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Summary of Zi-O SG Watcher: Vol.1

Published on August 23, 2018

Bandai’s candy toy blog posted its first entry for Kamen Rider Zi-O, revealing the plan for their SO-DO action figure line.

The SO-DO action figure line has seen an evolution in engineering over the last few years that it has existed, and in particular has received much attention from their candy toy blog. As of Kamen Rider Zi-O, the Rider segment for their blog is called SG Zi-O Watcher. The man in charge of developing the candy toys goes by D, and for this particular series, has decided to call himself Di-O in honor of Kamen Rider Zi-O.

Di-O promises to inform fans about the latest candy toy information for the SO-DO action figures, SG Sound RideWatch Series, Zi-O Arms role-play model kits, SofV Hero vinyl figures, and Buttobasoul Medals.

Di-O reveals the first figure in the SO-DO line, Kamen Rider Zi-O. He comments on how the helmet’s use of “Kamen” and “Rider” katakana make Zi-O a very genuine Kamen Rider, and that he was surprised when he first saw it, describing Zi-O as “a pretty bold design”.

Much like the releases for Ex-Aid and part of Build, Zi-O‘s SO-DO line will split the figures into two separate boxes: The Cross Armor Set and the Action Body Set. This means that you will need both releases to form a full figure.

Commenting on the accuracy of previous releases, Di-O explains that Zi-O will be making use of more stickers on small parts, particularly on the Ziku-Driver, the belt parts, and the back of his hands. The decision was made to use stickers on the belt in order to closely resemble its mechanical design.

“If you keep making more stickers, it’ll be harder to put them on…” Although I felt that way as well, the stickers exert outstanding power for replicating such a precise design.

When it comes to articulation, Di-O seems confident in the range of motion, saying that this year’s SO-DO series “goes beyond the range of candy toys!”

This is proven as he reveals that they’ve added alternate hands to the figures, a feature previously only available in Build‘s Dai SO-DO updates for Build and Cross-Z. This was a popular feature for those releases, so they’ve decided to adopt it here for their ordinary releases. Di-O believes it will further extend the range of poses you can make.

However, they reference the fact that some characters may not have this feature. It seems to be a decision based on dynamic poses between different Riders. Also, it has been mentioned that the figures will be going for 20 more yen than usual, but Di-O feels that the improvements on the line will compensate for it.

Included with this figure set are the Zikan Girade in its Sword Mode, as well as a dedicated display stand. The stand will include a sticker showing the Rider’s name and emblem – since Zi-O is a Rider who uses the powers of past Riders, there is a possibility that fans will see their emblems used on these stickers.

The SO-DO Kamen Rider Zi-O series inherits the soul of SO-DO Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and SO-DO Kamen Rider Build, and will aim to reach further heights! We, the SO-DO staff, will continue to make you go “Seriously?!” during Zi-O, so we’d be extremely happy if you looked forward to the future! Next time we update will be August 26th – the keyword is “A.D. 2017”.

The schedule included with this post reads as:

August 27th: