Hi guys! Sharp-O back once again with another Mint in Box and today I’m going to be the one as I look at the amnesiac physicist fighting for Peace & Love; Kamen Rider Build!

We’re heading to the CR to examine everyone’s favourite video-gaming doctor; S.H. Figuarts – Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Action Gamer Level 2!

Check out my video review below!

Hi guys, Sharp-O back once again with another Mint in Box and today we’re looking at the S.H. Figuarts release of Takeru Tenkuji, the man whose life shines bright: Kamen Rider Ghost Ore Damashii!

Ghost continues the Figuarts line’s shift to a more stream-line package format and as I’ve said previously, I love this as it’s more ergonomic and saves space for collectors who keep the packaging like me.

Inside the packaging you find the figure itself, an extra hood piece, three pairs of interchangeable hands and the Gan Gun Saber.

Also included within this release is Yurusen, the Ankh-like ghostly assistant to Takeru but without the charming anger issues and floofy hair. He comes in one piece, features a head-swivel and has a stand to help him float around Takeru.

Ore Damashii form, translates to ‘My Soul’ and basically means Takeru’s wearing a jacket made of HIS OWN SOUL and it looks fantastic! The slick black with orange highlights is totally my jam and his short sleeved hooded soul-jacket makes him look like a right brawler.

The spirit-hoodie, while looking amazing, is made of a hard rubber that severely hinders the poseability of the upper torso and, to a lesser extent, the shoulders and upper arms which is pretty disappointing.

I’m digging the inverse helmet design that has the compound element all over the face while the eyes are a glossy jet black, a big departure from the norm which lends to Ghost’s unique look. To change out the hood pieces, you just have to scalp poor Takeru by taking a chunk out of his skull, removing the down hood and slipping the up hood over his head and pegging it in.

The Ghost Driver is realised very nice though the handle doesn’t move but it does include a removable faceplate so you can see that monstrous cyclops face that the real Driver has so that’s a nice touch.

The interchangeable hands are swapped out as easily as most other Figuarts, but unfortunately the range of movement is pretty hindered by the silver cuffs, somewhat limiting the range of movement and, by extension, the overall poseability.

The Gan Gun Saber, or Eye Gun Saber, is a nicely rendered version of Ghost’s primary weapon and, in a break from the Figuarts standard of bundling two weapons for different modes and this actually transforms. It comes packed in blade mode but by splitting the blade, and pegging it back in reverse then tilting the hilt to put the weapon in gun mode. It’s a nice solution to a problem that people have hated about Figuarts for a long time.

I’m a little disappointed in Ghost Ore Damashii because while it’s a great looking figure, it’s mired by the same adherence to the suit design that makes it look great but, regardless of that fact, I do kinda recommend picking this guy up because the unpopularity of the Ghost series itself (and it’s baaaad) means that the Figuarts are pretty cheap and I’d say this guy is worth 24 quid of any Kamen Rider fans money just because of how he looks next to his compatriots.

As always, I’ve been Sharp-O, this has been the SH Figuarts Kamen Rider Ghost Ore Damashii and my life will burn bright on the next Mint in Box!

I’m sick and sniffly so I apologise but I just wanted to talk about a bunch of bootleg LEGO minifigures from China! Hope you enjoy!

All of these minifigures were bought on Ali Express.

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that talking tokusatsu is all well and good but what would be the best places to start for the uninitiated? Granted, I’m sure everyone has seen a Godzilla movie but the likes of Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Garo and Ultraman are completely different beasts. Except maybe Ultraman… That’s pretty close to Godzilla.

So what kind of toku is suitable for newbies? Naturally, it depends on individual taste and thanks to nearly all of them being around for around 50 years, most franchises have more than one series that should appeal to you but for the sake of an article, here are my personal choices on the easiest toku to get into for noobs.

Kicking off with one of my top five Kamen Rider series; Kamen Rider Fourze. If you remember the article I previously wrote, you’ll remember that while its mostly presented as a kids show, it actually has a lot of valuable morals and stories to tell, especially for a young teenage audience. It has that fantastic distinction of being a fun kids show at heart but is unafraid to play with morality tropes and tell the kind of high school redemption stories we all love.

The enthusiastic protagonist is also such an endearing goof that you’ll love him in no time, much like the rest of the cast who are equally great to watch. If you want a space-fuelled adventure that dips its toes into adult themes, then this is the series for you!

