I remember the first Godzilla figure I ever bought for myself in 2008. I went to Toys "R" Us with leftover graduation money and picked up a Bandai Creation Godzilla 2004, along with a 2004 Gigan. I like to collect figures of my favorite monsters from as many figure lines as I can and as long as I've had my SH MonsterArts Gigan, I always wondered if the Final Wars iteration of Godzilla, one of my favorite Godzilla designs, would ever be introduced to that line.
Well, here we are...
This figure captures the design of the FinalGoji suit beautifully. This Godzilla's slender body is very well sculpted and the paint work on the figure is mostly immaculate. However, it's when you really start to closely scrutinize this figure in some areas that you might start to notice a few issues.
From the top, Godzilla's head is sculpted beautifully, every detail that should stand out absolutely does, including the ears. I do find the eye paint to stand out a bit too much though. One of my favorite aspects of this Godzilla design, especially when seen on film is how you so rarely see his eyes which made him all the more threatening. But here, the eyes are more visible than ever and it can be a bit off putting at times. Plus the paint on the pupils isn't aligned properly.
As for the teeth, the bottom row on mine look OK, but the top row have a bit of gum bleeding on them. It looks like Godzilla just ate Grimace.
I'll talk more about articulation here in a bit, but an issue I found with the sculpt can be found in the neck. The center neck piece is shaped in a way that moving the head around can expose a distractingly noticeable gap on the upper backside and lower front side. However you can mitigate that by moving the head where you want then carefully maneuver the neck piece to where you want it and with that the figure should look fine.
Apart from that the rest of the figure looks great paint wise. I especially love the applications on the claws and dorsal fins.
Now we can talk about the articulation proper. I should point out that several pieces on my figure including the head, arms, hands and tail love to pop out of their ball joints. They're easy to put back, but it got really old really fast.
Utilizing Godzilla's neck, he can look really high up and even straight down. The head can also look left/right and the neck can tilt side/side.
Arms can move forward/backward and in/out at the shoulders, rotate at the bicep, bend/rotate at the elbow and the hands can move freely about at the wrist.
The body can turn left/right, tilt side/side and bend pretty far forward.
I'm telling ya, mid torso joints are where it's at!
Legs can move forward at the hip but cant really go backward, but they can move out at the hip which lets this Godzilla do a nice spread eagle. I gotta say this Godzilla figure may have one of the best knee bends I've ever seen on any SHMA figure I've ever owned. The feet can rotate and pivot nicely.
The tail is appropriately fluid and manages to hold poses nicely.
Aside from the joints coming loose, the articulation on this Godzilla is quite impressive! This is the first time I've actually been able to accurately recreate the famous "Shie" pose from 'Invasion of Astro-Monster.'
I feel like this figure should set a new standard for future SHMA figures.
Once again, no accessories.
For a $95 figure, including a scale Gotengo would have been nice...
OK, what say we do this properly this time, yeh?
But while most people were excited to pose their 2004 Godzilla figure with Gigan, I was equally excited to pose him against my 2005 Kong figure.
Much like Final Wars itself, in spite of it's issues I can't help but love this figure. I think it's awesome, a little overpriced, but well worth picking up. Definitely get one if you can!
And while the announcement of a Monster X figure is amazing and all, God help us and our wallets if Bandai announces an SHMA Keizer Ghidorah...
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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Thanks for reading!
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