Kit review: Figure-Rise Standard – Kamen Rider Kuuga Rising Titan

No fear! No pain!
Chou Henshin! Kamen Rider Kuuga!
Kamen Rider Kuuga holds a special place in the franchise fans’ hearts – as it is the first Heisei era rider with a message of powerful courage and unstoppable tenacity. It was also one of the simplest Kamen Rider design that is very close to Ichigo but with a modern mix. The main character – Yusuke Godai – is still an amazing character after all these years.

The Figure-Rise Standard line has evolved a lot since its first kits of Gundam waifus. After Project Kamen Rider Heisei was announced, the line became popular due to its amazing details yet simple engineering. Kuuga – at the moment – is one of the two Riders with the most forms made into kits – along with W. The Kuuga Titan and Rising Titan form is bundled in the same kit. We will review the Rising Titan because it definitely looks better!

– Info: 
FRS Kuuga Rising Titan/Titan Form  
Series: Kamen Rider Kuuga
Price: 3,960  yen
Release date: May 2022.

– Design: The FRS retains a lot of amazing details for Kuuga. The proportion is a bit thinner and taller than the S.H.F Shinkochou Seihou because they aim to make it as “human-like” as possible. Figure-Rise Standard opts for maximum posability rather than hiding joints and make it seems like a movable suit. Compared to the actual Toku show, the FRS looks like Kuuga has gained a few centimeters, but that’s not a bad thing at all!

The details on the parts are incredible. The ancient letter markings are molded very precise and clear, just like in the show. And Bandai has proven that they do not need the stupid gold injection color like the Strike Freedom frame on their HG, RG and MG kits, but can do a beautiful bright metallic gold color. The metallic coating on the Kuuga FRS kits look amazing. Very shiny but not overly glistening, it brings a feeling of royalty and power. There are a lot of other attention to details such as the details on the Titan Swords, the belt and underneath the feet is a Kuuga emblem as well.

– Build quality: The build is quite simple and doesn’t require a lot of nub processing. The metallic parts are mostly under-gated so you don’t need to worry about them, and most of the kit is black which makes it very easy to clean. A few parts you might want to take extra care is the head – as it contains a lot of small colored parts so you want to cut away from the gates to allow for more margin to clean.

The kit actually has quite a fair bit of stickers, mostly on the purpls lines around the arms and ankles. Even though those are curved surfaces, the stickers are straight so applying them shouldn’t be a nightmare. A bottle of Mark Fit will do you wonders for this. The tricky part is the Titan Sword. The sword has a moving gimmick and a lot of decorative patterns. The stickers go over those patterns and i must say it is not a good idea. If you can hand paint them, definitely do. If not, you can leave the swords un-stickered.

– Articulation: The FRS put a huge emphasis on articulation and range of movement – so this department pass with flying colors. The arms, legs, hips, and head all have superb range of motion. The torso, however, has a surprisingly good amount of movement compared to other FRS kits. Considering he’s wearing the Titan armor, being able to do quite an ab-crunch is pretty cool. Of course, you can strike whichever dual-wielding poses you want with him.

The Masked Heroes are known for their flying kick – so you can expect them to do all of that without breaking a sweat. So of course Kuuga can pull it off pretty easily – considering his kick is one of the iconic attacks of the franchise.

– Gimmicks: As mentioned, the kit is the Titan and Rising Titan form bundled into one, so you can freely switch between the two modes. But it will take a bit of disassembly since you have to take apart the arms and legs to put on the new armor and take off the current armor to replace with the other forms. It’s not a huge pain so maybe I’d say go with whichever you prefer at the time.

Another gimmick is the Titan Swords – you can pull the blades in and out although the extended blades aren’t very solid. Most of the time I choose to put the Rising Titan upgrade swords in so I don’t need to worry about the normal blades.

– Accessories:  Most Kamen Rider kits are simple in the accessories department, only opting for 1 or 2 weapons, but put more emphasis on the hands since they are the character’s most expressive point:
– 2 x armor set
– 2 x Titan Sword/Rising Titan Sword
– 9 x interchangeable pairs of hands
– 1 x Rider Kick effect parts
– 1 x FRS base

–> Overall: The FRS Kuuga Titan/Rising Titan is an amazingly bang-for-the-buck kit. It has 2 set of armors and a ton of hand parts. Furthermore, the details and metallic color on the kit is amazing. The articulation is pretty par for the course for other FRS kits – which is way above average. The kit is listed as P-Bandai in Japan, but international stores have been able to get them in quite frequently, so if you see it, do not hestitate!

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