On the other end of the spectrum, with a newer show that I covered earlier this year and another of my Top 5 Rider shows… Kamen Rider Amazons. This is a deeply flawed show, sadly, that was an exclusive to Amazon Prime Japan. This choice is more based on people maybe remembering the Guyver movies of the early 90’s or who have a fondness of Marvel’s Netflix shows. It’s a darker tale that is a nice contrast to the positivity of Fourze and is a much shorter watch at just 13 episodes.

When it comes to Super Sentai, there’s a common misconception that it will be of the same ‘quality’ as its adaptation, Power Rangers, and while there are cases like that, there are twice as many that aren’t and to showcase the best Super Sentai has to offer I recommend watching Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger!

Gokaiger is the 35th Anniversary series and is an unabashed celebration of the franchise up to that point and the best part about it? The Gokaigers aren’t even good guys! They are literally pirates who steal the powers of previous Sentai in pursuit of a grand treasure. It’s an absolute blast and a loving tribute to the franchise’s long history.

Now, since I’ve little to no experience with the two other big TV toku franchises, I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of Josh from CollectionDX and Alex from My Shiny Toy Robots. Take it away, boys!

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Ultraman X is a really solid place to start in terms of the Ultraman franchise. It carries the spirit of the original, easy to follow on its own and has some cameos from other Ultras should you feel like checking more out afterward. It’s definitely worth mentioning that Ultraman is pretty much the godfather of henshin heroes. He might not be the first or the most prominent any more, but I’d definitely go as far to say he’s probably the most iconic in Japan. The show really puts an emphasis on craft, with both the miniatures and suits a cut above what you see in other toku shows.

Personally, I’d say the real best place to start is definitely the original series (and with it so cheap on Amazon, there’s really no reason not to), but with a pretty sizeable back-catalogue on Crunchyroll now newcomers will be perfectly fine jumping in on any that take their fancy. Some will have crossovers with older Ultras, but it’s never done in a way that requires background knowledge beforehand so you can effectively jump in anywhere.

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“Where there is light, shadows lurk and fear reigns. Yet by the blade of Knights mankind was given hope.”

If the above quote sounds super weird and/or interesting, then you might be into Garo. Garo is the story of a bunch of dudes called Makai Knights who fight monsters called Horrors. In a nutshell, Horrors are from another dimension called the Makai, and can be born in our world from the malevolence of humans. At this point, there are three distinct timelines for Garo: the original, the anime, and Ryuga’s timeline.

The original, main timeline consists of the three series (1, 2 & 4), two movies and several TV specials. If that seems convoluted, don’t worry. After a single season of the show every single one of those things will make sense. This timeline is all about Kouga, the Golden Knight Garo. Well, at least in seasons 1 and 2. And two of the movies. In season 4, the story shifts and follows his son, Raiga, who has inherited the title of Garo. Season 4 is amazing.

The anime timeline is stupid and garbage. Don’t watch.

The Ryuga timeline consists of two more seasons (3 & 5) as well as the Goldstorm movie. The entire existence of the Ryuga timeline is confusing and incredibly offputting for some people. However, if you are well-versed in the lore already, the deviations make sense and the shows and movie are ridiculously fun. Just watch Ryuga’s transformation from the first episode of Season 3. You’ll get what I’m saying.

If any of what I said interests you, you should watch Garo. If nothing that I said interests you, you should definitely watch Garo. Now’s the best time, too, since the first season is being broadcast in an HD Remastered version (since the original came out in 2005 and is a bit dated).

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A massive, massive thank you to both Alex and Josh for the opinions of Ultraman and Garo, respectively, and for contributing to this article since I don’t know dick about those shows so this is a learning experience for me too! Please go check out their respective sites and follow them! If any of these shows have peaked your interest, there are certain avenues you can find to watch them subbed if you look so I’ll leave the choice to you and I’ll see you all next Toku Tuesday!

Last time I covered Japan’s attempt to adapt a western property but for most of the 90’s, the reverse was much more prevalent. Haim Saban’s adaptation of Super Sentai into the long-lasting Power Rangers franchise but, being the media mogul that he was, he didn’t stop there and others even attempted to steal the formula for themselves. This is going to be a brief history of the rise and fall of tokusatsu adaptations in the west.

