Thread:Gokyr586/@comment-24440576-20170501021022/@comment-11479355-20170501024919

Technically any imitations of Riders should not be considered real Riders and should be classified as villains instead.

The distinction here is that imitation Riders were a much more common trope in the Showa era, being created by the respective villain organizations and actually appearing in the main TV series as "kaijin" from the villain organization, while imitation Riders are much less common in the Heisei era, being usually standalone villains appearing only in exclusive material.