[Review] S.H.Figuarts Kamen Rider Psyga

Introduction

Psyga vs. Faiz Axel

Popularly known as Kamen Rider 何潤東 among the Chinese Kamen Rider fans, Kamen Rider Psyga was one of the movie exclusive riders who debuted in Kamen Rider 555 movie: Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost tells the alternate ending of Kamen Rider 555, where the world was dominated by Orphnoch (the monsters), after Kamen Rider Faiz was defeated and gone missing. 

In the alternate universe, two belts were invented for the Orphnoch's uses, namely the Belt of the Sky: Psyga Driver, and the Belt of the Emperor: Orga Driver. Worn by a foreign Orphnoch named Leo, Kamen Rider Psyga demonstrated its tremendous strength and speed over his predecessors by defeating Kamen Rider Kaixa and giving a hard time to Kamen Rider Faiz. Of course, justice always prevails in Kamen Rider shows. Near the end of the movie, Psyga was defeated by Faiz and turned into dust.

SHF Kamen Rider Psyga was first shown in the Tamashii Nation 2012 event, but it only got released 2 years later after the exhibition. Like any other popular SHF, the market price of this action figure sky-rocketed over the past year. Wonder why this SHF has so much charm? Read on to find out why.

 

Product Information

Name	S.H.Figuarts Masked Rider Psyga
Origin Series	Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost
Manufacturer	BANDAI
Product Line	S.H.Figuarts
Size	Around 14 cm
Price	4,200 JPY
Released Date	21-Feb-2014

Box Art

SHF Kamen Rider Psyga Box Art

SHF Psyga inherited the windowless box design from its Tamashii Exclusive SHF predecessors. Even though sharing the same series line as SHF Kamen Rider Faiz/Kaixa/Delta, SHF Psyga adopted the full-colored box art. At the back, you can see the word "Henshin!" printed there - Probably Bandai thinks that's the signature caption for Psyga, as "Henshin" was the only Japanese word the foreign Rider can pronounce throughout the movie.

Show Accuracy

Putting the Shinkocchu Seihou aside, I dare to say that SHF Psyga is one of the most show-accurate SHF:

Kamen Rider Psyga: Show (left) vs. SHF (right)

Kamen Rider Psyga: Show (left) vs. SHF (right)

It'd be perfect if the little pegs at the sides of Flying Attacker is made of black materials. In fact, from Bandai's promotional posters and images of SHF Psyga prototype in Tamashii exhibitions, the pegs were properly colored.

SHF Psyga shown in promotional image & Tamashii Nation 2012

Bandai really screwed up last minute by missing out such a trivial thing when they mass-produced SHF Psyga.

Accessories

Content of SHF Kamen Rider Psyga

For a movie & SHF exclusive Rider, SHF Psyga came with quite a lot of accessories: 2 pairs of optional hands, 2 optional Psyga Drivers, 2 Psyga Phones in different modes, the Tonfa Edge and the Flying Attacker jet-pack. With all these contents, Bandai had done a good job in utilizing the space and compressing them in a single tray. On a side note, it would be great to have a custom stand since Psyga is a flying Rider, but that's not really a big deal.

First, let's check out the optional hands. Including the default hand parts, SHF Psyga came with 3 pairs of hands: 2 fists, 2 open hands and 2 weapon-holding hands. SHF Faiz line is one of the SHF lines with separated-fingers hand parts, so sometimes you may find the hand grips are not strong enough to hold the weapons. While these pairs of hands are already sufficient for most action poses, I would still hope for a thumb-up hand to do Psyga's throat-slitting provoking pose:

Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost

Kamen Rider Decade: Episode 17

One noteworthy improvement Bandai had shown in SHF Psyga was that the fingertips are now properly painted:

See, Bandai? It doesn't take much to satisfy your customers. Just do a good job in QC and everyone is happy :D

Next, we have the interchangeable Psyga Drivers:

Psgya Drivers for different scenarios

These optional Drivers were meant to match different scenarios, as listed below (top to bottom):

1. Default Psyga Driver
2. Psyga Driver without the Mission Memory - that is when Psyga took out the memory to activate his other weapons
3. Psyga Driver without the Psyga phone - when Psyga took out his phone and use it as Phone Blaster / make a call (?)

