Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Evol Black Hole Form (Phase 4)

Release Date: November 2020

RRP: 7700 yen

Kamen Rider Build has proven itself to be a particularly popular series, especially since Bandai Tamashii Nations are still steadily releasing S.H. Figuarts over two years after its completion. After the release of the extremely popular Kamen Rider Evol (Phase 1,2,3 Set) in 2019 a retool of the evil alien Evolto’s ultimate form seemed inevitable, and sure enough in 2020 S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Evol Black Hole Form (Phase 4) arrived as a Tamashii web exclusive. After upgrading his standard Cobra Form with the power of the Evol Trigger, Evolto becomes complete once more an no longer requires a human host. True to its name, Evol now commands the power of miniature black holes - able to create and manipulate to leave not a single trace of his destruction.

S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Evol Black Hole Form (Phase 4) comes in a windowless Tamashii web exclusive box, with a design identical to that of the other Kamen Rider Build figures. Rather than focus on the additional white this form brings to Evol’s suit, the background of the box is instead a nice mix of black and red that really brings the image of the figure to the forefront. In the top corner there’s also a little molecule tree for Cobra, Evol’s primary theme/Bottle. One spine of the box features an additional image of the figure whilst the other simply has text. It’s the back of the box where you’ll find the usual array of stock images showing off the figure and it’s (admittedly very few) accessories, and then inside you’ll find Evol comfortably relaxing on a moulded plastic tray.

Evol’s Black Hole Form is a retool of his Phase 1 Cobra Form, sporting a remoulded head and upper body armour along with a number of longer skirt/coattail pieces made of softer plastic. These newer parts can be immediately identified by their black and white colour scheme, although the skirt parts do also have a red gradient on them as well. The rest of the body is a straight reuse of Phase 1, so shares that same vibrant metallic red, blue and gold colouring. Around the time of its debut on the show there were some comments about how the new parts didn’t really mesh well with the colours of the Phase 1 suit, but personally I think it works really well. It’s the same base Evol suit under there supplemented with new armour parts. Yes the colours clash and its pretty gaudy overall, but that fits Evol’s personality to a tee. The upper body armour shares a similar design to the Phase 1 form but overall the design has been a lot more simplified, and the stark differences between the black and white parts really show that off. The same goes for the head sculpt, which furthers that demonic cobra silhouette with newly coloured compound eyes - white with a sinister red line running right through the middle. It’s rare to see a Kamen Rider with eyes of more than one colour, immediately making Evol Black Hole stand out as a particularly sinister villain Rider. It’s an incredibly elaborate upper body design with multiple areas of raised detailing, capped off with huge shoulder pads with huge spikes jutting out of them. The back of the body is similarly impressive with its raised spinal column running down the middle. While the overall design remains relatively similar to the Phase 1 form, it’s amazing how much a change of colours can change how you perceive it thematically. With the metallic red, blue and gold Phase 1 immediately gives off a steampunk aesthetic, but the clashing black and white of Black Hole feels far more space/sci-fi orientated by comparison. Devoid of colour like a black hole, and colours devoid of any warmth like Evol himself. 

Moving down the body to the brand new skirt section, this is a five-piece construction consisting of two longer tails are either side of the hips, a further two smaller ones on top of them and then finally a central piece at the back layered between them. While these are all made of a softer plastic, they aren’t especially malleable and certainly don’t do the articulation any favours. Whereas Tamashii Nations seem to have fully embraced soft goods (whether they be wired or not) on the Shinkocchou Seihou range, the standard S.H. Figuarts line is still dealing with soft plastic. It’s great for static poses, but hardly ideal for Figuarts’ “pursuing character expression tagline”.

Around the figure’s waist is of course the Evol Driver, which has been previously seen on both the Evol Phase 1-3 set and Kamen Rider Mad Rogue. Of course, the Evol Driver itself is just a reworking of the standard Build Driver, which has been seen plenty of times in the line as well. The Driver is extremely well detailed (the tiny Build logo on the crank was something I didn’t even notice until I looked at my close up pictures), featuring both a turning crank and removable Cobra and Rider System Evol Bottles. The bottles are a little difficult to unpeg at first since there isn’t a whole lot of clearance above them, but once they’re out they’re very easy to peg back in. The new addition to the belt here is the Evol Trigger, a parallel to Build’s Hazard Trigger that allows Evol to upgrade to this form. Unlike the bottles though the Evol Trigger is not removable from the belt, and as such probably quite a fragile piece. Gluing it into the belt is perfectly understandable if that’s the case, but then a loose version could have easily been included as well. It’s not like this set has any more important accessories that it needed to come with instead after all.

