The series follows an enthusiastic transfer student with the look of a delinquent and a heart of pure gold, Gentaro Kisaragi, and his endeavours to make friends with everyone in the school. Gentaro is pure, unadulterated awesomeness. To go with the Gurren Lagann analogy, he’s the Kamina of the show. His sense of wonder and desire to befriend everyone could be construed as naivety and is often treated as such by some characters but ultimately, he’s a being of sheer will and conviction. He truly believes in the best people can be whether they be friend or foe.

He falls in with space-case Yuki and the perpetually-ill tsundere, Kengo and soon becomes embroiled in a plot to use the students of Amanogawa High School
as guinea pigs for a nefarious organisation. Thus, Gentaro takes Kengo’s place as Kamen Rider Fourze!

As their adventures go on, our trio (soon dubbed The Kamen Rider Club, in true Japanese school tradition) begins to grow as they add a motley bunch of outcasts and clichés. Shun and Miu, the self-proclaimed king and queen of the school, who are actually pretty insecure and in desperate need of someone who won’t bow to their every whim and accept them for who they are. JK (pronounce ‘Jake’), an ‘information broker’ and massive coward who manipulates everyone around him, until he comes face to face with Gentaro. Tomoko, a shy goth girl who fell in with a bad crowd but found true acceptance with the Kamen Rider Club (a group she inadvertently inspired in early episodes). Each character tends to be introduced to the team in their own two-parters but, thanks to the serialised nature of the show, they’re reoccurring characters before they become club members.

The Zodiarts are your bad guys du jour and are, fittingly, based upon the constellations while their masters are the Horoscopes, 11 lieutenants who mostly manipulate troubled students into becoming monsters and the head honcho, Sagittarius. They run the gamut of utterly evil to simply misguided and they take some surprising turns with Horoscopes like Aquarius and Virgo. Cancer has to be my favourite though, he’s such a ham and delightfully evil plus his design is pretty menacing.

Joining the Kamen Rider Club undercover is the prickly Ryusei, aka Kamen Rider Meteor. He infiltrates the school and the group with a timid façade but his faux-cowardice doesn’t hold out forever as his mission and his true nature reveal themselves over time. As much as Kengo has a mild disdain for some of the others, Ryusei is the unwilling straight man to many of the group’s eccentricities early on but eventually comes around, even winning the heart of a certain witch (O-T-P! O-T-P! O-T-P!). He also screams like Bruce Lee when he fights. It’s kind of hilarious.

Fourze’s main gimmick are Astroswitches, powered by some ill-explained Cosmic Energy. Fourze is a portmanteau of ‘Four’ and ‘Zero’ as both a nod to the 40th Anniversary and that he has 40 switches to access various weapons and forms.

If you’re interested in the show, I definitely recommend watching the movies too since events, characters and power-ups present in the movies show up in the series proper too, which doesn’t happen too often in Kamen Rider. Luckily, the movies usually take place within the timeline of the series so it shouldn’t be too much trouble to find out where they slot in.

Kamen Rider Fourze is probably my favourite KR series (but it has tough competition, which I’ll get to). It’s action-packed, it’s funny and incredibly charming and heart-warming. It dances on the fine line between goofy monster-hunting friendship adventures to angst-ridden drama and while it may stumble, it gets to the finish line with a genuine smile and hearty handshake.

Module Set 03 is possibly my overall favourite. Not only does it include two of my favourite modules, but the others are pretty awesome too! Let’s take a gander!

Chain Array is a right arm mounted spiked flail! It may be old fashioned but it gets the job done! The flail is attached to the arm via chain link and the spiked flail itself  is weighty enough to give the illusion of a 120kg flail. I really like that, despite how high-tech Fourze is, he sometimes just needs to twat someone in the face with a heavy metal object. This set also includes a brand new pair of hands just for this module.

Winch speaks for itself, it’s a powered winch that attaches to Fourze’s left arm. There’s no moving parts to this but you can swap out the Boost Hooker (Yeah, I laughed too) for another which has a malleable wire so you can get a great sense of motion with your poses. It’s not too long but being poseable is a big plus!

Module 17 (Flash, aaaaaaah) is included with Fourze’s motorcycle, the Machine Massigler, so we’ll move onto…

Shield, which is one of Fourze’s true defensive options. It’s designed after the Lockheed Martin X-33 and, despite it’s small size, is more than capable of fending off the most brutal assaults. In fact, one of the only times I remember it failing was when the Cancer Zodiarts (one of the lieutenants, dubbed Horoscopes) cleaved it in half with his powerful claw. It’s shuttle-like appearance makes this aesthetically perfect for Fourze and I really dig it!

Gatling is another in our sub-theme of “Fourze has awesome shit stuck to his legs” and it’s a GATLING GUN! It may be painted in a lovely blue but it’s packed full of DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA! Much like other modules, there are no moving parts present and that is a crying shame for this Module. A rotating barrel would have been great.

Finally, we come to Stealth! No, not the movie, the module! Based on the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the Stealth module is a useless lump of plastic but is meant to allow Fourze to become invisible for 5 seconds once activated. Might sound very limited but it’s been very useful on a number of occasions.

Module Set 03 is my favourite set so far, with many of my favourite switches and lots of character! But we’re not done just yet!

Module Set 04 is the last of the mass release Module Sets, with the Module Set 05 being an online exclusive in Japan and fetching a high price on the secondary market! Set 04 has some of the weirder and more useless modules but let’s see what we got!

