|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
10-08-2012, 09:00 PM | #1 |
Ultradude
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 806
|
S.H. MONSTERARTS KING GHIDORAH REVIEW
Up for review is the Tamashii Nations' S.H. Monsterarts King Ghidorah action figure that was released on September 29, 2012 in Japan. This figure has a suggested retail price of 10,290 yen (about $130.00 USD) and is the most expensive figure to date in this line. This figure is based off one of the most popular monsters to appear in a Godzilla film. This particular incarnation of King Ghidorah is based off his appearance of the 1991 film, “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.” Fans of the Godzilla films easily recognize King Ghidorah as one of Godzilla's biggest adversaries with his three dragon-like heads, large wings, and scaly gold skin. This review will cover how Tamashii attempted to capture this iconic monster. PRESENTATION King Ghidorah comes in a very large window style box with mostly yellow illustrations and graphics. The box is huge compared to previous releases of the Monsterarts line. On the right, King Ghidorah's three heads are pictured, while most of the remaining front is an open window display showing off the large figure. Unlike previous releases that used actual photos of the costumes, King Ghidorah's box uses illustrations of the monster instead. I thought this was an interesting change, and assume there wasn't a group shot of the heads that would fit properly on the box. On the back of the box, a few more pictures of King Ghidorah are shown in different poses and using his accessories. Again, the box is biggest in this line, so far. If you're a collector that keeps your figures sealed in their boxes, be prepared to have a large space to accommodate it. FIGURE Once removed from the box, King Ghidorah comes in a clear clamshell plastic tray with a few accessories including his 3 gravity beams, stands, stand extensions, & base. More on those later. The figure stands at about 10 inches from top of the middle head to to toe when standing upright, measures at a whopping 20 inches when stretched from head to tail, and the the wingspan measures at 18 inches. King Ghidorah is the biggest kaiju in the Monsterarts line, and will stand out in any Godzilla display. Like his box, be prepared to make some room for him. He'll eat up your shelf space! When I originally saw promotional pictures for King Ghidorah, I had thought the figure was cast in a metallic gold plastic. After inspecting some of the inner parts, most of the figure is cast in a gold/beige solid colored plastic. To my surprise, it turns out most of the plastic was painted over in a metallic gold color. SCULPT I have to say that most of the sculpts in the Monstearts line have been good to stellar capturing the distinctive looks of the characters from the movies. Space Godzilla has been my favorite so far in the line. Does King Ghidorah knock Space Godzilla out of that spot? Maybe. The sculpt for King Ghidorah is gorgeous and is a great representation of the monster from the Heisei era that I've come across! Starting with the heads, each one manages to capture King Ghidorah's sinister look with his spiral horns, snakelike eyes, serrated teeth & forked tongue. Each long neck holds many details including a ribbing design on the neck's underside with tons of scales adorning the remainder of the necks. I thought the ribbing design helped hide the breaks where the articulation is present in certain poses. The necks also sport small small horns that run down the back of each neck. The small horns can be pointy, so be careful when handling them. The chest and lower body are also covered in amazing amount of detail with scales covering almost the entire body. I am really impressed with how the scales were sculpted. I was expecting the scales to blend in with each other, but instead the scales are slightly raised and overlap. The lower body also gives a bit of muscle definition especially around the chest and leg areas. Given the amounts of scales covering the body, the sculptor was still able to convey the look of the monster's muscular build. One of the biggest highlights of the sculpt are the wings. Before I saw early reviews, I had thought that the wings would be a softer material than the rest of the figure. Once I had it in hand, I can say the wings are made of the same plastic material as the rest of the figure and are very solid. More scales extend outward about 3 inches from the base of each wing, while the remaining area of the wing shows some well sculpted bone structure details that are covered by leathery metallic gold skin. The wings are very majestic looking on King Ghidorah, and they really capture the iconic look of the monster! King Ghidorah last parts are two long tails also covered in scaly detail that ends in two spiky barbs. Again, I'm thoroughly impressed in how much detail was put into such a large figure, especially in this scale! He does give the Space Godzilla figure a run for his money in the details department and would say King Ghidorah is at least on par if not better in the sculpt overall. PAINT Most of the figure was given a metallic gold paint finish with some minor paints apps around the mouth areas. I was expecting some small glops of paint to be noticeable on the scales and wing areas, given all the gold paint that was used, but the applications are very even on the wings, and the scale details are never muted out from the paint. The inner lining of the mouth and the tongue were given red paint apps, and the teeth are individually painted in white with some slight staining. These paint details are a nice contrast to all the gold used around the face, and gives King Ghidorah a bit more of an organic look to him. ARTICULATION King Ghidorah comes in at an insane 89 