The SO-DO Archives: SO-DO Station (October 2016)

From the archives of Bandai’s candy toy blog, these are the SO-DO developments that took place during Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. In this post, we see the remainder of introductory tidbits about SO-DO’s goals, the entirety of the second wave, and some fun armor swaps. 

In the last post, we learn about the Bandai candy toy blog’s early beginnings, the changes brought on with Ex-Aid, and the introduction to SO-DO. Ex-Aid and Brave are part of the first wave, titled STAGE 1, with a Level 1 body they can both use.

Now, we witness as SO-DO carries on into its second month of product reveals.

Link: SG Weekly Ex-Aid Vol.3

In this post, N introduces us to the subject of the update: Articulation. These SO-DO figures have 17 points of articulation, which they remark is exceptional for a candy toy figure.

The rundown of moving parts includes:

Neck, thigh base, ankles… Balljoints in 5 places totoal.

Shoulders… 1. Swivel movement at base of body, 2. Axial movement of shoulder parts, 4 places in total.

Elbows, knees… Axis movement (approximately 110 degrees), 4 places in total.

Upper arms, thighs… Swivel movement, 4 places in total.

That’s the breakdown.

N also makes a point to mention that the shoulder armor is on a hinge. This makes it so you can make use of all that articulation without hindrance.

N felt that it was easier to show the articulation in action, so they also took some photos.

N also explains that the display stand is included specifically to display figures in a Rider Kick, mentioning that the added thigh swivel allows you to display a natural kicking pose in a way previous figures didn’t allow for.

The display stand was intended to be used two different ways; Using the strut to pose the figures in dynamic action poses, or using the peg on the base to put them in a standing pose.

Thus concludes the post. N mentions that there are things that they couldn’t get around to talking about yet, which brings us to…

Link: SG Weekly Ex-Aid Vol.4

This post brings up stickers – N explains that the drawback to stickers on action figures is that they always come off during play. Because of this, the amount of colored parts has increased with SO-DO, compared to previous candy toy figure lines. This is thanks to the quality that comes from being a figure split into two boxes.

The images shown here are with only the eye and chest stickers applied, demonstrating how much color is already worked in. Having a part like the shin armor be a separate piece also allows it to be casted in silver, rather than using stickers or paint.

From here, some tidbits about the design choices, and I wanted to translate the entirety of this comment on stickers:

■ For those who are kodawari (particular about details), these bonus stickers are recommended!

The parts on the Level 2 figures’ backs can be used to make the Level 1 form for each Rider. Therefore, if you do this normally, the eyes will remain even in their Level 2 state…

Ah, it’s not like the show! I’m worried…!!

… Or is that just me?

Since I couldn’t stand it, I included a bonus sticker for exclusive Level 2 use. If the sticker is applied, then your perfect Level 2 figure is complete from all 360 degrees.

N felt it was also important for the weapons to look good – they compared it to the conventional execution for weapons, where they were simply molded in one color. Here, the weapons have some stickers, and in the case of the Gashacon Breaker, a little bit of paint.

Brave’s Gashacon Sword has a turnable blade, allowing you to swap between the fire and ice powers, just like the show design.

Even though the first wave of this series doesn’t come out until November 2016, N intends to review figures from the second wave next!

Link: SG Weekly Ex-Aid Vol.5

This post immediately reveals the figure for Kamen Rider Snipe, as well as the wave breakdown for wave 2:

1. Kamen Rider Snipe (Shooting Gamer Lv.2): Cross Armor Set
2. Kamen Rider Snipe (Shooting Gamer Lv.2): Action Body Set
3. Kamen Rider Lazer (Bike Gamer Lv.1)
4. Kamen Rider Lazer (Bike Gamer Lv.2)
5. Kamen Rider Genm (Action Gamer Lv.2): Cross Armor Set
6. Kamen Rider Genm (Action Gamer Lv.2): Action Body Set

Snipe has his iconic muffler, which is made of hard plastic, and splits into two pieces to make it easy to attach. N specifies that there can’t be any right shoulder armor when using this muffler since it would’ve been too crowded in there.

According to N, cloaked characters have a difficult time balancing accuracy and articulation. After repeated corrections, they were able to reach a sweet spot for the right arm’s movement, while the left arm is completely unhindered.

As a bonus, N decided to include the right shoulder armor. They consider this a “Toy exclusive idea”, in the sense that Snipe is never seen without his muffler. N just thought it’d be cool to toss it in for those who want that display option.

Snipe’s Gashacon Magnum is also included, in both modes.

The blog post ends with a teaser for the next post.

Link: SG Weekly Ex-Aid Vol.6

The subject of this post is Kamen Rider Lazer, whose default Level 2 form is a motorcycle, serving as Ex-Aid’s Rider Machine. This one was able to fit within one box, making it more affordable than previous years’ candy toy motorcycles. All that’s missing is the Level 1 head, which is in the wave with the Level 1 body.

N talks about the size of the motorcycle, remarking that they didn’t like the idea of Lazer looking like a Pokebai (a miniature motorcycle) when lined up with the other Riders, so it was decided “I want to make it bigger!” and we got a Lazer that’s in scale with the others.

Interjecting here, I think this may also be in response to previous candy toy lines, as vehicles did not always scale with figures. Comparatively, here there was an effort to be consistent.

N ends this line of thought by saying:

As long as there are customers who collect the SO-DO series, we will continue to give back as much as possible in our products.

The bike can sport two types of handlebars; One with pegs for figures to hold onto, and one without pegs so that Lazer can be displayed in a more accurate look on his own. The latter handlebars are used on the Level 1 head, so if you don’t want to lose small parts, both handlebars have their place.

The Level 1 bodies for Snipe, Lazer and Genm will be talked about in a later post.

Thus concludes this post. Onto the last one for October.

Link: SG Weekly Ex-Aid Vol.7

In our last post for the month, we look at Kamen Rider Genm. As he’s a recolor of Ex-Aid, there isn’t much new in terms of molding.

Included with him is the Gashacon Bugvisor, which can be rotated to display it in either mode.

Since this post is about Genm, it’s here that N decides to confirm that SO-DO will be including the Sports Gamer armor for Genm, as part of STAGE 3.

On the subject of form changes, N decides to also bring up how the armors up to this point have followed a certain standardization, meaning they can be swapped to engage in fun what-if forms.

N comments on the difficulty of this decision – compared to making armor that attaches to a specific thing, it is actually much more difficult to make the armor compatible across different figures, particularly in making adjustments to molds and production management.

Megahouse, the manufacturer, has been working on the SO-DO series; The compatibility of the armors was made possible due to their history with doing this in Kamen Rider Gaim‘s candy toy line, Arms Action Gaim, as well as all of the combinations needed in Super Sentai‘s minipla line.

As you collect more of the SO-DO line, the more possibilities. These are what N was able to do with these first two waves:

And so, we end October 2016. Next time, an extra post about Level 1 forms, and more Level 3 forms!