Summary of Zi-O SG Watcher: Vol.34

Bandai’s candy toy blog posted a new entry for Kamen Rider Zi-O, with the first reveal for SO-DO Kamen Rider Zi-O: RIDE PLUS.

The man currently in charge of candy toy development goes by G, and in honor of Zi-O, he is now going by the name Gi-O.

“Who’s that?”

“That’s me,”

“The ninja!”

“Shinobi is here!”

The blog introduces Kamen Rider Shinobi, part of SO-DO Kamen Rider Zi-O: RIDE PLUS. Out of the four Riders to be included in the wave, Shinobi was chosen first because, as he puts it, “The Shinobi spinoff fever has yet to cool down!” 

He also remarks that there is a spoiler in the form of a referenced scene in the spinoff, but no plot spoilers are being divulged.

The metallic purple of Shinobi’s design is replicated through a mix of stickers and paint, the latter being used for the muffler on the back.

Gi-O also addresses what was apparently a burning question since the reveal of the set, clarifying that the hands on these Riders will indeed be movable, despite the cheaper price tag.

Speaking on the subject of swappable hands, Gi-O clarifies that the set includes a pair of open hands for Decade specifically, but since there is not much difference in the detailing between Decade and Shinobi…

… these hands work well on Shinobi, allowing for more expressive poses. Gi-O also shows off the swords associated with Shinobi, including putting them on either side of the fist to make a double-bladed weapon.

Another option is to make use of the pointing fingers included with WArmor in RIDE 6, to faintly recreate Shinobi’s pointing gesture.

When in possession of multiple factory samples, Gi-O also took the opportunity to replicate a scene in which Shinobi creates duplicates of himself using his ninja powers.

Gi-O then brings back the figure of Woz in FutureRing Shinobi, pointing out a subtle difference in their metallic purples. As he describes it, Woz features a slightly diluted metallic purple that blends well with the white plastic of Woz’s suit, whereas Shinobi has a denser metallic purple that does not lose its color to the black plastic on Shinobi’s suit.

Going into detail, he clarifies that there is a white layer to the stickering to cause this, and points out that the display stand stickers use 100% white, while Shinobi’s stickers use 80%, and Woz’s stickers use 40%.

Thus completes two slots in RIDE PLUS. Gi-O adds the origin of this wave’s lineup – after discovering that the Miriders do not have form changes in the main story, it was decided that they would not have to be split into separate slots in the wave, and concluded that it would be ideal if you could have a complete Mirider by just buying one box.

He also shares an incident with previous SO-DO blog runner Mr. D:

Design Team: “Which Mirider will you make a prototype for? Shinobi?”

Mr. D: “DECADE!!!”

Design Team: “Eh?”

“I’ll take you down in just 5 seconds.”

Gi-O ends the post with a teaser image of Kamen Rider Hattari, another Rider to appear in Shinobi’s spinoff.

“By the heated word of Mr. D, Decade’s participation in this wave was decided…

Next week’s update will be hot, fully packed coverage of Decade! Please look forward to it!”

The next blog post would be April 28th, the final blog post in the Heisei era.

Source: Bandai Candy Staff Blog