Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Drive, Reviews

Review: DX Mach Driver Honoh (Kamen Rider Drive)

DX Mach Driver Honoh
December, 2014 – ¥6,000

P1090425

Kamen Rider Mach has hit the scene, and with him, his transformation belt, the Mach Driver Honoh (Honou meaning flame). The belt was released in December, 2014 for around ¥6,000. The belt itself has a pretty awesome blue and silver color scheme, with beautiful blue paint and some well placed chrome. It really gives off the motorcycle motif. Our second belt in Kamen Rider Drive ditches the “belt and brace” system set up by the Drive Driver and goes back to a singular belt. Flip open the ramp on the belt and insert the included Signal Bike, Signal Mach and press the ramp back down to initiate the transformation with a pretty awesome “Signal Bike! Rider! Mach!” sound. You can shift up by pressing the button on the top of the belt four times (one to three times does the same sound) to hear a new phrase. Finally by lifting the ramp and pressing the button, you can activate the final full throttle attack. Press the ramp back down to finish the attack. The best part about this belt is that any of the Shift Cars, Signal Bikes, or Viral Cores will work! And better yet, everyone creates a new and unique sound in the belt! Having functionality with all three types really pushes it over the edge in functionality compared to the Drive Driver and Break Gunner. It’s worth noting that the sounds are completely new, as the Mach Driver announces a Japanese verb relating to the Shift Car or Viral Core, instead of actually announcing the name. Each one still has a unique activation sound however that we’ll all know from the Drive Driver (such as Dream Vegas’s slot noises)

Included is the Signal Mach Signal Bike, a white bike designed after Mach’s own Ride Macher. It activates the transformation into Kamen Rider Mach when used in the Mach Driver. When used in the Drive Driver, it activates a transformation into Kamen Rider Drive Type Next (currently unknown if this will ever be seen, or is just a bonus form), which has its own transformation and standby jingle that sounds pretty awesome. Thanks to how the Bikes are designed, you can’t shift up or do a formal Full Throttle, but you can at least press the button to get a shift up like feature. When used in the Break Gunner, the toy announces “Next System” just like the Drive System sound when you insert a type change Shift Car.

Overall, the Mach Driver is a pretty amazing toy. It’s rare we get a secondary belt that fully embraces the gimmick even further than the main belt does! While it’s not as flashy like Drive’s LED screen, it does look pretty awesome on display, and is fun to insert the various gimmicks. If you’ve built up a collection of Shift Cars thus far, you’re opened up to a whole new set of sounds for them, which is a nice addition as well. While ultimately lacking without additional gimmicks (and what Rider belt isn’t nowadays?) it’s still a great toy that I definitely recommend to all fans of Drive, regardless of how you feel about Mach.

 

1 thought on “Review: DX Mach Driver Honoh (Kamen Rider Drive)”

  1. just like with the Drive Driver, I am wanting to review this; how big is the strap so I don’t have to modify it? (I’d rather not do so to review it)

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