Megalon,
the Seatopian God, was one of the select few kaiju
to be given the vinyl treatment by Bandai in the
1980's. Despite being issued more than once, the
creature is still fairly rare today and is, without
question, the best effort by Bandai in the Godzilla
line at the time of his release. Sadly, what was
once a crowning achievement from the firm is now
slightly sub par; the figure has not aged well against
modern efforts, but still has enough merits going
for him to standout.
Before jumping into the meat of the review, it's
interesting to note the precedent of this release.
Now Toho, like any number of firm, has sub groupings
of characters determined by popularity. Godzilla
and Mothra are clearly their most famous creations,
followed by the trio of King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla,
and Rodan. After these five come both Gigan and
Anguirus, clear fan favorites but lacking in the
marquee value of the others. That's seven, but brings
us to the real question: who is eight? Who is Toho's
eighth most popular monster? It was a question for
debate back in 1989 when this figure was released,
and still today with even more characters thrown
into the mix but none distinctly being able to claim
that spot.
Now this is relevant to this review because Bandai
had, by 1989, released all seven of those characters.
They were up to number eight and choose Megalon.
I mention this as I have seen some refer to this
figure as Bandai's first "obscure" release
in the Godzilla line, followed a few years by Mechani-Kong
and Baragon. I disagree. I believe Bandai felt Megalon
was Toho's 8th most popular property. Not that it
holds a great deal of merit, especially as some
notable characters like Destoroyah have been introduced
afterwards, but it's food for thought.
Anyway, on to the critical aspect. Megalon was,
in its day, a figure to truly behold. The level
of detail present in the vinyl surpassed that of
others by Bandai, with them even doing a stellar
job in reproducing the drill hands of the character.
His face, in particular his eyes, were also well
done, especially the paint job on them. Sadly, the
same could not be said of the rest of the figure.
Its wings were done well, with a distinct color
pattern even though it should be orange instead
of yellow, but the rest of the paint job feels rushed.
There is very little coloring at all in fact. There
is some orange splashed on his chest, but its incorrectly
placed as the "frill" around his neck
was never orange, but the area under it was. His
drills, mouth, and horn are all silver too... but
beyond this the figure is mostly a solid dark green.
There is also a problem with the mold, as it lacks
his little antenna that he sports below his large
horn. There are slight knobs there, but they aren't
"bug-like" as they should be, being far
too stumpy.
Bottom line, Megalon hasn't aged well, but still
stands heads and shoulders above Bandai's other
offerings from this period. It should be noted that
this figure was reissued in 1992, with a different
tag. It was also distributed, with a slightly different
paint job, as part of the Memorial Box Set in 1995.
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