Saturday 19 November 2011

Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Shinken Gold



My third trip into Bandai's S.H. Figuarts line is yet another Sentai, only this time it's not a Red. Shinken Gold is the 6th member of the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger team, and the second (and last) to be made available at retail. Shinken Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink and Red (Kaoru ver.) were all Tamashii web exclusives).

Much like his red team mate, Shinken Gold has a fantastic sculpt which captures both the simplicity of the suit and the raised visor pieces on the helmet. The gold and blue colouring compliment each other nicely, with the gold not being too flat nor too shiny. He uses the same system of joints as Shinken Red, so unless you are familiar with how they work you might want to be careful when initially posing him just so there aren't any accidental breakages from putting pressure in the wrong places. Removing the hands is a simple task and stay firmly on the wrist joints when applied.

Shinken Gold also comes with a fantastic range of accessories - besides five extra hands, there is also 3 different versions of the Sakaramanu (fully sheathed, partly sheathed and then blade/sheath), the Ebi and Ika origamis, the sushi disk, DaiGoyou (lantern mode) and his arm/stick weapon...thing. So no humongous sword like the Rekka Daizantou that came with Red, but still an extremely impressive set featuring pretty much everything Shinken Gold needs (although a Sushi Changer might have been good too). The sheathed Sakaramaru slots into a hole on Gold's belt when its not in use, and the sushi disk also fits on the other versions of the sword so that he can be posed ready to perform his finishing attack!

The initial run of Shinken Red/Gold also came with a first wave bonus, in the form of a non posable Kuroko figure. Since Gold came out back in March I was surprised to find a kuroko included with my order (which was from Amiami if you're interested). For a free gift, its a pretty good in-scale figure that would look good along any Shinkenger (but mainly Shinken Red).

Figuarts have wowed me yet again. From the amazing range of accessories to how dynamic the figure is when it comes to posing, there's very little to fault when it comes to Shinken Gold. Its shame the rest of the Shinkengers did have a mass release, because if they did I'd certainly be tempted to buy them all (I'm tempted enough as it is). With Figuarts Shinken Red and Gold available at retail at Toys R Us stores in the US, this is a great time to get into the line without having to resort to overpaying for them.

If the Kamen Rider figures are just as good as the three I have already (and the five I have ordered), this could very easily be my favourite toyline of all time.



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