Released
in 1995 is Bandai's representation of the final form
of Godzilla's last enemy of the Heisei series, Destoroyah.
Destoroyah is one of the more recognizeable of Godzilla's
foes from this era, having appeared prominently in
Godzilla: Destroy
All Monsters Melee, Godzilla:
Save The Earth, and Godzilla:
Unleashed, as well as being
planned (but never released) for the Trendmasters'
Godzilla series. Bandai's original release of Destoroyah's
final form is an impressive figure that stands in at
just under 9 inches tall, with a tail around 6 inches
long.
Destoroyah features articulation in his neck, legs,
arms and wings, and features a nice paint job and very
detailed 'skin'. As far as coloration goes, my only
complaint is that all of the toy's wings are colored
completely red, as opposed to being both red and black
on the actual suit. At least the choice of colors
was very good, with the deep reds, dark blacks, and
bright gold matching up nicely with Destoroyah's lone
on screen appearence.
Destoroyah is posed nicely, but the unique shape
of his arms restrict their movement somewhat, though
I don't consider this a big problem. The biggest problem
Destoroyah faces is the previously mentioned wings,
the one area Bandai dropped the ball on an otherwise
perfect figure. As I already mentioned, the first problem
is the lack of black coloring on the wings. Secondly,
Destoroyah's smaller secondary set of wings are molded
into the large main wings. Finally, and most troubling,
is the fact that even when moved to the "open" position,
Destoroyah's wings remain folded, something that would
not be an issue in various mechanized/DX and high grade
figures Bandai would also release.
To compare with a more recent figure, the fourth set
of Bandai Creation Godzilla figures released here in
America last year featured a Destoroyah with vastly
improved wings, but was smaller in size and featured
an inferior, less fierce looking facial sculpt.
Back
to the 1995 release, however. Destoroyah matches up
nicely with his big screen counterpart in every aspect
except for the execution of the wings. Also, despite
being ever so slightly out of scale (Destoroyah should
be taller than Godzilla), he matches up nicely with
Bandai's 1995 Burning Godzilla figure as well, which
allows you to re-create Godzilla's epic final battle
to your heart's content in your own home.
Unfortunate issues with the wings aside, Destoroyah
is still an excellent figure. Can't give him a perfect
score because of those wings, but he does earn a score
of four out of five stars. Sadly, not only did the
Godzilla film series go on an admittedly-brief hiatus
following 1995's Godzilla
vs Destoroyah, so did Bandai's
making of 8" scale Godzilla figures. They would move
on to a smaller, 6" scale, mostly downsized versions
of kaiju already available in the 8" scale but with
some new ones as well, before returning to the larger
scale for later films in the Millenium series, but
at least they went out with a bang here, just like
Godzilla.
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