Naturally, emboldened by the success of Power Rangers, Saban was quick to rush another series into production. Capitalising on the early 90’s fascination with the emerging VR technology (oh, how times have changed), Saban created a team of teenagers using footage from three separate Metal Hero shows to create VR Troopers.

The show proved successful at the time but pulling footage from Space Sheriff Shaider, Superhuman Machine Metalder and Dimensional Warrior Spielban proved exhaustive and soon they ran out of footage to use. VR Troopers ran for 92 episodes before going offline.

All was not lost on the toku-hero-in-cyberspace front though as Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was in development at the same time, a venture between Tsuburaya Productions (the studio behind Ultraman), Playmates Toys and DIC Entertainment to adapt Denkou Choujin Gridman for western audiences.

I’ll be honest; I never even heard of this show growing up, as my entire world was dominated by Saban’s shows, but from finding clips on YouTube I can see that this was a quick and cheap production. Clearly it was born out of the rapidly exploding toku adaptation genre and it only lasted 53 episodes.

The next show to appear spun directly out of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and was the truly atrocious Masked Rider. Masked Ri-DURR, an adaptation of Kamen Rider Black RX, appeared in the three-part MMPR Season 3 opener, ‘A Friend in Need’.

As soon as Arnold Rimmer look-a-like Prince Dex made the jump to his own show, however, no further mention of the Rangers are ever made and the show became a bumbling ‘comedic’ mess. Masked Rider ran for 40 episodes and left a legacy that is both depressing and uplifting as no one would attempt bringing another Kamen Rider show to our screens for another 14 years but most of Masked Rider’s background music was later used in Digimon Season 1-3 and Digimon: The Movie.

Once Masked Rider was done, Saban didn’t rest on his laurels for long and put out Big Bad Beetleborgs. Adapted from the Metal Hero series Juukou B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto, Beetleborgs was focused on a younger audience and was heavily merchandise-driven thanks to plot being about kids who becoming popular comic book characters.

Much like VR Troopers, Beetleborgs suffered thanks to a lack of footage and ended after 88 episodes. Out of all the non-PR shows Saban did, I think Beetleborgs was my favourite growing up, even if it was the silliest of the bunch — often having Batman ‘66 comic book effects to cover more violent scenes or having the Jay Leno-esque Flabber as the source of their powers.

After Beetleborgs had ended and with Power Rangers still the juggernaut franchise, Saban went a different route and produced a wholly original tokusatsu for the west based on Irish mythology but that’s a story for another time as it’s not an adaptation.

Earlier I said it would take 14 years for someone other than Saban to bring Kamen Rider to the west but in 2009, Adness Entertainmint adapted Kamen Rider Ryuki for the CW Network as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.

The reason why the team chose Ryuki was that the series had 13 Riders in total (one of which was the first female Kamen Rider in the franchise’s history) and had lots of marketability. However, due to the Bandai toyline’s failure and flagging ratings, the show was pulled before the final two episodes could air, though CW was nice enough to air them online.

Even though the show had critical success (even winning a Daytime Emmy in 2010) and seeing DVD releases in Europe, South America, Mexico and East Asia (even a Japanese Dub!); Adness did not release it in the US and the plans for a feature length movie, a second season or even an adaptation of another Kamen Rider series have not come to pass.

Hell, 7 years have passed since and Adness Entertainment are more interested in Kpop and Korean fashion if their website is any indication so more Kamen Rider from them is highly unlikely.

As of 2016, Power Rangers is still going strong after 22 years while all the others I’ve talked about above have faded into obscurity and nostalgia so what does that mean for tokusatsu adaptation in the west? Regrettably, it seems that we’re unlikely to see more adaptations in the future and that’s just sad in this humble reviewers opinion. Personally, I have a ton of ideas how some of the newer Heisei-era Kamen Rider shows could be adapted but in the current climate of television production; would they succeed?

A question for the comments, perhaps but for now, thank you for reading this little retrospective and I’ll catch you all next Toku Tuesday!

I think I’ve established previously that the two big tokusatsu mainstays — Super Sentai and Kamen Rider — have a 52 episode run every year but, as way to celebrate Kamen Rider’s 45th anniversary, Toei Company not only produced their regular TV offerings for TV Asahi but also a Amazon Prime exclsuive mini-series.

Why mention this? Because I’m going to be looking at both of them and highlighting why one sucks and one is awesome. Let’s start with the basic premises:

When his life is tragically cut short, Takeru Tenkuji enters a Faustian bargain to regain his life by gathering 15 souls of historical figures. Along the way, he must contend with malevolent spirits intent on annexing the human world as well as his childhood friend who is attempting to gather the very same souls to restore his sister to life.