Then, we have the Psyga Phones in different modes - one in phone mode and another one in Phone Blaster mode:

2 sides of Psyga Phones

For the weapon, we have the Tonfa Edge:

SHF Psyga Tonfa Edge

Tonfa Edge is actually the flight controllers for Psyga's Flying Attacker. Once Mission Memory is inserted, the controllers can be detached from the jet-pack and act as Psyga's melee weapon. Note that the tonfa are not sides-interchangeable: The one with the Psyga Mission Memory is the right tonfa and the one without is the left tonfa (as stated in the manual).

Last but not least, we have the main highlight of this SHF set - the Flying Attacker, i.e. the jet-pack + rifle equipment worn by Kamen Rider Psyga:

Front & back view of Flying Attacker

The Flying Attacker can be installed easily by first removing the back panel, followed by attaching the jet-pack onto the back of the figure:

Installing Flying Attacker

Be sure to properly secure the position of the jet-pack by plugging the peg into the hole of the belt:

Peg to be plugged into the belt

Thanks to the die-cast feet, SHF Psyga has no problem standing even with the huge jet-pack at the back.

SHF Flying Attacker can be easily turned into the Blaster Rifle Mode with a few simple steps:

Be sure to insert the white pegs into the Tonfa Edge

And we're done!

SHF Psyga with Flying Attacker rifle mode

Mold & Sculpting

SHF Kamen Rider Psyga overview

Bandai's common practice is to reuse the same mold for all the SHF under the same line, so SHF Psyga continues to use the SHF Faiz mold. The common issues with SHF Faiz mold are their fat thighs & small heads. But those problems are almost unnoticeable in SHF Psyga. Unlike SHF Faiz, SHF Psyga's body ratio looks balanced, probably because his big thighs are offset by his bulky chest armor and the helmet design.  

Similar to SHF Faiz, SHF Psyga's feet is made of die-cast material. The die-cast feet really helps in balancing the figure, especially when you have the bulky Flying Attacker attached onto his back.

Another plus point for SHF Psyga is the clear parts used for the visor and the Psyga Core. The clear parts are eye-catchy and the color is pretty show-accurate (as opposed to SHF Kaixa). But a little bit of nitpicking is that at certain angles, you might see the 2 plastic clips inside the core, which sorta destroyed the overall aesthetic values:

Psyga Core

Overall, the sculpting is good. Compared to the preceding Smart Brain Riders, Kamen Rider Psyga has a more complicated Photon Blood pattern (the blue lines) allover his body, and Bandai did well in casting the pattern on such a small SHF body:

Paint & Color

The paint job for SHF Psyga was well executed. I found some minor (very very minor) paint defects here and there especially at the Photon Blood, but considering the complexity of the design, the defects are acceptable.

The color choice for SHF Psyga was also great, especially the white color. You might not see it from the picture below, but if you put SHF Psyga side-by-side with other recent SHF white Riders, you'll find that SHF Psyga's white really outshines the others:

SHF Psyga in comparison with SHF Fourze Base State & SHF Zangetsu Shin

Also, it seems that Bandai wanted to atone for their previous mistakes in SHF Faiz line by giving SHF Psyga a proper paint on his fingertips and soles. Overall, job well done, Bandai.

Joints & Articulation

The joints system of SHF Psyga is summarized in the table below:

Neck	Ball-socket joints
Shoulders	Swivel ball joints (with swivel bicep)
Shoulder pads	Hinged onto the shoulders
Wrist	Ball-socket joints
Elbows	Double hinge joints
Hips	Swivel ball joints (with swivel thigh)
Knees	Double hinge joints
Ankles	Tilt-joint

SHF Psyga joints system

One point worth mentioning: the hip joints are mounted on a hinge system attached to the crotch, so you can pull the legs further down for more articulations. You can even make SHF Psyga sits crossed-leg without any problem.

The articulations are good except for the neck:

Due to the single ball-socket joint used, the neck articulation is very limited. SHF Psyga can barely tilt his head downward:

Action Poses

Conclusion

SHF Psyga is truly an enjoyable figure to play with. Not only the jet-pack, the martial-art-ish tonfa also added a lot of "cool points" to this figure. If you ask me, I would surely recommend any SHF fans to get this awesome figure.

My final score for this action figure:

Box Art	★★★☆☆
Show Accuracy	★★★★☆
Accessories	★★★★☆
Mold & Sculpting	★★★★☆
Paint & Color	★★★★★
Joints & Articulation	★★★★☆
Overall Score	★★★★☆