The King of the Monsters line of Godzilla toys by Trendmasters were, thankfully, a success. Thus, it’s no surprise the company began to expand its roster of kaiju toys by 1995. First introduced in the KoTM 40th Anniversary set, Biollante would then be featured in the Godzilla Wars set, versus packs and more. Like the others, there were many ways to get this specific figure and only one way to get the unique, neon green painted version of it (more on that later).
Before I begin, I just have to take a trip down memory lane. Back in the early 90s, my family had the TV guides and every so often, HBO would list Godzilla vs. Biollante to be playing. Sadly, we did not have HBO so I could only dream of what horror my favorite monster was fighting in that movie. It wasn’t until 1995 when my family and I stumbled across the Biollante toys by Trendmasters. For the longest time, this is what I believed the plant monster looked like in the film: a six armed, hunched over mutation with a bad attitude. It took another year or so to find the VHS release of the film and everything then began to fall into place and that the toy company had taken some liberties with the character.
Details
So Biollante stands at a solid three inches, give or take a hair. She’s pretty solid, sculpted out of a hard vinyl or rubber. The head, tendrils and feet are softer and squishy. So if you apply just a lil force, you can make the jaws close with your fingers. Sculpt detail is pretty good here with plenty of bumps and ridges through her entire body. Even the inside of her mouth has teeth that while unpainted can be felt.
The biggest issue I see people have with this figure is the legs and feet that Trendmasters gave her. I imagine giving her the uprooted “limbs” she had in her film would have been too much for such a toy. Still, to this day, I wish they would have did something else with the feet instead of giving her star-shaped feet with claws tipping the five toes that point in each direction.
Scaling wise, Biollante comes up a bit short. I’d say she’s the worst when it comes to scale out of all of Trendmasters smaller figures. She stands smaller than the rest, so if you were hoping to have her munch on Godzilla’s head, it won’t happen here.
Articulation
None.
Accessories
In some of the versus packs, she was packaged with a trading card, Sadly, because I did not get this figure in that way, I do not have it to show.
Paint
So we have two figures I am reviewing with paint here. The first is the basic release. The second is the rarer, special color 40th anniversary release. The main Biollante is a solid, dark green color with a blue tint on her back; teeth, tusks and claws painted a creamish color; stomach orange; area above her stomach a darker shade of green; and the inside of her mouth and eyes the same shade of red. The paint does not look bad at all, minus the claws on the feet. I just can’t get over the feet. I want to note that the orange stomach region has some other colors mixed in, something I did not notice until taking pictures.
The alternate version is a lot cartoonier. In fact, now days, I like to think this is what Biollante would have looked like if she debuted in Godzilla: the Series. She’s entirely neon green with purple running down her back and as the color of her abdomen. The tusks, teeth and claws are all a clean black. The black contrasts nicely with the lighter green. The insides of the mouth and her eyes are colored a deep pink.
Overall
Awkward choice for feet aside, this toy was probably one of my generation’s first exposure to the character. As such, I do have a bit of a soft spot for it. The detailing is pretty great given its size and age and the choice to do six tendrils is nice. Like other toys in this line, it is nothing to really write home about. This is a solid release from a solid toy line. If it wasn’t for the feet and scale issues, this could have been one of the best of the bunch.
Oh, and the special color one just looks awesome. Just another reason to track down one of those rarer, 40th anniversary special color sets released in 1995.
**Below are several bonus images, including some alternate views and size comparisons.**
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