CHOGOKIN TAMASHII MIX MECHAGODZILLA (ORAI NORIYOSHI POSTER VERSION) - Figure Review

Thus far, the SH MonsterArts line has gotten at least 3 different "Poster Version" variants of existing figures. But this figure, is in a whole different league.

As I explained in my Top 5 SHMA Poster/Color Version Figures I'd Like To See Made, the Mechagodzilla figure I will be reviewing here is based on a design seen on the poster for 1993's 'Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II' designed by the late Noriyoshi Ohri. If you've never had a chance to view any of his work, do a quick google image search and enjoy the eye candy.

The concept for this Mechagodzilla was similar to the Megazords from Power Rangers, a number of large mechs that combine together to form an even bigger mech.
In this case, we have 3: The Garuda, Gundalva and Naga.

The Garuda is a wickedly awesome flying machine. Sleek, ready for battle and very dragon-like in appearance, rather fitting seeing as how it will eventually form the head and tail.
It's also very spiky, so be mindful of that when handling it.

A small flight stand is included for displaying Garuda.

The wings can move up and down at both the base of the Garuda and the mid point of the wings. The rotors on the wings can rotate forward all the way around.
The tail can curve upward and even wiggle from side to side.

Next we have the Gundalva, a small tank equipped with large 4-barrel laser cannons.

This is where the figures start to become die-cast metal, making them a bit more heavy than the Garuda which is just standard plastic.

Gundalva's cannons in addition to simply facing forward can not only move up, but in all sorts of different directions thanks to the amazing 'arm' articulation. I'm not sure weather they were intended to be moved in this way. But you gotta admit, that would have been freakin' awesome to see on screen!

Finally there's the Naga, a more massive tank equipped with what I'm assuming are small missile turrets, a few laser cannons and it's main weapon, the classic Maser Cannon.

The spikes at the front are meant to be Mechagodzilla's toes, but I like to imagine that they would be used as ramming spikes. They gotta use those boosters at the rear for something besides quick getaways.

Unlike the Gundalva which only had static treads underneath it, the Naga has 6 groups of actual spinning wheels, allowing it to roll forward. As someone who used to collect the die-cast metal Thomas and Friends toys from ERTL, this is a detail that makes me smile.
By itself, the Naga doesn't have a lot of articulation except for the retractable Maser Cannon and the 2 side cannons. The base of the Maser Cannon can turn left and right, but full rotation is impossible.


Now that we've looked at the individual Zords-I mean, MECH'S! There's only one thing left to do, bring them together!

This is the only real part of the transformation that threw me off. You're supposed to move this one chest panel to the side and push it back. Doing so takes a bit of careful wiggling.

The transformation/combination of the Garuda, Gundalva and Naga is fairly straight forward. By simply following the instructions with careful handling it should go pretty smoothly. The feet can be a bit tricky to maneuver during the transformation, especially with the tabs. I recommend detaching the tabs while doing so and reattaching when done.

When all is said and done, all 3 pieces come together into the titanic, titan of terror, MECHAGODZILLA!

And I'm just gonna say it, this is how Mechagodzilla should have looked in the 1993 film!
This is an awesome look for Mechagodzilla and it looks much better than what we ended up getting. I love how massive, imposing and ready for battle this thing looks. It looks more like something a military force would actually construct to fight Kaiju.
Even the tail looks more proportionate to the figure despite the somewhat short length.

The coloring in detail on this figure is spot on. I barely noticed any inaccuracies. The gun metal paint on the finger turrets and the cables going through the arms compliment the figure nicely, as does all the oranges yellows and reds scattered throughout. The only thing I could complain about is that I wish the eyes were colored a little brighter.

With Mechagodzilla fully formed, we have access to new points of articulation, as well as much of the same.

The head can look all the way up, it can look to the left and the right, and it can even tilt left and right. As is standard with most articulated figures, the mouth can open, but I don't think the mouth opens as far as some would want it to.

The Gundalva's cannons act as the arms and the movement on them is pretty much the same, but with the wings of the Garuda, full 360 rotation is not recommended.

The main body has no movement what so ever. The closest things we get are the up and down movement of the Naga's side cannons and you can kinda wiggle the Maser Cannon.

The legs can move forward, bend out at the hip and bend at the knee. The feet have a slight pivot can move all the way back for Mechagodzilla's flight mode.

 Speaking of flight mode. While it does look really cool, there is no display stand to accompany it. I however was able to get around it by using a standard sized doll stand I purchased from Hobby Lobby.

The Gundalva and the Naga can also be combined together to form some sort of super tank, making it more impossible for me not to make a Power Rangers reference.

Anyway,despite not having the corresponding Godzilla figure, Ohrai Noriyoshi's Mechagodzilla is still a pretty amazing piece to have. If you can find it for a good price online or even at a convention, go ahead and snatch it up.
And take a moment to read the included comic. Even though it's in Japanese, the story still comes across pretty clear to non Japanese readers.
One problem you'll probably have is figuring out how to display it on your shelf. Do you display the fully formed Mechagodzilla or the three Mech's lined in formation?

