Kamen Rider Specter x Blades Opens Door for Unreleased Toys

The Kamen Rider DX toy development blog provides more details on the CSM Den-O Belt Movie Edition set, the release of new Kamen Rider Ghost toys, and the possibility of producing items that never received toys. 

The writer of the blog, Funasen, begins by proclaiming that the CSM Den-O Belt Movie Edition set will be the conclusion of the CSM Den-O series. It’d been 4 years since the release of the first Den-O Belt, so it was difficult for them to market the movie edition set, but they were able to do so by calling it the final CSM Den-O release.

Funasen believes that enemy Rider transformation belts are a rarity for CSM, so this is thought to be an item for the “core fans”. However, the set also includes Wing Form, so it rounds out all of the forms used by the main hero.

This is the only toy where you can enjoy the world’s most beautiful transformation standby (subjective opinion of the author) with high quality sound!

As far as specs go, this is consistent with the CSM Den-O Belt, but using their current CSM manufacturing method, such as increasing the duration of the LEDs and stopping the flashing to match the character dialogue. As Funasen puts it, the Den-O Belt & Ketaros set was a turning point in the CSM line, laying the groundwork for the current concept of “reproducing theatrical performances to the limit, including a lot of long background music, and packed with dialogue“.

Looking back 4 years later, Funasen feels that the release still has a bit of the “grammar” of DX toys, such as the aforementioned difference in the lights. The number of background music tracks also could not have been increased as much back then.

From what Funasen says, the voice actor for Sieg recorded a lot of dialogue for the Den-O Belt back then, with the idea of eventually doing this release. Only a small portion of that Sieg dialogue was made available for the Super Climax Form, so now the bulk of his dialogue finally sees the light of day with the movie set. The Ghost Imagin also has dialogue for this belt set, although not as much due to the character having less dialogue in the movie in which he appears.

The Zeronos Belt is the first time for the Den-O series where the main transformer himself, Yuuto Sakurai in this case, has dialogue for the belt. The same goes for this movie set, as Kamen Rider Gaoh will feature dialogue, as he is an important character.

Another highlight for this set is the inclusion of a Rider Ticket for Futaros, the Imagin featured in Heisei Generations Forever. Previously, there was a set of Rider Tickets released which were compatible with CSM passes, but due to when that set was released, Futaros was not included. This would be the first time Futaros’ Rider Ticket would see a release, and was the perfect opportunity.

The main feature of this blog post, however, is the Premium Bandai release that ties into the Kamen Rider Specter x Blades special: The DX Specter Gekikou Senki Wonder RideBook + Kanon Specter & Yuujou Burst Ghost Eyecon set.

A small detail pointed out by Funasen is that the Specter book needed to be corrected – the spin was not the usual gold reserved for Legend Rider books, so it has been corrected to match the one seen in the special.

But the main point of interest with this set is the Yuujou Burst Ghost Eyecon, a transformation item that did not appear in the special. Rather, it is from the Ghost RE:BIRTH: Kamen Rider Specter V-Cinema release. In that 2017 movie, Kamen Rider Necrom uses this Eyecon to transform into Yuujou Burst Damashii.

This inclusion is notable because the Eyecon never received merchandise until now.

For various reasons, we were unable to release this toy at the time of the V-Cinema, but were were able to take the opportunity of [Kamen Rider Specter x Blades] to release it in a set with Kanon! It’s been about 4 years since the release of the MOVIE EDITION, and we’re sorry for the wait.

Funasen also makes mention that they have no plans to release the 100 luminary Eyecons seen in the summer movie. Though it is not touched upon in the post, the movie featured dozens of original Eyecons whose labels were designed by fans in a special contest for the movie. Funasen believes that Yuujou Burst, and Kanon Specter, mark the conclusion of the DX Ghost Eyecon series.

Funasen also acknowledges requests for reissues, and what they are unable to do:

We have also received some requests to reissue the Ghost Driver and Mega Ulorder yesterday, but it was difficult for us to maintain our capacity with the various products we’re producing.

In addition, the sales of the Ziku-Driver and Decade RideWatch, which were reissued in conjunction with the Zi-O VS Decade special, were quite severe… so we decided that almost everyone, who’d continued to want the Yuujou Burst until this time, would still have their original releases, so we will not be reissuing them.

It is quite common for items to appear in V-Cinemas, and even movies, without merchandise. This article talks about them, including the Yuujou Burst Ghost Eyecon. This tidbit is relevant when reading Funasen’s next comment:

Well… there are quite a few Kamen Rider products that have not been released as DX products. Many of the items appeared in V-Cinemas after the show’s end.

But, if this Yuujou Burst has a solid sales track record, it’d increase the possibility of merchandising other unreleased items from other series in the future. So, if you have a Ghost Driver or Mega-Ulorder, please, this is the product for you!

Funasen then goes on to say:

However, even if the response is positive, it does not mean that all these [unreleased items] will be immediately released. It will take a considerable amount of time to develop them, and there will be competition for production capacity with our current products, so each one will be released at an opportune time.

Of course, it’d be nice if everything could be released in real time, but the fact is, most of the DX items being released in real time is quite the power move. Figure merchandise, for example, is notable for being released later in life.

This form of demand-based merchandise is not uncommon for Bandai. The candy toy figure lines (SO-DO, SHODO, etc.) feature a questionnaire for each wave, allowing buyers to chime in and provide feedback for the figure lines, and make personalized requests for certain characters or accessories. This, however, may be the first time that the subject of V-Cinema DX items have been specifically addressed.

Finishing off the post, Funasen presents packaging designs for the DX Eineiken Noroshi and DX Jikokuken Kaiji, the swords used by Kamen Rider Sabela and Kamen Rider Durendal respectively. The packaging is notable for featuring designs on the back that can be connected horizontally and vertically, in reference to them being siblings.

Source: Kamen Rider Omocha Web