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.

Series REVIEW: Kamen Rider Build

After the Kamen Rider aesthetic was taken a little bit off course in 2016 with Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, things fell back into a bit more familiar territory with the series that followed. The compound eyes make a natural return, and the hero's two-part red and blue costume wasn't just a callback to the similarly styled Kamen Rider W – the colourscheme also harked back to heroes like the Kikaider brothers and Metalder. Welcome to Kamen Rider Build – the 19th entry in the show's Heisei period run and the 28th series in the franchise overall. Notably written in its entirety by Shogo Muto and with Ryuta Tasaki as lead director, Build is also the first (and possibly only) of the post-Decade series to take place in a parallel universe.