Summary of SG Zero-One Riser 04

Bandai’s candy toy blog series for Kamen Rider Zero-One updates with a special SO-DO release for Zi-O, further updates on SO-DO Zero-One: AI 01, and vinyl roleplay toys. 

The man currently in charge of candy toy development goes by Mr. G. He will be heading SG Zero-One Riser, a blog segment covering everything relevant to Kamen Rider Zero-One in the candy toy department of Bandai. Apart from being a word relevant to the show, the word “Riser” was chosen because Mr. G wishes for your excitement to rise whenever the blog updates.

First on the chopping block is Geiz in BibillArmor, the form exclusive to Zi-O‘s Hyper Battle DVD. This form uses GhostArmor with a general motif of ghosts and fear. Mr. G highlights several points on the figure, remarking that new parts will be made for this form.

This simply serves as confirmation that the form will exist – not much more can be shown right now because there are still adjustments being made to the color and such – this is a prototype. The finalized figure will be included in the Kamen Rider Zi-O Complete Works King Box, which also features the Bibill RideWatch, and will be released this December.

The main feature of this blog post is a new addition to SO-DO Zero-One: AI 01, which is the main character in his Biting Shark form. This provides a look at how the alternate armors will be handled.

The first thing of note is that the cyan on this armor is mostly paint – it’s all black plastic. The exception being the fins on the forearms, which attach via the slots visible on the base body. Like with Zero-One and Vulcan, the colors are mostly there even when stickers aren’t applied.

A specific thing of note that Mr. G points out are the “fangs” on the sides of the helmet, which are the yellow face parts from Rising Hopper. Their paint and sticker guy basically told him that it wouldn’t look good without some yellow coloring, and having stickers that wrap around it would be a pain, so the decision was to paint that bit. Thus continuing the theme of SO-DO Zero-One making things easier.

Included with the Biting Shark armor is the Attache Calibur, Zero-One’s sword. Mr. G proudly shows that it’s a solid weapon on both sides, as opposed to when some weapons (Zi-O’s sword provided for reference) where one side has hollow plastic.

This so-called “meat removal”, Mr. G puts it, is not for the sole purpose of cutting plastic costs, but is to prevent dents and cracks due to plastic shrinkage when parts are too thick. In this case, the Attache Calibur was a thin weapon to start with, so he jumped at the chance to at least provide this kind of quality on the main weapon.

Photos of Biting Shark in action, the Attache Calibur, and Zero-One facing off with Vulcan.

Now, an important note for those collecting the line: The Zero-One body may be standardized for the currently known forms, but it is not suitable for armor swapping when it comes to accuracy.

That is to say, Zero-One’s additional forms involve the Rising Hopper armor sliding to the sides/back of the body. To make this work, the Rising Hopper armor comes with stickers for Rising Hopper, while the Biting Shark armor comes with stickers for Biting Shark, which is also how later forms will work.

These form-specific body stickers include the belt display, the shin armor on the back, and the feet. The sticker sheets are clever about labeling these with letters instead of numbers.

Those collecting the whole wave need not worry, as AI 01 Complete Set will include a body for every armor. I think that those who’d like to engage in the armor swapping play style still can, they would just have to deal with some design inaccuracy, and maybe incorporate swappable feet into the mix.

Last on the blog is Kamen Rider Zero-One: Big Rise Weapon. Typically the candy toy line would feature downsized roleplay toys that are essentially simple model kits. This year, they’ve taken a new approach by making them out of soft vinyl which require no assembly.

Included in this wave are the Hiden Zero-One Driver, the Attache Calibur, and A.I.M.S. Shotriser.

The next update will be on September 29th, which will feature another addition to AI 01, and the start of sample reviews for SO-DO Gaiden Kamen Rider Zi-O: ANOTHER 2!

Source: Bandai Candy Staff Blog