S.H. MonsterArts MechaGodzilla Kiryu Revealed!
 

UPDATE:We now have a new image, this time from Figure-Oh magazine. Kiryu will include a red-eyed berserk head, chest flaps that open to reveal the Absolute Zero Cannon, leg thrusters, and what looks to be an incredibly articulated tail! Thanks to our friends at The Daytime Ninja for the heads-up!

Did you think Bandai had really forgotten about the King of the Monsters, Godzilla? Worried about the state of the S.H. MonsterArts toyline? Not anymore!

Among this month's crop of leaked Hobby Japan scans is this single image depicting the Millenium incarnation of MechaGodzilla, also known as Kiryu!

Kiryu is in his first appearance from the 2002 film Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla and will be a standard release for September. This Godzilla-powered cyborg retails for 10,290 yen, standing 15.5 cm or just over six inches tall. We have no details on accessories and alternate pieces yet, but fans will be happy to know that unlike the Heisei MechaGodzilla and Garuda, Kiryu's weapons/jetpack is already included!

More details and a confirmation of release from North American licensed importer Bluefin are inevitable, so stay tuned!

SOURCE: 2chan

Neat. Still would rather have the Showa era Mechagodzilla though.

Millennium series Gigan though please?

He looks pretty cool. I like his shoulder cannons.

Would love to own it but that price....

Super want!

So.. they're releasing MechaGod with a Cannon Backpack? Wouldn't it have been cheaper just to release the backpack? Or are there more differences than I'm thinking there are.

Its an entirely different Mechagodzilla.

wonder how it compares with the soul of chogokin. if it seems light-years ahead, then it will be upgrade time, till then, the only thing that looks marginally better is sculpt.

Well, of course Kiryu comes with his backpack. He wears it pretty much the entire time in both of his movies.

Beyond that, though: It's about time! I expect this to be a huge hit! Kiryu is a great design and a hugely popular meka daikaiju. Awesome.

That is way too expensive.

And where is Biollante?

That's cool that Kiryu is getting the SHMA treatment and also I'm kinda curious of how it'll be compared to the Soul of Chogokin version too.

Why thank you for proving a point I made a few years ago. People bitched about Heisei Mecha G not coming with Garuda. This what happens to the price when you include the giant weapon pack.

At any rate, I am so happy to see this. Kiryu is my favorite Mecha G so I am all over this.

That price is too damn high for me to gaga over it.

Kiryu!!!!!!!! Awesome!!!

I want to drool and hop around in excitement over it.
But holy crap. It's so damn expensive :c

Eh, the difference is that the Hesai MG only wears the Garuda backpack in the climax of his one appearance. Kiryu sports his shoulder cannons in pretty much every scene he is in over the span of two movies. So the idea of the Garuda as an upgrade package makes more sense.

I suppose. Another thing to keep in minds that if the current exchange rate holds, Kiryu is going to be cheaper to get that King Ghidorah was when it came out.

Dumb question, perhaps, but is that Space Godzilla under Kiryu also supposed to be a MA release or something else? The pic's cut off so I can't tell if that's an articulated figure (perhaps a "battle-damaged" version of the previous MA release) or something else (vinyl, statue).

Yeah it's a completely different design from the previous release. The Heisei Mechagodzilla is more of a "bubble"-bot in comparison.

YES!!! I've been awaiting any Gigan, Showa or Millenium.

Entirely unrelated figure. It's been up for preorder for several months now.

Ah ok, thanks for the clarification.

Considering her size, she's gonna be a lot more expensive than this.

And that makes me sad :[

yes, YES!!! Must have Mecha Godzilla Kiryu! Oh man, I want that guy. Come on Bluefin!

Oh god Kiryu! Love the Kiryu Saga of the Godzilla movies. Ill definetaly get this bad boy.

News has been updated with the other, better look we get at Kiryu courtesy of Figure-Oh. Check it out!

YES. I mean, I like my Chogokin Gigans, but I am totally down for figures that don't have ratcheted elbows and articulation restricted by the rigid diecast frame. Juuuuust a bit of gokin where it's absolutely needed or will look pretty will suffice.

Wearing it all the time means absolutely nothing if Bandai felt the desire to cut costs on the retail release somewhere and rake in more money by offering the backpack separately via Tamashii Web.

Personally, I doubt it will be anything other than an entirely separate release later (because Bandai), but Bandai might choose to go that route with parts to convert Kiryu to its Tokyo SOS version.

All of the plates look like they require absolutely no assembly. It's already infinitely better in that regard.

Yep, once someone put that point into perspective after my initial sticker shock, it wasn't so bad. Kiryu might not end up at $100 or less from Bluefin (I hope he is though!) but of course he'll be less once he goes up for sale at AmiAmi and all the usual places, probably about 7000 yen.

