As part of my week haul-Mandarake style, herewith is the review of the S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Gaoh from the Den-O movie I'm Born. I was late in the whole SHF collecting so exclusive and beautifully crafted Gaoh took awhile before it reached the shelves of Firestarter. As one of the first exclusives to come out the said SHF line, Gaoh is fascinating yet simple. That's why late bloomers such as moi are trying hard to find a reasonably priced Gaoh.
I hate the fact that SHF Gaoh started the trend of destroying wallets worldwide because he is the first SHF exclusive. Bandai Collectors Shop (Tamashii Web Shouten) to be exact. And since his articulation/structure was of earlier SHF releases, Gaoh proceeds with Souchaku Henshin engineering but of course updated to SHF style. It shows on the hip joints wherein they are rounded. In my opinion, this works better as it streamlines the mechanics and hides the joints better. An improved version comparing it to today's SHFs is Kamen Rider Ryuki.
In terms of its full playability potential, the hindered points are on the shoulders moving forward and the hip joints. The hip joints in actuality doesn't bother me at all as seen on the photos below, they are absolutely poseable.
The crocodile details flows from the head down to its torso. Nitpicking, Bandai could have painted the top details with silver to make is more consistent with the movie character. Again, since is an early SHF, I cannot nitpick about this even more.
Gaoh includes two pairs of hands - fists and open hands. Yes the default hands back then were holding hands and not closed as we have familiarized ourselves through the years. The GaoGasher is very similar to New Den-o's but the difference is on the blade which is serrated. There are two GaohGasher holders to hold the separated Gasher pieces. There are no painted parts for the pieces so if you have the skill, you may want to paint them over. Lastly, the rider pass. There are two rider passes and a set of stickers which you can place over. These stickers ads a nice touch to the whole look and feel. I just used one rider pass with stickers and reserved the other for future purposes. This is actually looks better than New Den-o's. It has been awhile since the release of SHF Gaoh in the market. This means he is harder to get nowadays. In other online hobby stores, the price can hike to 12,000 yen. I'm glad that I bought mine from Mandarake for 4000 yen as opposed to other reviewers who got it about 7000 yen and above. If you are keen on details for SHF Gaoh, then this is not for you since Gaoh was released during the infancy of exclusive SHF figures. But again I'm glad I picked him up anyway. If you have the chance to find one, its not too late. Gaoh was re-released once and I don't think it will be re-issued once again.
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