SH MONSTERARTS GODZILLA 2001 - Figure Review

For the SH MonsterArts line, 2015 seemed to be the year of the Re-paints. 2016, on the other hand appears to be the Year of the Godzilla's.So far the year has seen many surprise figure reveals. Among them are the original 1954 Godzilla, the new Shin Gojira and a weird looking Evangelion colored Godzilla.
But to start off the new line, we have a new figure based on his 2001 appearance from the film 'Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack'

One of the more interesting and somewhat controversial designs of the Big G has been captured beautifully.

Starting from the top, the head looks great. The sculpt is spot on and the details stand out very well, the ghostly looking eyes in particular. The inside of the mouth is painted very nicely with some great looking teeth and a nice looking tongue, which can slightly move side to side and you can get it to move up and down, just be careful not to force it.

In addition to the typical movement to the left and right, this Godzilla can look pretty far down and really high up, I think this figure can look higher than any SHMA Godzilla previously could.

Godzilla's body is very nicely detailed with his large, chubby sculpt matching the film version.

The arms can rotate and twist at the shoulders, he has a nice bend at the elbows and the hands can rotate at the wrist and move about.
The hands came out looking good, but something to bring up is that the claws on my figure have a slight grey shade starting at the bottom before turning white and if you look carefully, you'll notice hints of brown shading throughout the figure. I don't think much of this but I thought I'd point out that some figures may look slightly different then others.

The legs are nice and big, they can move out pretty far and there is a bend at the knee. The feet can bend up and down and can pivot around for posability. The toe nails have the same coloring issue that the claws had.

I've heard stories of some other people who've purchased this figure and have had the head, hands and torso spontaneously pop out while being moved around. On mine however, the only issue I've had with parts coming loose are the hands, which can easily be popped right back in.

Moving on to the dorsal plates, I think they came out looking pretty good. I love the rough, bumpy texture that they have and I also like how some of the tips are curved in several different ways. Though some of them do overlap over others.
Godzilla does have 2 points of waist articulation and while the gap between the plates does look odd it's still not as distractedly wide as the 1964 figure.  

The same overlapping spines issue can be found on the beginning of the tail. Other then that though, the tail looks nice and the movement is nice and fluid. 

This Godzilla stands just a hair taller than your average SHMA Godzilla figure.

I don't have a Baragon figure. =(

One last thing to mention, aside from the weird color choices and the issue with the hands, I think the price for this guy is a little too high. Considering the average SHMA Godzilla figure costs between $60-$70, $82 seems a bit steep. Especially considering the lack of any accessories. But ignoring those gripes, I still think this is a great offering from Tamashii Nations. If you can get it for a good price, pick it up!

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

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

So long...

If you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, Be sure to give my FB page a like to see updates and other related stuff. Thanks for reading!
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NECA HARDSHIP - Figure Review

What I find great about the NECA Pacific Rim toy line is that they took the time to take Jaegers and Kaiju that had less than a minute of screen time and make some very awesome figures based on their likeness. One of these examples is the Kaiju named Hardship.

Hardship appeared in the prologue for the film, he was shown fighting the Mark 1 Jaeger, Romeo Blue.

Hardship is one wicked looking Kaiju and a pretty awesome looking figure. The Design and sculpt on it is superb, I really love the mixtures of brown and purple used for the skin color.

One thing you may notice right away is that Hardship's body is structured the same way as Mutavore's. It makes sense seeing as how in the movie, most of the Kaiju are revealed to be clones of each other with some differences.
And the same can be said for the Articulation.
Now, here's where I gotta confess something, I made a mistake in my review of Mutavore. I mentioned how the hinge next to his head looked like it should have moved to the sides but mine didn't. However, as I was testing the articulation for Hardship, his head moved in that exact way!
I actually got my Mutavore off my shelf and tried moving it again and it moved! My guess is he must've still been pretty stiff up in that area. But nevertheless, it was a mistake that I made and I apologize for that.

 

Looking at Hardships head, the amount of detail is astounding, especially on the eyes, the nose and his horn. I especially love the paint work on the tip of his horn.

The lower jaw is structured like Otachi's, being able to split apart and come together but Hardship's looks funny to me, when the mouth is together and closed, his lower jaw has a bit of an overbite.

Just like Mutavore, the big outer arms can rotate and twist at the shoulders. They can also move in and out, but not by much. The elbows can bend depending on how the forearms are twisted and the hands can spin and bend at the wrist.

Hardship also has the little Gigan arms Mutavore had.

As far as I've been able to tell, Hardship cannot bend forward or backward. His waist can only turn left and right.

Hardships legs have many points of movement which can lead to a lot of potential poses. The legs move in and out, as well as forward and backward at the hip. His knees can bend and twist, the third section of the leg can also twist around and the feet can pivot around.

Lastly looking at the back, Hardship's shell and tail are very nicely sculpted and detailed. Unfortunately, the tail is unmovable.

Hardship comes with a figure stand which can be used to hold him up when leaned forward, but unlike Mutavore, I actually find it easier to stand him up straight. The stand can still be used to better the effect.

Standing at his straightest, Hardship measures up to 10 inches tall.

Standing next to his fellow weapon-headed Kaiju

And next to Lady Danger and Romeo Blue

Even though Hardship may not have been the best choice to end the Kaiju figure line on, I still really like it and am proud to have it in my collection.

Well, we've gotten through the penultimate figure in NECA's Pacific Rim line, only one more to go. And I got something a little special planned for that.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

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

So long...

If you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, Be sure to give my FB page a like to see updates and other related stuff. Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/