#gatack scissorbeeter

[stingyslegslookweird]

So, as I was doing research for my 2023 Kaixa Day post, I stumbled across the answer to a question I’d had since first researching this toyline:

Why do some of the figures not look like the designs pictured on the boxes?

Initially, I figured it was artistic interpretation or not being able to make it work with the chibi-style figures. “That’s dumb,” I thought, “but whatever. Toei is as Toei does and all that.” I did read somewhere at the time that the figures were of the base forms and the toy-exclusive “armor” was made of cardboard, but as you can see from the picture of Kabuto in the original post, that’s just not true.

As can be seen in this (what I assume is a) promotional flyer, the figures are of the Riders’ new forms, and each come with a card of the animal they combine with, as stated previously. However, not only is it a card depicting the animal, it also literally is the animal. As in the card seems to be a sort of model-kit-runner-esque delivery vehicle for the parts necessary to build the animal. I can’t quite tell based on the image quality, but I would assume the card has one side as the actual card design, and the other has the patterns of the animal parts. I guess the animal parts would be perforated or something to allow small children to get them out easily.*

Anyway, the animal parts are somehow removed from wherever they’re stored, and then can either be combined to form a figure of the animal, or attached to the figure to create the full form. I feel like you can see this best on these pictures of Kaixa and Knight.

It’s also worth noting that this type of Card Warrior Kamen Rider figure, in which pre-existing Riders are given new forms, only lasted three waves. After that, all figures released under the Card Warrior toyline still retained the chibi aesthetic and a similar level of detail, but ditched the new forms in favor of already-existing ones, making them (in my opinion) far less interesting.

I was gonna put a section or two here detailing how I assumed the initial three waves of figures came out around 2007 or 2008, since the “newest” Riders in those waves was Gatack, who only showed up in the third wave, but if we’re assuming the figures were released concurrently with the tie-in gag manga, then it actually came out around the time Kiva and/or Decade were airing. Specifically February 26th, 2009, if Rider Wiki is to be trusted.

Also, believe it or not, searching for this Japan-exclusive toyline for this (for the longest time) Japan-exclusive franchise using its original Japanese name gets you way more search results! It even has its own Japanese Wikipedia page! Wow! Why I didn’t try this sooner is honestly beyond me…

And lastly, because idk how to end this post, here’s the japanese name if you want to learn more/expand the English toku fandom’s (very limited) knowledge on this niche little footnote of an already pretty niche fandom: 駈斗戦士 仮面ライダーズ

*I’m sorta just assuming based on personal experiences but if anyone’s got any more objective knowledge on the subject, you’re more than welcome to correct me on this.

Bit of an interesting topic here… Has anyone heard of Card Warrior Kamen Rider before?

From what I’ve been able to find, it was a Bandai toyline and manga from 2009 that introduced these neat little exclusive forms for a bunch of Riders. A lot of them, most notably the early waves, seem to be a Rider combined with a thematically appropriate robot creature. For example, Ichigo with a grasshopper, or Knight with a bat.

The figures themselves seem to be little chibi-esque dudes, and each comes with a card of the animal/insect robot they combine with.

I wasn’t able to find pics of every figure released, since the line is so obscure, but here are some I did find of the boxes. There was also a Hibiki and a couple others but I didn’t realize tumblr had an image limit.