1983 was
a pivotal year for kaiju collectors. Not only did
Bandai release its first, realistic looking Godzilla
figure in the 8 inch scale (The previously reviewed
Godzilla 1962
aka King-Goji), but another, lesser known company
did them one better by releasing an entire lineup
of nine Toho kaiju figures (Including three different
takes on Godzilla himself). Unfortunately, this
would be the Yamakatsu company's only foray into
vinyl Godzilla figures, and except for a small amount
of rubber figures of lesser quality the following
year, their last Godzilla releases period.
One of their vinyl figures would be Godzilla's
first enemy turned trusted ally, Anguirus. Right
away, you can tell that the detail of the Yamakatsu
figures is inferior to Bandai's, but compared to
anything else on the market at that time they were
fairly realistic. They were also a bit smaller than
the standard Bandais of their day. Anguirus is approximately
nine inches from tail to nose, and roughly four
inches tall, with rotateable neck, arms and legs.
I'm not certain if they were attempting to replicate
a certain Anguirus suit or a composite, as the color
scheme and spike patterns more closely resemble
the 1955 Anguirus, but with the face of the '68
and beyond version of the Showa creature. Like 99%
of the other Showa Anguirus figures out there, he's
posed on his hands and knees and is pretty much
stuck that way due to his non-moving knees. Anguirus
is a dark, muddy gray, with a white "frosted"
look to the top of his head, his spiked back, and
along the top side of his tail. His teeth and tusks
are also painted white. It's a rather drab color
choice, personally I prefer the Bandai figure's
color palatte, and being an older figure these seem
to suffer from quite a bit of paint wear in most
examples I have seen.
Another minor complaint is that Anguirus' right
knee seems to 'hover' a bit off the ground without
actually touching it no matter how I have his leg
arranged, but that could just be my individual figure.
Either way, it's not that noticeable, I'm just being
anal, like so many others on the internet....only
I still have my self respect after I'm done with
MY anal. Ahem. We should probably move on.
Overall there's not much more I can say about this
figure. As for the Yamakatsu line as a hole, unlike
the Bandai figures, Yamakatsu figures did not come
tagged, so you won't find tag-holes on the figures.
Instead, they came with the golden "Godzilla"
sticker fans may be familiar with. They were more
easily available in the 1990's, but they still pop
up on eBay every once in a while. Most of the figures
in the line, you can pick up for $40 or less, but
a couple (Mechani-Kong and King Ghidorah) I've seen
around the $100 mark.
Anguirus, being an acceptable figure and nothing
more, gets a final score of 3 out of 5.
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