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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SOFVI SPIRITS SHRIKETHORN | Figure Review

The second figure in the Sofvi Spirits Pacific Rim Uprising line is the Kaiju, Shrikethorn

Shrikethorn is one beastly figure. I gotta admit though, I wasn't all that impressed with it when I first took him out of the box. But as I really started to examine it, he began to grow on me.

The sculpt is good. The head in particular is pretty wicked looking. I especially like the plating around the arms and legs. From head to tails, Shrikethorn has some nicely textured skin. And the spikes all over the body really make this Kaiju stand out.

On it's own, Shrikethorn would be a boring looking Kaiju if it weren't for 3 things: The face, the dual tails and the spines.
And the coloring on this figure helps with that as well. His mostly light brown body is adorned with red for the face, orange on the limbs and shades of blue everywhere.

Looking at him from the front, you'll see a few luminescent lines common on most Kaiju from the series.
I feel like there could be a little more blue shading in the tail spikes though.

Like the Sofvi Spirits Raijin, Shrikethorn doesn't have a great deal of articulation. We do get arm rotation below the shoulders and at the elbows.
He can rotate at the waist and his tails can turn slightly as well.

This Shrikethorn figure makes a great addition to the Tamashii Nations Pacific Rim Uprising line and looks great when posed next to the other Jaeger figures. 
However, I think Bandai might be charging a bit too much for it. Raijin went for about $40 and Shrikethorn is presently going for over $60. 
I'd probably try to find this figure for cheaper than that.

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/