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After a few years of waiting, Super7 finally releases the first Godzilla in their Ultimates line. Is it worthy of the branding? Let’s find out.
Details
The sculpt on the figure is in my opinion the best aspect of it. It really does a good job at capturing the look of the ‘89 Godzilla in action figure form. While it’s debatable as to which of the many highly articulated ‘89 Godzillas could be labeled as the best or most accurate, I feel confident in saying that it’s an improvement over the Neca figure, though in many ways it is fairly similar to the line of figures from Neca. More on that later, though.
So as I said the sculpt of this figure looks pretty great. And while the film featured two suits used throughout with their own slight variations, to me this looks to be based upon the Land or A version of the suit. The only real issue I have with the sculpt is just how soft the details can be up close, but that’s probably a sacrifice given so it’s not rough to the touch, though not all that major of a blemish on this figure. What may be for some though is the amount of seam lines that are visible on the figure's heads and body.
Articulation
This is probably going to be the roughest aspect of this figure, which features much that reminds me of the Neca Godzilla figures for better or worse. While good for figures that use to be around 20-25 dollars upon release, it doesn’t really sit well with me for a figure that’s 85 dollars. Probably the biggest similarity I first noticed was how Super7 decided to handle articulation for Godzilla’s head and neck. First off that the neck has so little articulation aside from the sort of swivel at the base of the neck. And the head itself just being on a ball joint that can only move so much given the row or little spikes on the back of his head that prevent it from looking too far up.
The rest of the body features most of what we’ve come to expect when it comes to articulated Godzilla figures. There is a swivel at the waist, which I actually have to give them some credit here as they managed to allow the figure to have a full 360° range of movement, but it doesn’t result in a huge gap between the dorsal plates to achieve this. Arms feature articulated joints at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, with all three given a swivel and a hinge joint. Legs feature pretty standard articulation as well, with there being a joint at the thighs, knees, and ankles, though to be honest all the joints have a fairly limited range of movement it seems.
Now I’m not too sure if this was just an issue with my figure, but proceed with caution when posing the figure as they tend to feature a lot of stiffness out of the box. I haven’t had anything break from posing, but it’s definitely a concern I had. The worst areas as far as this goes would be the tail and the legs, as the legs and feet in particular are so stiff but also don’t grant you that much range of motion to begin with. And honestly it’s a bit of an annoyance to get the feet to be flat.
One of the biggest disappointments with articulation has to be the tail, since its another aspect that really reminded me of the later Neca figures and their articulated tails. Most notably in that while yes the tail is articulated, you aren’t really given a wide range of posability from the joints, most notably in the fact that you can’t really curl the tail all that much. Just such a shame that while the price is closer to what MonsterArts figures go for, the articulation is closer to what Neca had on their later figures.
Accessories
Now this is one area where this figure picks things up a bit, while still having some let downs. For the positives, it’s nice to see them take advantage of this being based on the ’89 design with some accessories meant to recreate some moments from the film, with one hand featuring a hole from it being pierced by one of Biollante’s vines, as well as an accessory that can be placed around Godzilla’s neck to simulate Biollante strangling him. Rounding out the rest of the accessories are a couple sets of hands for Godzilla, which are nice but don’t offer a whole lot of difference as you have two open hand sets and a closed fist set.
Now for the negatives, I think it’s really odd for a figure of this size to not have an articulated jaw. You have to swap the heads if you want to give Godzilla the appearance of roaring, and swap it back for the closed mouth look. To me, this aspect makes no sense as it’s become so common place on Godzilla figures that are highly articulated, and in my opinion you would think it would be more cost effective to just implement the use of a hinged jaw like so many other figures have.
It’s also highly disappointing that Godzilla is given some accessories but his most important one is missing. That being his atomic breath/heat ray. Especially as Super7 have suddenly decided to include such accessories exclusively on their site in the double pack for Space Godzilla and M.O.G.U E.R.A. out next year, which for me doesn’t makes sense with the cost of the figures being what they are. They really should already come packed in. I feel the absence of such an accessory is really a shame as its become far too common for these more collector oriented figures to be missing this kind of accessory, which to me is a huge negative.
Paint
Just another bit of a let down with this figure for me, which I should add may be different for others and their figures, as for the most part it looks really good from a distance. But up close you can see how sloppy the paint applications can be. One of the worst has to be the teeth, especially on the closed jaw head. His mouth just becomes a glob of yellow with just a few of the details shining through, which honestly it and the figure as a whole could’ve done well by having a nice paint wash applied. It would have helped the details pop and stand out more. Other instances of sloppy paint apps on my figure would be the claws, dorsal plates, and the eyes, with the open mouth head having one of the eyes off center.
The only other issue I have with the paint is one that’s more of a preference and not necessarily a fault, that being that I wish that the figure had a more matte look/finish to the figure. Maybe that’s just me and again it’s preference and not a negative against the figure itself.
Overall
So does this figure deserve the Ultimates! label of the line it’s from? Not for me, honestly. To me, I feel this figure doesn’t even earn its cost that Super7 is charging, especially with all the competition out there in the realm of Godzilla figures that are around the 6”-7” scale. This figure goes for what an average Monsterarts figure goes for, yet it doesn’t have anywhere near the level of articulation or detail those figures tend to have. And quite frankly, this figure feels and looks like a better sculpted and bigger Neca figure. Even features the more solid feel that I liked about the Neca figures. But even so is roughly four times what they use to be sold for.
Personally, I don’t think it’s an awful figure by any means, in fact I like it overall. But with so much competition in the Godzilla figure landscape, I just don’t think this figure earns the steep price for what you’re getting. Better paint apps, articulation and a few more accessories like an atomic heat ray would’ve really helped this figure out.
**Below are a number of bonus images of the figure.**
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