Evol might be a complicated looking figure but there's still plenty of articulation going on under all that elaborate sculpting. Sharing the same base body as the previous Evol figure (which in turn also reworks parts of Kamen Rider Build), Evol Black Hole sports the following;

- Ball jointed head, neck, torso, waist, wrists and hips

- Swivel hinge shoulders and ankles

- Butterfly joint shoulders

- Double hinge elbows and knees

- Single hinge toe sections

- Bicep and thigh swivels

Additionally the skirt/coattail pieces on either side are attached via some sort of hinge, although it's difficult to see them without removing the Driver. The shoulder pads are also attached via balljoints so are able to tilt on their own accord, but they wrap so tightly around the shoulders that the overall movement you get out of them is pretty minimal. Evol's is the kind of design where you look at it and immediately know there are going to be problems, the majority of which of course are around the waist area. The hinge joint the skirt pieces are on does mean that the hip joints aren't that poorly restricted, in fact they have a lot more range than I was expecting. The bigger issue is that the pieces just look ridiculous in any sort of action poses, because they're just draped there as if Evol was standing in a neutral position. Wired fabric pieces would have fixed this issue best of all, but some better hinge joints would have sufficed - the piece at the very back doesn't even move! The other key problem area is the shoulders, since those huge spiked shoulder pads don't allow for very much outward movement at all. You can swing the arms forward and backward fine, but the second you try to push them outward at anything more than a 40 degree angle you severely run the risk of breaking something. That said, other areas on the figure actually defy expectations. I've previously mentioned how the hips aren't that limited, but the ball jointed waist is also really well done as it sits completely under the Driver and thus not impeded. Together with the torso joint above it you can get some really natural looking poses. While Evol certainly isn't the most poseable figure out there, you can still get some great moves out of him and the figure certainly has shelf presence even in the most vanilla of poses.

But rather than the articulation it’s perhaps the accessory count that lets this figure down the most. If we discount the removable bottles (as we should because they’re part of the Driver anyway), Evol Black Hole only comes packaged with seven extra hands. Compare that to the Phase 1-3 set that came with numerous replacement body parts (and only cost 1100 yen more), or even Blood Stalk who at least had the Transteam Gun and Steam Blade. Granted Evol Black Hole doesn’t have any weapons like that or need replacement body like Phase 1-3, but there are still plenty of things this figure could have come with just to sweeten the deal. Previously in the review I brought up a removable Evol Trigger, but a Pandora Box would have been the perfect accessory for this figure. Alternatively in the event that Tamashii wanted to keep the Pandora Box exclusive to the event exclusive Kamen Rider Build Trial Form (RabbitDragon) figure, Pandora Box panels would have sufficed nicely - especially if you could slot the various Bottles onto them. Once upon a time it feels like these would have been obvious accessories for a figure like this, but as accessory counts have largely gone down on S.H. Figuarts they’ve become a rarity rather than the norm. To end on a positive note though, the hand selection here is pretty good. On top of the basic closed fists there’s also two pairs of posed open hands, a pair for holding the loose bottles and finally an additional right hand meant for holding the crank on the Driver. The holding hands are standard stuff, but the posed hands are just perfect for that distinctly Evol look.

S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Evol Black Hole Form (Phase 4) is a beautifully intricate figure that’s sure to excite a lot of Kamen Rider Build fans, but it certainly isn’t without its flaws. The sooner Bandai Tamashii Nations start considering cloth cape/coat pieces as standard the better, and for the price commands this release could have really done with some extra accessories to make it stand out more from the more extensive Phase 1-3 version. But for those who missed out on that more expensive (and a lot more sought after) figure this is a good slimmed down alternative, rounding off Evolto’s evolution across the series.