After a long break on the full vinyl figure Godzilla banks, following the Godzilla Classic 1989 Vinyl Figure Bank, comes a new entry for Burning Godzilla. Sadly, this is little more than the 1989 bank with a, literal, new coat of paint. That said, lets dive right into how this figure bank ranks.
Details
Based on the meltdown look from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), this bank is huge. It's 12 inches tall and is a rather jaw dropping 18 inches long, from head to tail. There is a slight heft to it, but for the size it's relatively light thanks to the hollow aspect of the bank.
Detail wise, the figure looks stunning. The dorsal fins are the most eye catching aspect, thanks to their neon tone, and don't disappoint. The scale is flawless, from neck to tail, and they overall look very nice. The bulk of the figure is also spot on, giving it the formidable nature that was present in the larger Heisei version, although the scaling matches the 1989 suit rather than the 1995, which isn't shocking given that's what this originally was.
The mouth on this figure also looks good, with a tongue that is sticking up a little and the famous double rows of teeth for this version of the character.
Bank Function
The coin slot for the bank is located on the back of the figure. It's roughly where the neck ends that the coin slot begins. It's large enough to make placing coins inside easy, while in a discreet enough location that one can ignore it and treat the bank like a normal vinyl figure if they choose.
To remove the coins, the tail detaches. To get everything out, you will likely have to shake the bank quite a bit, since the coins will be fond of slipping in the foot area of the bank. In terms of practicality, it certainly doesn't win any awards, but serves its purpose well enough.
Paint
For the 1989 version of the bank, the Achilles heel was assembling the tail (more on that later).
For the Burning version of the bank character, the Achilles heel is the paint job.
Let's address the most painful part of the figure first, and those are the eyes. The 1989 bank had both eyes looking dead on, which made them look good at any angle. The paint job on these are skewed, making him look cross eyed and really bad when viewed head on. To be fair, they look good when viewed from the sides, but killing how the figure looks from a dead on view is just puzzling.
In terms of the chest, there is faint spray paint highlights through out. They are subtle, not close to how they looked in the film, but get the job done. It would have been nice to have seen the paint match the look in the film a bit more, but it's a vast improvement over the prototype version. For those who haven't seen the prototype, they can take a look here. This mock up version looked like it was wearing a torn orange sweater, and the subtle highlight look is a vast improvement over this.
Now as previously mentioned, the neon orange dorsal fins are well done. They are eye catching and vibrant. The paint job draws attention to them, which is great as they are one of the more impressive aspects of the figure. It should be noted that the paint job is not suit accurate here. As was noted on the Godzilla (1995): S.H. MonsterArts review, the tail is actually white in the movie. While I tend to prefer movie accuracy as much as possible, this is one of those areas where it's an improvement. The movie hid the tail for most of the film, and it looks rather jarring to see the difference of orange to white in the fins. This makes the choice to keep them a single tone the better option.
Packaging and Assembly
As a slight change from the 1989 bank, this Burning Godzilla bank comes in one large plastic bag. Inside that plastic bag is the main figure base and inside is another bag. This second bag contains the tail
The bank is composed of seven parts, which are: the main body, the arms (two), the legs (two), the dorsal fin area and the tail. All of these, except the tail, have been glued on, with only the dorsal fins being the obvious later addition due to the crease line.
The tail requires assembly, and if anyone recalls my review of the Godzilla Classic 1989 bank I was expecting this to be quite a challenge...
Much to my delight, the tail was very simple to apply on this one. All I had to do was line them up, push, twist and success. After spending an earnest hour trying to get the tail on the 1989 one and fail, it was a relief to attach this one so easily. Still, if anyone is having trouble attaching it, Diamond Select Toys created this YouTube tutorial for assembling the tail. Overall
It's a shame more care wasn't placed into the paint job, especially the eyes. This drags down what is otherwise an A+ release. Regardless, this is still an impressive figure bank. It's not cheap, at $39.99 for the retail price, but is large enough with enough detail to merit that large price tag.
As for the star rating, I'm ranking this one above the 1989 one solely because the tail was simple to attach.
In closing would also like to thank Diamond Select Toys for sending this in for review.
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