Toy Review: SH Figuarts Kamen Rider Knight & Dark Wing

Overwhelming but epic. These are the two adjectives that come into mind the first time I saw the SH Figuarts Kamen Rider Knight box. It may have the same treatment as Ryuki but this time we have a thicker approach because of the palette of accessories inside.

It feels like a SIC Kamen Rider W figure with two layers of accessories for different Advent/Vent positions. Sugoi. For the first time in my whole toy review vocation, I was overwhelmed and it deemed wise to check out the instructions just in case I missed one or two important attributes of this wonderful SHF pack.

Lets start with the accessories since we have a lot to cover. SHF Knight has a total of 6 advent cards. The details are too small for a far sighted reviewer like me. Speaking of numbers, Knight also has a big boot of poseable hands, about 10. The slew of hands has two sets of holding hands to hold either the Wing Lancer or the Rapier, the other unique hand is to hold the Advent Card. Unlike Ryuki, this hand doesn't hold the card well so pinching the fingers to tighten the gap is what it needs for a sure success.

A Tamashii stand set is part of the whole package with Knight's logo and name on the plate. But its stand is different since it follows its SIC counterpart making poses for Final Vent and other "flying" action possible and stable.

The bat is the the most essential part of the whole look and feel. There are hinges and ball joints on the head, legs and wings to either fold into Guard Vent or just to play around as a stand alone. Either way, the flexibility of this makes it at par with Ryuki's Dragredder. The jaw opens and closes to make it more appealing to the end customer. A cape is also made available with ball joints to move the ends similar on how Dark Kiva works. However it is quite heavy for Knight to carry so this is where the Tamashii Stand comes into play. In some cases, I used the cape as a support while I bend Knight's knee to balance without the utilizing the stand.

Last to note is the cape in final vent that forms a cork screw. These parts are presented in separate segments and needs to be connected - a puzzle piece that is manageable to assemble as long as you can find which segment connects with which slot. It is not rocket science anyway. There is a back connector to hold the bat in place, its hinges is a nice touch allowing a better a movement for the humanoid.

Now, the Knight himself is a decent piece of artwork with articulation point similar to Ryuki. The new engineered joints which were patterned from Ryuki had rave reviews from co-owners. One hiccup though, the shoulder blades have the tendency to lock in place. This made my head scratch as I was carefully dissecting its upper torso. What I found out is the the level inside is loose and it needs to be titled down instead of up. Rest assured this will not reflect most of the releases but a good thing to note if this happens to you.

S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Knight is as epic as its predecessor Kamen Rider Ryuki. The accessories makes it more worth the buck especially every single piece works perfectly and the symmetry is one of the best Bandai has done for the SH Figuarts lines. I know that the joints engineered for Knight is one of the kind. But it is not perfect without its hiccups. I trust that most of the Kamen Rider Ryuki-related figures will be as epic as the first two. I just wish that most the figures - regular released or tamashii web exclusives are as good as this. More of the review in the video below.