned!)

That's all for now. Take it away, Cobra: