Kamen Rider Kiva - DX IXA belt

Whoa, it's been a while.  Stuff happened, I moved to a new place, so not that I'm sort of settled in, here's a review.  I've actually not had this belt for very long.  I think I got it earlier this year, considering how long it's been since Kiva came out.

Like the Kiva belt, it comes with 6 Feustles, the IXA Knuckle (instead of Kivat), and the belt itself.  Photos down below:

Garulu, Basshaa, and Dogga Fake Fuestles.

Powered IXA, IXA Knuckle, and IXA Caliber Fuestles.

All right, let's talk about the IXA Knuckle first.  The Knuckle is... strange.  It talks to you in robot speak, which makes it very difficult to understand what it's saying.  Like in the series, it will pronounce ever single syllable of Engrish.  Every single one.  It will ask you how you're doing and say things like "yes" and "no," but it feels rather cold while saying them.  Like I said about Kivat, he has a personality and (like I totally forgot to mention in my review) can have moods where he is either happy or sad.  The IXA Knuckle is just a robot and isn't very warm.  However, if you're into having broken conversations with robots, go right ahead.

Moving on, to get it to the point where it will make the transformation sounds, there's a button on the knuckle that you can either push like a normal button and hold, or you can do like in the show and press it against your hand until it makes the stand-by sounds.  It'll say "ready" and then it's all right for you to slide that bad boy into it's slot.  Line up the notch on the back to the insert on the belt and after it gets into place it'll say "FI-SU-TO ON."

Putting the Fuestles into it is fairly easy.  Just pick your Fuestle, drop it into the hole (make sure it's facing the right direction, otherwise it won't make any sounds), then punch the fist into it.

How the Fuestles look from above.  AKA what you see when you look down at it.

 

To take the Knuckle off the belt, push that reddish button that you can see in the previous image.  It'll unlock the belt and you can just slide it off easily.  And make sure to put the Fuestles back to their Feuslots when you're done with them!

Overall, I suppose this belt is decent.  It was cheap, as I guess they made a whole bunch of them?  I dunno, I got this for about $60 including the shipping, brand new, never opened.  My main issue with this belt is that it's ridiculously bulky.  As noted before, I have a tiny waist and this belt just over powers my torso.  Once the IXA Knuckle is in place, it becomes very difficult for me to use my right arm proficiently.  Another problem with this belt is that it's sometimes hard to get the Fuestle sounds to work.  I have to use more strength than I feel is completely necessary for the sounds to go off.  I have the same strength as a kid in the age group identified for playing with these toys, and if I'm having trouble, then I'm certain the child is, too.

I'd have to say that if you're a huge Kiva fan or in love with IXA, then you'll probably want this belt just because it's the IXA belt.  However, for anyone else, you're probably not going to need this belt.  It really doesn't do enough to justify throwing a lot of money into it.  I mean, even I've tried to justify why I spent my hard earned money on this belt, only to be disappointed by it.  I mean, it's not bad, but it feels almost like a cheap imitation of the Kiva belt.  Which, given the series, I guess that was kind of the point.  IXA in the series was like a knock off of Kiva's belt, so I suppose the toy version would of course have that feel to it.

Kamen Rider W - DX Double Driver

The most recent henshin belt I have bought, this is the Double Driver henshin belt.  As you can see from the box, it contains the belt, buckle, and four Gaia Memories: Cyclone, Heat, Luna, and Joker Memories.  So, let's see what this sucker looks like outside of the box and lovingly put together.

This looks about right, right?  This is probably the simplest belt I've put together.  All the batteries required are in the Gaia Memories, and they use watch-type batteries and require one of those tiny jewelry screwdrivers to get into them.  There was a pull-strip on the back of each one that I pulled to get them to work (is it called "completing the circuit"? ).  Like all henshin belts, the belt straps are sized for a child, so if you're bigger around the gut than a child, you'll need to buy an extender.  I'm petite, so I usually put these on the second-to-last hole and keep them set at that forever.

As you can see, the belt looks like it does on the show, and it's made of sturdy plastic and the Gaia Memories themselves are really great to look at.  Like in the series, there are buttons on the face of each Memory that, when pushed, will make the appropriate sound (i.e. "JOKAA!!").  On the driver, the left side is indicated with a gold piece and the right side is indicated with a silver piece.  Memories whose USB inputs are silver go into the silver side (all of Philip's Memories) and gold ones will go onto the gold side (Shotaro's Memories).  The belt automatically comes with all of Philip's Memories, minus Fang Memory, so if you're wanting to cosplay Philip, this makes it really easy.  The right side of the driver is the Maximum Drive slot and all Memories will work within that slot.  Below are some close ups of the Memories themselves:

The Memories are sized for an adult, surprisingly, so they end up looking big and awkward in my tiny hands.  This is actually a good thing, though, as it makes them seem more realistic.  You can't tell it, as I didn't take a photo of it, but whenever you push the button, they light up with the color of the Memory's case.  Cyclone is green, Heat is red, Luna is yellow, and the exception is Joker, which is purple as black isn't a viable light color choice.  Here's what it'll look like around the waist:

Ack, snow glare!  No, that's not my "waist" but more close to my ribcage, but you get the idea.

There's a button on the right side to clasp the belt around your waist, just like any other belt.  When you put a Memory into one side, you push it down and it'll make that annoying "hurry up and put the other Memory in the slot already" sound that will continue until the second Memory is placed in the opposite slot and pushed down.  Spread the driver into make a W-shape and it'll make the correct sounds "Cyclone!  Joker!  [insert music here]."  One memory contains one half of the transformation music, while the other memory has the other part.  If you put only one memory in the slot, it will just make the sound that memory is supposed to make.  Memories in gold slots will have a delay because they're the ending to the music that the silver slot makes.  Memories will work in any slot, but it'll mess with the sounds.  The mechanisms to make everything work are in the USB plug at the bottom of each Memory, so if you have really tiny fingers or really long nails (like I do), you can get up in there and figure out what combination of buttons make what sounds.  The coolest part is when you take a Memory out of the slot, as it makes a quite satisfying "power down" sound when you pull them out.

All in all, I really like this belt.  I think it's my second favorite belt next to the Kiva one (I mean, come on, Kivat talks!) and I was very impressed with how intelligent this belt was.  I wish I had more Memories for it, but it's nearly impossible to get the Trigger Magnum or the Metal Rod.  Even when I do find them, they end up being stupidly expensive, so I've stopped trying.  I definitely recommend this belt to any fan of the series.  It's chic, it's cool, and it's vastly entertaining.