NECA ULTIMATE LADY DANGER - Figure Review

This review has been edited from its original version. It has been reformatted for culturally sensitive reasons.

Well, here we are. The final release in NECA's Pacific Rim figure line. It's another Lady Danger, an 'Ultimate' Lady Danger, with added articulation, extra accessories and a neat little light up feature.

The Ultimate Lady Danger has a very impressive sculpt with some great added details. I'm noticing this Danger is painted with a bolder blue than some of the other ones, there are also some black smudges scattered around the figure giving it a more battle-worn appearance.
The inner workings of Danger are painted a gun metal black, and there are some nicely painted red and white stripes all around.
The majority of the details are great, but one thing kinda bugs me. Ultimate Striker Eureka had it's emblem painted on, but Ultimate Lady Danger doesn't get it's emblem painted on? No matter what Lady Danger figure you buy, it will always be stuck with just a red dot by it's right shoulder where there should be a pin-up girl with a large machine gun.

Moving on to the Articulation, Lady's head can be moved left and right, despite being a bit stiff.
Arms can rotate and can move out at the shoulders, the biceps and forearms can rotate. And the hands can rotate and move around a little bit.
There is some waist movement too, Lady can lean left and right, but only slightly forward and backward. He can also rotate at the waist.

The Legs can move forward and backward, feature double jointed knees and the feet can rotate and pivot.
All of the Lady Danger figures I've ever bought has a problem with trying to stand up without falling over, I've always had to buy figure stands from Hobby Lobby to display them on my shelf. However, this Lady seems to stand up better than the others without the use of a figure stand and that makes me very happy.

Ultimate Lady Danger comes with many accessories. A pair of Chain Swords, Plasma Cannons, open hands, closed hands and a Reactor Blast piece. All of which look great and present a great deal of possibilities for poses. 

Fun Fact: My Lady actually came with 2 right closed hands. I would be disappointed by this if I didn't have a spare left hand from one of the other Lady Danger figures I own.

Under the left armpit is a button that activates the light up feature which looks really cool, especially in the dark!

 Left: Series 1 Lady Danger. Right: Hong Kong Brawl Lady Danger

 Left: Ultimate Striker Eureka. Right: Series 3 Cherno Alpha

Left: Series 2 Leatherback. Right: Toys R Us Exclusive Kinfehead Clean Version 

Flying and Land Otachis

Like with Ultimate Striker Eureka, I have to give the utmost praise to the fantastic packaging. The use of movie posters for the front and back, the blueprints and the window packaging looking like something out of the Shatterdome, it's all AWESOME!

With all that said, should you get this figure? YES! Of all the Lady Danger figures to come out, this is by far, the definitive version of this Jaeger. Pick it up if you can get your hands on it.


Well, that's it. The last figure in the NECA Pacific Rim figure line. It was a fun ride to be on and I will miss it. While I am disappointed that we wont get to see figures of Raiju or Slattern or maybe an Ultimate Crimson Typhoon, I do like the fact that NECA was able to release so many well made figures based on some of the most popular Jaeger/Kaiju characters, as well as some of the more obscure ones.

It has been said that the license for the toy rights may fall back into their hands when Pacific Rim 2 comes out. We shall see, but for now, I will continue to sit and admire my collection as it is.

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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MILENNIUM GODZILLA (BANDAI MOVIE MONSTER SERIES) - Figure Review

While I was curious about the Godzilla 2016 and Mechagodzilla 2004 figures, the one figure that I was most excited to own was the Millennium Godzilla, one of my favortie Godzilla designs.

Before this, the only Millenium Godzilla figure I had was from Bandai Creations, the one with the sloppy paint on the dorsal fins. When I saw the pictures of the 3 figures, I was just amazed at how cool the Millenium Godzilla figure looked compared to the Bandai Creations figure. I knew I had to get it!

Seeing this figure in person, it blew my expectations away. This is a very awesome figure. The head looks very nice, everything looks great from the skin, the teeth, the eyes and even the ears. And the inside of the mouth is painted red which is always a nice touch.

The body as a whole is really good. The sculpt is pretty spot on and the coloring is the signature Charcaol grey with a hint of Green added to it. The arms and legs look great with pretty good coloring and proportions. There are little spiky bumps on the shoulders and hips, a small detail which I feel look really nice.
The arms and legs also have the only articulation on this figure. The arms twist at the shoulder and the legs rotate at the waist.

The dorsal plates are amazingly sculpted and I love the shiny purple paint used for them.

The tail is nicely sculpted and while the spines may not be painted I still think it looks pretty good.

