By Loran
As I mentioned before, I wasn’t too keen on the designs for OOO. There were a few I liked, but for the most part, I was able to live without most of them. Part of what swayed my opinion (and ultimately led me to buy all of the forms) was winning a TaToBa in a giveaway. I didn’t even want the thing, I really just entered out of spite; “You have 200 entries? Now you can have two hundred and ONE! Bwahaha!”. Lo and behold, a few hours later, I get an email saying I was the winner. How’re those odds?!
No, he’s not a traffic light, TaToBa (or as some of us have come to call him, “Tacobar”) is the main form in Kamen Rider OOO. I’ll be honest, it was this form that really turned me off. It just looked like a mess to me. I like a lot of color on my Gundam designs, but on Riders it just doesn’t work for me. As time went on, though, I started to warm up to him. Besides, I’d have to buy him eventually if I were to ever get all of the main Riders of the Heisei era!
Right off the bat, there’s one thing that off course needs to be addressed: the lack of diecast. Yes, I talked about this before in some of the other reviews, but TaToBa here was one of the first—if not the first—Rider Figuarts to not have any diecast. While some figures like the ones they made for Shinkenger were able to pull off (and benefit, in my opinion) the all-plastic thing, TaToBa wasn’t so lucky. The new foot construction combined with the lack of metal simply did not work. The ball-jointed ankles were far too limited in terms of poseability and it results in some trouble standing. I can understand cutting the diecast; really, I can, but changing the foot’s construction was a step a bit too far.
I’ve noticed an oddly widespread issue with his head. For some reason, a lot of TaToBas have floppy/loose heads. Mine has this problem somewhat, but not as bad as some others. I usually advise people to coat the ball joint in clear nail polish to strengthen it.
Like most other OOO figuarts, his accessories are really nothing to write home about, either. He has the same sword that every other form has and a pretty underwhelming selection of hands, but not as bad as Birth. He has two pairs of his Wolverine claws; one set open and one closed. I would’ve liked to see hinged claws, but since they’re supposed to be different sizes in both modes, I guess they went for the better route.
If you got the first release of the figure, you got Ankh’s arm as a bonus! It’s just the arm on a stand, and nothing special if you missed out on it. You’re better off getting the single Ankh arm toy. He comes with popsicles!
The OOO Figuarts got off to a rough start, but they certainly improved as the line went on. Plus, TaToBa isn’t even the worst (somehow). I’ll cover that one another time, but if you want the primary form for good ol’ OOO, go into FPNYC to grab your TaToBa!
