ZENSHIN KADO KENSHIRO
1985
Welcome to my retro review I’d like to call “Toys in the Attic”. Yes I like
Aerosmith so sue me.

Anyway in my inaugural vintage review I’d like to do one on a Bandai Kenshiro
figure. Now in this day and age where action figures are posable eight ways to
Sunday it’s rare to see a vintage action figure that has modern articulation like
the double-knee joint and stomach articulation.

Well folks I have a rare one indeed and it’s called the KADO ZENSHIN
KENSHIRO (Translated it roughly means "Posable Fighting Action
Kenshiro") from Bandai and it’s a vintage figure worth crowing about.

This Kenshiro figure is 20 years old so an old style sculpt is to be expected.
He more or less looks like the Kenshiro from the beginning of the show.
Hence he’s got that vintage mop-top molded looking hair with barrel chest with
the prerequisite seven scars.

He’s about 8” in height so he’s a good size for an action figure. The fun thing
about this figure is that he’s posable. Not in the traditional five points of
articulation of the time period (like the vintage Star Wars figures that only had
articulated legs, arms and head). No this classic toy has 30 points of
Articulation. You’ve joints that are being used currently for figures (like the
great Marvel Legends line) that were already implemented in this figure. You
got double knee joints, bicep joints, hands, and stomach, neck and head
joints. Very well thought out and implemented joints for such an old figure. I
don’t know if it was the first action figure of its kind to have such joints (I’m
thinking Micromen/Micronauts might have been first if not something else
entirely) but I give it credit for just having them in an age when such joints
weren’t common.

As you can see from the pictures he’s held together by sever screws in the
back (kinda like GI Joe). Yes toys these days wouldn’t have so many visible
screws but hey it’s a vintage piece and the combination of aesthetically
pleasing yet posable toy probably wasn’t in consideration when Bandai
created this Kenshiro figure. Yes he’s very posable but I also like how well he
can balance himself on just one leg. Very trippy and it makes for some great
poses.
SO WHAT’S THE BAD NEWS?
It depends really. It's a vintage toy so I can't really use today's standards to
judge it. I mean come on, it's 20 years old! I could be a hardass but I'd rather
not.
Accessories
Well nothing really. Pretty much what you see is what you get. It’s certainly no
Kenshiro DX in the accessory department but few things are. He’s just a figure
in a plastic tray with a small, square one sheet instruction manual (see scans).
The Lowdown
For a vintage toy he’s great. Scratch that. He’s just a great toy. Now if you get
off on collecting vintage toys than I say he’s worth buying. The original yen on
him was 1980Y. If you’re lucky you can get one here in the US for 15 bucks
(box and all). I say that because I saw one end not to long ago for that price on
ebay. What really ticked my off about that auction is that it wasn’t under “Fist of
the North Star” but in “Hokuto no Ken” on ebay. I missed my chance but
whatever. I got one through Yahoo JP (box and all for about… well more than
15 bucks. That’s all I’ll say). You can get loose ones from Yahoo JP for as low
as 300 yen (less than 3 dollars).

I actually got one of those cheap loose ones also, just to see if I could restore
it. That’s the good thing about a toy being held together by screws, it’s easy to
take apart. After a couple of days work (working on and off) I was able to clean
him up, paint him and tighten him up. He’s ALMOST good as new but oh well.
It can be done. Anyway the figure is worth having. It’s a nice vintage toy that
you can actually have fun with. He’d be a nice addition to your collection. I
know he looks great standing next to my stuff.

Thumbs up! Highly recommend!  

….

…..

WAIT WAIT WAIT!!

Not done yet. There is a rumor of there being a limited (Taiwan version)
production run of these figures having diecast feet. I’ve seen some with the
boot part painted black but I’ve never held one. Maybe that’s the diecast
version in question. I’m dying to find out but if anyone can confirm whether or
not this actually exists let me know!
(c) Lester Romero 2005