Monday, September 21, 2020

NECA KING KONG 8" | Figure Review

I was beyond ecstatic when I saw the announcement of a King Kong figure from NECA, one with a head that looked like the 1933 version no less!
Now that it's finally out, I have...thoughts. 

First I just want to say that the sculpting on Kong looks great. In a market where 1933 Kong figures are rarely seen, this is a solid job by NECA. But there are some things about it that I have some issues with. 

Out of the box Kong is stuck in this straight, upright position and it looked very unnatural. Now, I know this isn't marketed as being a 1933 Kong figure because of the whole rights issue roller coaster so they have to kind of mish mash different design elements of other Kong's (1933, 2005 & 2017.) But in my opinion, this Kong looks too lanky. There's just something in general about seeing an Ape standing upright that makes me wince
, but Kong's waist and legs might be a tad too tall. At this point, it may as well be a generic Sasquatch design and not Kong.


Fortunately, you can use Kong's articulation to get him into a more familiar hunched position. That makes him look so much better.


I can't give enough praise to the head, the eyes are painted nice and aligned perfectly and I love the detailing inside the mouth. 


The rest of the body is nicely detailed. The detailing of the fur is quite smooth compared to the Mezco Toys Kong but it looks really good, you could squint and think it's real rabbit fur.

The mix of brown and black coloring is also very nice. 

As with most recent Kong figures, you gotta have facial scars. I will say that the scars on the chest look better than the ones on the face.


On the right side of my figure's torso there is some random bits of red paint. Production error or blood drip from a recent fight? You be the judge.

Kong's articulation is as follows:

The head is on a ball joint which allows it to look up/down, left/right and rotate at the neck.

Arms can move out and rotate at the shoulder. There's rotation at the bicep. The elbows are double jointed which makes for a nice bend and both points can rotate. The hands rotate at the wrist and they can also bend a smidge.

The chest can lean forward/backward, rotate and tilt side to side.

Legs can move forward/backward, move in/out and rotate at the hip. Knees are double jointed like the elbows. The feet can bend forward/backward and can rotate/pivot.
Kong comes with a few of the accessories that you'd expect, including a roaring face and a pair of open hands.

In a way, it feels kind of refreshing to not see a Kong figure with an Ann Darrow piece or attachable chains.



Anyhoo, the roaring head has the same great details as the normal head. I have heard reports of some roaring heads having mismatched eyes. When I got my Kong figure at Target, I looked at two different figures to make sure the eyes one them were as normal as possible and as you can see, I think I made the right choice. Hopefully you have similar luck. 

Depending on how you have him posed, Kong can stand anywhere between 7-8 inches.

Unfortunately...that means he doesn't scale well with

HARDLY

ANY

GODZILLA

FIGURE!!!

And that really is a big disappointment. You would think NECA would leap at the golden opportunity to make Kong an appropriate scale with their many Godzilla figures not just for the sake of collectors, but also for some inadvertent Godzilla vs. Kong marketing. 

Once again the Kou Kyou Kyoku Godzilla is the winner in terms of great scaling.  

But even with the scaling issue, I am still quite pleased with this Kong figure. It may not be officially called a 1933 Kong figure, but it's the closest we'll be getting for the time being. If you're a Kong fan, definitely pick it up if you get the chance.
So, who thinks we'll be getting a black and white variant for this Kong?


Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...


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