[Toys] SIC Kiwami Tamashii: Kamen Rider Hibiki

Something I ordered before Christmas and it finally arrived weeks later.

So, way back, I reviewed the Souchaku Henshin version of Hibiki. Well, the hands on that figure basically broke off, so I got this guy not only to replace him, but to also check out this toyline.

Kiwami Tamashii is a series of figures which are essentially downscaled SIC figures, which originally are large and come with a ton of accessories, selling for close to a hundred dollars. KT is 4 1/2" small and definitely comes with less, but sells at a VERY reasonable price. I dare say it's not even import price. But more on that at the end.

Now, let's dive in.

Hibiki is definitely one of my top favorite Riders, so it's no surprise I wanted this figure. I think (and I could be wrong) this is the first figure to get the KT treatment, which shows, but he makes a good first start with the build he's got. Let's get to the point of why.

Right, so... accessory-wise, he's kind of lacking there, sadly. Most of what he comes with goes on the belt.

• On the left side of the belt are the disc animals, which are beautifully sculpted and painted in this nice silver which is present on the figure. 
• On the right side is his tuning fork, not painted gold like it should be but at least it doesn't get in the way like his Souchaku Henshin counterpart's does. 
• On the back is the holster for the Ongekibo Rekka, his drumsticks. There is also an alternate version that's empty for when he's holding them. 
• Alternate hands include his default relaxed hands and a pair of hands holding the drumsticks. What's weird here is the decorative heads on the drumsticks are removable and you need to place them onto the stored version on the back of the belt. They are absolutely TINY.

 Really, he doesn't need anything else, the full size SIC version indeed comes with a lot more but at this scale, I guess you can only do so much with this scale and a budget they may or may not be working under.

So, the figure itself... gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Every detail that needs to be painted is painted. There's some interesting bits about the purple paint, but I'll get to that in a second.

The sculpting... wow. So, the SIC design scheme tends to really go nuts with detailing, often adding aesthetic changes that don't belong, but Hibiki looks almost exactly like he should, with some added bits. If you look really closely at this guy in hand, there's these faint lines on the shoulders and chest pieces - probably more places too - that resemble a flame pattern. Hibiki has a fire element to him, so it fits.

On the back of the thighs, he also has this boney look which is hard to really explain - It just makes him look really inhuman, which fits since the characters in Hibiki don't so much as put on a suit as they literally become an Oni. So it's like he's a heroic monster.

Lastly, the big one for me... the purple. Okay, so, I can't quite figure out what they did with it. But I think what they did is... to give him this ominous glow in the right lighting, they molded him in translucent purple with (possibly) a light coat of metallic purple paint. The effect is absolutely mind-boggling because I can notice parts giving off a glow around the edges that should. I like the effect a lot, though. It adds to the fire element.

Okay, so enough about detailing and paint. How poseable is this guy? Well, a lot. Doublejointed knees, balljoint hips with a type of swivel in the upper thighs, a forward/back joint on the ankles with RANGE and a little side to side range, balljoint shoulders with the shoulderpads being separate from the rest of the arm, torso joint... man, time to slow down.

The elbows have this weird thing going on where it's a balljoint that can bend like a doublejointed one, which is nicely done. Wrists only swivel due to how the hand swapping works. The neck has a balljoint which, in the case of Hibiki there's something stopping him from looking up in any way. He can look everywhere else though.

Using the Ankh stand from one of my previous reviews, I sorta stretched out the hole on the back of his belt and managed to plug him into the stand, allowing me to really make use of his articulation - He makes a lot of natural looking jumping and kicking poses, which is also helped by how his legs are shaped. 


So what this amounts to is, he's small but majorly articulated.

 Overall... Kiwami Tamashii is a promising toyline. It provides a range of articulation, beautiful sculpting and impressive paint work. The design scheme SIC likes to apply to its figures varies in quality from time to time, but I think that Hibiki looks just right here. Accessory count may vary with other figures.

The real clencher for all of this is that you can buy this guy for little over the price one might pay for a US retail action figure. I got mine for $15. 15. And this was not just one of those one-off "Someone decided to be nice and sell it for cheap" deals. This was an average price. Sure you might start seeing them go for $20 or so in some spots due to the change of the yen, but it's still a really good deal for what you're getting. Incidentally, they are in fair scale with GI Joes and Transformers motorcycles, I learned. So hey, they're in scale with something!

That said, now time to wait for other things to come my way. It's hard to say right now but I may have another one of these guys coming in the near future. We'll see. Keep your beat, everyone.