Hello everyone, this is Funasen, in charge of CSM development.
In today's blog, the development team will introduce the "CSM Faiz Gearbox," which starts taking pre-orders today!


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Hello everyone. This is TK, the developer.
Today we would like to introduce the "CSM Faiz Gearbox", which is available for pre-order.

As this is the first time that our toy division has commercialized a metal attaché case, it took some time to make the necessary arrangements, but we are finally starting to take pre-orders from today.
I'm sorry for making you wait so long since the initial announcement.

The highlights of this product are as follows:

■A heavy metal attaché case!
This product is an aluminum metal attaché case, just like the prop used in the film.
The sense of weight when you add the CSM Faiz Gear ver.2 is quite impressive.
The locking parts are also one-touch type, so you can open and close it to recreate the atmosphere of the movie.

■CSM Faiz Gear ver.2 can be stored in the state seen in the movie!
This product is a special case for storing CSM Faiz Gear ver.2 in the state it appears in the movie.
When stored using the "storage belt" described below, it will look like this:

This product can be stored almost exactly as it appears in the movie, so
I'd love to see it displayed in this condition.

■Storage belt included!
This product comes with a "storage belt belt" part that recreates the stored state of the belt in the movie.

In the MASKED RIDER FAIZ series, the belt is stored in the Faiz Gear Box in a folded form, but the soft plastic belt of the CSM Faiz Gear ver. 2 cannot be folded and stored in this way.
By removing the soft belt strap of the CSM Faiz Gear ver.2 from the buckle and attaching the "storage belt strap", you can recreate the belt in the stored state that is in accordance with the movie.

This "storage belt" was designed based on the actual storage belt prop used in the film, and has the following specifications.
-Belt is made of hard plastic parts
- There is no belt fastener on the back (there is none on the back of the prop either. If there was one, it would be too thick and would be impossible to store.)
The belt and belt fasteners of the CSM Faiz Gear ver.2 must be removed for storage,
The specifications were designed with the primary priority being "storing and displaying Faiz Gear ver.2 in a way that looks cool like it does in the movie."

*The side buckle of the "storage belt" has the same design as the CSM Faiz Gear version (released in 2016) to prioritize the proportions of the prop when stored. The Faiz Pointer and Faiz Shot can still be attached, so you can recreate the flow of Takumi Inui in the movie, quickly taking the belt out of the case and attaching the pointer!

By the way, the soft belt of CSM Faiz Gear ver.2 cannot be stored in the attaché case.
If you were to store it away, you would have to place the two belts under the buckle.
・It is difficult to straighten out the belt that has become curved when worn around the waist and store it away.
・Even if you can straighten it, as you can see in the photo below, the obi is so thick that the buckle sticks out quite far forward and it cannot be stored.


(Currently, the thickness of the case on the buckle storage side is the same as the thickness of the other gear storage side, so in order to stack and store everything like this, the thickness of the case on the buckle storage side would have to be made thicker than the other gear side, which would reverse the thickness of the props.)

So, in order to overcome this issue, we have included a special belt for storage.

■ Speech bubble design reproduced by fitting parts
A distinctive feature of the Faiz Gearbox is the guide pictogram attached to the urethane inside.
In this product, the design is printed onto plastic parts, which are then fitted into urethane.


*The speech bubble design is in the prototype stage and may differ from the actual product.

The prop used in the film is made of urethane with a paper sticker attached, but there were concerns about its durability when it came to commercializing it.
With props used in filming, if the stickers come off from the urethane, they can simply be reattached after each shoot. However, when developing these as products, we needed to make sure that the stickers would not come off over a long period of time and would remain in good condition.

For this reason, the speech bubble parts of this product are made by printing on the surface of plastic parts which are then inserted and fixed into pre-existing holes in the urethane.
Their durability is much higher than stickers, so you can display them with peace of mind.

■Additional information regarding the design and size of the attaché case
Regarding the design and size of this product's briefcase, it has not been designed to be exactly the same as the briefcase that actually appears in the movie.
I will also explain the reason for this.

