Mowgli | Gryphon's First Impressions

I must admit, it took me a while to figure out what to do with my blog when I first created it. It was out of sheer impulse that I decided to make a post about, of all things, my thoughts on the casts of upcoming Jungle Book movies.
But sure enough, I was able to find my footing and get it on the track it's on today. But now that the second movie I talked about has come out, I figure I should bring things full circle and give my thoughts on it.

To start I need to say that this is not the Disney version of the story you grew up with. This is more comparable to the original Rudyard Kipling novel. The novel had a much darker tone and much of the characters behaved pretty differently.

I myself have never read the book, but based on my limited knowledge of it, this movie feels pretty authentic in replicating scenes from it. Well, the stuff with Mowgli stories anyway.
And to be honest, I really enjoyed the darker take on the story. 
Most of the cast did an excellent job with their rolls. Andy Serkis plays Baloo as more of a gruff and tough drill sergeant, but still with a heart of gold. Benedict Cumberbatch was casted perfectly as Shere Khan. And I really liked Christan Bale as Bagheera, he gives probably the most emotional preformance in the film. And the rest of the animal actors serve their parts well.
The CGI for the 2016 Jungle Book was and still is amazing to look at. The CGI for this movie is also pretty good, though I think I prefer the wolves in the 2016 version more. The wolves in this movie could've used a bit more of a touch up in some scenes. 

As for the human actors? Well, Mowgli was pretty good. This was certainly the most realistic take of a boy raised in a jungle by wolves I've ever seen.

The rest of the human cast feels like an afterthought. The hunter has somewhat of a story that isn't really expanded upon and the woman who takes care of Mowgli after he goes to the man village shows up and does nothing more of value.
I don't think those characters were even given names. 

While my heart will always belong to the Disney versions, I will always be open to different versions of classic stories even if they don't always work out in the end.
Luckily, I really enjoyed this version and may find myself watching it again on Netflix from time to time. I do wish I got to see it in a theater though. 
If you're looking for a new take on The Jungle Book and don't mind more darker elements, go ahead and check it out

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and thank you for joining me here in my lair.

So long...

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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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Musings from the Lair - King of the Monsters Edition (12-10-2018)

Wow, it has been far too long since I've done one of these. I haven't done one of these since September of 2016.

It was 5 years ago today that every Godzilla fan was (mostly) waiting patiently for the first official trailer for the 2014 reboot to come out. And here we are today, with the release of the second official trailer for the highly anticipated Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
The first trailer from Comic Con was so amazing and beautifully apocalyptic. This one delivers all that and more. We get to see better views of the monsters, a hint of what sort of action will take place and even some great character moments. And the hint that there may even be more monsters to be discovered is really exciting to think about. So I'd say this trailer was equally satisfying and only makes my hype meter grow taller than Ghidorah sitting on Godzilla's shoulders.
Also, did anyone else catch the Dunkin' Donuts billboard?

But now, I think the trailers and new footage from King of the Monsters needs to stop! Most of you know this too well, some trailers have a tendency to spoil the best parts of the movie or even give away the final shot (*cough*Sony*cough*). Legendary Pictures films seemed to be the exception, but after the last trailers for Kong: Skull Island and especially Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, It's made me a bit concerned. They showed far too much footage and even gave away certain moments that would have been amazing to see first on the big screen. And trailer channels on YouTube that show the big moments before the actual trailer aren't helpful either!
The last 2 trailers and even viral marketing from Monarch Sciences have wetted my appetite enough. I already wanna see this movie so bad that I'm willing to wait 5 more months and avoid anymore trailers and information regarding the movie to make the experience all the more better.

Now I figured I've give my thoughts on the designs of the monsters that were surprisingly revealed through new SH MonsterArts figures!

GODZILLA:

Our boy has undergone a few tweaks to his design. I personally liked the original look just fine, but I do like the improvements. The dorsal fins especially look amazing. The only thing that gets me is that I miss the whip like end of the tail. Although I do wonder if these changes will be addressed in the movie, maybe the tip was torn off in a previous battle?

MOTHRA:

Mothra seems to have the most radical redesign of all the monsters so far. The legs are larger, the head is smaller and she looks generally less fuzzy and more insect like than past incarnations. Honestly, I really like this look and after seeing it in action I feel like it'll grow on fans who are still on the fence about it.
Now when are we gonna get to see more of her Larva stage?

RODAN:

So, remember that maquette that leaked onto the internet that everyone liked but were told was fake? Yeah, they lied!
This Rodan looks great! An awesome re-imagining of the classic Showa design. Nuff' said.

