Between personal life shenanigans and real world global slap fighting going on, it's been a while since I've been able to do a figure review. Stuff keeps getting delayed and climbing in price, leaving many collectors feeling frustrated.
Thankfully, Bandai has been able to put out new product without much difficulty as far as I can tell. Including the subject of todays review.
While Anguirus may not be among Toho's Big 5 Kaiju, he's more than a big favorite among the fandom often being cited as being Godzilla's best buddy, so an SH MonsterArts figure for him was long overdue, along with more Showa monsters in general. (Give us our 50th Anniversary Megalon and King Ceasar figures, Bandai!) But now with the figure in hand I can say he looks really good! The entire body looks proportionately right and he is appropriately spikey.
While the longer legs look weird it is suit accurate, that's just what you get for trying to stuff a two-legged Japanese man into a four-legged monster suit and expecting it to look natural.
Anguirus has a nicely sculpted head, with very nice looking spikes and teeth. Paint work on the head, especially the eyes looks great. There's not a lot of paint bleed or splotching going on. The head and the neck can be made to look up/down, left/right and each joint can rotate.
The mouth can open, but not as wide as you might hope. Because of the ball joint used, the lower jaw will snap off of it if you try to open the mouth wider then it can.
Anguirus' body is covered in a nicely sculpted, scaley, skin texture and is mostly colored brown save for the spikes. This is different from his film appearances which appeared to have a mix of browns and greys for the suit, or whatever was going on with the suit during 'Godzilla Vs. Gigan.' Despite being labeled as 'Anguirus 1972', it appears to be a more general, all purpose Showa Anguirus, which I don't mind at all.
The main event of the figure is, undoubtedly, his spikey carapace.
Holy Mothra, is thing a pokey hazard! But despite the potential threat to your finger tips, this carapace looks amazing and the colors of the spikes look very natural.
The carapace itself is attached via a ring around the body which makes it wobbly like a real shell. And the ring shape, blends into the body nicely.
Luckily, the carapace doesn't hinder the body movement much. He can bend pretty far forward, tilt side to side and rotate at the waist.
Front legs can rotate and move in and out at the shoulder, rotate and bend at the elbow, and the feet can rotate and bend at the wrists.
The hind legs have much of the same rotation along with an extra bend on the feet. You can have Anguirus stand on all fours or as much on them as you can, or the hind legs can be positioned into a crawling pose.If you want opportunities for even more dynamic poses, Anguirus can also stand upright! This reminds of when I'd play some Destroy All Monsters Melee.
GODZILLA 90'S!
VS. ANGUIRUS
MONSTERS...FIGHT!
And yes, you can remove the carapace and have Anguirus without it, but i have to ask: Why would you want a naked Angy?
This nearly $120-$140 figure comes with no accessories.
kind of...
On the flaps of the box, you'll find speech bubbles just like the ones seen in 'Godzilla Vs. Gigan' for when Godzilla and Anguirus speak to each other. I guess if you wanted to cut them out and put them on makeshift stands, you could. But I'd rather not damage the box used for sometimes necessary figure storage. I'd probably either scan the flaps and cut them out or just make my own, it wouldn't be that hard.
Other than that, I really don't know what else you could give Anguirus in terms of accessories. Maybe a battle damaged head from when he ran right into Gigan's buzzsaw?
The point I'm trying to make is, there is no real reason this figure should have been over $100, let alone over $70!
I would say this is a fantastic figure! Definitely worth adding to your SH MonsterArts collection, I just wish it cost A LOT less than it did, even if I got it at a slightly lower price from where I bought it.
So now we got a Gigan, Godzilla and now Anguirus from the 1972 film, all that's left to complete the set is Ghidorah. I'm sure that figure will look great and hopefully wont be too expensi-HAHAHAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!nope.
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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