S.H.Figuarts Kamen Rider Zeronos Altair Form Review

My favorite Heisei Kamen Rider series when I was younger was Den-O, it was childish, laid back, and a little foolish, but it was also serious and an enjoyable watch at the same time. My opinion has since changed, but I never stopped liking Kamen Rider Zeronos, who I always loved and respected due to how badass he is, his relationship with Deneb, and his interesting story. So on the same day that I got my S.H.Figuarts Fourze Elek States, I got this guy because I didn't want my Fourze to be lonely. So I bought it, and proudly came home with a new green hero of time.

...What do you mean it's not Link?

Box:

The boxart to this figure is nice. you get a circular window with an outline which resembles the Zeronos belt, with green outer rings around it. To the side you get the name of the product, and a picture of Zeronos at the bottom right doing his signature pose.

Behind the box you get some product shots advertising what the figure can do and a handful of it's accessories.

Product:

The completed Zeronos looks good, however proportion-wise, I feel his arms are too thin and his head is too large. In terms of detail and looks though, it's an A+, this figure looks like Zeronos in his default form and represents the suit very well. Paint apps are well applied, however it might scratch if you're not super careful with it. The eyes as with the other SHFiguarts riders look awesome, with a compound-like silver backing and a clear piece, it shines very well. A few joints do look obvious and not super nice, but overall, I think this figure is a nice representation of Zeronos. However my main gripe is that this isn't a very sturdy figure and some of the joints are a bit loose, specifically the torso and waist, could've used a bit sturdier construction there.

Articulation:

The head is on a ball joint, and can actually look down quite a bit.

Swings around well too, overall very nice head articulation.

Shoulders get hindered by the armor to a 80˚ bend.

But his arms do go out just over 90˚.

His elbow bends about 110˚ and swivels a bit at the thigh, however it does get a little limited due to the armor..

He also has a single balljoint at the lower torso for some abcrunch.

His thigh can be pulled down for more upwards kick.

His leg can bend about 160˚ and his feet can move around on a hinge.

His toe also gives very nice movement, and the feet can turn around.

Accessories:

He doesn't come with a huge amount of weapons, but he does have a decent amount of overall accessories.

You get 11 hands with this figure, although only 2 are a true pair. You have the fists and open hands for the pairs. Besides that, you have a right pointing hand, a loose resting left hand, two gripping hands of different shapes, a left hand with a little area in it to hold something which I will talk about later, one slightly angled fist, and a right trigger finger hand.

I will say that my main problem with the figure is that the hands are an absolute pain to switch. This is due to how the joint is engineered, the hands are on a super hard barbell joint, with one side being the ball and the other being a revoltech-like joint. This gives more wrist articulation, but makes it extremely difficult to switch hands, and is my main problem with the figure.

First pair is the pointing hand and the loose open hand to do his signature pose as shown in the title image.

The thumbs up hand works as advertised.

You then get two extra side-belt parts and a smaller, split version of the ZeroGasher. This is to display the split ZeroGasher on his belt. The parts are a lot smaller than the actual ZeroGasher because...hammerspace logic.

You just take the belt parts already on the figure, and replace them with the new ones.

Now he has ZeroGasher on his belt for storage.

You also get the ZeroGasher in it's Bowgun Mode, which is my preferred mode.

It looks good, and the left holding hand can be used to support it.

Of course, you also get the ZeroGasher in Sabre Mode, and you get two holding hands to wield it.

Right goes on top and left goes on bottom.

Now he can destroy his enemies with his BFS.

Finally to replicate de-henshining, form changing, and hissatsu poses, he gets parts to do so. You get a replacement face for a card-less Zeronos belt, a tiny Zeronos card with both sides accurately painted, and a left hand to hold said card.

I find the inclusion very sweet, and I do love how easily it holds the card.

Size Comparison:

He's to scale with Fourze meaning he's out of scale with Madoka/figma. He's larger than both a 1/144 scale Gundam and figma Madoka. Still, I think he can be displayed with figma well enough.

Verdict:

The SHFiguarts Zeronos is a nice figure, as a fan of the rider, I do not regret picking this guy up. He's got good articulation, details are painted very nicely, I think as a representation of Zeronos, this guy succeeds very well. He has a lot of hand options to do pretty much any of his poses too. My main real issue are like I said, the hands, the joints could be more tighter, and the proportions are a little off, but overall, I think this is a nice figure. Is it my best figure so far? No, it's not super sturdy, has the bad hand design, and doesn't come with nearly as much value, still, I think this is a nice figure, and if you want this guy to do iconic poses, this guy can do them all.

Pros:

- Hands with expressive detail to replicate iconic poses. (!)

- Details and paint apps are expertly applied and molded, lots of attention to minor things here. (!)

- Articulation is pretty good, with no real complaints.

Cons:

- Wrist design makes it extremely difficult to switch hands. (!)

- Proportions look a bit off.
- Joints could be tighter
- Paint scratches a little easily.