6.06.2013

Inside the Box with Ichab0d Presents:

S.H. MonsterArts King Ghidorah

Well, I saved this announcement for the revealing of our site, and what a way to start than by reviewing kaiju Royalty?  
Cheeky Bastard.
So. Did not think I would own this, and than BAM. late birthday gift. Pretty damn amazing. And honestly? He's worth every penny I did not pay for him. More on that later. 
 Look at this Glorious Golden Bastard. All wicked scales and tri heads ready to bite and shoot god damn lightning out of their mouths. He's ready to ruin your day 3x harder than you expected. Also he's big. But not as big as his box makes you believe, thankfully. That thing is a monster. But there is a reason it's so huge.
 Measuring 10 1/2 inches from his foot to the tip of his wings, and 13 1/2 from the tail to the toes, this guy takes up a lot of space between his wings and tails. It is damn impressive, really. So yes, the plastic bubble is one of the largest I have pulled out of a box, and there is LOTS of empty space in there. With that way the tails articulate, I can see why the packaged him the way they did, but still. DAT BOX.
 The face detail, while hard to capture quite right on my current camera, is pretty great. His gold scales, and beady yellow dragon eyes are done well, sadly I wish I could show it off better. The horns are made of a softer, more rubber like material so there is slim chance of them breaking. The necks are all done with just enough range of motion you get good expression out of them, but they are not loose floppy messes. Constructed with ball-joints, I don't see them getting loose anytime soon.
 His jaws can open from a gaping maw, to a barely open snarl. and hey, his tongue is articulated. That, my friends is a win in my book. All the teeth are sculpted and prominent, though there was some red paint bleeding on a few of mine from his gums. But the guy is a 120 meter tall monster. Getting into the dentist is pretty much impossible.
 This right here shows the excellent paint work and sculpting that went into him. All those individual scales, all sharp, and pointy, making you appreciate the level of detail the sculptors went into when making this guy. Lots of love and dedication. His knee and hip both have "ok" range of motion. He's not going to be doing any high kicks or sitting down, but his tails would prevent that anyway. I know some people find the articulation on SHM a sore point, but with KG, he has it where it counts, his necks.
 Each tail end is made of hard plastic, unlike his head spikes, and individually sculpted. It would have been easy for them to just make the same one twice, but they made each one different. Just lovely.
 Onto his Tails proper, they are made of the same balljoint system as the other SHM tails, but these have a lot more motion, but not outside the range of a living creature. The best way I can describe it, it feel like there is a bone structure in the tails, allowing them to move naturally, but not to far and "break" the tail bone. Much like a cat's tail. Sounds crazy, but having him in hand and posing them, it was the best analogy i could come up with.
His wings look like they are made of shiny gold fabric, and I love it. They catch the light so damn well, and almost look leathery, or like gold spandex. Amazingly sculpted in my opinion, and I am not sure it could have been done better. Now, the fragility of the wings.... boy. They do feel fragile. I move mine at the base, down by the joint and have not had a issue yet, Thankfully. They seem like a poor design, I just hope future winged SHM releases have worked out a better system. His torso joint is fairly useless, going from a lean forward to a more straight posture, but only barely.
 And this is about as far back as his wings go. That is a large degree of movement, but I can't see myself ever displaying him like this. He just loses so much shelf presence.

 Here he is in a scale shot with the SDCC Comic-con explosion Godzilla. They made him in scale to G, which is way way cool.  They look great next to each other, well, if my normal Godzilla was out of storage they would. as it is it looks like KG threw up a oceans worth of orange Hi-C on Godzilla. Poor Godzilla.
Oh man, his effect parts. I love the way the look, but they tend to be a bit fiddly. Having to make three tamashii stand arms, work with three thin lightning pieces, and three unruly kaiju heads can be a damn nightmare.
 On top of that, look how much more space he takes up. I don't have room to display him like this! Its taking up two full TV trays! The Hell Bandai!?!
 Also they way the connect to the stages is kind of shit. Instead of a peg and hole like the other Kaiju effect parts, this is a clip, but the clip is not made to fit perfectly so the result is a very loose and not secure at all connection. Makes using them and lining them up that much more difficult.
 And now another pose he will never bee in again, a flying pose. Looks great, but do you see how many tamashii stages I have under there? and if he falls? You bet he's gonna loose a wing. but still, he does get into a classic mid flight look pretty damn well.
 awwwww yeah, he is going to ruin your town with death lightning, and eat you, and say bad things about your mother, all at the same time. Three heads! THREE.
This is also why he will never be in that pose again. It is RIDICULOUSLY and AWESOMELY huge. 


I'd like to say he's worth his retail price, and he almost is. The main problem I have is the fragility of the wings. If that wasn't an issue, I'd say HELL YES. the sculpting, paint work, and sheer size of him are all top notch. But that wing problem is a nagging one. If you be careful, move them slowly and at the base of the joint, I think you'll be fine. But they need to be treated with caution and baby fingers, not Crasis's hulk hands.

If you love Godzilla and King Ghidorah, you likely own him, or are trying to make it work in your budget. IF that's the case, I say go for it. He is a damn impressive piece to add to a collection. If you are a more casual fan, I'd say hold off, maybe wait for a sale. 

4 comments:

  1. Hail to the King! You finally scored him.

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  2. So THIS is the thing you couldn't talk about earlier this week. Clever girl. Love this, Icha. I like to picture you singing each word of this article, in a modern take on "The King and I."

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  3. Seriously Joe, you're making me want this something fierce.

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  4. He's way too big. He doesn't even fit on the backdrop you stole from Vangelus! But he's so gorgeous. Envious of anyone that has room to display him.

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