Or do you go insane and buy 2 of these sets so you can display both?
Look, I cannot influence your decision in anyway, I'm just saying, buy Kaiju figures responsibly. After all, you still need to eat. And it's not like you can eat your figures.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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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NECA 8" "WEIRD AL" YANKOVIC (WHITE AND NERDY) - Figure Review

Kinda wish I had a Donny Osmond figure for this set up

The newest "Weird Al" figure from NECA is here. It was quite a long wait for it and I didn't know which iteration to expect. Personally, I thought we would've seen figures based on appearances in his music videos for 'Fat' and 'Amish Paradise'.

I never really considered a 'White and Nerdy' figure, but thinking about it, it does make sense. Al had sort of been on a career break following the tragic death of his parents in April 2004. In 2006, the song 'White and Nerdy' from his 12th album 'Straight Outta Lynwood' ended up becoming one of his most successful songs ever.
So, why not have a figure to commemorate such an accolade? And this is one very nice looking figure.But there are a few issues that I noticed. 

The head is sculpted very well, complete with an appropriate gangsta look like he does in the music video. But if I may draw your attention to the mouth for a second, while the paint for the mustache looks good, there appears to be some sculpt marks indicating that that was were it was supposed to be and now it just sits there awkwordly. 
As for the rest of the facial hair, after comparing the face on the figure to how Al looks in the video, I think the beard looks good but NECA may have overdid it a bit with the soulpatch.

 

The bandana is nicely sculpted with a lot of folds and creases.
The head can be taken off and replaced with the heads of the previous Weird Al figures. Unfortunately, the head on my figure is on really tight and I've hurt my fingers too many times to try again. I'll have to try the handy dandy hair dryer trick in the future. 

The outfit which consists of a black hoodie with 'White & Nerdy' on the front, a white t-shirt and blue jeans on the figure is made of actual fabric and looks really cool.
His hoodie does have a small zipper on it so the figure can be dispalyed with it open or unzipped. But once you unzip the hoodie, it can be very tricky to zip back up.

There's no interchangeable hands for this Weird Al, but the hands we do get are still appropriate for the figure itself. One being the 'Live Long and Prosper' sign and the other being a generic 'gangsta' hand sign.

Although with the other hand you can also make Al look like he's using the Force. 

The shoes are standard black shoes which compliment the figure well.  

Articulation is largely the same from the past figure.
The head can rotate around all the way around at the neck. Other such movement however is limited. It can tilt left and right and look up slightly, but that's about it.

Arms can bend and rotate at the shoulders and elbows, although the hoodie may cause some hindrance to this, it can be easily worked around. The hands rotate at the wrist and can also bend.

The waist can rotate at the hip. Legs can bend and rotate at the hip, knees bend and the shoes can only bend up and down

The only accessory this figure comes with is a gold chain. And that's it, it's just a gold chain.
Oddly enough, the necklace from the video has some kind of pendant on it that I can't identify. I'm not sure if it wasn't used on the figure because of a copyright or an oversight.
It still looks just fine on the figure though. 

There may be a few small issues with the figure, but I still really like it. Any Weird Al fan would be selling themselves short not to add this figure to their collection. And I intend to keep this figure as cherry as I possibly can for as long as I own it.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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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And if you enjoyed reading this review, why not check out some more?

FIGMA ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS VERSION:
http://the-gryphons-lair.blogspot.com/2017/07/figma-zelda-twilight-princess-version.html

FIGMA LINK: TWILIGHT PRINCESS VERSION DX:
http://the-gryphons-lair.blogspot.com/2017/07/figma-link-twilight-princess-version-dx.html

Let's Look At: NECA GODZILLA 2001 (ATOMIC BLAST)

I've thought this over and I decided that I wouldn't be doing a full review of this figure. The simple reason is that I already did a review of this figure, the only way this figure differs from the original is the paint job and the included accessory.
So this will be a short little mini-review going over the aforementioned differences.

Obviously the paint job is radically different from the original figure. The majority is painted a slightly darker color to depict how Godzilla might appear during night time with very little light.

We also have the added blue patches all over the body simulating the glow from an Atomic Breath.
Well, that or Godzilla's been hitting the Kaiju Blue a little too hard lately.

And the Dorsal Fins are now made of a soft translucent material and painted with a white/blue mix.

But the main event and big reason that I'm sure most people will be buying this figure is the Atomic Breath piece, which looks really cool! Side note: my Atomic Breath piece came out of the package a little bent, so it's pretty safe to assume that most others will too. But, it's not that big a deal if you got a hair dryer. 

As you see the piece fits inside Godzilla's mouth very well and there's even a peg hole inside to stick it into the mouth.
And I gotta say, this looks really good, everything just comes together so well. The only thing that would make this a bit more awesome is if this figure glowed in the dark!

The Atomic Breath piece is compatible and looks very nice with most of the other NECA Godzilla figures, as well as figures from SH MonsterArts and various 6 inch vinyl Godzilla's. 