Sickly shut-in, Haruka Mizusawa, is thrust into a secret war against an army of beasts with a thirst for human flesh and is torn between two worlds when he discovers he is one of them. He strives to find his humanity as part of the creature-hunting Extermination Team while the mysterious Jin Takayama hunts the monsters for his own reasons. They’re two side of the same coin; the Alpha and the Omega.

Both sound pretty awesome, right? Unfortunately, the reality is much more black and white.

Kamen Rider Ghost is the TV Asahi series and while the ghost-hunting premise and suit are both great, the writing is sub-par at best and fucking atrocious at worst. Head writer for the show, Takuro Fukuda, has previously worked as secondary writer for Ultraman Max and Ultraseven X. The fact that I’ve never even heard of those series tells me his work isn’t note-worthy and the fact that I gave up on Ghost after 16 episodes speaks volumes. I haven’t given up on a Kamen Rider series since Wizard (and I’m constantly told I should give it another shot because it’s better than I initially gave it credit for).

I would say that part of the problem is the time-slot and the primary audience. Airing at 8:00am on a Sunday, naturally the audience is children and Bandai is a major sponsor of the show, therefore pushing merchandise is priority but does this mean that the show should be nothing more than a half-hour toy commercial with paper thin characters and awful slapstick? Short answer: no.

Long answer: Fuuuuuuuck no!

Kamen Rider Fourze, which I covered before, was written by the head writer of Kill La Kill and the series composer of Gurren Lagann, making it an emotional tour-de-force about friendship, acceptance and parental abandonment. Kamen Rider Gaim was written by Gen ‘Urobutcher’ Urobuchi; a man known for the critically-acclaimed Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the dystopian crime thriller Psycho-Pass and he made a series about fruit-themed samurai into an interesting dark story of betrayal, futility and acceptable losses.

That’s just two examples; aired in the exact same time-slot with the exact same sponsors for the exact same demographic and they did not talk down to their audience like Ghost does. It’s a narrative mess, every character is comic relief and there is no real threat at any point. Light fluff is good but you can only really appreciate it if you equal it out with a harder edge.

Speaking of the harder edge, we have Kamen Rider Amazons, an Amazon Prime exclusive mini-series for Amazon Japan. Yes, that’s a lot of Amazon but you can’t deny it’s a cute marketing gimmick.

As a quasi-reboot of the original 70’s series of the similar name, Amazons takes a leaf out of Marvel’s playbook by offering a darker, more compelling miniseries that stands apart from it’s mainstream fare on a streaming platform. It worked for Daredevil and it works for Amazons!

Now who could they get to write such a show? Something Kamen Rider but with a much darker edge? Hmmm. Oh! How about veteran writer Yasuko Kobayashi? Head writer for Kamen Rider Ryuki, Den-O, OOO, a half dozen Super Sentai shows and Attack on Titan. Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger!

While the first episode could be considered a 45 minute slog, it at least sets up the world pretty effectively and establishes the tone of the series. This is a show for adults, not the kiddies. The darker vibe even extends to the look of the show as not only are people and monsters eviscerated on a regular basis but the entire show seems to be shot day-for-night. Is there no sun in this accursed country?

Also — Amazons shits all over Ghost in the theme song department. The use of Armor Zone by Taro Kobayashi at the end of every episode has shades of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Roundabout to it. Which Yasuko Kobayashi was also head writer of. Seriously, this series just exudes pedigree.

So what is my point? Is this just another toku weeaboo complaining that a children’s show isn’t made for him? Partly, yes, but not in the way you think. I wrote this article to highlight the difference between two shows that belong to the same franchise airing concurrently.

It’s not about the disparate audience demographic, it’s about the actual quality of the product. While Ghost has some of my favourite suit designs of all time; that’s all it’s got as the effects are cheap, the characters bland and the product pushing is egregious while Amazons is content to let the engaging story play out with characters you can easily get attached to.

You can currently find both Kamen Rider Ghost and Kamen Rider Amazons subbed for free by Overtime Subs.

What are your thoughts on either Ghost, Amazons or both? Any suggestions for the next Toku Tuesday? Leave your comments below and I’ll see you all soon!