KING GHIDORAH:

And finally we have the big boy himself. Ghidorah is simply fantastic, the heads look great, the body is good and the wings are gigantic. After years of hearing people speculate that Ghidorah's body would be changed to more resemble Smaug from the Hobbit movies, it is so refreshing to see that they kept the classic look of the 3-headed titan.


I am extremely satisfied with the looks and I can't wait to get my hands on those figures. And yes, I will more than likely release reviews of them. I plan to start saving for them as soon as it becomes January. 

This is now my new phone wallpaper!

2019 appears to be the Year of Godzilla. And to celebrate the occasion, my next retrospective will be themed as such, leading up to the release of King of the Monsters on May 31st.
As far as other plans go
Figure Reviews are up in the air depending on what I can afford and what I feel like reviewing.
I realize that I have yet to review any of the Godzilla Anime movies, I am waiting for Planet Eater to come out so I can watch that and review all 3 parts in order. 
I also forgot to review The Meg. Damn it. I will have to fix that.

The next review that will follow some time after this post...is something you will never guess. But let's just say, it's been a long time coming. 
Now I wonder how long it will take me to do another one of these? I'm thinking 5 years. lol

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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SOFVI SPIRITS HAKUJA | Figure Review

We now come to the last of the trio of Kaiju from Pacific Rim Uprising: Hakuja.

Hakuja happens to be my favorite Kaiju from Uprising. I think Hakuja has a great design and this figure captures it pretty well.

The head is nicely sculpted and the paint for the most part looks good. I would have added more paint on the tusks. I would complain about the eyes not being visible enough, but I think that makes Hakuja look cooler. Beneath the Hammerhead looking parts of the head there is some bright green paint as opposed to the blue paint usually seen on the Kaiju. It looks pretty neat.
Also, the tongue looks nice.

The back has nicely sculpted plates that extend to the tip of the tail. And the back is covered in blue paint the emulate the luminescent light seen on the Kaiju bodies.

Hakuja is the only Uprising Kaiju to have more than 4 limbs, much like most of the previous movies Kaiju. He has 6 legs with various armored plates, which are nicely painted blue with the yellow lines really stand out well.

The underbelly is just the basic light brown body with some tan airbrushed spots for good measure. Going back to the neck, it has some luminescent lines on it and those look great.

Hakuja's only articulation points are it’s legs which can move forward and back. Upon inspection of this figure you might think the head is capable of rotation, it’s not.

As you can see Hakuja is pretty small compared to the other Kaiju, but that doesn’t make him any less threatening.

I’m pretty pleased with this Hakuja figure and I’m equally satisfied to have the complete trio of Kaiju from Uprising.

Now that only leaves the question: Is there a Mega-Kaiju figure in the works? I honestly hope so. Actually, I almost wouldn’t mind seeing Sovfi Spirits figures of past Pacific Rim Kaiju, seeing the work they did just fills my mind with a lot of wishful thinking. But for now, I am fine having the 3 great Kaiju figures we have now.

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!

https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/

Let's Look At: NECA SHIN GODZILLA ATOMIC BLAST

Previously, on The Gryphon's Lair:

Yup, I called it!
Then again, so did probably a few other people. But that’s beside the point.

Since I have reviewed the original NECA SHIN GODZILLA, articulation will not be discussed again as it is pretty much the same. The body has a darker black skin color and even though the red orange paint varies on every NECA Shin Godzilla figures it still stands out pretty well. 
But now let's look at the new features. 

This is meant to be Shin Godzilla during the moments where he unleashes his Atomic Ray (the best scene in the movie, for the record), with a new head sculpt and different paint on the back and tail.

The new head looks really nice. I think the detailing inside the mouth is pretty well done. The purple inside may seem minuscule to most people. 
The teeth look better on this head than they did on the original figure. Although, this figure still retains the eyes from the original for some reason. Shouldn't they be all silver?

The neck has some light purple paint as well. Both sides of the neck aren’t completely painted to give the flickering effect as seen in 'Shin Godzilla'.
We get the same paint on the neck as well, unfortunately it doesn’t show up as well when looking at it from the front.

Looking at the back, the dorsal fins have the purple and white glow which looks good overall. The glow continues over so subtly down the back of the tail to the illuminated tip. I actually think the tip of this figures tail is painted better than the original. And those odd patches from the original NECA Shin are nowhere to be seen.

But what’s an Atomic Blast figure without the breath effect pieces? This one comes with 2 of them! One for the mouth and one for the tail.

Once inserted they stay in tightly and look great.

Get enough of these pieces and you can recreate the scenes with the beams that come out the back. If you can figure out how to get them to stay on the back.

 

It wasn’t until I took a closer look at the figure and noticed a pretty big mess up on NECA's part. Aside from the nail paint spilling onto the feet, the feet themselves do not match at all.
How did this happen? 
I am at a loss for words.
I’ve looked at lot of other reviews for this figure and they all have the proper foot, some with a deformed toenail that might be fixable with a hair dryer. But mine appears to be a special case. I even went and tweeted NECA themselves about this. Currently awaiting a response... 

