As I wrote in the last article, I had never seen Superman’s TYPE A face from the color booklet, so I was surprised when I saw it on TV! But the old number one was known to me early in my childhood when I read color brochures, so when I was a child, I knew that there were three Cyclones with different shapes.
Since “Lightning Rider vs. Hell’s Legion” played in Malaysian cinemas at that time was a compilation of two Japanese No. 1 dramas, “Kamen Rider vs. Shuka” and “Kamen Rider vs. Hell’s Ambassador”, so when I was a child, I had seen Sakurajima One and New One active in the video, but I had never seen the old One.
It was around the 1990s that I came into contact with information about the old No. 1 through some Hui Shu books in Hong Kong and Kino Kuni Bookstore in Japan. Even so, I’m still not too fond of the old model, as the color scheme doesn’t look very good. (No wonder the color of the No. 8 Sky Knight also changed in the mid-term) In the late 1990s, gashapon (boxed eggs) imported from Japan began to appear in Malaysia. I remember that I won the old No. 1, and I actually used model paint to change it to the new No. 1. (I couldn’t help it…I still had the same aesthetic taste as the public at that time)
The opportunity that made me appreciate the old one was the VCD era after 2000. The local Yinli Video released a box of the first generation Kamen Rider on VCD with only more than ten chapters. That was the first time in my life that I had the opportunity to watch the TV series of the first Kamen Rider, and it was in original Japanese with Chinese subtitles.
Since I have read the information before, Fujioka Hiroshi was wearing a leather holster himself, and later he fell into a car and was seriously injured during the filming of episodes 9 and 10. Since Hiroshi Fujioka himself practices Aikido and Kendo, many of the old No. 1’s fights would show Aikido using counter moves to knock down the enemy, and many times he would even seize the opponent’s sword and use it as a weapon.
Performed by Fujioka himself, he often demonstrates sword skills and Aikido wrestling.
Compared with the stand-in he used when he came back later, although the stand-in performed better, his kicks were much prettier than Hiroshi Fujioka! But the old No. 1 truly demonstrated Fujioka’s martial arts foundation. The real human body and the transformed one are the same person inside! So the old number one is of special significance.
Because the pictures the old No. 1 saw in his childhood were usually of tattered papier-mâché masks because they were in fights. In fact, many of the close-up shots of the old No. 1 were actually very nice.
The old issue of the magazine was not a good look.
Actually some of the close-ups of the old No. 1 are very nice.
Due to the immature shooting technology of that era, there were many problems with prop management and so on. If you carefully watch the first generation Kamen Rider from episode 13 to 13, you will find that the color of the old one is biased in every shot! Some used paper masks because it was convenient to shoot action scenes. There are also some scratches on the chin and chin that need to be recolored but have color differences. It can be said that the color of almost every photo of the old No. 1 is not uniform.
Sometimes masks made of paper mache are used, which are very ugly.
Sometimes the mask becomes dented…
The color was touched up on site but there was color difference, which shows that the production was not very sophisticated at that time…
This is the topic I want to discuss in this episode – “Is the old Kamen Rider No. 1 green or blue?” In the photos of the old No. 1 in the past, sometimes there are green, blue-green, blue, and dark army green! The color of the toy also varies from version to version, but it is actually considered “blue” by a group of people because there was a rebooted movie “Kamen Rider THE FIRST” in 2005. The No. 1 in the film refers to the color tone of the old No. 1. The tone of the movie is relatively dull, but you can see that the color of No. 1 is blue-green. (It is a compromise color between the blue and green of the old No. 1.) But the problem is that No. 1 is in a secret room that emits a blue light, which makes him look blue (only the light that breaks the glass can see the original color). When he lands and takes off his helmet, he is very blue. In fact, there is only one scene. The other time points are during the day, so you can see its original color.
It looks blue in a dark room, but becomes green when there is light.
The posters on the official website at that time all had the color tone of No. 1 very metallic blue, and almost all the toys were launched in blue. In addition, people were still in the era of DVD and CRT TVs, and the resolution was limited. Even if you buy a DVD and watch it again, it is difficult to detect the color difference. Naturally, people think that the official number 1 of THE FIRST is blue, and the number 1 of THE FIRST is based on the old number 1, so people naturally think that the old number 1 is blue.
At that time, the official website adjusted No. 1 to very blue.
The toys are all based on blue.
In fact, in recent years, Toei has released “Kamen Rider THE FIRST” Blu-ray BD (although the picture quality is only DVD upscaling), coupled with high-definition TV, you can see its original color more clearly. Moreover, in recent years, Toei’s new official website of the Kamen Rider series, THE FIRST, has clearer stills, and the color tone is no longer very blue like in 2005, but blue-green.
