Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts -Shinkocchou Seihou- Kamen Rider Diend

Release Date: October 2019
RRP: 7700 yen

It's been three and a half years since S.H. Figuarts -Shinkocchou Seihou- Kamen Rider Decade was originally released, but despite showing up at the Tamashii Nation event that very same year his rival Kamen Rider Diend has been nowhere to be seen. But now fans of the world-hopping thief's prayers have been answers, as S.H. Figuarts -Shinkocchou Seihou- Kamen Rider Diend has finally arrived in a rather unexpected way. Daiki Kaito's latest target is collectors' wallets, as Diend appears as the Shinkocchou Seihou Tamashii Nation 2019 event exclusive. But though the means might not be what people expected the timing couldn’t be any better, as the two Kamen Rider Decade Riders returned to butt heads (and then team up, in typical fashion) earlier this year in Kamen Rider Zi-O – the final chapter in the Heisei Rider chronology.

A special occasion calls for special packaging, and much like previous Tamashii Nation event exclusives Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider Diend comes packaged with a rather fancy box sleeve that proudly shows off its exclusivity. This glossy white sleeve features the Tamashii Nation 2019 logo on its front side, which consists of a mechanised version of the company logo with text underneath. Below that is the name of the figure in rather basic font, which is then repeated across the two spines. The back features just a single image of the figure inside, present with an ethereal effect over the top of it to bring it more in line with the sleeve's general colour palette. While the reminiscence to Diend's "Invisible" ability probably wasn't intentional, it's a rather nice touch nonetheless.

Underneath that though it's the same two-piece Shinkocchou Seihou box that we all know and love, with a nice big head shot of Diend adorning the top piece. This packaging has none of the Tamashii Nation 2019 branding (as it will likely be sold via lottery on the Tamashii web shop some time next year), but it does have the 20 Kamen Rider Kicks branding in the top corner to mark it as part of Bandai's own Heisei era 20th anniversary celebrations. The underside of the box features a nice selection of images showing off the Diend (and of course his accessories) in all his glory, and then inside you'll find said contents spread across two white plastic trays. The thicker, top tray contains the figure while the smaller one hidden underneath contains all the accessories.

The original Kamen Rider Died Figuart came out a whole ten years ago, and the line has come a long, long way since then. This new Shinkocchou Seihou Diend is both taller and far more detailed than his predecessor, sporting much sharper sculpting and colours. The head sculpt is particularly great in this regard, not only now giving you a far better look at all the shapes that make up that distinct silhouette but also making the compound eye shape underneath much more pronounced. Similarly elements such as the Diend Belt and Card Holder have been recreated down to the finest detail, and though they may not be functional like the DecaDriver the effort Bandai have gone to in order to make them look absolutely perfect has not gone unnoticed. Kamen Rider Diend has a rather unorthodox design that isn't to everyone's tastes, but it's high quality figures like these that truly let you see first hand all that finer detailing that isn't as obvious in motion onscreen.

Of all the S.H. Figuarts that have now received updated versions in the Shinkocchou Seihou line, I genuinely thought Kamen Rider Diend was one of the ones that has aged the best. While it does have some flaws (the somewhat oversized hands for example) and doesn't quite stack up to the standard of newer figures, it's still a perfectly functional toy that doesn't look completely out of place in a display. If anything, it was the woefully poor accessories that let the original figure down. But putting the two side by side you can really see just how much of a marked improvement the Shinkocchou Seihou is on it – outdoing it in every single aspect and making the original not look anywhere near as good as I once thought. Some collectors lament the lack of die-cast metal feet on newer releases, but Diend certainly doesn't suffer without them.

Given Diend’s boxy torso you might expect articulation to be restricted somewhat - after all, the actual suit clearly has the same problems and the original figure never really managed to solve them either. But while Diend is certainly a bit more limited in the shoulder area than your average Figuarts thanks to the design, Bandai have still managed to provide a significant upgrade when it comes to poseability too. Derived from the same base body as Decade, Diend features ball joints in his head, torso, waist, shoulders, shoulder pads, wrists and hips along with double hinged elbows and knees, bicep and thigh swivels, swivel tilt ankle rocker joints and a hinged toe section at the end of each foot. The fact there’s been so little change in the Shinkocchou Seihou body just goes to show how well they nailed it years ago, with Diend every bit as animated when it comes to posing as Decade is. The shoulders have been brilliantly handled, not just moving on their own free-floating ball joints but also able to pull away from the torso and rotate alongside the shoulder. This adds so much more movement to the shoulder areas, and even though Diend’s main schtick is just shooting outwards and then getting summoned Riders to do his dirty work at least now he can do it in style.

Diend’s accessories include five pairs of swappable hands (including closed fists, weapon and card holding hands as well as posed open hands), both his DienDriver and Neo DienDriver handguns (from Kamen Rider Decade and Kamen Rider Zi-O respectively), and 25 different Rider cards selected from Diend's arsenal. While the inclusion of the standard black DienDriver was a given, the addition of his new blue Neo DienDriver was a very welcome surprise. It makes sense given that Shinkocchou Seihou Diend has just received a "Neo DecaDriver ver." reissue, but since that was a completely separate figure it wouldn't have been all that shocking to see Bandai do the same thing here further down the line. Both weapons are beautifully moulded and painted, but more importantly both have fully opening cartridge sections that are compatible with the included Rider Cards. This feature was completely absent from the original figure (even lacking an entirely separate "open" Driver) and really brought the overall presentation down, so it's so great to see it finally implemented here (as if there was any doubt it wouldn't). Opening the Drivers is a perfectly smooth process and while slotting the cards in can be a little fiddly given their size, the end result is just sublime.

Among the cards included with the figure are both the standard and Diend Complete transformation cards, all 20 of the "secondary" Heisei Kamen Riders (based on Toei's own official designations, so for the more debatable multi-Rider shows you have the likes of Knight, Garren, Ibuki, Gatack, Baron and Brave represented) and a selection of Diend's attack cards. These include Neo Illusion, Neo Crossattack, Neo Blast, Neo Invisible and of course his Final Attack Ride. The printing on the cards is extremely good, and given they're such a small size it's amazing how close they are to the full-sized versions included with the DX Neo DienDriver. The text and detailing is obviously obscured because of the size, but they are unmistakably the same. The cards are neatly laid out on a single sheet and perforated for easy removal, and their plastic finish should prevent them from sustaining any significant damage when used. They are however still extremely tiny (not to mention thin), so the usual caution when it comes to these small accessories should be applied to ensure you don't lose them.

When S.H. Figuarts –Shinkocchou Seihou- Kamen Rider Diend was first announced nobody expected it to be released as a Tamashii Nation event exclusive, and while this may be far from the most ideal way to release such a key character it's nevertheless amazing to see it available after such a long wait. In typical Shinkocchou Seihou fashion this figure significantly improves upon the original when it comes to sculpt and articulation, while the accessories finally give Diend all those key things the old one was so sorely lacking. Finally new addition of Kamen Rider Zi-O related accessories makes that long wait all the more worth it. It's unfortunate that its exclusivity means collectors will likely have to pay an inflated price to get a hold of it, but if you're prepared to take that plunge then you certainly won't be disappointed.