2012 X-Plus Vinyl Figures Discussion Thread

[Brad Simmons]

Maybe we should start a Bandai Creations Hedorah appreciation thread? We can post pictures of how we adore, and use or abuse him.

It looks like a turd.

[Planetxman]

I'm still hoping that one day we actually get the monsters as they LOOKED in the film.

You want a shitty puppet ?

[DoctorMafune]

I'm still hoping that one day we actually get the monsters as they LOOKED in the film.

You want a shitty puppet ?

Smile when you say, 'shitty puppet,' pardner!

That puppet (which is motionless, but didn't look shitty at all, IMO) is how I first saw Varan (wondering which monster THAT was), and yes, I want one, too.

By the way, the puppet appears in DAM in three scenes, total: those two glimpses where he's in the air, and at one point, on a monitor in the command center, crawling on a rock.

Actually, there's another reason I'd love to get a DAM-style Varan: at a convention in Tokyo once, the head (all that was left, as far as I know) from the puppet was on display, and when it came time to pack up the props, a couple of my friends who were among the organizers asked me to guard the props (Varan's head, included) while they went to get their truck. Talk about leaving the chickens with the fox... I'd never before had fantasies of grabbing something and making a run for it, but just that once...

I've got multiple figures of Varan (plus a large vinyl kit) sculpted as he looked in his solo film, but I want that "floating" version of Varan from Destroy All Monsters, too. Definitely.

Now, there's a Baragon puppet used in the Mt. Fuji scene that I wouldn't go near, but Varan is another matter.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Maybe we should start a Bandai Creations Hedorah appreciation thread? We can post pictures of how we adore, and use or abuse him.

It looks like a turd.

No shit!

Well, yes shit. He is sewage, after all.

[leunames]

As for Varan, the idol/statue is a nice little extra, but not for the extra cost. Personally I don't think any of the exclusives are worth it unless they visibly alter the figure themselves (not so much as light up eyes but an extra pair of ears or jaw or kiryu's backpack, etc.) or give you an extra figure that's in-scale (25cm mosu goji).

It's a huge longshot, but i hope the ric boy exclusive for a potential kumonga would be an in-scale kamacuras

[GCrusher]

As for Varan, the idol/statue is a nice little extra, but not for the extra cost. Personally I don't think any of the exclusives are worth it unless they visibly alter the figure themselves (not so much as light up eyes but an extra pair of ears or jaw or kiryu's backpack, etc.) or give you an extra figure that's in-scale (25cm mosu goji).

It's a huge longshot, but i hope the ric boy exclusive for a potential kumonga would be an in-scale kamacuras

Assuming that the spider will be a 30cm offer to follow the others in the DAM set, I would say that even "huge longshot" is more like "never going to happen." But i wouldn't rule out them releasing a 30cm Kamacuras separately down the line.
Now a cool exclusive would be to have the vinyl Kumonga accept small canisters of silly string kinda hidden within the figure so when you press down on him he sprays his web in silly string! OK, now that's a longshot from ever happening.
Now there's a project for someone with an extra Mothra larva sitting around.

[Planetxman]

Making a Varan figure and yet basing it on the deteriorated, 10 year old puppet would be like someone making a Gorosaurus figure, but basing the design on the way he looked in Godman.

[RedZillaKing]

LMAO so true! The Varan the Unbelievable suit was one of Tsubaraya's best. I see no reason why that crappy puppet should've been the basis for the first X Plus figure of him.

[GCrusher]

LMAO so true! The Varan the Unbelievable suit was one of Tsubaraya's best. I see no reason why that crappy puppet should've been the basis for the first X Plus figure of him.

I was reading back in their Blog, and during the Wonder Festival they mentioned:

"We had a great time we had a chance to stop by the booth to a lot of people, to talk a lot ☆
Opportunity to listen to the voice of our customers live quite, since there are no longer very helpful! ! "

So, maybe you want to hop on a plane to the next Wonder Festival and tell the Japanese fans to stop talking to them, and set things straight for the rest of us in this forum

[DoctorMafune]

Making a Varan figure and yet basing it on the deteriorated, 10 year old puppet would be like someone making a Gorosaurus figure, but basing the design on the way he looked in Godman.

Or like making a Baragon 1968.

