I just paid the Mandarake invoice for the DX Hiden Zero-One Driver and AIMS Shotriser two-pack.

I don’t know how it happened, me becoming that guy? A belt collector? Some folks joked that it was "Androzani germs", a couple years of exposure to DX toy videos and collectibles trivia that warped my mind until I bought role-play toys that cost as much to ship as they do to own. Possible! There’s also me getting a Decadriver for Christmas last year, and then purchasing the extra cards, leading to a couple afternoons of playing with all the cards and noises in a cacophony of childlike glee. After you own one belt, maybe you eventually buy more? That’s how the collection-based parts of my psychology work, so I can see it as a cause.

But there’s also just how fun the Zero-One Drivers look, you know? The Zi-O belts never ever clicked with me (I don’t think the Ridewatches are that neat?), but these couple belts are exactly my flavor of toku. I like the whole production aspect of the Progrise Key: the Authorizing, the Key opening, the CHUNK of it getting slammed into the Driver, the little bit of poetry at the end that Aruto doesn’t fully understand… they’re a hell of a commercial for toy-ownership, these Henshin sequences.

This video lays it all out in a way that would’ve been the nail in the coffin, if I’d had any self-control prior. The step-by-step of it all is incredibly cool, and Aruto plays off of Izu’s instructions with the same impeccable comedic timing as on the series. This whole thing was just a commercial to go buy the toys, but it played like a validation of my gut instincts. I appreciate this show making cool toys and selling them to me!