TK11 – Kamen Rider Drive Type Tridoron
July, 2015 – ¥3,200
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Our eleventh and final entry into the Tire Koukan Series (at least for now) is of course Kamen Rider Drive in his final form, Type Tridoron! Despite the fact that at least three are in the show, and he has quite a few more Tire Kakimazeru (Kakimazerl, lol) tires, TK11 only comes with the People Saver Tire. Yeah, he doesn’t even come with Attack 1-2-3, his “main” tire change. Odd choice indeed. TK11 was released early July, 2015 for the usual price of ¥3,200.
At the core, Type Tridoron is a great figure. The joints on mine are pretty stuff and fluid, and the figure just has a nice bulk to him that feels nice while posing. Articulation is pretty standard, but I do want to call out the left arm. The left arm section is where the Tire Koukan port is. The entire arm assembly is on a connector, and it pops off to change the tire. Apparently the engineers couldn’t find a work around to give this shoulder a working swivel, but it has none. The only articulation is that you can get via the ball and socket joint, and the swivel that the joint is on. It’s a pain for posing, and the only real flaw of the figure.
The toy has a fun gimmick in a visor change, being able to rotate the small tire on the helmet to shift the visor from Shinnosuke’s gold eyes, to Belt-san’s hypno eyes. It’s not amazing, but I like that they addressed the fact that Belt-san can take control of the form at will. As for Tire Koukan capabilities, there is the connector port on his left side as the main one, with an additional one on his arm like Type Formula. This allows him to equip two tires at a time which can get sort of bulky, but fun. I’m glad that even though he doesn’t have one there in the show really, they included one to make use of TKPB02’s tires.
Again, I don’t really know why People Saver was included over Attack 1-2-3, other than the engineers were lost on how to make a spinable version of that tire (you don’t). Kojikenbaa could easily have been included too, but again, wasn’t. I would have much rather paid a little more for the toy to get all three of his main combo tires than be stuck with only the one with a BBQ grill and a heart thingy.
Overall Type Tridoron is a pretty fantastic release that is unfortunately hindered by his left arm and choice of accessory. Despite the flaws, it’s one of the nicest looking TK figures of the line, and is worth it for people who are fans of the form looking to have a little display before the S.H.Figuarts release, whenever that ends up being.
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CollectorShuki.com