Youtooz continues the Godzilla franchise outside of the Godzilla vs. Kong tie-in line with four of Toho’s “Big Five”. How well do they fare? Read on!
Godzilla
Design: An obvious homage to the promotional art of Godzilla eating a trail, Youtooz does a great job emulating that here although in a stylized form. The trains are simple with rectangular boxes that have windows and wheels. The expression on Godzilla’s face is interesting in that while he looks menacing with the train car in his mouth, the eye expression (which is in all Youtooz releases seemingly) shows off a more playful side. The feet, while exaggerated, look great here and add to the overall playful tone of the figure. Godzilla’s backplates have a thickness to them which makes them look more pronounced.
Paint: While not fully painted, the mold has a nice green color to it and it helps the painted portions stand out. The toe nails and claws are mostly perfectly painted with an off white color. It’s a mostly OK paint job with a small blemish here and there. The backplates look great and they have with a hint of green paint in the center for added detail. The paint on the train cars, outside of a tiny blemish here and there, are painted perfectly.
Overall: It’s nice to see a call back to the “Godzilla eating a train” image from the original film in this manner and is a great start to what I hope is more Godzilla figures to come from Youtooz.
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Mothra
Design: Mothra is the REAL stand out in this wave. Coming with her own, non removable stand, this version of Mothra looks to be modeled after her 2003/2004 film appearances. The chibi/deformed style really fits Mothra here. The fur on her head and back are nicely sculpted and I like how the rest of her body is bent outward instead of inward like I’ve seen on other Mothra figures of this size. Her eyes are the most jovial of this wave with the Youtooz style of eyes. That addition alone makes this Mothra come off even more cutsey and friendly.
Paint: Mothra is a mix of mold color and paint and the application is fair for the most part. There are some blemishes where the white paint meets the brown mold in parts like on the wings and middle of the face but it’s not too distracting. I like how the white of the Youtooz eyes look in contrast of the blue of Mothra’s eyes too. The wings are painted mostly fine but there are a couple of small blemishes here and there a little bit of yellow paint run over but it’s not too noticeable.
Overall: Mothra looks awesome and is a real must own for this set. She looks great and is highly recommended!
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King Ghidorah
Design: I’ve always been a big fan of King Ghidorah from the Showa era and it’s nice to see him in the Youtooz line. He’s on the lighter size weight wise and feels good to the touch especially with the smoothed out wings. The faces are nicely detailed with King Ghidorah with the jovial expression and I especially like how the hair was sculpted. Even the bumps on King Ghidorah’s face are present here. A small nitpick is that it looks like just one head sculpt was done and the designer just stuck the same head on each neck and called it a day. I would have liked to have seen a different expression. But, again, small nitpick.
Paint: There’s almost no paint on King Ghidorah aside from the inside of the mouth and maybe the “eyes”. Inside the mouth the paint is applied with no errors that I could see. As a whole, with the mold color being a brighter yellow mixed with the darkish but bright (if that makes any sense) color of the mouth, King Ghidorah really stands out.
Overall: King Ghidorah is a real standout in this wave and it’s always cool to see the Showa version!
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Mechagodzilla
Design: With MechaGodzilla, the designers had more fun with the sculpt it seems. MechaGodzilla is in a “challenge” pose here and what makes him both fun AND menacing at the same time are the Youtooz style eyes. It’s great and he almost looks like a psychotic mechanical duck when you look at him head on. At least, that’s how he looks to me. From time to time on MechaGodzilla figures, I’ve noticed that the “MG” symbol isn’t present on the arms, which is what happened here. I first noticed this years ago on Bandai Creations short lived “Tokyo Vinyl” line.
Moving in to the rest of the figure, I like the small creative liberty taken with the feet and how they’re smoothed out. Yeah, it’s not accurate but it really fits this particular figure in the overall look which helps sell the overall package. The rivets are very pronounced and feel great to the touch and look great as well. I also appreciate the fact that MechaGodzilla’s mouth is open to reveal the missiles inside. It’s a nice touch and really adds to the insanity of the figure.
Paint: The paint is minimal but what’s here is effective. The yellow of the Youtooz style eyes are what really drives the figure for me. The rest of the paint on the sides of the head and the missile tips have no paint issues. Solid work here.
Overall: MechaGodzilla is a real crazy figure which is a different representation of the design which doesn’t seem to come along too often. A worthy addition to the Youtooz line!
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