After taking a two year break, in which Shusuke Kaneko went off to direct Haunted School 3 (1997), the Gamera franchise returned in 1999 with the final chapter in the Heisei series, and the last that Toho was involved with. The new film pitted Gamera against a new foe, Iris, while also bringing back the Gyaos. For the movie, the design on the winged monster was similar to its 1995 version, but made more sleek and dubbed Hyper Gyaos. This toy, technically called "Super Gene Beast Hyper Gyaos", celebrates the new version of the creature, although manages to make for a simply okay release from Bandai.
Details
Coming in at about five inches in height, the figure is on the shorter side. It should, if anything, be slightly larger than Gamera, although the movie wasn't always the best at depicting this. In particular due to the only on camera moment the two share involving Gamera towering over an injured Gyaos, which looked tiny in contrast. To be fair, the toy does have a wingspan of around 10 inches, which does add considerably to the overall size.
In terms of attention to detail, the figure covers the gaunt look of the Hyper Gyaos pretty well. This includes a rib cage that pushes against its chest, giving it a creepy design. The wings also look nice, both from the front with veins and the back which has some nice texture rather than being smooth. In fact, the figure, oddly, looks better from the back view than it does from the front or side.
The head of the figure is setup in a way that it looks like Gyaos is grinning with his mouth closed. Not the scariest design choice there, especailly in contrast to showing the teeth a little. The very top of the head also has a faint line through it, which looks odd but is movie accurate. The weakness of the toy's design, though, is in the legs, in particular the feet. To help give the creature added support to stand, the area between the front toes and heel was filled in. At a glance, from most angles it looks okay, but on closer examination it does stick out like a sore thumb.
Accessories
Hyper Gyaos was only released with an attached tag.
Articulation
This release doesn't offer much in the way of articulation. You can move the legs, but is otherwise locked into a default pose. While some more movement would have been nice, or at least the ability to simulate the creature in flight, this aspect isn't a deal breaker. In fact, had the wings been able to move, they would have looked fairly odd in any position besides the one presented here.
Paint
Although the Gyaos in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) had a roughly similar design to the Showa ones, they deviated quite a bit in terms of color scheme. The beasts were blood red, rather than the blue or silver tones of the original. Well when it came time to bring the creatures back for Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999), that color scheme was changed to something closer to their Showa counterparts. This was a detail not overly apparent in the movie, though. Due to lighting, be it the warm glow from the city lights or dodging Gamera's fireballs, the creatures did look closer in color to the 1995 version than they actually were. It's a bit of a phenomenon similar to Gigan in Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972), who rarely looks green in the actual movie. That said, while a lot of sources do sometimes present the Showa Gigan as blue instead of green, Hyper Gyaos has been consistently blue, as is the case with this figure.
...unfortunately, the coloring on this release is slightly lackluster. The mold of the figure appears blue, giving off a night tone that is accurate. The eyes are also yellow with a black line for the pupil, which actually looks awesome. The weakness comes in the silver highlighting. While it looks okay on the wings, and actually well done on the spine on the back, it feels random and sloppy on the chest and especially the legs.
It's interesting to note that, on later releases, the paint job was changed fairly heavily. Out went the lazy silver highlights, replaced by a creepy red outline to the rib cage and legs. While less movie accurate, it did give a nod to the red lighting it was often under and was an improvement to the paint job of the 1999 release in those areas. That said, the painting on the wings was a lot worse on this later release, creating a bit of a trade off.
Overall
This is a pretty simple figure. There isn't a lot of intricate detail to get wrapped up by, although is a fairly accurate depiction of this version of the character. It's nothing great, but those looking for a Gyaos to face off with a similar size Gamera have an okay option here.
In terms of which version to pick up, this 1999 one or the 2003 one that has a red chest outline, I would give the edge to the 1999 one if all other variables are the same. The reason being that, even though the legs and chest look a bit off, they are more movie accurate and also the wings here look a lot better. In fact, on the later release, the wings coloring is lazy enough that it's very clear where the piece for the wing ends and the piece for the body begins.
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