And if you have a few SH MonsterArts effect pieces, those too work very well with this figure.

Needless to say, I am pretty pleased with this Atomic Blast Godzilla and I think it'd be cool to see more figures like this. 

In fact...if any of the NECA guys are reading this, listen up: You outta make an Atomic Breath variant of y'alls Shin Godzilla figure, with the purple breath piece, purple glowing spines and a swappable head with the split lower jaw.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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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DEATH NOTE (2017) | Gryphon's First Impressions

-SOME SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW!!!-

I must say, I'm not much of an Anime fan. But if I were to pick a favorite, it would be Death Note, the story of a young man named Light who finds a notebook that allows him to kill anyone he wants just by writing down their name, begins a crusade to eliminate the world from all criminals and ends up pursued by a detective known only as "L". The minute I saw the first episode, I was hooked. I loved the show and I even loved the live-action films from Japan. Since then, talks of an American adaptation have been numerous with some even saying that Zac Efron would play the part of Light.

Well, now we finally have our American live-action Death Note movie. And...I didn't...not like it.

Let's start with some positives first.

First, my favorite character from the Anime/Manga, Ryuk, played here by Willem Defoe, was the best thing in the movie, hands down. His delivery is spot on and I love how he was portrayed on screen. In the past live-action films, Ryuk was a CGI character. But here, Ryuk is played by a real actor (Jason Liles) in a costume, with Defoe providing the voice and wearing motion capture dots on his face to enhance his appearance. Most of Ryuk's scenes have him obscured in darkness so you can't see the full effect, but on the other hand it does make him look more terrifying.

Keith Stanfield plays the genius detective L. For the most part, he has the right mannerisms that L would have, he eats a lot of candy, hunches over when he walks and talks in the same way L does in the anime. However, this L is a lot more aggressive in getting the results he wants, he goes so far as to chase down Light by car and foot, regularly having outbursts and even carrying a gun.

I thought the design for the Death Note itself was a unique update. And the score for the movie was pretty good, it has the overall haunting and foreboding tone that Death Note should.

Now for some complaints.

Similar to my views on Power Rangers, Death Note uses a few songs in it that are either distracting or unfitting to the scene, such as in the opening, the ending and the climax, which in my opinion is the worst offender of all. Death Note and 80's rock don't mix well at all. That's when we needed the intense orchestra and choir from the Anime, not songs you'd find being used on a CW show.

The Death Note in this film has a few new rules in it, which I interesting.
But there are a few big flaws I found. Light uses the notebook to influence a character named Watari to do his bidding before killing him. The rules of the book are that you need a persons face in your mind and their real name to kill them, anyone who knows the character of Watari would know that the name 'Watari' is an alias to protect his identity, and I'm pretty sure the Death Note doesn't work like that!
And then Light threatens to write Ryuk's name in the note book and kill him. But guess what? RYUK'S NAME IS ALREADY WRITTEN IN THE NOTE BOOK! He should have been dead awhile ago after that one guy wrote that warning about not trusting him. So the part where Ryuk says "There's 4 letters in my name and the most anyone's ever gotten where 2." makes no sense at all. A Shinigami shouldn't even be able to be killed by a Death Note anyway!

But by far, the biggest fault in this movie is the handling of the character, Light.

Nat Wolff plays Light Turner (instead of 'Yagami', because 'murica), but if you were to compare him the character from the original, he's doomed to suffer in comparison.
Light is a character with a genius intellect, fed up with how crime-filled and rotten the world is, he takes it upon himself to clean up the world and rule it as the new god 'Kira'. By any. means. necessary.
Here, Light is way more hesitant to kill anyone who stands in his way. In fact he's a big freakin' scaredy cat, he screams and panics like a little girl the first time he meets Ryuk, while it was hilarious to see it just seems out of character for Light.
In fact a lot of Light's more evil actions come from the character Mia (our Misa Amane stand in played by Margaret Qualley), she's the one who pulls of more of the extreme actions that Kira would do and pressures Light to kill innocents. So she acts more like the original Light/Kira than Light in the movie does. In a sense it's like the original character has been split into 2 characters for this movie.
Also, Light and Mia fall in love way too quickly, even by movie standards.

That being said...

When I finished watching this movie, I found myself conflicted. I couldn't really bring myself to hate the story surrounding these characters. As an adaptation of the original Manga/Anime, it falls short on so many areas. On the other hand, similar to my views on the 1998 Godzilla, if this movie were to exist as it's on separate entity with the characters having different names, then maybe it would have gotten a better reception. When looking at it as a spin-off in the Death Note universe, it takes the weight of expectations from fans off a bit, even though they probably would still find things to complain about.

Overall, as a fan of Death Note, I did not completely dislike this adaptation of it. In fact I actually found myself watching it again after my first viewing, and I could probably watch it again sometime in the new future.
Death Note fans should definitely keep an open mind when viewing it. That is, if they have a Netflix account.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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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