SH MONSTERARTS SUPER MECHAGODZILLA - Figure Review

Ya know whats worse than trying to hunt down an old SHMA figure? Trying to hunt down 2 of them to complete a set (Technically 3 if you want a battle damaged head).

This was indeed the case for the Heisei Mechagodzilla, which just so happened to be the second figure to be made in the SHMA line released in December 2011. If you wanted to have a Super Mechagodzilla figure, you'd have to buy the Garuda separately which came out 3 months later.

The original price for Mechagodzilla was around $80 while the Garuda was close to $35. 

Today? Not so much!
You'd have to shell out around $100-$200 or more for just ONE of those.
Thankfully Tamashii Nations saw fit to rectify this by re-releasing both of them in one cool package re-branded as "Super Mechagodzilla".

Admittedly, I've never been the biggest fan of the Heisei design of Mechagodzilla. However, I grew to really like this figure as I examined it while working on this review.

Since I don't have the original SH MonsterArts Mechagodzilla, I can only go by pictures of it for any comparisons to the new figure.

Off the bat, the biggest difference is the paint job. This Mechagodzilla sports a metallic silver body which in my opinion looks a lot better than the original. The eyes are also yellow as opposed to the original orange color. While Mechagodzilla's eyes were orange in the film, I actually think the yellow eyes look better.
Other differences will be talked about when I talk about articulation.

No expense was spared on Mechagodzilla's sculpt. Everything from the muscles, the tubes inside the arms, Paralyzer Missile and Shock Anchor vents, the jet boosters on the back and the lines on the side of the head are captured beautifully.

You can even see the turrets inside the mouth where the Mega-Buster ray fires from.
The legs also include some added flaps to help cover up potential gaps in the crotch area.
While most of the figure seems to be made of standard plastic, the feet are made from a more heavy material. I'm no expert in figure design, but if I had to guess, I would say this may have been done to help balance the figure and make it stand up better in different poses. That may very well not be the case though, but like I said, just a guess. 

Some parts of this Mechagodzilla's articulation have been changed from the original release, mostly in terms of converting into flight mode.

Originally, a separate neck joint was needed to be attached to Mechagodzilla to adjust his head. Here though the head simply needs to be made to look up, which also retracts the small fins on the back and the rest of the neck simply sinks down into the body. This re-tooling makes this figure incompatible with the battle-damaged head that came with the SHMA Rodan figure.

Next we have this Mechagodzilla's pathetic tail. The first figure came with 2 separate tails one curved for a standard pose and another which was straightened out for flight mode. Now it's all just one tail that can be moved to be in both modes. I feel like this should have been done in the first place.

Mechagodzilla has some good articulation.
Apart from the upward movement of the head, it can also rotate a full 360 degrees at the neck. Just be sure the neck is pushed down a certain way before trying this though!

The arms are able to rotate all the way around at the shoulders and can move in and out just a little bit. He can bend at the elbows but there is no rotation there what so ever. The hands can also rotate and swivel around.

The waist can be made to have Mechagodzilla look left and right, stand upright and only move forward a smidge. The Plasma Grenade piece kinda hinders the movement a bit.
Then again, the UNGCC (United Nations Godzilla Countermeasure Center) didn't exactly design this mech to be high on mobility, did they?

The legs rotate a full 360 and move in and out at the hips. A double jointed knee is included for bending. And the feet and rotate move up and down, rotate and pivot and the foot even comes with an extra joint that can move up and down.

This SH MonsterArts figure comes with quite a few accessories, including the extra pair of hands for it's Flight Mode.

One of them is a Plasma Grenade effect piece that can attach to the belly.

The method of attaching the Plasma Grenade effect piece is to simply remove the top part of the body and it'll be easier to swap out the pieces. You'll probably still wanna have a good fingernail to make it easier to pry off. And then it's all a matter of putting Mechagodzilla back together and now he's ready to unleash his deadly Plasma Grenade!
As a side note, am I the only one who finds it weird that the "Plasma Grenade" attack is a big freaking laser as opposed to anything else resembling a grenade?

But of course the most obvious accessory, as well as the main reason most people may be inclined to buy this set is the flying war machine known as "Garuda".

The Garuda looks beautifully sculpted even down to the tiniest detail and the paint looks spot on as well. There is a flight stand included for displaying Garuda in a variety of dynamic poses.
It's laser cannons can move down and the cockpit can slide up and down in order to prepare it for the main event of this figure. I'm pretty sure the boosters on the rear can move around as well but mine cannot. I may need to break out the hair dryer.

The rest of the accessories included are necessary to upgrade regular Mechagodzilla to SUPER MECHAGODZILLA. (Which is really just Mechagodzilla with nothing more than basically a jetpack, but whatever.)

An instruction manual is included so show you how to remove and replace the panels for Garuda, replace the back piece for Mechagodzilla, attach both pieces in the corresponding peg holes.

Doing this will give you a pretty cool looking and very top heavy Super Mechagodzilla.

If you want to get a great SuperMechagodzilla figure without paying after market prices and don't mind not having all the accessories from the original releases then I would say this is a purchase you simply must make.
In fact, you may even have a chance to own mine as I will actually be putting it on ebay pretty soon. It's not that I don't like the figure, on the contrary, I love the figure despite not being a huge fan of the Heisei Mechagodzilla, it's just that life gets in the way sometimes and you gotta make sacrifices.

My only other hope is that this re-release means we will be getting a new Heisei Rodan figure very soon.
Also, weren't we supposed to be getting Showa Mechagodzilla figure?

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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