This particular figure made its way into my clutches by way of another collector, whom graciously gifted him upon me.
I never watched Kamen Rider. The suits were always much nicer than those on Sentai shows (probably due to the fact they only needed to make one of them for the Hero) and back in the day, the suits were definitely more grounded than the suits of today.
Oh, and they were still freaking killer cyborgs. I have no idea how popular Kamen Rider Black was (though, based on the fact they've just remade Kamen Rider and Shadow Moon, I'm going to guess "pretty popular"), its sequel series Kamen Rider Black RX might be familiar to American/Saban fans, as its stock footage was used for the first Saban attempt at a Rider series.
I believe there were two series, and both died a horrible, horrible death.
Shadow Moon is, as you'd think, the main antagonist of the Kamen Rider Black/Black RX series. Contents of the package include:
- 1 X Main Figure
- 4 X Weapon Holding/Posing Hands
- 1 X Satan Saber
- 2 X Shadow Sabers
From what I can tell, this is basically what the new figure has, so I'm going to say that they didn't miss anything.
The figure was released in 2011, so it's definitely one of the older Figuarts. If you compare this one with the new one, you'll instantly see how the new one has bulkier proportions that, I feel, mimick the suit in the show better. I'm also pretty sure that the new one will have articulation standards of a 2021 figure. The 2011 figure, however, still does a pretty good job at it's main task, which is looking badass. The overall figure looks like a dude provided with a bunch of armour plating and robotic upgrades.
In particular, I really dig the detail of the robotic head (still grasshopper themed, just the way Grandpappy used to do it) and the reasonably sized Henshin Device, an aspect of the character that gets more and more ludicrous every time I look at a new iteration of the franchise
From an articulation perspective, certainly better than Figma's of the day. In fact, it's probably better than the Dragon Ball figures of the day. You get toe, ankle, double jointed knees, thigh twist, pull down hips, waist, mid torso ball joint, standard shoulders with butterfly joints, bicep swivel, single jointed elbows, ball jointed wrists, neck and head. Overall, you'll be able to get Shadow Moon into a wide variety of action poses Unfortunately, due to the design of the Pauldrons, you'll never actually make Shadow Moon look normal when having his arms overhead, which to be fair, is an issue even with modern figures that feature similar shoulder designs.
Paint wise, Shadow Moon is predominately silver and black, with the silver being the actual paint applied. There are a few other colours, of course, such as the Gold for the Satan Saber hilt, and the various other colours on the thighs, Henshin Device, helmet, and Shadow Sabers. Actual application is quite good and as expected. Paint is applied smoothly with no overspray. Masking is for the most part on point, though there are some average level masking errors, so probably nothing most people would lose sleep over.
Build quality is on par with modern Figuarts - joints hold poses well, things snap together nicely, and there are no QC issues regarding fit and part size. Translucent parts are formed nicely, with no visible bubbles. Also like modern Figuarts, there are still areas of rough finish, especially at seam lines, which are further magnified by the application of paint.
Free figures are always nice, and they're even better when mean something to you. In my case, I appreciate that Shadow Moon now stands amongst my hoard to remind me of the classic Kamen Rider designs. It also helps that the figure itself is quite solid in the posing and overall QC department.
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