Kamen Rider Wizard is an odd series for me. In concept, a magical Kamen Rider who saves people from falling into a deadly depressive despair caused by Phantoms should be my cup of tea but I just never got on with the series, despite a cool premise and awesome looking Rider design.

So why am I not reviewing the base form? Because, according to trusted review sources (aka Josh over at CDX), that Figuart is garbage and I will not have garbage on my Rider shelf. Trash, yes — garbage, no. Let’s cut to the chase then and take a look at this mage!

Wizard’s Flame Dragon style passes over to his box, with a dull silver and red dragon sigil surrounding the window. The reverse sees full colour images of Flame Dragon form with Wizard’s summoning circle in the background.

Pulling Wizard out of the packaging reveals a very literal box of tricks. He includes six pairs of interchangeable hands, a reversed WizarDriver, the WizarSwordGun in both sword and gun forms and the Drago Skull. It’s a robust selection of accessories but I feel he may have too many hands? Blasphemy, I know, but some are only slight variations on others plus those bulky Wizard Rings on each hand makes swapping them out almost as painful as handling Bravo. He also includes a pretty ugly Tamashii stage but I’m not going to grumble at more stage arms.

It’s Showtime! Flame, Dragon! Haruto’s first elemental Dragon upgrade looks fantastic; taking the long flowing coat of the base form and adding more draconic elements to the design. The figure is well constructed and the joints are nice and tight but is it just me or are his feet a little big?

One thing I love about the Wizard design is that the helmet reflects the jewelled ring aesthetic and the translucent red ‘gem’ of a faceplate is executed amazingly well. Add to that the tandem gems and runes on his pauldrons and the jewelled elements on the torso, and you’ve got one stylish looking mage!

True to S.H.Figuarts’ regular high standard, the WizarDriver is beautifully detailed; shimmering silver with the Hand Author picked out in an intense gold and dark translucent plastic with a detailed rune behind it. Attached to his hip, Wizard carries the Wizard Rings which give him access to his various forms and the various spells he can utilise.

Both forms of the WizarSwordGun are highly detailed and have the Shake Hands opening gimmick to activate the various Final Strikes. I’m not sure which I prefer overall but I feel the Flame Dragon upgrade should have a unique weapon to add to Wizard’s arsenal. Oh, wait…

Each of the elemental Dragon forms includes a specialised dragon weapon and Flame’s is the Drago Skull which is by far the goofiest one and I say that knowing that Water Dragon includes the Drago Tail. The dragon skull, which is a swappable chest piece that sticks out of Wizard’s chest, has a decent amount of articulation — the neck moves, his ears waggle and the mouth opens.

Stacked up to both his predecessors and his successor, Flame Dragon looks pretty cool but I do lament that this isn’t a good version of the base form because that would look so much cooler.

Overall, if you need a Wizard for your Rider shelf, you can’t really go wrong with Flame Dragon as he looks great and is a functional figure, even if his colour palette is a shabadoobie touch too red. Have any thoughts on Wizard or the Figuarts line? Let your voice be heard in the comments and I’ll catch you guys next time on Mint in Box!

The Rider Figuart reviews continue here on Mint in Box with the man who fights to save humanity from their own greed: Kamen Rider OOO!
Eiji Hino is, for intents and purposes, a hobo who has no place to call home and a tragic past. When the coin-based homunculi known as the Greeed awaken after their 800-year slumber to attack humans and feed off of their desires, the disembodied arm of the Greeed named Ankh gives Eiji a belt and three Medals to fight the other Greeed as Kamen Rider OOO (pronounced Ohz). It’s a well liked show with the gayest double-act in Rider history and some of the catchiest music and henshin call-outs.

Coming from 2011, this S.H. Figuarts release has a rather standard box layout but is accented by the colours and aesthetic of OOO himself. Not much to say about it but it certainly looks pretty!

OOO comes with a fair amount of accessories, namely six pairs of interchangeable hands plus another for holding the included O Scanner, a set of extended Tora Claws and the Medajalibur.

Taka! Tora! Batta! Ta–To–Ba! TaToBa, TaToBa! OOO’s base form really highlights the show’s gimmick well, namely the modular nature of the Rider form. At a distance, this looks like a fantastic figure, especially the Caribbean colour scheme, but it’s once you get it in hand that things quickly go south. Multiple botched paint applications plus no friction in the majority of the joints results in quite the let-down.

