With a new Movie Monster Series Biollante due out in March of 2018, now seems like the perfect time to take a look back at Bandai’s original release of Godzilla’s plant-based clone. Released in 1992, this monstrously big figure was originally sold in stores within a large box that, sadly, I do not own. I bought this big boy way back around 2008 for around $100, making it one of my first expensive buys when compared to other items I was buying.
Is she worth it? Let us find out.
Details
At her highest point, Biollante scales in at a big seven inches. This actually makes her smaller when put against the same line’s Godzillas and other bipedal kaiju that generally stand at eight inches. What she lacks in height, she makes up for in weight. She is a pretty heavy release when compared to other figures.
Her entire body is molded in one solid piece. She then has four tentacles that are sculpted out of rubber. These tentacles do not have wires within them, meaning they can’t hold any sort of pose what’s so ever. The sculpt on the body is pretty good with a lot of detail put into her back and sides. The tentacles aren’t nearly as good and I do feel they would have just been better if they were sculpted out of vinyl to be better detailed. The weakest point of the sculpt is easily the mouth. The lower jaw has an extremely awkward dip. Additionally, none of her countless teeth are actually molded within it. She has teeth painted on the edges of her jaws, and that’s it. There is no sign of the legions of teeth she had in the film. Finally, the three tusks on either side of her face are merely painted on “bubbles” of vinyl that have been sculpted at the corners of her mouth. I imagine this was done to avoid them breaking off during play, but the general look of them just looks lazy.
Articulation
All four of Biollante’s tentacles can be rotated at their base. I think a wire running within each tentacle would have been nice and easy to apply so that they could hold different poses, but alas, no such luck. Each tentacle is fixed in a standard placement no matter which way you rotate them.
Accessories
While I can not comment nor review it, Biollante was originally released in a large box as opposed to having an attached tag.
Paint
Biollante’s strongest attribute is her paint. The body is nicely sculpted in dark green with some nice, lighter green on her back. The eye has been painted a creamy white, matching what is seen in the film. Her “energy sac” or whatever you may call it looks pretty decent, nothing really to note. Maybe some more different shades of orange and yellow could have been applied, but that’s just nitpicking.
However, once again, Bandai just dropped the ball entirely when it came to her mouth. While the mouth is cleanly painted with no slop, it’s entirely red with no shading what’s so ever. There’s not even an attempt to make her mouth look decent. Her tusks and teeth (the single row they gave her…) are painted cleanly, if that makes any sort of difference.
Overall
She’s a big girl. While she doesn’t scale well with other figures of an eight inch line, she does look very well when paired up with Bandai’s six inch lines such as the Movie Monster Series. It’s not a perfect fit and she’s still a tad small, but it looks a lot better. If it wasn’t for the completely awful mouth in both sculpt and paint detail, this could have been a release to really track down. Unfortunately, the poorly done mouth almost makes this not even worth it. The tentacles I can look past, but that mouth… If you really want a Biollante to scale on your shelf with most Godzillas of this day, this will be it. The upcoming release is already confirmed to have the same scaling issue this one did with eight inch releases. However, with images of the new release trickling in, it’s obvious it will be superior to this release in almost every way.
I really want to give this girl a better score because I actually really do like her sculpted body and colors… But Bandai just dropped the ball on some of the most important aspects of this character.
**Below are several bonus images, including some size comparisons and shots from various angles.**
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