What I love most about this figure is how it looks exactly like it does in the movie. So for the comparison pics I have it standing next to the SH MonsterArts Godzilla 2000 Millenium figure, which is based on an unused concept for the movie. While I prefer the final version, I still really like the SHMA version and I am very happy to own both figures.

And one last group shot of the 3 figures.

This is a very good representation of the Millennium Godzilla. If you can only get one of these 3 figures, get this one! 'Nuff said!

Till next time, I've 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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MECHAGODZILLA 2004 (BANDAI MOVIE MONSTER SERIES) - Figure Review

 Here is the second of the Japanese Bandai figures I ordered from BigBadToyStore, Mechagodzilla 2004, or Mechagodzilla 3.
Or "Kiryu" if you prefer.
In terms of Mechagodzilla merch in the US, I've only ever seen figures based mostly on either the Showa or Heisei versions. I've not seen a whole lot of Kiryu releated stuff, the best we've gotten was a 12 inch figure from Bandai Creations (which I love). So seeing this figure being made available to us across the Pacific is a real treat.

We have here a very nice figure based off his appearance in 'Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.' (Minus the Rocket pack). I also wanna apologize for the inconsistent lighting in some photos, this guy was hard to get good pictures of with my setup. 

The head looks good with some great detail and the eyes are painted nicely with no splotches.
And the head can be rotated.

Arms and torso are all very nicely detailed and the arms can rotate. While it may look like he can spin at the waist, he can't.

Legs look great and I like how the wiring looks in the legs.

Sculpt on the spines looks very good.

While the tail looks nice overall, it does bother me that the segments where you can see the wiring are not painted black. This problem is even presented on the back of the legs. So, they paint the front of the legs but not the back? Maybe I can do it myself.

Comparing him to some other Mechagodzilla figures I own, including his 12 inch counterpart.

This Mechagodzilla stand about 6.5 inches tall

One little oddity regarding this figure here is that it looks kinda small when compared to other Godzilla figures. 

I like this Kiryu figure despite the minor paint issues. If you can find this figure online for a decent price, take the plunge.
Alrighty, 2 down, 1 to go...

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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GODZILLA 2016 (BANDAI MOVIE MONSTER SERIES) - Figure Review

It's well known that in terms of Godzilla merchandise, Japan gets all the cooler stuff. In order for someone in the US to get their hands on any Bandai Japan Godzilla figures, you gotta do some looking online.
Much to my surprise, I managed to find this and 2 other figures up for pre-order on BigBadToyStore.com, and I immediately placed orders for them so I could review them. 

First up is 'Godzilla 2016' from the new film: SHIN GOJIRA. As the first figure released based on the new design, how does it hold up? Well...

Starting from the top, the head looks fairly accurate and well sculpted. However, I do feel the eyes could have had a small dot added as a pupil.
Something weird I noticed as I was looking inside the mouth is that this figure has no tongue! That was really surprising to me, I thought it might have been an error on the manufacturing part. But I look at other photos of Shin Godzilla and it's true, he has no discernible tongue. Just when I thought this design couldn't get any stranger.

Speaking of strange, lets talk about the arms. Ignoring the fact that I still find the tiny arms to be the only thing I'm unsure of with the new design, is it just me or are the arms on this figure WAY too small when compared to the film version?
I haven't yet seen the film yet, on account of me living in the US (grr!), but I'm pretty sure the arms are supposed to be a bit bigger than that. However looking at them as they are, they look alright and they can even rotate a full 360 degrees around.

Yeah, it's time to address the elephant in the room: the paint job.
I think the area's that are painted look great, but I really don't get why Bandai couldn't have added a bit more red-orange shading to the rest of the body, they way it is now makes Godzilla look like he's wearing a life jacket.  

Paint aside the main body does look very nice. The dorsal fins are all nicely formed and detailed.The legs look good with some nice added detail from the hip to the feet. The legs can also rotate 360, but aside from the arms and legs, there is no other point of articulation on this figure whatsoever.

So how bout that tail? Well as long as you have at least 11 inches of shelf space available, this figure will fit in just fine.

 Despite it's overly large size, this is a nicely detailed looking tail. The more sharp spines in the middle look odd to me though.
And I do like the detail given to the tip of the tail, still not sure what the deal is with that though. (No spoilers please!) 

Shin Godzilla stands well aside various Bandai Godzilla figures.

And he even looks good standing beside his cousins from NECA and SH MonsterArts.

Despite all the little nitpicking I've been doing, this is still a fairly good representation of the new Shin Godzilla. It may not be for everyone, but if you think it looks great and would love to add it to your collection, go ahead and search for it.
As for me, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what NECA can do with the design with their figure that was just announced. Not sure if I can shell out for the SH MonsterArts version though. Only time will tell. 

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/