I visited The Kamen Rider 50 Years Exhibition at Incubase Arena, Fahrenheit 88 in Kuala Lumpur, as a fan, with low expectations.

It was the third weekend after it opened, the holiday season had just begun, and I paid RM50. For the money I was given an entry (no re-entries), a paper card for the 5 stamping stations in the exhibit, and participation with the meet and greet with a pair of costumed characters.

There were very few visitors that day.

It began with a welcoming video by Kunihiro Fujioka, the actor who played Hongo Takeshi, the hero who transforms in to the titular character in the original series.

The exhibition then continues with the origins of Kamen Rider, from idea to development and from comics to live action TV-show. It also featured some old costumes and props.

It was a satisfyingly long walk through the exhibits, it features a lot of characters. It also felt sparse.

The bulk of the exhibition are rows of costumed mannequins of riders (grouped by eras), rows of placards summarising each show in Japanese (with separate translation placards on the side) and a display showing highlight from each show. It did not feature motorcycles from the show, alternate forms of the heroes, and had only one villain costume.

I like the stamping stations, but instead of using cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to build the final image, each stamp was a piece of the picture in a certain colour. The result is unique, but it could have been better.

Having a (very) small section for the Kamen Rider Black Sun mini series was nice too, but I do not remember seeing anything from the Shin Kamen Rider movie, or the Kamen Rider Amazons mini series either.

The costumes on display felt lacking. It was nice to be able to look at them closely for the first time, but most of them looked like cosplayer costumes, not props from a TV show.

What disappointed me the most about the whole thing is the final gallery of Kamen Rider transformation gear. The belts were all DX toys, the same ones that can be found at toy shops and hobby stores. It felt like a rip-off.

To make it worse, the items at the gift shop at the end of the exhibition were overpriced. Despite some of the items being exhibition exclusive. Pins that had a printed price tag of 2,200JPY (RM61) were sold at almost twice the price. Role playing transformation item that is sold elsewhere for less than RM380 was sold there for more than RM800.

For photos, the free photo taking areas were alright, but I would skip the paid photo booth and photo card.

Here’s the thing, the exhibition opened on 10 January, 2025. It was originally meant to open on 20 December, 2024, the same weekend as the annual convention for Japanophiles and attention seekers in the city (Comic Fiesta).

Ticket pre-sales began on 29 November, 2024, with “early” ticket prices ranging from RM80 for two tickets to RM950 for one ticket and a coin set.

According to the organisers the event was delayed because they had difficulties getting the exhibits into the country in time. But I think that is not the only reason.

Although it has a lot of fans especially in Southeast Asia, the live-action special effect superheroes genre is a niche that is even smaller than anime, and Kamen Rider is a sub-segment of that. I do not think the exhibition could competed for the attention and cash with the convention

Previews of the exhibition were also sparse at first, and as more information was shared, it became less exciting. If you have seen the previews and teasers of the exhibition that features the costumes on social media, you have seen most of it. Just about the only segments of the exhibition that are not shared are the placards.

If the exhibition had more costumes, better costumes, features the bikes along side the character, and had CSM belts (premium high-end role playing transformation items) instead of off the shelf DX toys, I would recommend fans to give the exhibition a visit.

If it had more interactivity, like demo transformation items that visitors can manually activate, more props, and reasonably priced items, I would even recommend non fans to give it a try.

As is, I think The Kamen Rider 50 Years Exhibition is only worth it for fans who take full advantage of all the freebies like the free photo frame, poster, photo locations, and character meet-and-greet sessions.

The Kamen Rider 50 Years Exhibition is held until 16 March, 2024.