SOUCHAKU-HENSHIN KAMEN RIDER SERIES

SH Masked Rider Faiz (555) Series GD-62 Masked Rider Kaixa (6/2004)

FAIZ

MASKED RIDER

KUUGA

MASKED RIDER

AGITO

CLASSIC

MASKED RIDERS

MASKED RIDER

RYUKI

MASKED RIDER

FAIZ

MASKED RIDER

BLADE

MASKED RIDER KAIXA

GD-62 Kamen Rider Kaixa was released by Bandai in June of 2004 along with Kamen Rider Faiz after the two years hiatus of the Souchaku Henshin line. Kaixa was the second Rider to show in the Faiz series and he had the code 913 which if sounded out in Japanese basically say KA-IE-SA or Kaixa. Like Faiz and other Riders in the show, Kaixa was design with multitude of electronic gadgetries as the theme. The Riders in the series transformed by using the henshin belt (called Driver) along with the matching cell phone. By pushing in the numerical code (913 for Kaixa) and plug the cell phone into the belt, the belt wearer would transform into Masked Riders. The Rider's accessories were also based on electronic gadgets such as laser pointer (to perform Rider's kick) and camera (for Rider's punch). Another theme for the Riders in Faiz series was the names and suit designs which derived from Greek alphabets. Kaixa came from Greek X (Chi) and his body suit reflected with X design across his mask and his chest. While the Rider designs in Faiz were not as radical looking as those from Ryuki, many fans felt the designs was too much of a departure from the old Riders especially the large round cyclope-like eyes. I personally like the Faiz series Riders design while it is quite a change from the old, it kept many of the elements from early Rider designs. The chest section also was heavily armored like Ryuki which made Faiz Riders work well with the SH removable armor format.

The core body for Kaixa had been extensively retooled with arms and legs remolded specifically for Masked Rider Faiz series. While this design gave the figure fewer die-cast armor, I rather prefer this format as it solve the problem with loose wrist armors which tends to fall off SH figures and also gave the figure better proportion. (SH Ryuki series went a step between with smaller wrist armors which work out quite well). Bandai had really re-engineered and tweak the SH format using what they learn from other series and it showed in the over-all figures looks. Kaixa also had very nice paint job and one of the better looking SH series figures. Kaixa as expected came with many accessories including his Blay-Gun in both sword and gun mode, Kaixa pointer (both used and stored mode also), Kaixa phone (open and closed) and Kaixa Shot (again both used and stored mode) One of the nice extra was the Smart Brain briefcase that can hold Kaixa Driver, Pointer and Shot just like in the TV show.

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. Although, Kaixa Driver belt was used by several people, Kusaka Masato was the main wearer of Kaixa suit in the TV show.

Weapon Accessories

Kaixa came with several accessories and even included the briefcase seen in the show. The briefcase can even open up and store some of the accessories.

Kaixa accessories can be attach to his body just like in the TV show. Above, Kaixa Pointer attach to his boot.