Ah Halloween, the darkest day and darkest night. The monsters of our nightmares come out into the flesh to immobilize us through fear. The creaks and sounds of this night are all amplified. To protect us from these monsters of imagination now true, is Kamen Rider Kiva.

This edition of Kamen Rider Kiva is of the Super Imaginative Chogokin line. The SIC line likes to take the traditional images of various tokusatsu series and put them in a much darker and organic design. Given that that Kamen Rider Kiva has a classic movie monster theme, it's absolutely the perfect sample for this figure line. It also helps when the vampire-stylized Kamen Rider is released in the month ending with Halloween.

Hit the jump for the review of SIC Kamen Rider Kiva 

SIC Kamen Rider Kiva
MSRP: 4500 yen
Available from HLJ and Hobby Search

I haven't really gotten to talk in depth about SIC figures before, but now that I have a chance to really praise it, I'm going to take it. While the figures are relatively high-priced, you get a lot in them. Numerous accessories, rich attention to detail, and are immensely poseable. While I can't say that for a lot of the early releases in the line, the previous year and a half have made this one of the most pleasing figure lines to own.

Kamen Rider Kiva, while not my favorite design or series, is easily my favorite SIC figure. As you can tell, there are a ton of details just popping off the figure. The chest is a glossy red with a silver PVC accent on the sides. The shoulders, calves, and chains are all done in die-cast metal, which adds a lot of nice weight to the figure. Perhaps the best accessory though is the Bloody Rose violin.

Each of the grooves in the violin is visible and is replicated near flawlessly from the tv series. Even the head at the top of the violin is done with great attention. You can also see the details put into the hands, with the curves able to wrap around the neck of the stringed instrument.

My favorite feature though has to be the Darkness Moon Break parts included. On the right calf is a case wrapped up with chains. In the series, it opens up a pair of wings which allow Kiva to perform his special rider kick. In the SIC, it's done via part swapping. What I am more amazed at though is the level of posebilty. The stance for the kick would be hard to hold for many figures, but SIC Kiva is able to pull it off and actually stay there.

For the final pieces, I'd like to talk about the accessories. You'll get 4 different sets of hands, 6 fuestles, the Bloody Rose violin and 3 Kivat the Third pieces for the belt. Lastly, there is also a background included for Darkness Moon Break. Granted, it's the card back for the plastic case inside the box, but it works well for the set.

I honestly can't describe how impressed I was with this figure. When I had seen the original art and molds for Kiva, I wasn't impressed and came close to calling it an outright failure. I'm now proud to say that I own this and is my favorite piece released in the series. That will be the case until Volume 52 Kamen Rider Kabuto is released next year.