Friday, September 16, 2011

SIC Diend Review

Well, this is actually my first Tamashii Web Exclusive SIC. The price I paid for this thing...damn...I never thought that Tamashii Web Exclusives would be so expensive at first. I paid 4500 Philippine pesos for this (equivalent to $100 at that time).
Anyway, let's get on with the review.
BTW, I was able to manage to borrow my cousin's DSLR so that's why the shots are actually a lot better than my past reviews. I hope I'd be able to borrow his DSLR all the time. xD

THE BOX


The brown box of exclusivity...


It's actually weird for me that this SIC box has no window.


THE FIGURE
For SIC enthusiasts, we could already see that the mold that they used for SIC Diend was the Decade mold. I don't have the SIC Decade yet but based on the pictures that I saw on the internet, there are a lot of similarities, namely the elbows, the legs, and the crotch (or so it seems...). Articulation of this thing is pretty poor. The arms can't move freely because of the huge pauldrons and chest. As for the articulation of the lower torso, it is fine. The visor on the face is actually made of clear blue plastic and the chest, ABC plastic, methinks? The only thing I see that is kinda awkward are the panel lines. On some parts, there are a few overlapping paint smudges but hardly noticeable actually. I guess I just don't like the color of the panel lines because the panel lines matches the color of the body.
Kamen Rider Barcode!

ACCESSORIES
Well, more like accessory only actually. The only notable accessory is the gun (I dunno the name of it). It actually has the nifty gimmick that you could slide it out so that you could put the card in it. The only nitpick I found was that it's kinda not accurate to the one shown in the tv series. The tv series one has a hole where Diend inserts the card before sliding the lower part out. In this, there's actually no hole. Well, it really does not bother me that much.

The other accessories only consist of 6 cards (one of Diend, Final Kamen Ride, Ixa, Skull, Orga, and Kabuki.) and a paddle-shaped plastic which you use for poking out the card inserted into the gun.

ACTION SHOTS

Final Kamen Ride...D-d-d-d-diend!

CONCLUSION:
Articulation: 3.5/5 (pretty meh...)
Design: 4.5/5 (though it actually is show accurate, there is still the SIC feel in it. Hell, how should I explain it?)
Accessories: 2/5 (only the gun is the notable accessory. The cards...I kinda feel that those are pretty useless.)
Price: 2/5 (seriously not the price that I thought I would've had to pay for it)
Verdict: 3/5 (though I actually love this SIC for being an exclusive, I kinda feel that spending on a regular 2-in-1 pack SIC is actually a better choice. But then, knowing that this is a Tamashii Web Exclusive, this thing would really cost a lot more after a year or so. To get or not to get, well, that's your choice since I know that for one, only a few people actually care for Kamen Rider Diend. lol)

 "Hell, review's over."
"Time for me to disappear"
Kamen Ride...Invisible

SIC Vol. 57 Kamen Rider W Cyclone Joker review

THE BOX
The box has actually a different design than the past SIC boxes. For this particular SIC volume, there's only one large window unlike the past designs which had one window on front of the box, and windows on the left and right sides. Color accent of box matches the colors of the Cyclone Joker Form.



THE FIGURE
Though the design is more of show-accurate, there's still the SIC feel to it. Panel lines are actually pretty asymmetrical on some points. Cyclone side has a glossy paint while Joker side has matte finish. Articulation is superb for the first tries but definitely, DEFINITELY fails after posing this a lot because the shoulder joint would actually always drop. Also, the joints for the hands are ball joints and really, it is FUCKIN TERRIBLE. After a few swaps, the hands would then just tend to fall out of the socket which made the pictorial for the Xtreme form hell for me. Also, as usual, eyes are made of clear red plastic with a few details in it.




Oh god...very nasty seamlines on the head.




Though I must say, I actually like the paint jobs on both sides.







Kamen Raida...V3! Oh wait, wrong rider.


Sa, omae wo tsumi no kazoero!






Xtreme Form
The Xtreme form has the same paint applications just like with the Cyclone Joker parts. The only major difference is that the middle part actually looks super shiny. It was really hard to take pics of this thing with flash (hey, forgive me. I have terrible light source so I always must result to using flash.). Articulation is now a bit limited to the arms because of the huge pauldrons (shoulder pads, as other reviewers call it). Nevertheless, no change in articulation on other points besides arms.
Now this is actually the part where all was hell. The Prism Bicker is one heavy piece of plastic and so the arms always droop down. Add to the fact that the hands are actually loose on their sockets, you can expect this thing to always drop the shield with its hand along with it. The Prism Sword is also made of soft plastic.



CONCLUSION:
Articulation: 5/5 (Modern engineering ftw!)
Design: 2.5/5 (Appearance=win. Quality issue=fail. The fact that the joints tend to become so loose easily really takes a lot of points away from this section. Moreover, there is a really nasty seamline on the head. Like wtf Bandai? Did you even bother to check that thing out? And also, this thing has the SMALLEST diecast parts on any SIC figure. The only diecast parts are the bracelets and the anklets.)
Accessories: 4/5 (Really good to be honest. I honestly didn't expect that Bandai could've pulled an SIC W without releasing how many volumes for it unlike the SHF line. Also, it comes with a free stand.)
Price: 4/5 (Well, I'm going to admit. It is priced fair despite the issues I pointed out. Not only do you get the CJ Form but you also get the Xtreme parts. And to mention the free stand. lol.)
Verdict: 3/5 (This volume is just pretty average for my tastes because 1. WTF with the very small amount of diecast? 2. WTF with the joints? 3. WTF with the nasty seamline?).

Pretty much, I can't say for certain if this thing is actually worth getting. But if you ask me, I would answer that I regret preordering this thing and not ordering something better like SIC Kabuto.

Now, time to count your sins...

...you pervert!