SOUCHAKU-HENSHIN KAMEN RIDER SERIES

SH Classic Masked Riders Series GD-47 Masked Rider Stronger Charge Up (c.2002)

Stronger

MASKED RIDER

KUUGA

MASKED RIDER

AGITO

CLASSIC

MASKED RIDERS

MASKED RIDER

RYUKI

MASKED RIDER

FAIZ

MASKED RIDER

BLADE

STRONGER CHARGE UP

Kamen Rider Stronger Charge Up was released as part of Souchaku Henshin Classic Masked Riders in 2002. When Bandai-Asia reissued SH series they went on to release several new variants by either modified the molds or redeco the existing figures. Stronger was one of the original 7 Kamen Riders and the creation of the late Mr. Shotaro Ishinomori (who is credited with many of the tokusatsu hero designs). Stronger was the 7th Kamen Rider and at one point he was meant to be the last Rider until the franchise was revive with New Kamen Rider (Sky Rider) four years later. Stronger story returned to the familiar original Riders theme; Shigeru Jou was operated on by the Black Satan (an evil organization as you might have guess) and became electrical power cyborg Kamen Rider Stronger. Shigeru then betrayed Black Satan to avenge his friend. He later got upgrade with "dynamo" power which allowed him to power-up for 1 minute. In this power up mode, he became Stronger Charge Up with silver band across his chest and shiny silver horn. Stronger was the first Kamen Rider to have alternate form.

Stronger was the first Kamen Rider to be based on a kabu (beetle) and also returned Rider to insect theme after Rider Amazon (lizard / piranha) departure. Stronger design was a big change from the previous Kamen Rider most notable was his eyes which was now large half-oval shape with small eyes holes and his antennae which form prominent "horn". His chest also feature a single large "armor" that cover over his shoulder with large letter "S" in black. Souchaku Henshin version of Stronger is actually pretty good since the bulky look fits well with the "armor" format. I was rather surprise at how well Stronger look in SH format. The Charge Up version was essentially the same but with. of course, the silver paint on his horn and silver deco across his chest.

I have to confess that Stronger was my least favorite design of the first seven original Riders. Even as a kid I thought his Charge Up mode was pretty cheesy looking with foil warp around his horn so the studio can pass him off as new and exciting. (I was a little older at this point and probably not as easily amuse). Stronger however was the last Rider I watched in its entirety when I was a kid. By the time New Kamen Rider (Sky Rider) came out to renew the series I was much too old for this type of tokusatsu show. (Who would have thought I would be watching Rider series again many years later with my son who is about the same age as me when I started to watch the first Kamen Rider).

Unmasked Mode

The core body was similar style body used since the original Saint Seiya Cloth line which made it a little dated by today standard. However, this was one of the aspect that drawn me to this line. The ability to "henshin" into the Rider by adding "cloth" armor costume made these SH figures a lot like small scale Henshin Cyborg and RAH costume hero. The head, as usual was too small when unmasked and figure was obviously design to be display in armored mode. The Classic Riders all shared generic head design.

Weapon Accessories

 Masked Rider Stronger came without any weapon accessories since he didn't have any in the TV show. (The first Rider to use weapon was Rider-X)