X-PLUS GIGAN 1972 | Figure Review

Thanks to a significant chunk of my tax return this year, I was finally able to acquire a figure I've been wanting to add to my collection for a long time: an X-Plus Showa Gigan. 

And boy am I happy I did.

Upon taking this figure out of it's shipping box (I bought it secondhand, no original packaging unfortunately), I was blown away by how good it looks! I had to pinch myself several times to make sure I wasn't dreaming and holding a scaled down version of the actual suit, either that or I had grown 10x my normal size.

Like all X-Plus figures, you'll have to attach the tail to the figure. But unlike those other figures, this ones tail attaches pretty easily. No hair dryer required. 
It does like to pop out occasionally though, which is annoying. 

Just look at this thing, have you ever seen a more perfect representation of Gigan in your life? I doubt it. 
Look at that head sculpt, immaculate. With a beautifully sculpted tongue for good measure. 
Whoever sculpted this figure knew damn well how much of a GigaChad Gigan is and thus, has a body to match. I love it so much! Why isn't Gigan in the MonsterVerse already!?!

Gigan's fins look gnarly and cool, however one of them is a bit loose. Gonna have to dig out some super glue.
Also, there's this weird switch on the back of this figure, anyone know what that's about? Nothing lights up and I didn't hear any sounds coming from the figure.
Although, the last couple of times I did flick the on switch I heard a lot of screaming and explosions coming from outside my house.
Each time varied in direction and distance from where I was.
I'm not saying that had anything to do with it, but I haven't touched that switch since.
I already have enough trouble sleeping with all the voices I hear at night...

Let's talk about the paint!
The paint work is nice, I love the blending of green and black on the body, it looks really cool.
The blue may be off putting and inaccurate to you, but what if I told you that in some production photos, those parts on Gigan do appear to be blue? Trendma- I, mean X-Plus just accentuated it to the nth degree. 
And you gotta love how the blending of colors on Gigans fins make it look oily. 

X-Plus figures aren't known for articulation, but Gigan here sure has a lot of movement. His neck, arms and legs can all make full rotations.
The tail can rotate too, but the fins limit that movement.

This right here is my favorite figure of all time, no other toy company can match this perfection no matter how hard they try. If they are trying, they need to stop before I snort a pile of cocaine infused with grounded up mushrooms and drywall, get in my flying tank and pay a visit to their headquarters and blow them to kingdom come. 

Don't ever ask me about the Chinchilla Incident...

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

Happy April Fools Day...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

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Let's Look At: HIYA TOYS GODZILLA REPAINTS (2021 HEAT RAY & 2019 BURNING)

The MonsterVerse figures from Hiya Toys have been getting the highest of praise in the past few months, including from yours truly. Their 2019 Godzilla figure really impressed me and actually made me interested in the upcoming repaints.
The pictures looked great, but it mattered even more how they look in hand. 

HEAT RAY GODZILLA (Godzilla vs. Kong 2021)

Technically, this is just the 2019 Godzilla figure rebranded as 2021 from Godzilla vs. Kong. But they are still the same design, so there ya go. 
After being disappointed by the last 2021 Godzilla figure from SH MonsterArts and being absolutely put off by the last few MonsterVerse Godzilla's they've released/teased, this figure had quite a few expectations hovering over it. 
And I gotta say...

This figure is pretty fantastic!
The atomic blue coloring is very well done. The head looks like the eyes and the mouth are actually glowing and not the aftermath of shotgunning a blue raspberry ICEE.  

From the neck to the waist we have a bit of paint applied for the light from the Atomic Breath. Not as bright as the other paint, but I find it to be an appreciated detail. 

The back is where the figure truly shines, pun absolutely intended. 
The best part would no doubt have to be on the larger dorsal fins, I love the white mixed with the blues and how the fins are outlined with a darker shade. Honestly, I wish all the fins could have had this scheme to it to some degree.
I also think the very end of the tail might have too much paint applied to it. 

Before we get to the obvious accessory, I wanna mention the extra head and neck piece.

These are meant to emulate Godzilla roaring while looking straight up. The head and neck on the figure itself are easy enough to remove but you might have a time trying to place the head back on. Or at least I did.

Because of how the figure's articulation is engineered, Godzilla isn't going to have a perfect 90 degree head turn, but close enough to where he'll at least look cool roaring to the sky.

The extra head has a groove inside of it where you insert the included Atomic Breath part.

The piece looks great, possibly the best Atomic Breath I've seen included with any Godzilla figure. The piece plugs into the extra head and holds on tight.

However, I don't feel like the breath quite lines up with Godzilla's mouth to where you can ever get him to look like he's firing it straight on. You can sort of get away with it when using the normal neck, but with the straight neck looking up, the breath awkwardly goes off in a different than intended direction and it just looks wrong.
I wish the connecting end of the breath wasn't curved and just plugged in straight, then I'd be a 100% happy camper. 


At the end of the day, I have gripes, but not enough to make me wanna put this figure back in the box and not touch it anymore.
I really, really do like this figure a lot, there are just some instances where I think it could be so much better. 
If you're looking to get yourself an atomic glowing/breath shooting MonsterVerse Godzilla, this might just be your best option. 

BURNING GODZILLA 2019

In my humble opinion, NECA and SH MonsterArts came so close to having a great Burning Godzilla figure. However, both had their shortcomings when it come to the paint work, they never could quite get the right balance between Godzilla's skin and the fiery light effect.

