Firestarter's Blog: Toy Review: SHF and C.O.R. Kabuto Hyper Form

This is my second VS feature. I'm thinking if I should continue on doing this because two figures in one review plus a video is quite taxing and difficult to edit. But anyway here it goes. Presenting...two toys but of the same character - Cast Of Riders Kabuto Hyper Form and SH Figuarts Kabuto Hyper Form. I'm walking in the path of.....difficulty :(. Lets start with COR.

CAST OF RIDER KABUTO HYPER FORM

Cast of Rider series from Bandai was made when the Kabuto was still on air and SH Figuarts were still Shoucaku Henshins. Basically SHFs are breakaway from the SHs creating a new toy line -with refined articulation and better sculpt, almost 100% accurate from the tokusatsu show. Enough with the history, moving on with the review.

It may seemed like the CORs are the poor man's version of SHFs or even SHs, but looks can be deceiving. C.O.R. Kabuto Hyper Form does have similarities with its SHF counterpart especially the red paint apps on the head, shoulder pads, Kabuto's zecter, the two extra hands and chest armor. COR KHF is nifty, no need for pegs, holes (except for the additional hands). A simple push of the buttons on the Kabuto Zecter and its back part transforms the rider to the Hyper Clock Up mode. There are hinges on the sides of the arms and legs to expose the small wings. It is really easy.

Also inclusive are the two kinds of the Perfect Zecter - gun and sword mode. Both armaments are brightly colored and slightly resemble the one you see on the show. A couple of frowns though for the weapons, the Zecters (though brightly colored) in gun mode are just painted in their respective colors, there are no additional painted lines to differentiate parts. The whole gun is petite and not in scale with the Zecters seen in the show. Though the gun is easy to place on the extra holding hands, it doesn't feel right. The Zecters cannot be removed from the gun to place those on the sword. The sword is painted in black, gold and a hint of red. But without the Zecters in place, the sword looks empty and useless.

The fun slightly ends on the figure's articlutation - it has a coulple of limitations. Hey, this is not SHF. The head does swivel but doesn't have a neck joint. The arms are the same but doesn't go in and out. Elbows have only one joint. The hand however rests in a ball joint so it is easier swing the sword left to right. The legs doesn't have a swivel to raise the leg on its side and when raised the whole leg shifts on a weird angle. Sadly, no waist and torso joints either.

SH FIGUARTS KABUTO HYPER FORM

SHF Kabuto in Hyper Form is like you typical SHF figure and has the same articulation as SHF Kabuto (since basically Hyper form is molded from Kabuto). Buttons and hinges are replaced with pegs. Without the nails to remove from its place, the parts are difficult to manage. Instead of two Perfect Zecters, SHF Kabuto HF, has only one Perfect Zecter. By shifting the handle, it converts to either sword or gun mode. The weapon itself is highly detailed and significantly longer than the COR. Each Zecter can be removed from the sword and can switch with other Zecters from the SHF Kabuto line. Its great, but not that important.

Other things included are 5 interchangeable hands - two open relaxed hands, two holding hands and a "walking in the path of heaven" hand. There is a hitch, the holding hands don't work well when grabbing the Perfect Zecter. It doesn't stay in place and not as stable as the COR.

Hinges on the foot are replaced by ball joints, which I really dislike because when you put them on a certain stance and doesn't support the whole figure.You'll hear from me about this a lot.

The highlight of SHF Kabuto HF are the plastic jet streams. I call them jet streams because they are not wings, even if they are fashioned like it. Wings are bendable even to an extreme extent - this makes you comfortable and eases your mind of it.

COR Kabuto does stand up against its SHF counterpart when its comes to paint, accessory count and price point. Price point? Well let's say one SHF is equivalent to 5 CORs. SHF Kabuto HF however wins in articulation and the wings which beautifies the whole look. Ok I said wings, but I'm still sticking to the jet stream analogy.