Toy Review: SIC Kamen Rider W Cyclone Joker

Here is an interesting thought to those who are reading this now. When I started collecting kamen rider figures more than a year ago starting with the purchase of SIC KT Den-O, I was torn between SH Figuarts and SIC. As you might known SICs doesn't release as fast as SHF would. I looked passed the fact despite the deformity, SICs are awkwardly pretty. I regrettably missed out a lot of nice SICs. Thankfully reviews like Locust reintroduced me again to Kamen Rider re-imagination. Not to forget to mention my friends who gave me Kamen Rider W/Double as a birthday present. Here is my review of the SIC Kamen Rider W/Double Cyclone Joker.

On previous scans, I almost took a miss on Cyclone Joker just because he looks like the face mold looks like it was punched in the face. It is different when you see it up close. Bandai took a safer root when CJ was created and not to deform its head sculpt that much as concentrated on the rest of the body work. There were hesitations on how SICs are designed and I think its coming to a point that to make more marketable compromises are made.

Kamen Rider W has nice proportionate shoulder pads and feet. However, CJ reminds me of old school SICs which some of the parts move too much that makes it distracting. A good example is his waist. The articulation of the joints are thankfully sturdy. Maybe sturdier than most SICs.

Some of the imperfectness also lies on his chest area wherein the engravings don't line up to make a proper W. Its like finding a bootleg Coach bag. If the line doesn't align, do you want it?

For the first time, I was terribly happy yet terrified how would I use all of the accessories in one review. He has 5 pairs of hands which are very familiar if you have his SHF counterpart. Also included are 5 Gaia Memories namely Cyclone, Joker, Luna, Heat, and Prism. There are extra memories to use with the Prism Bicker. The Prism Bicker and Sword actually looks better than the SHF counterpart. Bandai also included a Act 5 big ass Tamashii Stage with various pegs for Maximum Drive. Speaking of Maximum Drive there are interchangeable parts for Kamen Rider CJ Xtreme.

Forming Cyclone joker Xtreme means taking CJ apart and replacing with Xtreme parts. CJX is an entirely new figure. The only parts that they share with CJ are ther internal joints to connect the upper and lower torso and other skeletal parts. This formation isn't formalized exclusively on CJ, some of which are seen in previous SIC offerings such as Agito, Kuuga, Decade and even Black/Black RX.

Shoulder pads for CJX are huge, but I believe that Fang Joker looks better. I had some difficulty finding out how to pull the Xtreme memory and insert it into the Double Driver even if it is just a pull-out action to split it apart.

I love how SIC Cyclone Joker turn out and probably the biggest SIC packaging to date without a bike. In addition, I really love the fact this doesn't have twisties to begin with. However the plastic case is no SHF so may have to reuse the scotch tape to hold the accessories back into the box. I'm just organized that way. Learnings from my Street Fighter collection. SIC Kamen Rider Double Cyclone Joker is one solid bloke.