While both may be good figures in their own right, the Hiya Toys Burning Godzilla figure blows both of them away leaving only piles of ashes.

This one's gonna be brief. 
The way Hiya managed to mix the coloring on this Godzilla figure is damn near perfect, this is everything I've ever wanted from a Burning Godzilla figure. 
Good mix of black and orange for the body and evenly shaded bright colors on the fins.

The yellow paint on the end of the tail is what I was talking about for the heat ray version, start small then gradually go bigger up the tail to the back. 

And that's about all I have to say about these. Both of these figures are great repaints, huge improvements on the SHMA releases and excellent companion pieces to the previous Godzilla release.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

Thanks for reading!

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Let's Look At/Review: MECHAGODZILLA (1993), GARUDA & FIRE RODAN - MAKUHARI DECISIVE BATTLE Ver.

7 years ago, I reviewed the SH MonsterArts Super Mechagodzilla, a figure I ended up selling in order to pay a bill that I had. Ultimately, I loved the figure and I always told myself I'd buy it again when I was a bit better off. 
Months passed, prices went up and I kept watching and waiting. 
Then this set got announced... 

MECHAGODZILLA & GARUDA

Aside from the more obvious differences, these 2 are more or less the same figures from the Super Mechagodzilla set. Same great sculpt and same good articulation. The paint looks the same but the silver parts also seem to have a slight bluish hue to it. Also, the eyes are colored to appear more orange, I appreciate this detail. 

The same accessories from the Super set are included, but this set has a few extras. 

The first Garuda release included a set of G-Crusher parts that attach to Mechagodzilla's wrists.

The G-Crusher parts included with this set are way longer than the original pieces.

The last new accessory is a damaged eye piece for Mechagodzilla. It's small but it still looks very nice.
For this figure, instead of removing the entire head, all you have to do for this one is first, remove the horn piece on the back of the head (which is really loose on mine) then remove the current eye piece and replace it with the other.

Now Mechagodzilla looks like he got his eye pecked out by a large irradiated Pteranodon. 
Speaking of...

FIRE RODAN

The point I actively decided to pre-order this set was when I saw the Rodan figure included with it.
I love the Heisei Rodan and I do own the original SHMA Fire Rodan figure from 2012. I'm not going to do too much compare/contrast between the two versions aside from the paint and just review the figure we got from this set. 

That said, the figure we got looks incredible. Fire Rodan is going to be smaller then what most SHMA collectors may be used to. That said, the details are great! 

The head looks good with an appropriately fierce expression. I need to do something to fix the lower part of the beak on mine. 

The chest spikes, one of Rodan's signature features, are all nicely sculpted and detailed. 
From the back of his head to tail, Rodan's horns and spikes all look good, they're made with translucent plastic to emulate them lighting up as Fire Rodan fires his Uranium Heat Beam.

Rodan's legs are small but still sculpted well. Something I noticed is that one knee piece is slightly bigger than the other. An odd sculpting choice to say the least. 

As for Rodan's wings, of course they look great! The edges have some wonderfully rough details applied to them that make this figure look alive.
But while the wings are also the stand out feature of any Rodan figure, it can also be an Achilles' heel. 
Most articulated Rodan figures seem to have a hard time managing the gap between the body and the wings. The SHMA Fire Rodan seems to handle it the best, but you still have the gap in the right wing that never really wants to stay firmly in place.
The problem comes from the fact that the shoulder pieces have different sculpts. If the right one were more like the one on the left, I feel this problem would instantly be solved.

Now about the paint. While the first figure seems to have a more movie accurate color scheme, this Rodan has more of a night time color scheme which I love. The crimson red mixed with the shading on the wings and the white chest looks amazing. The veins on the wings are also a nice touch.

One major change from the previous figure is that the MDB version is mostly made of translucent plastic parts. At first glance, you'll immediately notice the horns and the spikes, but with the right amount of light, you'll begin to see through the figure. With the right amount of lighting, you could get some really dynamic shots of Rodan. 

Before I get to articulation, please keep in mind that this figure is small and he will feel fragile, so exercise extreme care before handling him.

Head and neck can look up and down and tilt side to side. The head can rotate at the neck and the neck can rotate at the body. 
No torso articulation.

The wings come with some hinges giving us some nice flapping movements. At the shoulder the wings can move in and out and they can even rotate.

Legs can rotate at the hip and can move forward and backward somewhat. Knees can bend. The feet can move up and down for flight poses and they can rotate and pivot. 

Rodan's tail is very posable, but it feels like the most fragile part of the figure. Again, handle with care!

Unlike the first Fire Rodan figure, that came with a bunch of cool accessories, the MBD version only comes with a basic flight stand and Rodan specific cradle. 

For this set, we also get 2 new flight stand parts that attach to Rodan's wings, similar to the 2019 King Ghidorah wing holders. 

While it can be used in combination with the previous flight stand, both options work well for displaying your Rodan figure. 

All in all, this is another re-release, Decisive Battle version, re-paint, whatever you wanna call it set that Tamashii Nations has knocked out of the park! I'm happy to own a Super Mechagodzilla again and the Rodan is a nice plus. It's not going to replace my original SHMA Rodan figure anytime soon, that was a birthday gift a few of my friends chipped in to get me, but something about owning 2 Rodan figures just feels right.
Definitely don't sleep on these figures this time around if you're thinking about picking them up!

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and if you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. 

Thanks for reading!

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