The price makes sense to me. I see it as a good thing personally, because it's a pretty cool guy move from Bandai to negate the Tamashi Web Exclusive add on pack. Think of it as cutting down the shipping fees~

Looks awesome but that price is pretty high. Also, anyone want to clue me in on the name? Why's he called Kiryu?

http://godzilla.wikia.com/wiki/Kiryu

Anyways, this dude is a day one preorder for me.

Kiryu is the name given to him by his pilot. The project is officially called Mechagodzilla, but he is pretty universally called Kiryu in the films. Unlike the Hesai MG, he has a real personality and is more than just a piloted machine.

It means something for a line which is known for, and sells based on, it's attention to detail. I have never seen Kiryu shown in official merch or publicity without his cannons, removable or otherwise. That's like selling a Hesai King Ghidorah with 2 heads and then selling the third after the fact.

All right, I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons, I want this Kiryu! From what I can tell (i.e. the highlight pictures) that this kiryu is going to be better than SOCG (my soul of chogokin abbreviation) in alot of respects. It looks better articulated, paint looks better, it is more accurate with the thrusters, just better. That and it would seem they could pull off a better Kiryu-part2 with the trending part-swap the monster-arts are using, rather than a whole new figure (I think I challenged bandai to make two differant figures). So the price will be a little high, I've spent alot more fore alot less (or alot more for a highly articulated figure that scares me due to gold-plastic syndrome).

At any rate, I'm Going for gold on this one! (not ghidorah gold)

I can rattle off four different toylines that depict him without the backpack off the top of my head, and that's without counting Tokyo SOS. ;)

Your pathological need to contradict me notwithstanding that's clearly not the case here. So I don't know why you went off on a tangent ranting about the backpack as an exclusive when your own post said it was included.

I don't know what you're talking about now.

My original point was that I disagreed with your assertion that Kiryu HAD to include the backpack. I mentioned two hypothetical scenarios of Kiryu including no pack at all and then making the Tokyo SOS version of weapons an exclusive. You then claim it's an essential part of the character that is always included with him, so I had to be wrong, and specifically mentioned merchandise. My reply is that you are incorrect, Kiryu's been depicted without the backpack plenty in toy form. Bandai 8", M1, Ultimate Monsters, Bandai Creation 11", SD, West Kenji, Banpresto... etc.

This is S.H. MonsterArts, the toyline where the only way to get Godzilla's iconic form of attack across nearly 60 years of film is the first-edition release of one of his Heisei incarnations. You give Bandai too much faith to think they couldn't have gone the Tamashii Web route for accessories when their history among numerous collector lines says otherwise. This time around, we happen to be lucky or blessed.

I never said that he had to, only a lack of surprise that he did, especially given the price. The Hesai MG having Garuda as a web extra made sense, doing it here would have been less so considering the alternative of simply going a bit higher on the price and getting everyone in one purchase.

Whatever, you're right, let's move on to speculating about the support jets being web exclusives or not.

Another thing I thought of when I was driving in this morning -- do we have any idea how well the Garuda sold as a web exclusive? The Hesai MG is not paticular popular nor was his film particular successful. Selling the add-on to a not-that-popular monster as a web exclusive might not have yielded that much money.

Kiryu was popular enough in his original form to have a sequel made with him (like the original MG), but the second film with him did not do nearly as well, to the point that the third film teased at the end of Tokyo SOS did not get made. (At the time the speculation was that it was going to be called Godzilla x Godzilla and feature a clone of G'54.) So maybe the inclusion of the backpack (as well as the Absolute Zero Cannon instead of the Triple Maser, although really I don't remember them looking all that different, honestly) is to specifically tie him to GxMG instead of Tokyo SOS.

The problem is, the pack is pretty much worth $40 on that guy. It is nothing more than guns.

Ah, see, I misunderstood what you originally said, leading us down this unnecessary tangent. Sorry about that ljacone! And damn, you reminded me of the White Herons... totally forgot about them. Now a vision of a real Tamashii Web Exclusive pack is back in my head! :lol (Not a problem these days, just hard to overwrite instinct.)

We'll never know exactly how well Garuda sold because web exclusives are made-to-order and Bandai has no incentive to release production numbers on them. There's far less of them in the world than there are Heisei MGs, since we didn't have Bluefin importing exclusives then. The difference in money is that Bandai doesn't have to offer wholesale prices to retailers and can charge almost whatever they want.

GxMG Kiryu is probably more popular than SOS Kiryu, with the advantages of being first and having the cool berserk moment, but that might has more to do with the bland silver of the SOS backpack and the asymmetrical transforming right hand than the movies.