TOY REVIEW: Kamen Rider Amazon [S.H. Figuarts]

Manufacturer: Bandai

Series: S.H. Figuarts

Model: Kamen Rider Amazon

Release Date: September 17, 2011 (Japan) , Late October 2011 (USA)

Retail Price: ¥3,000 / $35.99 MSRP

Kamen Rider is a long running Tokusatsu show (since 1971), but it is relatively unknown outside of Japan and Asia. There has been many iterations of the popular hero show, with the U.S. version of Kamen Rider as the terrible Saban's "Masked Rider" (Kamen Rider Black RX in Japan) to the decent "Kamen Rider Dragon Knight" (Kamen Rider Ryuki in Japan) series while Japan has had over 23 separate series, with Kamen Rider Fourze being the most recent series to date. Each of the Kamen Rider series has their separate themes and heroes, but I think none come close to compare with Kamen Rider Amazon (Masked Rider Amazon). Kamen Rider Amazon is a tokusatsu show (4th in the series) that had a crazy wild attitude, with a wild jungle man as the main hero, and perhaps the most violent, bloodiest scenes in a tokusatsu show ever. But even with the show having such a crazy direction at the time, the show is also one of the shortest, clocking in about 24 episodes compared to 50+ episodes in a typical Kamen Rider show. However, Amazon has this coolness factor that exceeds the short series length, and Bandai has also responded to fans of "Showa Era" Riders by producing figures of the Kamen Rider heroes from the 70's and 80's. Read on to read my review of the latest S.H. Figuart's, Masked Rider Amazon.