In recent years, Toei’s new official website has introduced information on THE FIRST. It can be clearly seen that No. 1 is not blue, but blue-green.
Talking back to our first-generation Kamen Rider Old One, SHF launched the Old One in 2013. At that time, everyone said that BANDAI made the wrong color! The biggest mistake was the pale pink eye patch from the old number one, which was made into orange eyes. But what more people criticize is that making the old No. 1 blue color green is a big mistake! Some people even painted green into blue!
SHF’s old No. 1 was criticized for inaccurate colors.
In fact, BANDAI launched a model version of MG No. 1 in 2011 before its release in 2013! This is the beginning of my understanding of the true color of the old No. 1 through this box of models. In the official box picture of the old No. 1 from MG, the old No. 1 is dark army green, but the molding color of the actual model is dark green, and the color mixing specified in the instructions is between green and gray-green, which is really interesting.
The styling of MG’s old No.1.
The old No. 1 in the picture has been painted according to the official formula, and the green original plastic part in the hand is unpainted.
Another thing I discovered is that the dark green old No. 1 that was originally assembled would sometimes appear blue if the light was turned on. This proves that this color tone is sometimes photographed as blue due to the lighting environment, and also explains why some stills look green and some appear blue. (It is said that Miku’s hair color also has the same problem.)
Miku’s hair color is the same as that of the old No. 1, which is between blue and green, and the color difference varies from factory to factory.
The following pictures are arranged from the left: official color matching → plain group lighting → official picture.
Of course, what’s even weirder is that there is an episode of the TV drama where Kamen Rider is undergoing special training. The leaked stills have two different tones, and the screenshots from the drama are also two tones.
This one leans towards blue
This one is closer to gray-green
The screenshot of the moment of landing in the play is very green.
In the screenshots of Tachibana Fujibei from the same drama, the normal color is green stained with mud.
If we want to define the color of No. 1, we must first analyze it from three parts. The first is the promotional photo of the finalized shape, the second is the debut of the first episode, and the third is the design manuscript of Shotaro Ishimori. The old No. 1 took styling photos at a factory where the transformation of riding on the Tornado was filmed. There was a rotating background (Hideaki Anno also copied this method when filming SHIN Kamen Rider!), but in these photos, the flash was turned on too hard, and the characters were reflected! But at least it’s clearly green. Here we can assume that the green is darker, but because of the flash it’s bright green.
The first prototype of the old No. 1 was photographed. The characteristic is that the antenna has four sections.
Hideaki Anno restored the scene, but it lacked flash and pearl powder, so it is not quite the same.
And the old No. 1 that appeared in the first episode is the most beautiful and clean leather holster and helmet in just thirteen episodes! Especially the helmet, which has a metallic color (actually pearl powder, which I will mention later), is different from the black, gray and green colors of MG and real bone carvings, but the old SHF model has restored this helmet color.
Except for the pink eye mask being replaced by an orange eye mask, the old SHF No. 1 is actually very similar to the colors in the drama.
After the first episode, the leather sheath of the old No. 1 also began to slowly deteriorate. As seen before, the green color began to turn dark green. Sometimes the antenna on the head was tilted to one side, and the paper helmet was dented. Sometimes, the future “Sakurajima No. 1” would appear early and intersperse in certain fields. It can be said that the production was chaotic and the props were not properly handled.
The color scheme of Sakurajima No. 1 actually appeared in the episodes of the old No. 1.
In addition, in Ishimori’s original manuscript, the image of the old No. 1 is also clearly green, and in the lyrics of the theme song of the first generation Kamen Rider, one of the lines: “ゴーゴーレッツゴーGreen (みどり)の仮面!” (Let’s go, let’s go) Green mask!), it is obvious that the helmet of Masked Knight No. 1 is green.
The original No. 1, painted by Shotaro Ishimori himself, is all green.
In fact, I have expressed similar opinions on the Internet before, but some players who have been buying old No. 1 toys such as the Medicom shirt series refuted my words. They used the professionalism of major toy manufacturers as an excuse. Could manufacturers make mistakes? THE FIRST I have explained above. As for Medicom, you will find that they have launched many old No. 1 products, and the colors are different each time. It is obvious that Medicom does not know what the standard color of the old No. 1 is, so it can only launch different versions to satisfy everyone.
The toy factory releases the old No. 1 in a different color every time.
Another strong evidence is the definition of Bandai! In fact, as early as the PS1 era, there was a game based on the first generation Kamen Rider. The old polygonal one in it was bright green, even though the CG video was gray green. But other CG final photos are basically bright green.
PS1 cover CG styling photo.
In the previous Kamen Rider CG art collections released in Japan, the old ones were all green.
The polygons in the PS1 game are all green.