Actually, I don't want a 30cm figure based on the puppet. I want a smaller scale figure (23cm or so), to display in the background of a DAM diorama. Failing that, I was hoping a small DAM-style Varan would be the "extra" in X-Plus's online shop exclusive (a natural), but so much for that idea.

[Brad Simmons]

Kamakiras w/light-up eyes, or Minya egg as the Internet Eclusive. Haven't a clue what an Internet Exclusive might be for Kumonga though. I could see them doing another idol as the exclusive for a King Seesar. Don't know what for a Gabara.

[Planetxman]

I'd like to see a figure like this.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

^ That's beautiful, look at the little hairs and everything! I'd trip a blind nun for a Kamakiras like that.

[DoctorMafune]

^ That's beautiful, look at the little hairs and everything! I'd trip a blind nun for a Kamakiras like that.

Nun of that, C.D.... Team Ukeke's website may still have these Kamakiras kits available (haven't checked recently.) That's where I got mine.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

I see a couple for sale on the web at around $100, which is less than I expected. If they're still there after G-Fest, I think I might order one.

[DoctorMafune]

I was surprised to hear flack about Legion1979's comment, and mine, about wanting X-Plus to produce some more replicas of the monsters that accurately depict how they looked in Destroy All Monsters, in addition to classic / first-appearance looks.

After all, King Ghidorah didn't look particularly impressive in Godzilla vs. Gigan, either... but I've read comments from others that they'd like a figure of KG '72, too. Probably not as X-Plus's first take on Ghidorah, but eventually. It's how he looked in that movie... and wanting a replica that fits in with a G vs. Gigan display makes sense.

[TokyoVigilante]

It's a reasonable request, considering how much X-Plus charges for these figures and how much emphasis is put on the figure accuracy as the main appeal of this particular line.

But I don't even collect this stuff, don't mind me.

[Legion1979]

I mean, 1968 Godzilla, 1968 Angilas, Minya, Gorosaurus, 1963 Manda, 1964 Rodan, 1958 Varan, 1961 Mothra..is NOT a Destroy all Monsters display in any way shape or form. It doesn't sit right because X-Plus went as far as including an extra 1968 head with their exclusive Baragon in order to fit in with the rest of the DAM monsters. You could say that they want to produce the versions of the monsters that they think will sell. But in that case don't even mention Destroy all Monsters if the monsters you do don't actually look the way they do in that movie.

I'm sure people will buy them all anyway and when all 11 of them are released they're display them together. IMHO that would look terrible considering a good half of the monsters don't even look the way they do in the movie.

But that's just me.

[Brad Simmons]

I used to be attached to wanting them all to be from DAM but the releases thus far have broken me of that. I'm thankful they're just making them, regardless of if they're the DAM representations or not. I mean, where else can you find a realistic Varan and soon to be Kumonga? They may not be the DAM versions, but I'll take what I can get given what my other options are. Plus, in the long run, I just see myself buying the representations from the other movies anyway if they're made. Everyone is different in their collecting tastes and how they collect, there's room for differing opinions here. No big.

[DoctorMafune]

I used to be attached to wanting them all to be from DAM but the releases thus far have broken me of that. I'm thankful they're just making them, regardless of if they're the DAM representations or not. I mean, where else can you find a realistic Varan and soon to be Kumonga? They may not be the DAM versions, but I'll take what I can get given what my other options are. Plus, in the long run, I just see myself buying the representations from the other movies anyway if they're made. Everyone is different in their collecting tastes and how they collect, there's room for differing opinions here. No big.

I hear you, Brad, and it does make sense for people to collect what they like.

For myself, I also like getting the first-appearance versions, as well as DAM-specific forms.

Still, the answer to the question, "Where else can you find a realistic Varan?" (1958-style) is, in many places. CCP made a beautiful and realistic 9" vinyl figure of classic Varan, and there have been a number of kits that offered the same: check out Varan's page on kaijukits.com. Paradise, Image and others have all produced really good Varan 1958 kits; some of them in 30cm scale.

I just wish that once, somebody would do a nicely detailed, small-to-medium figure of the Varan puppet from Destroy All Monsters: one that wouldn't look wrong in a DAM display.

Unfortunately, that Y-MSF "Varan 2," if it ever even gets produced, isn't going to cut it.

At least I've got Team Ukeke's Manda 1968 kit, and we did get good figures of Godzilla 1968 and a few others.