The first figure review I did was for NECA's 1954 Godzilla, I figure I deemed amazing and I still do today. Still, in the back of my head I wondered to myself what Tamashii Nations could do with the 1954 design.
Well, here's the answer!
And yes, I am just now getting this figure as opposed to some other people who got it as early as July. There were some who even got the new 'Return of Godzilla' Blu-ray early, now that's ridiculous!
But anyway, how is the 1954 SHMA figure? In a word, Pretty Incredible! But would you expect anything less from them?
At first I was a little worried because of the size of the figures head. I don't know why, but every time I would see a picture of this guy, I always thought the head looked a little puny in comparison to the rest of the figure.
Actually seeing the figure in person put those fears to bed pretty quickly. It looks nice and I am very impressed with the detailed sculpt on this figure.
And the paint application looks spot on as well, it has the standard charcoal black with a few lighter grey blemishes around it.The hands really stand out against the rest of the figure to me, maybe because Godzilla's claws aren't painted at all. His toenails have a fine white shading to them, so why weren't his claws given the same treatment?
As far as the eye issue is concerned, the right eye on mine is just a bit off-centered, but not enough to where it's going to bother me for days.
And the dorsal fins are nicely painted and are sculpted pretty good. I do have one little grip with them, but let's get to that later.
How's the articulation?
Starting from the top, Godzilla 1954 has a very articulated neck, allowing it to lean pretty far left, right and down. Godzilla's head can look up really high, but whenever I do that with mine, the head likes to pop off.
But it's still pretty cool that I am able to pose this incarnation of Godzilla in ways that I've never seen in the original film.
The arms on mine are a bit stiff at the shoulders, but they can spin all the way around, they can move left and right at the elbow, as well as bend and the hand can twist and move around slightly.
The legs can move forward and backward, bend at the knee and the feet can turn and pivot very nicely.
Godzilla can also bend forward at the torso and lean to the left and right a bit.
However that brings up one issue that these SHMA figures just can't seem to escape for some reason, the fin gap. While it's not as bad as the 1964 figure's gap, I still find it distracting. If that one fin on the middle body piece had just been moved down a few more degrees, it probably would look better to me.
Tail movement continues to be consistently fluid and perfect. One thing I did notice is that most Godzilla figures have the individual segments of their tails on ball joints, and while that is mostly true for 1954's, the end of the tail is a bit of a larger solid piece than usual. But at least it isn't snapping off like some of the other figures do.-cough-GMK-cough-
Godzilla 1954 unfortunately, does not come with any accessories. That's a pretty big missed opportunity, there could have been an added an effect piece that mimics his atomic breath as seen in the original film. Maybe even a model of the Oxygen Destroyer?
But if you want to give your 1954 Godzilla a beam effect, I recommend using the SHMA 1964 Emergence Version beam, since it looks closest to it and can actually fit inside 1954's mouth.
Speaking of which, it's kinda weird seeing this figure next to the 1964 figure. I actually expected 1954 to be around the same height, but instead, it stands around the same height as the other Godzilla's.
 |
| Left to Right: SHMA Godzilla (Birth Version), SHMA Godzilla 1954, SHMA Godzilla 2001, SHMA Godzilla 2014 (Spit Fire Version). |
Left: SHMA Gamera. Right: SHMA King Kong.
 |
| Left: NECA Ultimate Lady Danger. Right: NECA Ultimate Striker Eureka. |
 |
| "THAT'S what I look like in the new film?!?!?!!" |
Your probably expecting me to say weather I prefer this over the NECA figure or vice-versa, right?
Well, you'll have to be disappointed. I'm not gonna say which one I prefer over the other, I'm just gonna say that I have 2, awesome, very well made 1954 Godzilla figures that are at least 20 steps above Bandai Creation and their "first godzilla" figure. And that makes me very happy.
 |
| It's very nice to see the window packaging return. |
I give this figure a very high recommendation. Go ahead and grab it for your collection if you can find a good deal on it, you will not be sorry.
Hail to the original King!
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/
No comments:
Post a Comment