*BONK*

Hammer is a very basic addition to the arsenal and it looks like a squeaky hammer. That’s it. This is the weakest out of all the modules I’ve reviewed in my opinion. It is literally a lump of plastic with no character to it other than looking slightly like a squeaky hammer. Next…

Water, water, everywhere so let’s drink from my leg! The Water module adds a big tap (faucet to you yanks) to Fourze’s left leg to shoot intense jets of water. It’s silly looking but I actually like this compared to Hammer and it’s not completely static, with a rotating tap head.

Medical is just what every Kamen Rider needs, a first aid kit comprised of cosmic energy-infused medicine. No way that stuff could give you cancer or make you trip balls! The kit can be opened, revealing an assortment of medical equipment, with removable syringe, and a medical readout of the lid. It’s nice that they included that detail!

The Pen switch is a giant calligraphy brush. For his leg. Yes, that’s a brush leg AND THAT’S NOT CRAZY ENOUGH so the ink produces three-dimensional streaks of pure carbon that can act as improvised shields. It’s so cumbersome and silly in its concept that I can’t help but love it.

Wheel is our last module, and despite its misnomer (It has two wheels, not just one) is a Segway-looking travel module that gives Fourze an extra boost of speed without relying on the Machine Massigler. It’s especially useful indoors since it has no trouble riding on walls.

Module Set 04 is definitely the weirdest and weakest of the sets I’ve reviewed thus far but it’s not without it’s charm.

And I fear this is where we leave the manliest of men, Gentaro Kisaragi, as I am out of Kamen Rider Fourze toys to review. If nothing else, this has helped me go pack and watch the show again so I’m thankful for that and if you’re interested in getting in some Space Time yourself, head over to HobbyLink Japan, where you can find all the Modules Sets I’ve reviewed, as well as some other Fourze goodies!

I said I wasn’t done with Kamen Rider Fourze just yet and thanks to a HobbyLink Japan payload, I’ll be showcasing many of Fourze’s weapons and tools in his fight against the Zodiarts, all rendered in scale with S.H. Figuarts Fourze! Today, we’ll be embracing the gimmick of our youth and be looking at Modules Sets 01 and 02. All the modules mostly attach and remove in the same way as the ones included in the Base States release.

Module Set 01 fills out Fourze’s default astro switch loadout as well as add some new toys to the arsenal. Just like Fourze, these Module sets also include tiny little astro switches to add accuracy to Fourze’s belt while swapping modules and while that’s considerate of the designers, it’s an absolute ball ache to keep track of. I even lost a couple while taking photos, causing me 20 minutes of frantic searching for millimetre small transluscent plastic pieces!

Radar allows Fourze communication with his allies as well as used to detect enemies and lock onto them for a homing missle attack. The dish pivots on a hinge and the screen on the forearm is picked out with grey paint. Might have been nice for a little read out but it’s good enough.

Launcher is the final astro switch for Fourze’s default belt configuration, adding a massive missile battery to Fourze’s right leg. The missiles are removable but aren’t spring-loaded so they’re either just there or not. When Launcher is used with Radar, Fourze can execute a precise missile bombardment!

Magic Hand is similar to an SRMS (Shuttle Remote Manipulator System) used on space shuttles. This manipulator arm is highly articulated, with hinges and swivels all along its length, and can move in many different directions as well as open the claw at the end but this module is very heavy, causing strain on my particular figure so I recommend using a tamashii stage.

Lastly for Set 01 we have Camera. I can only think of one situation where this module was used in combat but I love how ludicrous it looks. This big VHS video camera attached to the arm of our hero is one of the sillier, but equally awesome, modules we’ll be looking at. The view finder is articulated to allow you to pose with Fourze’s head.

I think this set is a must-have if you’re a Fourze fan, since it includes the other two default switches as well as two iconic modules.

Module Set 02 is not to be outdone either, being bigger and boasting more bang for your buck! Unlike the Base States release and Module Set 01, this release DOES come with tamashii stage, emblazoned with the Kamen Rider Club logo! I love it but if that isn’t good enough, it also includes several more pieces to increase the size of the included armature for a very special reason!

Parachute is by far the largest module of any set! It’s connected to Fourze’s left arm and you have to plug a bunch of strands into the plastic canopy. The stage extends upwards to allow for this module to be deployed fully and while it looks very impressive, I don’t thing it’ll be getting much play on my shelf because of the space needed. Very fun though!

Chainsaw is a BONA FIDE CHAINSAW LEG! That’s awesome, no matter where you come from! This is the highlight of the set by far, featuring a fold down blade but you can also swap that, as well as the foot, for a more screen accurate look. This module is certainly a cut above the rest!

Hopping is another of the many silly modules that seem useless but end up providing some advantage. Unfortunately, this is a solid plastic piece with no spring gimmick at all, much to my disappointment. You can still get some funny pose out of it though!

We skip ahead to Module 14, since Modules 10, 11, and 12 are included in the Elek States release and 13 will be seen next time so here is Smoke! Smoke is another useless lump with no moving parts or real charm. In the show it would emit a smokescreen and I think being included with the massive Parachute made extras for Smoke and Hopping harder to justify, hence their rather anemic standard.

I think Module Set 02 is a harder sell and while I’m glad I have it, I got it for around £2 in HLJ’s clearance sale.

Both of these sets are great releases and while 02 might be harder to justify paying full price for, I’m sure you’ll be able to bag yourselves a bargain at this juncture! Keep your eyes in the sky because I’ll be back soon with more from our space-bound hero!