Yes, the figure is amazingly detailed, the OOO Driver especially looks fantastic, but the paint work is sloppy at best and the joints, especially in the thighs on my copy, are some of the loosest I’ve ever had on a Figuart and that’s very disappointing.

Despite the articulation problems, you can tweak and balance OOO into the semblance of a decent pose if you try hard enough. The hand-swapping is perilous thanks to the limpness of the wrist joints but the Tora Claws swap out easy enough and you can get some decent poses out of those too.

OOO’s Medajalibur weapon, a birthday present from the Kougami Foundation, is rendered perfectly in the Figuarts scale and the hilt is long enough to be held two-handed by OOO should the mood strike you. It’s just a shame that the wrist joints don’t move significantly to allow for a wide range of poses.

I chose to buy the OOO release that comes with the First Run Bonus of Ankh. Not off to a great start when they misspell the character’s name on both the packaging and the Tamashii stage… Regardless, Ankh’s mono-armed form is spot on and perfectly scaled to interact with OOO. I believe there are additional hands for this “figure” but are included in some add-on set I have no interest in buying.

Overall, Kamen Rider OOO is a disappointment. There’s the makings of a great figure here but the multiple problems let it down a lot. Not quite buyer’s remorse territory because I’m super happy to have him amongst my Rider display but he’s definitely not my favourite Figuart purchase to date. Stick around though because we’re not quite done with Kamen Riders just yet as we delve into the realm of magic next time on Mint in Box!

Mint in Box revisits Zawame City for a bite of this delectable forbidden fruit! Oren Pierre Alfonzo is one of the many Armoured Riders who star in Kamen Rider Gaim but unlike many others, this effeminate man mountain has no ties to the Invess game; in fact, he hates it. A former soldier turned pastry shop owner, Oren demands the very best in every field and this leads him to clash swords with the young Beat Riders using the Durian lockseed and becoming Kamen Rider Bravo!

Kamen Rider Bravo was a Tamashii Web Exclusive, befitting of a man who is to extravagance what Mitsuzane is to betrayal, meaning he’s a little tougher to find and demands a high price on the secondary market (but not as much as Gaim’s secondary Rider oddly…). This premium feel extends to his box which, while stylistically similar to Gaim’s, foregoes the window box for a glossy photo image. His packaging even comes in a custom brown box for extra protection!

Mister Dangerous is damned impressive right out of the packaging. Four pairs of interchangeable hands, a special holding hand, a closed Durian lockseed, his signature Duri Noko chain swords and, to top it all off, a tiny wine glass! Truly, a man of exceptional accessories.

The figure itself builds on the already amazing frame that Gaim had but casts it in rich metallic greens, purples and silver. The paint is astounding as usual but if there’s a downside, it’s the plain green joints that stand out against the metallic lime-green of Bravo’s limbs. It’s a very minor nit-pick on an otherwise astonishing visual treat! (And yes, he’s missing a back spike from his right pauldron. I did buy him third-hand.)

Bravo’s accessories give him a wealth of personality, which is perfect for the larger than life Oren. As a natural showman and a fair maiden at heart, his hands and articulation allow you to make the figure excessively expressive. Whether it’s the shy demeanour reserved for his beloved Melon (Kamen Rider Zangetsu), the showmanship of a gladiator or even the distinguished mannerisms of a renaissance man; Bravo will look fantastic no matter how you pose him.

His tiny lockseed is just as minuscule as Gaim’s and will never leave the packaging again after this review. His wine glass on the other hand will see lots of play because just look at him! He exudes class and respect despite the inherent stupidity of trying to drink wine through a helmet!

Size-wise, it feels like Bravo is a little smaller than Gaim and that’s just wrong, not only because their respective actors are on opposite ends of the height scale but because Bravo should feel like a bigger figure. He should be a brute! Until it’s time to sexually harass the others — then the size would only make the kabe-don even better!

Finally; we come to the Duri Noko, Bravo’s signature twin chain swords. They’re cool enough and certainly fit with his aesthetic but are ultimately just props. It’s a shame they don’t connect into one weapon like the show and like Gaim’s naginata weapon mode.

Overall, I love having Bravo in my collection. He’s a fantastic character and all that awesome translates to his toy well! If you can put up with the minor colour discrepancies on his joints and your fingers feeling like you’ve pleasured a porcupine after prolonged posing — Pick him up! I can guarantee you will not be disappointed!