SOUCHAKU-HENSHIN KAMEN RIDER SERIES

SH Masked Rider Blade Series GD-65 Masked Rider Blade (8/2004)

BLADE

MASKED RIDER

KUUGA

MASKED RIDER

AGITO

CLASSIC

MASKED RIDERS

MASKED RIDER

RYUKI

MASKED RIDER

FAIZ

MASKED RIDER

BLADE

MASKED RIDER BLADE

GD-65 Kamen Rider Blade was released by Bandai in August of 2004 along with GD-66 Kamen Rider Garren. Both GD-65 and GD-66 came from 2004 Kamen Rider series called "Blade". There were four main Masked Riders in Blade series and the remaining two, Chalice and Leangle, were plan for late September 2004. It seem Bandai had decided to fully return the SH series by releasing the Riders from the two previous series along with the current one in Souchaku Henshin format. The Blade series return to the card gimmick but without the mirror world story. The Masked Riders were now even more armored than the previous year Faiz and the designs were even more of a departure than all the previous modern Rider series. The problem with Blade, for me however was not the Rider designs (I actually like them a lot) but rather the poorly written TV show. I had watch all the modern Rider shows from Kuuga to Faiz, and Blade so far was the weakest in term of characters developments and story. Masked Rider Blade, of course, was the main Masked Rider from the show but it was getting hard to distinguish with so many "lead" characters running around in recent Kamen Rider shows. Blade series overall design follow card theme mixed with insect design. Both Masked Rider Blade and Garren were based on beetle. Since Blade and Garren Change Belt Systems were both designed at the same time, their designs were then very similar in keeping with the story line. Each of the four main Riders also belong to one of the four playing card suits, Blade of course was the spade.

Like the other series Faiz and Ryuki from the 2004 SH releases, Blade's core figure was greatly reworked with new parts for legs and arms. The figure strangely seem to gain in height. SH figures from Ryuki were slightly taller than those from Agito and Kuuga but Blade SH figures were even taller. The reason seem to be the "extra" sole on these Rider's feet. (they seem to be wearing boots) The removable armor was a big improvement from the old series and had excellent fit even when compare to the new Faiz and Ryuki. The wrist, legs and belts fit snugly to the figure. SH Masked Rider Blade came with his sword, interchangeable parts for the cards holder so it can be display as open or close and, like Ryuki, the figure came with three small cards. The paint job on these figure was very well done along with very nice detail sculpts on the mask and armor. SH Masked Rider Blade and Garren were really well made, too bad the same can not be say about the TV show that these figures were based on.

Unmasked Mode

Like other SH Riders figures, the human body underneath can look out of proportion and was solely intended for display with the "cloth" (Rider's Armor) on. The core body was similar in style as the body used since the original Saint Seiya Cloth line, however for the 2004 SH line, Bandai had retooled the body to make it more modern. While the head still appear too small due to having to accommodate the mask, this removable "armor suit" however, was one of the aspect that drawn me to this line. The ability to "henshin" into the Rider form made these SH figure a lot like small version of Henshin Cyborg or the RAH costume hero.

The figure can be display with the "masked" removed and show a human head.

Weapon Accessories

Blade came with his sword (Blay Rouser) and two card holder clips (open and closed styles).

Masked Rider Blade came with little miniature Rouse Cards (They were used in the story as a way to capture the monster and then power-up the Masked Riders).