Another piece of evidence: the newly remade old No. 1 leather case
In fact, after Fujioka Hiroshi was injured, Yuanzu’s old No. 1 holster was immediately repainted and repainted into Old No. 2! When Fujioka returned, he used the spare parts for painting. At that time, because the chins of the old No. 1 and No. 2 were easy to loosen, the production team designed straps to stabilize the chins. In order not to see the flaws, the front teeth, chin, and other parts were painted dark green. This way the strap is less obvious and obtrusive.
Sakurajima One starts with a chin strap.
The helmet is made of a dark green that is close to black (green can only be seen under sunlight). The staff said that this was the original color of the old No. 1, but because they were instructed not to add pearl powder, it looked different from the old No. 1. And this color scheme was called “Sakurajima No. 1” by later generations! And have you thought about the SHIN Kamen Rider in 2023? Many people say that it has a color tone between the old one and Sakurajima One? The old house – “Anno Hideaki” cannot be mentioned here.
Hideaki Anno wore a self-made leather case of the Old No. 1 when he was young (1986). The appearance of this Old No. 1 is very complete, but it is only for shooting and cannot be used for violent movements. In the 1990s, Hiroshi Fujioka became famous due to SEGA Sanshiro. TV stations replayed the first generation of Kamen Rider. Fujioka attended a program and told the story of his filming at that time. The program included an old No. 1 leather case and a Tornado. Visual inspection may be the same set? When promoting the release of the first-generation Kamen Rider DVD, there was also an old One and Tornado.
Everyone knows that Hideaki Anno is a serious otaku. When he was filming SHIN Kamen Rider, he conducted an in-depth study of the color matching of the old No. 1, including a thorough check of the forms and documents of the colors and models of paints ordered by the production team back then. Therefore, except for the compound eyes, the other colors of SHIN No. 1 are closer to Sakurajima No. 1. I believe Anno discovered the original color matching of the old No. 1. Other color differences may be due to photo exposure, fading of props due to sun and rain, as well as some effects of weather and lighting conditions. The staff in the picture above also said that apart from not adding pearl powder, Sakurajima No. 1 is actually the original color of the old No. 1. Because it is originally dark green, if pearl powder is added to mix it, it will have the metallic green effect from the first episode of TV. As for SHIN No. 1 and No. 2 leather cases, if they are exposed to strong light, their dark green color will appear the same as the old TV No. 1, which turned out to be bright green for a certain period of time, which also proves that Hideaki Anno is correct.
The helmet has a metallic color.
The dark green color of the abdominal muscles will turn bright green under the light.
As for Anno Hideaki’s research on the old No. 1, he released a book “仮面ライダーInformation and Photo Album 1971-1973”. This book was compiled by Hideaki Anno, and the photos are carefully selected. Not all photos of the old No. 1 are included. Some photos that were exposed to reflections (such as the first version of the styling test photos) or those taken during training in the mines were very blue are not included. Maybe Anno Hideaki wanted everyone to see the true color of the old No. 1, rather than those versions that were excessively reflective or had poor color processing techniques.
In 2021, Toei finally re-produced the old No. 1 leather case. Because it will appear in the theatrical version of “Kamen Rider Blade + Mecha Sentai: Super Hero Senki” and requires action shooting, a new leather case is needed. The length standard of this version of the antenna is the same as the first one, which is four sections in length, but the biggest change is the gray-green color of the chin. The helmet looks gray and black but seems to use pearl powder. It has a vague metallic green feel under a light source. Other parts are dark green and become more vivid blue-green under light source. Except that it looks smaller than the Yuanzu version of the helmet, it basically restores the original shooting shape! If you see the version worn by Hideaki Anno in 1986, it is more like the version in the drama, because that version is based on the version in the middle of the 13th episode.
A new leather case for the old No. 1 made by Toei.
This new version is currently on display at the “Kamen Rider Exhibition”. You can go and have a look at it. After all, it is a new version that has been officially verified. At the same time, it also explains the differences between Sakurajima No. 1, SHIN No. 1 and green and blue. You may wish to take a photo and post it on the message board. Maybe everyone can take a photo of the old No. 1 with different color differences.
Old No. 1 new leather case at the show.
Okay, that’s it for this issue’s analysis of the color of the old No. 1. This may be an unpopular subject, but I have wanted to write about this special project for a long time, and I have published similar experiences sporadically on the Internet. This time it is a collection of highlights. If you want to modify the color of the SHF, real bone carving or MG old No. 1 to make it look closer to the TV version, I hope it will be helpful to you.
Recently, I am dealing with game developers. They are developing a four-player cooperative action game with a tokusatsu theme similar to Kamen Rider style. We need more tokusatsu fans to provide more opinions and construction. If you are interested, please join the discord group to study the way of tokusatsu with like-minded friends!