individually moving parts with 17 points of articulation in each tail and 13 points for each head and neck. To say this is one of Tamashii's most ambitious endeavors in articulation would be an understatement. The lower jaw on each individual head has the ability to open and close, while the tongues can swivel from left to right. The parts on the necks utilize the ball-socket joint connections, and have very good range of poseability. I was able to get the necks in a number of serpentine type poses including being able to wrap the necks around other figures. I moved the necks around a good bit, with the joints holding together well, and no looseness or parts falling off after posing. I had similar success with the tails, however I did have one joint that popped off while posing. It comes off with minor pressure, but it's relatively easy to pop back on. A coat of clear nail polish on the ball joint should solve this particular issue. The leg joints are pretty standard as far as most Monsterarts figures go. The legs can be posed in both a standing neutral position, or legs spread further out for more dynamic poses. The upper thighs can rotate up or down for a decent range to allow for crouching or flying poses. The leg joints are also pretty tight, and hold together well for posing. I hope the joints hold over the long term given the large size and weight of the figure. King Ghidorah's large wings have the ability to be moved up and down to mimic a flapping like motion. Each wing is connected to the body by a hinged joint. There have been early reports from some King Ghidorah owners that the hinges are poorly designed to hold the wings and break with minimal stress. With my figure, I found the right wing was tight, but not overly tight that I wasn't able to pose the wing in it's designed positions. However, I have a bit more of an issue with the left wing. The part that covers the base of the wing doesn't sit flush in the socket on the body. This sometimes prevents the wing from staying in place when it's fully extended, and sags occasionally. I have to apply a bit more pressure on the part, so it stays in the socket, but I have to be mindful of the hinge issue when I do this. My biggest recommendation is to handle each wing from it's base to prevent unwanted stress on the hinge. I advise doing this with extreme care. I'm a bit disappointed with the wing design, and wondered why Tamashii didn't use the ball-socket joint system similar to Fire Rodan's wings to prevent this kind of problem. I believe we would have less breakage reports on the figure, and collectors would be less leery to make such a large purchase. I'm hoping that Tamashii will get some feedback on the wing issues, and perhaps they'll make a running change on the figure to correct the wings. Overall, the articulation on King Ghidorah is a very bold attempt on Tamashii's part to bring collectors one of the most poseable action figures in any line. The ability to get a figure of this design and size into so many poses is a pretty amazing feat! Unfortunately, it does have some flaws that can detract from enjoying this figure more. ACCESSORIES King Ghidorah comes with his 3 gravity beam effects to accommodate each head. Unlike most previous effects in this line, the beams do not have holes for the stands that they would normally plug into. Instead, each stand comes with an extension piece, and C-shaped parts that the beams rest on top of while being displayed. I thought this was bit of an odd design choice as the beams don't sit very well on the stands. It requires a bit of finagling to pose all three beams without one or more falling off. I guess they are a bit thinner than previous effect designs, and the plug-in connectors couldn't be used. Once you do get the effects displayed, King Ghidorah looks pretty intimidating raining chaos on a city or unsuspecting foe! Just be prepared to have a bit of patience posing the effects. QUALITY CONTROL As mentioned before, I ran into some issues with my King Ghidorah with the loose tail and sagging wing base. The first one can be fixed with relative ease, however the issue with the wing will require me to handle the figure with a bit more care. Whether the breakages of the wings with other King Ghidorah figures are due to shoddy materials, a bad design flaw, or a combination of both, Tamashii needs to correct these issues going forward. This figure was hyped to be the next level of Monsterarts engineering, and it could have been, had the wing issues not been present. OVERALL I'm really enjoying my King Ghidorah figure! Despite some of the flaws I found with mine, this is my default Heisei King Ghidorah figure in my collection. The sculpt is one of the best in the line, and the articulation in this scale was probably one of the most challenging to execute. I give the designers a lot of credit for tackling a figure like this given that the line is only a year old. Tamashii will have to look at both good and bad feedback on this figure, and learn from it, if they are they to make similar designed figures in the future. Some collectors may be put off by the high price this figure commands and not be willing to make the commitment given some of the issues. However, the Monsterarts King Ghidorah makes a great centerpiece in a collection, and I would still recommend it to collectors. Just use caution when handling it. Also added a slideshow with more pics: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xu6...rah_shortfilms Thanks for letting me share!
__________________
Primeconvoy1's Action Figure Albums |
|
TokuNation News & Rumors |
Figuarts/Seihou GRIDMAN |
SH Figuarts BoonBoomger Red |
Hasbro Licenses Power Rangers Toys to Playmates Toys |
Discotek Media Licenses Mobile Cop Jiban |
What's going on with CSM? |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:19 PM.
|