●Regarding size
The size of the prop case in the film is about 23.5cm in height and 32.5cm in width,
The size of this product is approximately 26 cm in height and 36 cm in width, making it slightly larger than the prop.
The main reason for this is that "in the movie, the Faiz Gearbox contained a DX toy-sized prop."​
The prop used in the movie is the same size as the DX toy when stored in the case, and when the belt is removed from the case the scene changes and it is replaced with a larger wearable prop.
This product is designed to store CSM Figear ver.2 in the same balance as in the movie, so it is larger than the prop used in the movie at the time.
I saw someone purchasing an original briefcase and using it to store their CSM Faiz Gear (ver.1), but because the briefcase is relatively small, only the buckle and side buckle can be stored, which makes it look like there is no obi, so I changed the case size.
Since the size of the Faiz Gear changes depending on the scene, it is impossible to perfectly match the case size and appearance when stored to those in the movie, so we prioritized based on the purpose of the product.

Regarding the design:
Aside from the size, this product has other differences compared to the prop used in the film at the time.
for example,
・There is no dial near the lock part
・The handle is made of molded plastic
Etc.
The props used in the Faiz Gearbox series when it was first broadcast were made using briefcases from other manufacturers that were commercially available at the time.
Given this background, when we decided to commercialize the Faiz Gearbox, we could not simply use the product designs of other manufacturers as is, so we made various changes (including size differences) while retaining the image from the film.
(At the time, the DX Faiz Gearbox was on sale, but that product was made with that look, including the fact that it was made of plastic. This time, it is a metal product that is closer to a prop, so the design has been made with more care.)

There has been a similar case in the past, namely the "Ichijo Kaoru Cell Phone" that came with the "CSM HENSHIN BELT ARCLE."
The prop used in the film was also a mobile phone that was actually released by another manufacturer at the time, so we made some changes to the shape and balance before releasing it.

I hope you understand the design.

Though there are differences, the Faiz Gear Box's solid feel and the sense of satisfaction when you store the Faiz Gear ver.2 inside are both amazing and will make you melt, so if you pre-ordered the CSM Faiz Gear ver.2, we recommend you get this one as well and recreate the storage state in your hands.

■ Precautions for storage
Finally, here are some precautions to take when storing the product.
​If the Faiz Gear is stored for an extended period of time, the urethane and the painted surface of the Faiz Gear may become stuck together, leaving urethane marks or the paint may peel off when the item is removed.
Therefore, we recommend that you avoid storing it for long periods of time, and instead take it out and put it back in occasionally to enjoy playing with it.

Some people may have experienced the above situation when storing toys in commercially available cases, but this can also happen if the painted surface is in close contact with the toys.
This is not limited to urethane; if toys are placed in a box with their exposed surfaces exposed, the paint on the contact surfaces can rub off or transfer.
This does not happen with toys that are mainly made up of exposed molding color, such as DX, but with toys that are completely painted, such as CSM, this can happen.
Please be aware of this in advance.
* Therefore, for DX toy holder items, the contact surface of both the holder and the item to be set is the same color as the molded item. For CSM Faiz Gear, the basic premise is that the items to be set are almost all painted silver, so this is unavoidable due to the structure.

Since it is affected by the storage environment (temperature and humidity), it is not guaranteed that this will occur, and it will not happen immediately, but on the other hand, we cannot say that it will never occur, and there is no material that will never experience this (if it is grounded to something in the world, there is always the possibility of this happening), so I wanted to mention this point.
It is unlikely that such a note will be added when selling cases from other manufacturers, but since this is an issue that could occur with cases from other manufacturers as well, and because in the case of this particular product, both the case and the contents (CSM Faiz Gear ver.2) are sold by BANDAI, we have added this note just to be on the safe side.
This product is not meant as a long-term storage case, but rather as a role NARIKIRI TOYS for recreating the transformation scenes of Faiz Gear. Thank you.

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This concludes the introduction to the Faiz Gearbox.

In addition to the release of the Gearbox, new colors have been added to the SMART BRAIN version of the "display base."
We will also be accepting reservations starting today.


The black base stand has been very well received, with some orders even going back to match the Saiga Driver.
Based on the results, we decided to create a version with inverted black and white, in keeping with the SMART BRAIN logo.
The base this time is white with the logo printed in black.
In the movie and in our SMART BRAIN items, the two colors of white logo on a black base and black logo on a white base were used very often, so we would be happy if you would use this as a different version.

That's all for today's blog. The next update will be on Monday, July 3rd.
Well then!