Thursday, February 8, 2024

Let's Look At: HIYA TOYS GODZILLA REPAINTS (2021 HEAT RAY & 2019 BURNING)

The MonsterVerse figures from Hiya Toys have been getting the highest of praise in the past few months, including from yours truly. Their 2019 Godzilla figure really impressed me and actually made me interested in the upcoming repaints.
The pictures looked great, but it mattered even more how they look in hand. 


HEAT RAY GODZILLA (Godzilla vs. Kong 2021)

Technically, this is just the 2019 Godzilla figure rebranded as 2021 from Godzilla vs. Kong. But they are still the same design, so there ya go. 
After being disappointed by the last 2021 Godzilla figure from SH MonsterArts and being absolutely put off by the last few MonsterVerse Godzilla's they've released/teased, this figure had quite a few expectations hovering over it. 
And I gotta say...

This figure is pretty fantastic!

The atomic blue coloring is very well done. The head looks like the eyes and the mouth are actually glowing and not the aftermath of shotgunning a blue raspberry ICEE.  
From the neck to the waist we have a bit of paint applied for the light from the Atomic Breath. Not as bright as the other paint, but I find it to be an appreciated detail. 
The back is where the figure truly shines, pun absolutely intended. 
The best part would no doubt have to be on the larger dorsal fins, I love the white mixed with the blues and how the fins are outlined with a darker shade. Honestly, I wish all the fins could have had this scheme to it to some degree.
I also think the very end of the tail might have too much paint applied to it. 
Before we get to the obvious accessory, I wanna mention the extra head and neck piece.

These are meant to emulate Godzilla roaring while looking straight up. The head and neck on the figure itself are easy enough to remove but you might have a time trying to place the head back on. Or at least I did.
Because of how the figure's articulation is engineered, Godzilla isn't going to have a perfect 90 degree head turn, but close enough to where he'll at least look cool roaring to the sky.
The extra head has a groove inside of it where you insert the included Atomic Breath part.
The piece looks great, possibly the best Atomic Breath I've seen included with any Godzilla figure. The piece plugs into the extra head and holds on tight.
However, I don't feel like the breath quite lines up with Godzilla's mouth to where you can ever get him to look like he's firing it straight on. You can sort of get away with it when using the normal neck, but with the straight neck looking up, the breath awkwardly goes off in a different than intended direction and it just looks wrong.
I wish the connecting end of the breath wasn't curved and just plugged in straight, then I'd be a 100% happy camper. 


At the end of the day, I have gripes, but not enough to make me wanna put this figure back in the box and not touch it anymore.
I really, really do like this figure a lot, there are just some instances where I think it could be so much better. 
If you're looking to get yourself an atomic glowing/breath shooting MonsterVerse Godzilla, this might just be your best option. 


BURNING GODZILLA 2019

In my humble opinion, NECA and SH MonsterArts came so close to having a great Burning Godzilla figure. However, both had their shortcomings when it come to the paint work, they never could quite get the right balance between Godzilla's skin and the fiery light effect.

While both may be good figures in their own right, the Hiya Toys Burning Godzilla figure blows both of them away leaving only piles of ashes.
This one's gonna be brief. 
The way Hiya managed to mix the coloring on this Godzilla figure is damn near perfect, this is everything I've ever wanted from a Burning Godzilla figure. 
Good mix of black and orange for the body and evenly shaded bright colors on the fins.
The yellow paint on the end of the tail is what I was talking about for the heat ray version, start small then gradually go bigger up the tail to the back. 

And that's about all I have to say about these. Both of these figures are great repaints, huge improvements on the SHMA releases and excellent companion pieces to the previous Godzilla release.


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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