|
Mondo kicks off their new Godzilla Museum line with three statues being featured in the first wave, with one of the them being based on an original creation and the other on the classic Hannah-Barbera cartoon. Here, the ’54 statue features a recreation of such an iconic promotional image that looks great... though not without flaws, unfortunately.
Details
The details and sculpt on this statue are absolutely where it shines and is hands down the best aspect of it overall. While the statue is smaller in scale compared to other Godzilla statues out there, it nonetheless truly captures the look of the original 1954 Godzilla. I absolutely love the texture and attention to little details. Even giving the dorsal plates a bit more of a coarse and rough texture to them is a nice touch. Little things like the teeth and finger nails are sculpted nicely as well. One complaint I have in this regard though is just how noticeable the seam lines can be in places. While on mine a minor one that is on the abdomen, the most glaring is present on the head of the figure, as you can very clearly see it on the neck and face. I understand things can’t necessarily be perfect, but considering the price of the statue it really does bring things down quite a bit. Sure, it’s not glaring at a distance, but up close it’s very distracting personally.
Another issue is that the tail doesn’t connect flush with the body of the figure. While I appreciate that they took a different approach when it comes to how to connect the tail to the body, as they used two magnets, one located at the base of the tail with the other in the body. But how it was designed just doesn’t allow it to connect without having a gap present between the tail and body. And as a side note, be careful if you remove the tail, as when I did the magnet connected to the body got pulled off. But it was easily able to get put back.
Articulation
None.
Accessories
Included with the figure is what seems to be the standard inclusion for the line, which consists of a base for the statue with a nameplate that can be attached to one specific side of the base thanks to a magnet in both. While I love the inclusion of both, I just wish they would do something different with each release. As aside from the nameplate, the base itself appears to be the exact same one included with the 70's animated statue, right down to Godzilla being written in Katakana on the top of it. I also want to mention that while I really like the look of the base, I feel like it’s a bit big for it not really doing anything special. I mean, something that would’ve been nice is if they included magnets in the base and in even just on foot of the statue itself. Or maybe it would’ve caused issues, I don’t know? But either way, I find it odd with how oversized it is, especially when compared to the size and scale of the statue.
What is specific to this statue though is the fact that included is a jet with a static plume of smoke coming out the top of it. It can be placed and held in the right hand of Godzilla to further help recreate the iconic promotional image it’s based on. Even more interesting is the fact that not only does the jet fit inside the hand perfectly, it’s also held in place by a magnet inside the jet and Godzilla’s hand, which is so much better than having accessories like this just sit loosely.
Paint
Not that the figure would require a lot of paint applications considering the statue is going for a black and white aesthetic, it is still quite minimal and at times leaves a lot to be desired, whereas most of the figure is given a nice wash, which does make the details of the sculpt really pop that much more. Other aspects are where things slip a bit, sadly. To start off, the most noticeable would be the dorsal plates on Godzilla's back. While at first glance they look fantastic, up close the paint is a bit sloppy, mostly on the outer rows and smaller dorsal plates going down the back to the tail. On mine in particular you can see a spot where a piece of paint is missing. But more importantly just the fact of how sloppy the outer plates are painted.
The only other paint apps on this statue would be the claws, toes, and teeth along with the inside of the mouth. The jet being a bit more basic doesn’t bother me as it’s not only so small, as well as half of it being covered when being held by Godzilla. Even the paint out of the box was chipped on some of the toes and even had some sloppy paint apps on the teeth. Minor to some but again a bit of an annoyance considering its price.
Overall
While this review may come off overly negative, I still think this is a nice release overall. But what makes those issues more glaring is namely just the price being asked by Mondo. I feel this is a fantastic statue and one that really captures the design of the ’54 original so nicely. But at around 120 dollars, for me, it’s a bit much. If the scale was a bit larger and the issues mentioned weren’t so apparent, it would be more worth the price. As is, though, I feel this would be perfect at even half the price of what is being asked, even if that means the the stand doesn’t get included. For others, the price may not be such an issue and for those fans it’s worth getting, or if like me you’re curious and want to support it to see what other statues Mondo has in store for this line, especially after the huge surprise of the Hannah-Barbera statue.
**Below are a number of bonus images of the figure.**
Rating:  |
|
