MG Figure-Rise 1/8 Kamen Rider W/Double CycloneJoker - Part 1

Price: 3800 Yen

I'm quite late this time and even NK has reviewed it himself already. XP

~Rant~

I got this kit last month and have finished it for weeks already. Due to lots of things happening consecutively, I wasn't able to dedicate enough time to make a post on it. Thankfully, my finals are over today and I'm free to do other things besides school although I do have many other things I need to do as well.
A few changes are also in, especially with the browser I'm using. I'm using Google Chrome now (wished it was easier to shift between my 2 main Gmail accounts for Google though). I still use Mozilla Firefox, but I've decided to use the other less resource eating browsers for this old computer I'm still using. Other than that, my mother have decided to upgrade the internet line and we are now enjoying 1Mbps worth of speed. :) Even though it is still Streamyx, there seems to be a good margin of improvement in the downloading department especially. Darn, need more space now.

~End Rant~

~About the Rider~

Kamen Rider W/Double is a rider that needs two people to henshin. Phillip takes the right half while Hidari Shotaro takes the left. Their base form is CycloneJoker which I'm going to review now. They have various other forms such as LunaTrigger, HeatMetal, FangJoker and CycloneJokerXtreme. You can get LunaTrigger and HeatMetal in model kit form now while FangJoker will come next year in February. The left and right halves are not fixed, W can use various combos that can meet with almost every situation faced, making his capability to fight varying enemies quite versatile (eg; HeatJoker, LunaMetal, CycloneTrigger). FangJoker and CycloneJokerXtreme seems pretty much fixed or just not exercised further than that. The theme of the story is a hard boiled detective and the main character is Hidari Shotaro. He is only a half-boiled detective however... More at Wikipedia.

EDIT: Forgot to note some important stuff - feet.

Note: This part of the review only covers the building process. I'm going to go through the model kit part by part.

Part 1: Box
Th box is pretty big and will definitely not look any smaller than those other MG Gunpla that costs just as much. FYI, I decided to simply taking photos of the box since you can find higher resolution, better, scans of it via HobbySearch or Dalong.net.

Part 2: Box Open!

The runners, to my surprise, fills the entire box! o.o

"Sa, omae no tsumi wo kazoero!"

The other model kits you can get (all confirmed)!

Part 3: Runners

The runners may not look so much at first but they are big and definitely does not falter behind any standard MG Gunpla at all in terms of volume but building it should be faster, however.

The green (Cyclone side), silver parts and bracelets/anklets are all glossed. Because they are glossed, some parts, especially the larger parts tend to have ugly molding lines. Some parts may have black nub marks also. Urk. The black (Joker side) seems to scratch easily as well even though it comes in a luckily not so shiny black (somewhat matt).

Overall, if you don't look all that close to the finish product, it will look nice, since it is shiny after all! XD

Stickers! However, I did not use all and you won't either. I only used the reflective eye sticker and the Gaia Memory related stickers. The rest were panel lined.

Part 4: Building Process

Building this is relatively easy. If you have built many Gunpla before this, especially MGs, this should be a breeze. I would even call this a relax build. There isn't a need to panel line except for the black parts (unless yo used paint), so building it should take you around 3 hours or so depending on how fast you want to go. I did mine slowly so it took me around 5~6 hours (split into two days). I decided to do a little extra and panel lined the Cyclone side somewhat.

Part 4.1: Torso

Holy ****! That's a lot of parts for the torso! It also translate to lots of moving joints, which is a good nod to the articulation.

Can you see the molding lines? Quite unsightly... unless you decide to paint.

The hole there is for the scarf which comes later in the building process.

Part 4.2: Head

The head is very simple though. Only one sticker needed - behind the eyes. And, oh, W-Fin!

The eyes looks nice. *_*

Part 4.3: Arms

The fingers are quite articulated and you can make it even more articulated by cutting apart the last three fingers (AFTER you put them on). The thumb is "meh" though. It should have double joints as well. Wasted potential there. Take note of the gimmicky muscle flexing at the upper part of the arm and the elbow.

Is it me or are the bracelets supposed to be loose-ish? They don't seem to just "stick-on" like I thought it should but kinda just "put-on". The wrist has a very human-like range which is all good. Considering W won't be holding anything heavy, so it shouldn't be a problem in the future, right *pokes PG WZC*?

Part 4.4: Waist

Not many parts but there are some points of articulation that I can only show easily before everything comes together.

How big do they seem to you? I painted the tips gold using the Gundam Sangokuden Gold Marker.

EDIT: Whoops, the Cyclone Gaia Memory is supposed to have a silver tip and not a gold tip. My bad, always thought it was gold like the Joker Gaia Memory. ^^; Ah well, I like it gold since the gold marker comes out shinier. XP

The most stickers are here at the waist. XD

Note the maximum drive slot... I mean the swinging of the waist! So, err, W can shake his butt?

There's a link movement for the W Driver too. So, if you move the left side, the right side will move too!

The other one is to enable W to connect to the stand later. Don't really like this method of connecting to the stand though since, from my experience, it will either always like to drop down or eventually break or both *pokes Strike*.

Cyclone... Joker!

Part 4.5: Legs

On a note of disappointment, the legs feel too hollow for a MG. Seriously. It needs more plastic there or some additional weight to maintain proper balance (W can stand pretty well, but still). Note the, IMHO out of place, sliding mechanism on the hips.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is that the sole of the feet are made of rubber. This helps W to hold his stance much better than Gunpla with normal plastic soles *points to Exia*. It indeed does help and it is a good thing that Bandai decided to do this since the last time they used rubber soles was with the MG G Gundam Gunpla if I'm not mistaken.

Part 4.6: Baddass Scarf

I prefer to use the bigger scarf even though it is obviously less flexible. ...yes, that obvious mold line sucks.

Part 4.7: Stand

More on this one in the next part. Nice for it to be transparent but maybe if I paint it half translucent green with half translucent purple, it will look better? :O

Part 5: Preview

Rider... KICK!

To be continued...