By Loran
Ah Kamen Rider OOO… how I hated you when I first saw you.
Maybe it was just coming off the elegant simplicity of Double/W, but OOO’s design just rubbed me the wrong way. The colors just seemed gaudy, and I wasn’t really sure how they were going to be used in the show. Thankfully, the toys focus on the single-color forms, which was okay with me. At first I only went for the few that I really liked (SaGoZo, ShaUTa, and PuToTyra), but after I won TaToBa in a giveaway, I figured, “Oh, why not, I guess I’ll just grab them all”. And thus, I did. I haven’t even watched the show yet!
TaJaDol is essentially OOO’s mid-series upgrade, using all bird themes. I was really mixed on it at first. While I loved the design, early pictures made the color scheme of the head look almost washed-out, which turned me off of it. It didn’t look as good as it did in the show. Having it in-hand alleviated most of my problems, though, and I’m glad I got him.
The standard body for the OOO Figuarts is used, and it’s much more effective here than some of the earlier attempts. TaToBa, GataKiriBa, and RaToraTa all felt flimsy, but things started to pick up with SaGoZo. I guess it took Bandai a bit to get used to the idea of all-plastic Figuarts. While I’ll miss the diecast, later figures in the OOO line don’t feel that hurt by it.
TaJaDol’s paint applications are slick and clean. The metallic red looks amazing and offers a great contrast to the other OOO forms. He stands out very brightly compared to his companions. As far as just color schemes are concerned, TaJaDol looks the best.
As I mentioned before I was initially turned off of this figure because of the head. The final product looks fantastic, with a clear red screen going over the face itself. I guess it just didn’t translate well in the early pictures. Now I wish I’d gotten to see him in-person a lot earlier, otherwise I probably would’ve bought him upon his first release!
Now of course, we come to the elephant in the room: the accessories. He comes with your average hand assortment for a Rider Figuart: Open hands, closed fists, and two sets of “grabby” hands; the great Taja Spinner accessory, and that same stupid sword almost every OOO Figuart has. But then we get to the big problem: His wings, or lack thereof! Yep, the item that makes him stand out isn’t included with the produced figure. Maybe it had something to do with tooling budgets, but it’s annoying all the same.
You can buy the wings and the talons, but unfortunately for us, they’re Tamashii Webshop Exclusives. So unless you have a reliable middleman, you’re out of luck. Thankfully, they’re getting a second issue early next year. I imagine they were a popular enough accessory to justify this, seeing as it’s very rare to see webshop exclusives get a second run.
I’d dare say out of all the OOO Figuarts, TaJaDol is one of my favorites, if not my #1. He’s a very solid figure and doesn’t run into the problems the first few had, but also doesn’t have any extraneous body parts that get in the way of articulation. His only real drawback is the lack of wings, which can be fixed, but at a high cost. Still, if you like what you see, come down and get yours from FPNYC!
