6.24.2014

Inside the box with Ichabod presents:

S.H.MonsterArts Gigan (2004) from Tamashii Nations/Bluefin

 SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE CHICKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 MonsterArts finally tackles Final Wars, and picks - from the many, many, many designs -  the most death metal version of Gigan ever. Some people love this design, some people hate it. Myself, I think it hits the right amounts of badass and ridiculousness needed. I mean, Gigan was a green and gold space chicken with a laser eye and a skyscraper sized buzz-saw in his torso. This version is practically toned down from the Showa one.

 Right out of the gate, he is covered in paint apps. At first I didn't see them, but he has tons of tiny silver rivets painted onto the sculpt. And the sculpt is strong. Good, crisp bio-mechanical lines cover the deep blue body, and the silver metal components have a light gray applied to them to give a replicated metal sheen. 

 The claws are huge and smooth with that appearance of a space titanium all over them, and same with the knee pads and DIECAST TOE CLAWS. Boom. The legs and arms look like they are made of sinew and taught wires meant to portray a terrible force behind him, and it is sculpted well, if broken by the sculpt a tad.

 The vibrant red fins, with tiny silver rivets painted on them, look fantastic. The black is applied cleanly, and makes them stand out even more. The armor plating on the tail is sharp, with even more paints applied here. Really, this guy is covered in paint but it takes a bit to notice it. 

 A little close up reveals all the detail that not only went into the silver bits, but also gives him that blue/black look. His lovely red visor is also a compound monoeye. The teeth aren't as sharp as I think they should be, but they were not very sharp in the movie.

 This guy's head? He can move it down, up and sideways. Even with all those little spikes in the back, due to the segmented nature of the neck, it has a good wide range of motion. The jaw can open and close a bit, and I mean only a bit. The side mandibles are stationary, and that's a bummer because these are very expressive in his Final Wars screen appearances. But with the gimmick, I can see why they opted to make them non-moveable. I think a small ball-joint instead of peg would have fixed that problem.


 His shoulders are a balljoint, and even with the big pads they are not limited in straight upward motion. The Shoulder pads move too, just enough to get out of the way. It's kind of neat. The outward motion, as you can see in all the other pictures, is just fine.

The elbows here remind me of the King Kong SHMA in design and it works well here. He has some solid elbow range.

 The hips, oh man the hips! They are pretty great. Space chicken is so slim that he has almost human proportions and can get some good hip range. The SHMA line - in regards to Kaiju - seems to keep improving. 

 Speaking of the legs, they can bend up pretty high, higher than you would need to, and the knee is a little limited, but the odd ankle and foot design makes up for it. Look at the way it goes from vertical to nearly horizontal without moving the hip or knee.

 Mmm, that lovely SHMA tail articulation. Even with all the armor plating, he still can move with the best of them. Just watch the spikes - they can hurt.

 His fins can also collapse and spread open, with the center piece being stationary. They don't feel fragile at all, so spread them to your hearts content.

 This guy may be a much-debated redesign of an already crazy looking Kaiju, but he has some good personality and can pose pretty well.

 I mean, look at this ridiculous bastard! He's all scythes and blades and spikes and death.

 Oh yeah, he can do a flying pose as well. So there's that.

 Option paaaarts!
 Don't like scythe hands? How about some good ole fashioned DOUBLE CHAINSAW HANDS! That neck of yours feeling a bit unprotected? SWEET METAL NECK PLATING! Mandibles feeling a bit "plain"?  Well, fear not, dear shopper, here at Xilians armory, we can make those mandibles all spiky and whatnot for no extra charge!

 Gigan comes with the gear he was equipped with at the end of Final Wars - after his rebuilding that they didn't tell you was happening. This is why, I think, he has non mobile mandibles, but I think ball joints (while harder to swap out than the pegs he has) would have provided meaningful motion. Not a deal breaker, but a bummer of an oversight. 

 This is what you have to do to swap parts. All in all, it's pretty easy.

 CHAINSAW SPACE CHICKEN!!

 So, the new neck is made up of less pieces than the non armored one, and is less articulated because of it. While it is more realistic, it could have been made up of the same amount of parts. Also he's less spiky now, which strikes me as weird. And his new head gear is way more serrated, because DEATH, or something. 

 The chainsaw hands I do like, mainly because they are double, so he ends up with 5 chainsaws on him...and that is nutso. These are a soft rubber and actually spin along the blade, which is SUPER COOL and really useless for display but STILL SO COOL.

 He's bigger than Godzilla, which he should be at 120 meters tall. I can't tell who's angrier here.

 Cyborg Millennium bros just hanging out 'n stuff.

 And the classic team up, from Gigan's first showa appearance, with his three-headed buddy, Ghidora. Best friends for life.

 These parts are pretty cool, and I appreciate them being included instead of a whole separate release. But Gigan ends up missing a few bits, like his spinning blades he launches at Mothra, and the hooks and cables that shoot out of the scythe blades. Not that I expected those, really.

See you, Space Chicken.
Gigan here is a very cool and well done piece. He has pretty great articulation, and such a striking design. If you hate it, well, I don't blame you. Add to the fact he has around 4 minutes of screen time in Final Wars and he is fighting an uphill battle with the fans. But I like him, and I think he is a solid release in the SHMA line. Grab yours over Here 

This was provided courtesy of Bluefin and Tamashii nations.

1 comment:

  1. Fantastic review, I can't make it through final wars, but I love this design. I was looking to buy it based off that alone! I knew about the chainsaw hands, but I didn't see all the options he comes with. They look great.

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