Believe
it or not, the Showa era King Caesar happens to
be my second favorite Toho kaiju of all time, surpassed
only by the majestic Grand King Ghidorah. It came
as a shocker to me several years ago that Bandai
had released a figure of one of my most favorite
monsters, and I quickly ordered one off of the internet
along with the Heisei era Mechagodzilla and Fire
Rodan. Sadly, when the figure arrived, I noticed
several flaws.
Before I dive into those flaws, I'll cover the
basics. King Caesar's arms and legs all move, as
does his tail. His head is also capable of moving
slightly from side to side. Like all Bandais of
the same size, King Caesar is made of vinyl.
The first problem with King Caesar comes with his
proportions. While he's at the right height, the
figure just seems too wide when compared with the
movie version. The detail, however, is done right
on the “plates” and the face. However,
the paint job of the sculpt, isn't done right at
all. It saddens me to say that the paint job of
King Caesar just seems lazy.
Starting from the top, one can see the misshapen
ears fine, and that's not the only problem with
the head. The eyes have pupils (in the movie, King
Caesar doesn't). The mouth, in a somewhat open fashion,
is painted tan, and the lack of detail around the
nose and mouth itself is disappointing.
The shoulders of King Caesar, along with its chest
are detailed and textured with fur, but once again,
there just isn’t enough color here. Would
it have hurt to add in some different shades, or
at least get the hair style right? Yes, the hair
style for King Caesar is done wrong. It’s
easier to show than to tell, so direct your attention
to the source comparison to see for yourself. The
hair on King Caesar's wrists and elbows also haven't
been painted.
Moving down, King Caesar not only grew thunder
thighs over the years, but his hair hasn’t
been painted at all! The tail of Caesar is the very
last straw for this figure. For lack of better words:
it is fat. Fat is not a word one should associate
with a kaiju like King Caesar.
Bottom line, this isn't a great figure. King Caesar
has been wronged by Bandai, and Bandai should pay
in blood. Ok, that may be my own fanboyism showing,
but would it hurt to re-release King Caesar with
a new, proper mold, and give it a better paintjob?
I know the toy was re-released in 2003, but it was
the same mold and pretty much the same paintjob
with some black highlights thrown in. Why black?
No idea. On a side note, King Caesar falls into
the Godzilla Island series, named after the
1998 TV show of the same name (Godzilla
Island), and is number G-09.
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