Bandai's 66 Action Candy toy isn't just the new big thing with fans looking for cheap articulated figures of their favourite tokusatsu heroes - it's also seem to have struck a chord with customisers as well. Just a quick browse on Twitter or the internet in general will bring up some of the incredible custom figures fans have produced - ranging from minor repaints to brand new sculpted pieces to build characters the line hasn't even touched yet. While I fully admit I don't have anywhere near that level of skill to bring such an ambitious projects to life, a spare Kamen Rider Ryuki amongst my Kamen Rider wave 5 case did give me a good idea for a quick and easy repaint. There's a sore lack of evil Riders in the selection right now, so the addition of Kamen Rider Ryuga and Dragblacker couldn't be more perfect.
Kamen Rider Ryuga appears in the Kamen Rider Ryuki: Episode Final movie, as well as making a brief cameo in the 13 Riders special. Ryuga's true identity is a Mirror World version of Shinji Kido, subconsciously created by Yui Kanzaki in the past. Adopting the identity of Kamen Rider Ryuga, the version of Shinji joined the Rider War to pursue of goal of existing in the real world. In the American adaptation of Ryuki, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, Ryuga is known as Kamen Rider Onyx. Here it is a newly created Advent Deck used by Kit Taylor when the original Dragon Knight returns and takes back the mantle.
Ryuga's Contract Beast is Dragblacker, which is similarly a black version of Ryuki's Dragreder.
This custom was just as basic as you'd expect it was - mostly comprising of disassembling the figure and painting the whole thing black. This was done using Citadel Abaddon black, and then giving the whole thing a matte spray finish at the end with Humbrol Matt Spray. The gold detailing was done with a Uni paint pen, and the little gem on the top of the helmet was a dot of Citadel's Mehispton red. I toyed around with the idea of painting the exposed parts of the eyes between the vents red, but I've never been the biggest fan of the Ryuki helmet eyes being really obvious so decided to just leave it all black. Once the whole paint job was finished, I then coated the arm/leg gauntlets, chest armour and eye section of the helmet with clear nail polish. This was to give them a glossy finish that differentiated it from the matte undersuit.
Dragblacker was even less complicated, and just entirely painted black. Obviously both Dragblacker and Ryuga are missing a lot of the details the full-sized versions have, but this was an intentional choice to make them more in-fitting with the untouched 66 Action figures in my collection. I didn't want to have an over-detailed Ryuga facing off against a basic-looking Ryuki.
And voila! The total number of evil Riders (or Rider-esque villains) in my collection now comes to a grand total of four (five if you want to count Zangetsu Shin, who I did here to fill out the picture a bit more). It's a really easy repaint that I highly recommend if you have an extra Ryuki lying around, and with each case of wave 5 coming with three of him there's a pretty good chance that you might!
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