Another tag team review by myself, Chris Mirjahangir, and longtime site contributor Andrew Nguyen for this S.H. MonsterArts figure. The review is split into two parts, with each of our takes below:
Andrew Nguyen
Revealed at the first unveiling of the SH Monsterarts line in early 2011 and released in May 2012, the Heisei version of Moguera followed on the heels of Space-Godzilla. Its inclusion along with the web exclusive of SH Monsterarts Little Godzilla completed the cast of kaiju in the movie Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994). Moguera had previously appeared as part of Kaiyodo's Sci-Fi Revoltech line in his Showa form.
As with the SH Monsterarts Mechagodzilla, the Moguera figure is virtually a perfect representation of the Moguera suit used in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994). Standing at 16.5cm tall, in comparison of scale, it stands very slightly taller than SH Monsterarts SpaceGodzilla.
For its coloring, Moguera is almost a perfect match with the suit used in the movies. The armor is light grey with light blue sections in its lower body and near its shoulders. As for the eyes, they are orange color compared to the yellow eyes Moguera had in the movie.
In terms of articulation, Moguera does not have much movement compared to Mechagodzilla. However as Moguera often moved like tank, it is not a problem. Most of the moveable parts are in the arms and the lower tail. With some careful adjusting of some of the parts in the back, Moguera can actually perform maneuvers similar to its portrayal in the recent Godzilla games for the Nintendo Wii (Godzilla Unleashed) as its waist turns almost 360 degrees. The drill in its nose is also moveable to recreate Moguera drilling into its foe.
Unlike SH Monsterarts Mechagodzilla, Moguera comes equipped with a wide variety of accessories. These include parts to allow it to replicate firing its spiral grenade missiles and its maser plasma cannon as well as parts to allow it to transform its flying mode.
In terms of price, Moguera is expensive like the other SH monsterarts though fortunately not as bad as SpaceGodzilla. Overall, it is a very impressive figure of Moguera and it is worth a buy for fans of giant Toho mecha in general. If one already has the SH Monsterarts of Godzilla and SpaceGodzilla, it would be a good idea to get Moguera if one wants to replicate the fights in the movie that all three kaiju appeared in.
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Chris Mirjahangir
Okay, my turn: The Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) version of Moguera was released in May of 2012 and is a different sort of figure for the S.H. Monsterarts line.
Moguera is identical to his film counterpart perfectly in this figure when in robot mode and in flying mod,e which is cool but worthless at the same time since there is no stand designed to hold the figure while in that mode... he'll just sit on top of whatever you put him on. Kinda boring. What he doesn't do however is split into two to form Star Falcon and Land Moguera. Parts of the feet and the torso are die cast metal which is pretty nice and add some real weight to the figure. Moguera's eyes look real nice too and are very detailed with the honeycomb look.
Moguera isn't capable of doing much articulation but then again he never did do much in the films anyway. His legs can open a tad and a little bit back and forth but not too much. His torso can turn a little bit to the left and right though. The arms are articulated nicely and the forearms move and the arms have ratcheted articulation at the shoulders. His nose cone drill spins as well and the half circles on his shoulders can move up and down. The tail is hard to position sometimes and it tends to fall off quite a bit.
In terms of the paint job, the character isn't overly complex but what coloring is needed is very well done and he looks exactly like his film counterpart. Everything is painted perfectly with no errors or blemishes.
For extras, Moguera comes with a wealth of accessories. Two stands (made to look like city streets with buildings), three rods, side wings for flight form, an alternate neck for flight form, a back blade for flight form, a chest maser, a chest maser beam, two spiral grenades, two spiral grenades with smoke trails (that are in two pieces each and when put together re approx a foot long a piece!) two cone hands that split open and you can put the spiral grenades/spiral grenades with smoke trail into. That's quite a lot!
The stands for the rods being city streets are a nice touch and the maser beam is very well done. Moguera's head can be a little wobbly so be a little careful when you swap out the necks from standing form to flying form. The most useless accessory to me though are the alternate cone hands. The ones that come on Moguera when he comes out of the box are solid. Why have those when the ones that split can just close shut?
Once again, positioning the rods to line everything up does take some work but it's easier to do with Moguera since the only thing that REALLY needs to be positioned with a tiny bit of work is the maser beam. The back saw blade(s) are a tad sharp though so use caution.
Overall, accessories aside, Moguera isn't the most INTERESTING figure but for some reason, has a lot of personality. I don't know what it is. He has very few poses and is a tad on the pricey side but that would be expected with all the accessories. To some, it's almost like the figure itself is an accessory of sorts. If you buy the S.H. MonsterArts Godzilla 1994 and then the S.H. MonsterArts SpaceGodzilla, you're going to be compelled to buy Little Godzilla and then Moguera. If you're a fan of the character or just like robots then by all means indulge yourself! All in all, Moguera is a solid, well made figure, just not the most exciting one.
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