Godzilla fans are an admittedly tough lot to please. You've got collectors willing to pay top dollar to import representations of their favorite figures in vinyl, resin, and everything in between who expect nothing less than perfect suit-accuracy, you've got kids who just want cool monsters to bash together, and everything in between. Playmates' prior offerings seemed to definitely skew towards the younger fans, especially with their fun Godzilla vs Kong line. With their current batch of vinyl figures, they look to be trying to draw the attention of the diehard fan, while maintaining that kid friendly price point, which is an admirable goal.
Jet Jaguar was an interesting choice to fill this role; for years he was rather maligned in the fandom at large, and the design isn't as fantastical and eye catching as your golden scaled, three headed dragons from outer space, or giant half Godzilla half plant science experiments gone wrong, but he's undoubtedly an iconic character who has experienced a bit of a resurgence in popularity over the past decade, perhaps in part spurred by his inclusion in the final two Pipeworks Godzilla console games and famously made his way into the Godzilla PS4 game just because a staff member liked him and did such a good job modeling him.
Unless I'm wrong, this is also the first time Jet Jaguar has appeared on American store shelves (other than a plush figure made by Toy Vault), as he never appeared in previous domestic lines from Trendmasters or Bandai - one of the only characters to have that distinction, which on the surface seems odd since he made his movie debut back in 1973. Was it worth the wait?
Well....it could have been.
Details
The sculpt is mostly accurate - though the arms aren't exactly posed for combat, which may disappoint the kids - but the real problem for old JJ is unfortunately from the waist down.
Bandai has put out a couple of Jet Jaguar figures in Japan. Strangely, none of these figures included the usual leg articulation that other kaiju enjoyed. Not only does Playmates' Jet Jaguar continue this unfortunate trend, he....well, can't stand on his own two feet. There's no two ways around it.
I read other fans complaining about this before I was able to secure my review figure, but I hoped it wasn't as bad as they made it seem. Out of the package though, on a completely flat surface, he simply cannot stand. He tries for a moment then topples to the side, ten times out of ten. I'm somewhat baffled that this wasn't remedied before shipping with a change of pose during the prototype phase - I tried 'forcing' the legs apart or together in a bid to make him stand just long enough for at least a photo op, no good. I even tried the old trick of heating him with a hair dryer then letting it cool in the desired position...but Jet Jaguar is a stubborn old man set in his ways. It didn't take.
Which is sad, because if not for that, he'd look great on your shelf!
Articulation
Jet Jaguar does feature articulation at the arms, head and waist, with each of these capable of swiveling 360 degrees. It's just so hard to make the chosen pose work. He looks more like he's leaning in to make an inappropriate joke than he looks ready for battle.
Accessories
None.
Paint
The paint job is bright and colorful, no complaints there.
Overall
There may not be any combination of two words sadder than "Unrealized Potential", but that is the overall feeling I get with this toy.
Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that Playmates chose to tackle an under-represented figure in an era of Godzilla toy that is being mostly ignored at this time on the other side of the pacific, and I hope they continue in that direction, but I IMPLORE them to learn from this mistake. In its current form, I simply cannot recommend this figure to the collector who wants to place this on their shelf - unless he's nestled snugly between other figures. Now if you have a kid like I do who wants to play with your other Godzilla figures and is just looking for a toy to have some fun with? There's fun to be had, I'm sure, but there could have been so much more.
**Below are a number of bonus images of the figure.**
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