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...

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 SHIN GODZILLA - Figure Review

Let's be honest, this latest incarnation of Godzilla has not had it easy when it comes to being represented in toy form, weather it be weird sculpts or questionable paint work.

When 'Shin Godzilla' premiered at an Alamo Drafthouse theater in New York, NECA also had a table with all of their Godzilla figures set up, including one based off the newest incarnation from the film. For the most part, people got really excited about it, myself included. 

As the months went on, more pictures were released showing off the figure in all it's detail. And people began to be skeptical about it, claiming the head was disproportionate, the paint was off and just general comments about how NECA is somehow inferior to SH Monster Arts. 

One comment you may have heard from other reviewers and collectors is that this figure looks a lot better out of the package and they're right. After opening the package, assembling the tail and really examining it, I really like this figure. 

Like I said before, this is a hard design to duplicate and nowhere is that more evident then in the head. In the movie, Godzilla has multiple rows of teeth going in all kinds of directions and sometimes not even from the gums. You can see a lot of teeth sticking out and while there may not be a lot of them, I still think it looks pretty good and the head is pretty decently sized. 

And the rest of the body ain't to shabby either. 
But the big thing that stands out is the paint work. Godzilla here looks to have a good balance of red orange spots throughout the body and the figure itself has a wet glossy look to it.

The dorsal fins are sculpted nicely although I think some of them may have too much red on them. Although that's something I can probably fix myself. One thing unusual about this figure is that the second rows of dorsal fins are not symmetrical, this was probably a creative choice on NECA's part.

As for the tail, this figure is advertised as a 12 Inch Head-to-Tail figure, except it ain't. I'd say more 16 Inches. The tail looks good for the most part, the problem comes from the tip though. The way it's sculpted, you really cant  see the supposed face on the end. I think it should've been a lighter color and the black paint on it does not fit. Also there are these weird yellow paint patches on the underside, I have no idea what that was about.
I consider the tip of the tail to be the weakest aspect of the figure overall. However, clever collectors have found a way to get around this issue by repainting it themselves. I myself might try it sometime.

 Time to talk about Shin Godzilla's articulation.

The head can be made to look up and down, look left to right and rotate. You may end up popping the head off of the neck while doing this, luckily you can easily reattach it to the conviently attached ball joint. The mouth can open super wide too. 
Godzilla's neck can tilt from side to side and move down to emulate the scene where Godzilla first prepares to fire his atomic breath. The neck can also rotate.

On my figure, I can rotate my figure at the waist and I can sort of bend him forward but he doesn't go very far. 
Godzilla's arms can rotate and bend at the sholders, elbows and wrists.
His legs can rotate at the hip and can move outward and inward slightly. This figure probably has the easily bendable knees I've seen on a NECA Godzilla figure so far. The feet rotate, bend up and down a bit and pivot from left to right.

Godzilla's tail is made up of 5 different segments and all of them can be positioned left to right and down. Moving the tail from left to right looks alright but having the tail completely down on the ground just looks awkward. I personally like to keep it in the upright position.Also the bendy wire in tail does not hold.

 Unlike the SH MonsterArts figure, the NECA Shin Godzilla figure is your standard 6 inches which is in scale with the other NECA Godzilla's

 As well as your 6 inch Bandai figures.

 And you can't forget SH MonsterArts.

With a very good looking paint job, minor issues I could easily fix myself, I'd say this is now my third favorite NECA Godzilla figure. (My second favorite is the 24 inch 2014 Godzilla and the first is the 1954 Godzilla).

If you would like to own this figure then you could look for it at Toy's R Us or BigBadToyStore. 

Or if you want to add a little more Godzilla/Kaiju related awesomeness to your life, then you should definitely consider backing the second KAIJU BOX! 
Not only will it come with the NECA Shin Godzilla, but a bunch of other Godzilla/Kaiju related goodies, if you want an example of what could come from the box, be sure to check out my previous Kaiju Box post:
http://the-gryphons-lair.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-first-kaiju-box-opening.html

This is truly a unique opportunity and trust me when I say that it's well worth it. You can find the link to the Kaiju Box IndieGogo page below and join the destruction
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kaiju-box-2-neca-shin-godzilla-figure#/

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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SH MONSTERARTS DESTOROYAH (SPECIAL COLOR VERSION) - Figure Review

DESUTOTORIAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

There, I said it. Moving on...

This one was certainly a surprise to me. The original SHMA Destoroyah figure was released 5 years ago and right from the start I was excited for this re-release, because I loved the paint job on this figure A LOT more than the original. I especially love how the eyes are more visible. In fact, in low lighting the eyes really stand out and it looks really creepy, but that's awesome.

I absolutely adore the darker crimson red tones on this figure, it makes Destoroyah look more evil and badass. It also helps his horn, wings, white spikes and chest piece stand out a lot better.

The finer details all over Destoroyah's skin are very nice, it feels like I'm looking at an actual crustacean with the red skin, rough grooves and a whole lot of randomly placed spikes.

I wanna bring attention to the mouth, I noticed that the upper jaw looks a bit uneven, is there like some Peter Jackson King Kong thing going on here? 
But other than that, the teeth look good and the upper jaw even has an extra row inside the mouth.

SH MonsterArts Destoroyah's articulation is interesting to say the least. 

For starters the neck and head can be positioned to look really high up. This would work great for those who may want to pose Destoroyah as if he was flying, though you may have to get some heavy duty figure stands in order to do that.

Arm movement is pretty standard, the hands can rotate at the wrist and you can even make his claws move in and out. Destroyah's huge shoulders can also move forward and backward.

Waist movement is pretty much non-existent, I can only get it to wiggle slightly.

The legs move forward and backward. The knees can bend slightly but I would advise against trying to force their movement. And his big feet can rotate and pivot to help with possibility.

The large wings can rotate at the shoulder and move up and down slightly. The wings also come with a bend at the mid point, the flaps can be moved to avoid any unnecessary gaps. I don't have much to say about the smaller wings, I can get mine to rotate and I can get only a tiny bit of a bend on mine.

The tail comes as a separate piece that can be easily attached to the butt. Movement is pretty fluid, but the further down you go, the more fragile it feels. The pincers on the end can also move a little bit.

The last thing to talk about is the accessories that come with Destoroyah. We get 4 Maser Freeze Cannons and Maser Freeze Tanks. These were previously available in 2 different Toho Weapons sets released by Tamashii Nations.

The Tanks themselves look alright and the top parts can rotate. The only problem? The packaging can bend the top part of the tanks.
I personally would have loved if they added an effect piece that emulates Destoroyah's Laser Horn attack. Think about how awesome that would look.

I think it's needless to say that this is a Destoroyah figure that should be in any Godzilla/Kaiju fans collection. Assuming of course you have a bit of extra scratch. (SRP is about $159.99)
Regardless, not only do others who missed out on the first release get a second chance to own it, but you get a figure with, in my opinion, the best paint job I've seen on Destoroyah by far. That alone was enough to sell me on it.

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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