Also what is that? A tumor? 

Despite my complaining about the flaws in my figure, I actually still recommend picking it up, I think it’s an overall good figure to add to your collection. It beats having to pay  outrageous oversea shipping prices. 
I will say that it is lucky that these NECA Godzilla figures come in clear packaging so you can spot details like that and hopefully pick out the best of the bunch. Though, from what I've heard the packaging may be changed in the future for newer figures and the release of 'King of the Monsters'.
If you seek this figure, I hope yours turns out better than mine.

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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SH MONSTERARTS MFS-3 MECHAGODZILLA TYPE-3 KIRYU (SHINAGAWA FINAL BATTLE VERSION) - Figure Review

Wow, that's a mouthful.

Unlike most reviews of this figure you’ll most likely see, this is my first time actually seeing and holding an SH MonsterArts Kiryu. Kiryu is my favorite incarnation of Mechagodzilla so my expectations for this figure were pretty high. Fortunately, they were met with flying colors.

I got much of the same reactions I had when I first saw 2002’s “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla”. Simply put, this is how a character named “Mechagodzilla” should look. Similar proportions, not too bulky and a tail that isn’t laughably short.
Kiryu's sculpt and details are outstanding! This is one impressive looking figure and the amount of work that went into making it look this good should be commended to the highest extent possible. I especially admire the look of the inner wiring of Kiryu, the black colors work with his overall metallic silver body perfectly. This Kiryu figure also comes with several black smudges around the body, most likely sustained from battles. The ones on the dorsal plates I can tell may have come from being hit by Godzilla's atomic breath.

What else is cool about this figure is the inside of the mouth. You can see the individual teeth of the original 1954 Godzilla, one of the best features of Kiryu in general. And the maser cannons are a nice touch.

Kiryu’s head and neck can be moved to make him look up, down and to the left and right. But unlike other Mechagodzilla's, this one cannot rotate his head all the way around.
His arms can rotate and bend at the shoulder and the elbows. And his hands rotate at the wrists. Overall, the arm movement is pretty free and loose. Much better than that other figure…
Waist articulation is a bit tricky. Kiryu can move forward a tiny bit, but there is this loose back piece you gotta wiggle around to make him stand up straight. But you should have no problem turing Kiryu’s body left and right. On the chest are 3 panels that open up to reveal the Absolute Zero Cannon and the boosters on his back that can move around.

When moving Kiryu's legs forward, you’ll notice a wire connecting to the hip which will move along the hip as the legs go forward and back. Just don’t move it too much or you might risk popping it out. Otherwise the knees bend and the feet move around pretty well. The legs even have side panels that open up to reveal more boosters.
And the tail can move around pretty well.

Now let’s look at Kiryu’s many accessories.

Kiryu comes with 2 alternate eye pieces: a second pair of yellow eyes for normal function and a pair of red eyes for when he goes berserk.


But with Cosmetics out of the way, let's look at the real fun stuff: the firepower!

We got his rocket, missile backpack rocket rocket fire! (Kudos if you understood that reference) and a pair of twin laser cannons with attachable blades that fit into the front slots.
Attaching these pieces requires the removal of a few pieces on Kiryu.

For the backpack, you’ll have to take off the pictured dorsal fins before attaching it onto Kiryu’s back.

The laser cannons attach to the side of the arms easily. But for the wires, you need to pull out the knob looking piece on the elbows and attach the end on the wire into the hole.

And with that Kiryu is ready for action!

But it wouldn’t be a true SHMA re-release without some new accessories.

For the new Shinagawa Final Battle Version, 3 brand new pieces have been included.
A battle damaged arm, battle damaged Absolute Zero (spoilers?) and an Absolute Zero effect piece!

Both of the Battle damaged pieces look pretty good and can be swapped out without failure.
Fun fact: At one point, I was gonna make a list of SHMA figures that should be re-released and I was gonna give some ideas as to how certain figures could be released. One of them was Kiryu and I figured it could have been released with these very same battle damaged parts.

The Absolute Zero piece is the icing on the cake, it looks fantastic. It actually comes in 2 pieces. Simply wiggle the long piece loose from the large end and you have a piece for when the beam is charging.

The only thing that would make this better is if it came with a piece for the Maser Cannons in Kiryu’s mouth.

If this review didn’t make this obvious enough, this Kiryu figure is amazing, I recommend it wholeheartedly and it should be bought immediately. Especially if you have the Godzilla 2002 figure. If you missed out on the other SH MonsterArts Kiryu figures like I did, now is the time!

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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