Yep, I recently became a fan of Kamen Rider. Being interested in the franchise for so long due to the overlap of Symphogear and KR fans, I finally watched Kamen Rider Kuuga as my first entry and fuckin’ loved it, and truth be told I was surprised to discover that there are a bunch of Figure-rise Standard kits of Kamen Riders, Kuuga basically having all forms, including Amazing Mighty. Before building Ultimate Kuuga, I’ve actually built his Titan Form, and the whole story about acquiring both of them is pretty funny.
Back when I made my trip to Gundam Planet on March where I also got [[10. Here comes the Hero, Yufia Valkyrie!|Yufia]], [[9. Materia and Durga I|Materia and Durga]], I got Kuuga’s Titan Form which is apparently being sold for regular retail price despite being a P-Bandai kit, and his Ultimate Form, which I wanted more, wasn’t in stock. However, as I usually do going to GP, I went to Mitsuwa in Edgewater, NJ where they have a Kinokuniya and lo’ and behold, the Ultimate Kuuga I really wanted was there, which I even joked right beforehand that they would have it. He was being sold for a hefty price of $56, but hey, the gold is actually plated gold.
I built Titan Kuuga first, so I ought to briefly explain my experience with him first—it’s my second branch out from Gunpla, but being Bandai it was incredibly easy to build that painting his gray armor and assembling him literally took a single day. The kit comes with both his Titan and Rising Titan forms, which I opted for Rising Titan as I wanted to showcase the actually plated gold. Other than painting the gray, I applied all of the stickers and gave everything a flat topcoat. With everything done, he was surprisingly just… okay to pose with. His simple construction makes him quite hollow which affects the balancing quite a bit, and there’s not much to posing to do, especially trying to be lore accurate where he’s a literal tank with a sword. Despite my qualms, he was still an enjoyable time and a nice breather between mechs and mecha girls.
It took me like another two months to finally build Ultimate Kuuga, which I gotta say that there’s quite a substantial difference between him and Titan. Like the RG Sinanju and HG [[3. HG Black Knight Squad Cal-re.A|Cal-re.A]], the way the gold part separation works is that the gold acts as the base, and the armor builds on top of it, making for a more involved build in every part of the body. Ultimate basically has double the amount of parts than Titan, especially in the legs (Titan’s thigh is literally only 1 part, versus Ultimate having 5 parts), leading to more weight and better distribution, resulting in a much more fun posing experience. However, there is one big appalling problem I’m shocked Bandai did not try to avoid at all—the gate placements for the gold are right where it’s shown in the trims, leading to a lot of nasty discolored nub marks when seen in different angles (pictures do not show it). It’s pretty annoying, but I guess they’re expecting you to view the kit from afar as it’s harder to notice.
After building, he was literally finished. The only modifications I did from OOB was painting the ugly injected gray, but no panel lining, hand painting or topcoating was involved. I really wanted to coat the kit with something to remove the plastic look, but the black OOB had a perfect satin finish and I wanted to keep the gold shiny. Without needing any more work to do, it was time to pose him!
Again, Ultimate Kuuga is really fun to pose. Basically being a boxer and kicker like Mighty Kuuga, there was a lot to pull off without needing much effort. Pulling poses from the box is easy to replicate, and the provided AB6 surprisingly holds him well to do kick poses, but of course, a part would snap on me basically rendering the stand useless. There’s so much to do with him, while of course looking sexy as fuck, and while I would have liked to have more fire effect parts, it’s great that they include something. Ultimate Kuuga really is a fire kit.
And that’s that. It was super hype finally seeing Kuuga’s Ultimate Form after 15 episodes when it was first teased, having a much more striking appearance than any of his other forms. I mean, he basically becomes God. This kit really encapsulates that same difference, having a more complex build and being considerably more expensive. It’s totally worth it though. Anyway, thanks for reading, and stay well! 👍
